Norwich bulletin., 1910-11-19

show how it is quite as necessary for the Iowa farmer for the Manhattan importer. But let that go, now. The nub of the whole matter lies in the fact that this Iowa farmer isn't looking at and considering the general good of the whole country, first of all. but is focusing his gaze on benefit to Iowa and other inland farmers. And he's quite hot in the collar because a congress not one-fortieth of whose members come from alis state won unanimously devote it's energies to the upbuilding of what he feels to be the interests of his state, regardless of ana wholly neglecting the interests, even the safety of other parts of the coun- try.
 There's altogether too much similar narrowness of view among farmers all over the land. Mind you, 1 don't say or think tfrat farmers are any worse or any more blameable in this re- spect than any other folk. don't be- lieve they are. Why, the country has just been treated to the exposure ot a prominent statesman, who IS also manufacturer, who howlS loud ana long for a lower tariff in his speeches and letters, but whose partner in the factory goes to Washington when the tariff is being revised to beg for a higher tariff on the goods they make in their mills. It's form of fncon- sistency which is not confined to farm CTS and manufacturers; it is the para sitic growth of narrow selfishn ess,
 which sends its life-sucking rootlets twisting and boring through us all, just as some fungus swells and bloats into abhorrent intumescence on the
 sap or the luckless tree it is slowly poisoning.
 Now. there's no use in my Preachinq at manufacturers and other folks who don't read these letters. That would
 be like Ed" Clapps famous story of the deacon and the new minister. The deacon called on the young man Sat
 lrday evening and offered him some
 helpful advice about his Sunday ser
 man. q wouldn't preach agin cheat in, ef wux you said he, fer Deacon Smith might think you was a-f1ittin'
 him. Nd you'd better not talk about grindin' the poor, fer Deacon Jones hez jest foreclosed the mortgage on Widow Tompkins Nd MT. Robinson might git mad if you sed much about bearin'
 false witness, fer he's a regular con- tribrstor and some folks think he per- iured himself in his last hoss case" And so it went, until the poor dominic asked in despair: But what is there left that it is safe for me to touch upon" "Waal," said the deacon re- fiectively, it dug seem kinder narrer l1lI11LS, now nOnI Inen he
 ened up: ''Tell ye what" says he,
 preach s gin the Mormons; they hatn't got a friend in towni"
 Rather ineffective preaching, that
 would be. When I preach I want to think that I'm hitting somebody with in reach. if I can. That's why I'm slanming away at you, Brother Farm er-man. We farmers are so compelled by the very nature of our calling to
 look close a. home that we are more apt than many oti.ers to get into the habit of narrow -sightedness and short sightedness. We have to scratch gravel pretty constantly, and there may be some lit1,e excuse in that for the fact that too many of us get 80
 we can't see anything but gravel. The
 top Of the gravel bank is our mental horizon which we don't see over.
 Now, I'm not appointed censor Of your
 thoughts nor optician for your eyes.
 But stop and think about it for
 minute for yourselves; isn't that
 ls-etle bit constricted view of life
 and 3hts worid-the view bounded by just your task, your friends, your neighborhood, your town. your state,
 your party or your denomination? Modern life is a tremendously com pIcated affair. It's like d great train
 of wheels each one meshing into an- other and that into another. and so on. If any one of them slips a cog there's trouble all through the shop:
 if any one of them stops turning the
 others either stop. too OF go on run ming wild and uncertainty. The well
 fare of each one of us depends very
 largely upon the good of all. When we have 8 chance to act together for
 the common good isn't it a rather un- fortunate thing that anyone should
 try to put some local or individual
 gain above the common and universal
 advantage?
 No one will deny that a prosperous
 community, one where every man is adequately protected in his rights ad
 equately rewarded for his labor, and adequately guaranteed against the fu-
 ture,-no will deny that such com
 munity is better and ha ppier and more admirable than that in which
 one man is housed in castellated mag nihcence behind the moated walls of selfish success while all the others are hovelled in hOpelessness and help lessness. No one will deny this as an abstract proposition. Why should any farmer stoOp to acting as if he didn'
 believe it? If it is for the safety and advantage of the country as q whole that we should have a navy which shall insure us against sudden for eign attack then that navy is for the real interests of Iowa as much as New York or Boston.
 Ir all large matters which concern US as communities and states and na- tion let's get out of this habit of glu- ing our eyes solely to the furrow we happen to be turning. Of course, we've got to pay close attention to it. keep the horses moving strai fight and the share pointing true and the mould board bright and smooth That's our first. imm sdiate individual duty. But sakes alive that furrov isn't all there ts in the field. And there are other fields beyond It. And there are other farms beyond those. And there are other lanes and other people beyond the mountain walls that bound our physical outlook. We can see them in our minds eyes, and we can at least try to balance up what we know is for our individual benefit with what we can understand is for the general good. realizing that the good Of each 1 is always bound up in the welfare of