Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1908-09-05
NEW NATIONAL IDEAL,
UpbuiIding Of Town and Village
UpbuiIds tie Race.
SALVATION OF THE COUNTRY.
It Depends Upon Checking the Tend
ency of the People to Gather In
Ccngested Centers-How the Mail
Order System Kills Rural Life.

From an editorial arIi lc by George
H. Maxwell in MaXwell'S Talisman the
following pertinent extracts are taken:
There are many country merchants
who see their trade gradually slipping
away from them, leaving the country
town and going to the great cities by
the channel of the mail order trade.
There are many country editors who
see the prosperity of their towns de-
plctcd and circulation and advertising
income reduced for the same reason.
There are very few, however, who
realize that their problem is Il national
one and that it is wrapped up in and
a part of the great fundamental ques-
tion whether this nation shall be per
pctuatcd or shall be destroyed by the
physical degeneration of humanity, the
social unrest, Industrial discomfort,
moral and political corruption and class
hatred bred in the city slums and ten
cmcntS and certain to culminate In
anarchlstc crimes. riotous mobs and
all Destroying social uphcavaIs as the
result tl SDIllt lbIle t'ill lllNltN PEI l'l
of industrial and commercial depres-
sion.
The fact Is that the upbulding Of
the country town and suburban VII
lagc as an antidotc and safeguard
against the poisonous social, moral,
physical and political consequences of
hcrding millions of our working peo-
-t,J
life of the tenCmcntS lie one great
question that rises Il ...r all others In
Importance as proNlril that this ma
ton must solve. Unless it does solve
1t it will suffer death from human de
grncracy the fate of so many nations
and civilizations that have risen in the
past only to be destroyed. Ours will be
likewise destroyed unless we take heed
in time.
The danger arises from the conges-
ton of population in cities and from
nothing else.
The solution lies in checking the fur
thcr growth of cities at the homes of
industrial workers and scattering those
homes into and among suburban home
croft villages and in country towns
and rural settlements
To do that trade and industry must
be Geccntr,liiZed. Industries of all
kinds must be established in the sub
urbS of the cities or in the towns In
stead of in the congcSte1 centers. That
is something that requires an organized
campaig but first 1t requires Il cur
rent of right thought in the minds of
the people.
1t requires that everything should be
done that can be done to hold in the
existing towns and villages the trade
that now naturally centers there. Any
part of it, small or large, that is di-
verted to any of the huge central mail
order concerns in the big cities and
thereby taken away from the locality
where it originates and belongs Is an
influence that promotes just to that
extent the growth of the evil that Is
eating at the heart of our national life.
Whatever is needed to supply the needs
of every household in every rural COM
munity should be sold over the counter
of a local store and not through the
poStoffice and the mail trade.
Then comes the question Of the
growth of towns and villages. There
is where the country editors and mer-
chants can help themselves. Once get
1t into the minds of the whole Amer
lean people that the salvation of the
nation depends on the upbullding of
the country towns and suburban vii
lagcs-get the idea planted and deeply
rooted so 1t will grow itself-and a
thousand Influences will enter the field
and enlist for this great campaign for
rural and country town and village
development to check the overgrowth
of cities, with all its resultant evils.
1t cannot all be done at once. The
first thing Is to get IbliC thought ac-
lively aroused and turned Into right
channels. There must be n complete
common conception In the minds OF
millions of people of this new national
ideal Then there must be united, con
certed and vigorous action to realize
that ideal The facts and arguments
to support it must be disseminated
through a great educational campaign,
entirely separate and apart from poll
tics.
The Card Advertisement.