Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1911-07-05

| elsewhere.
President Taft is right. Pessimism
produces paralysis and stagnation.
Vermont must have optimism land en-
thusiasm if new story of progress IS
to be written.-M ontpelier journal.
Rural Degeneration.
The shocking state of affairs dis
closed by the recent homicide in a
sister New England state, shows that
the same conditions exist there that
prevail in certain way back, isolated
sections of Vermont and New Hamp-
shire.
The old citizens are dying off, the
bright young men and women are
leaving for more attractive fields.
leaving the poorest element, mentally,
physically and morally, to continue
the battle of life in these dark corners
of Vermont.
If here is any accessionto the popula-
ton from the outside it is from most
undesirable class, either those who
have a record that will not bear in
spection and wish to bury themselves
where they are safe, or moral de-
generates who cannot make a success
of life in the more populous communi-
ties and drift back to these districts,
because they can get place to live
for very little money, or free rent In
some abandoned house.
Is it any wonder that the standard
of morality. the respect for law or
human life is very low in such neigh
borhoods?
This paper has been calling atten-
ton to this question and will keep on
: doing so, because we consider it one
of the most important now before the
people of Vermont.
No chain is stronger than it's weak
est link and no state can prosper Sc
long as it tolerates and winks at the
conditions that prevail in too many
dark corners of Vermont, New Hamp-
shire and Maine.
) The latest Maine murderer, Mar
, shall Jackson, is evidently a type OF
this class. He told the officers that he
and the woman, his wife, did not get
on we'll together; that she was not q
loving companion and that he decided
2 to get rid Of her. So he invited hel
to go out hunting with him and wher
: they entered the woods close behinC
= the house, he told her to go ahead anC
I then shot her dead He had no
s thought but that it was all right, wa.
: the best thing to do, etc.
This throws an Illuminating ligh
upon the low state Of morality tina
exists in these communities.
: 1t is the condition that exists TO-DAY
in many and many a Vermont way
back section, where only few fami
lies are living today instead of doz
en- or more few years ago. In talk
ing over this matter with a man whc
has spent many years among tht
o+oSx e
o pie have no idea of the condition.
t that prevail in these regions, where ;
n stranger is seldom seen and whose in
S habitants rarely visit the nearest vii
lage. It is nothing uncommon TO
q men to swap wives the same as the,
5 would trade horses and no one seem
e to think there is anything wronl
e about 1T While looking up timbe
g lands he had occasion to spend on
winter largely in one section and wa
offered woman on the same term
that man would sell him a dog, il
fact good dog was worth the mos
n money, he said, in that section.
e When we insist that there is neet
It for home missionary work right her
z in Vermont and that the money tina
f goes to convert the heather could b.
j. better spent right in New England
t we refer to these places that ever,
now and then come into the limeligh
/ through some awful tragedy like thi
= last Maine murder.
: But the church and society are no
d the only ones interested in this ques
l. ton. 1T concerns the very life of tb
f state. These conditions are not i'm
e proving, on the contrary they are dali.
g growing worse and Vermont is takins
: no steps to wipe out these plague spots
S The only present hope lies in tn,
f work Secretary of State Bailey is do
: ing in advertising Vermont farms
f There is no question but that man,
: of these once fertile and productiv,
h farms could be sold to desirable PEG
pie, were the low price at which the,
Y can be purchased. generally known
d Most of these farms are no create
S distance from schools, churches AM
= markets than western farms that ar,
s selling at $50 to 500 per acre. W,
a know of one good farming section in
a Windsor county town, four miles from
a the railroad, three miles from church
l.. stores, with good roads, where Their
o has been an almost entire change i,
/. Inhabitants during the past fort,
years. The old settlers and their de
+ scendants have died or moved ava,
d and very desirable class of farmer
a from northern New York have pur
d chased the farms for about half tn
e money they sold their farms for il
J. that state. They say the land, build
IS ings, ETC., are better than where the,
= came from. One family came, an
d when another farm came on the mar
n ket, wrote back to their neighbors
e with the result that the whole schoo
district is now settled with one excer
n ton, with prosperous, intelligent Ney
,r Workers. This was not one of thos
o way hack corners. but the same re
T. suits might be secured if the farms
" some sections were properly advel
to tised. Such change would mea
is much to Vermont
~ The infusion of new, vigorous bloc
rs is what Vermont needs in these Sc,
ct tions. This, Secretary Bailey's adve
ne Using. of cheap Vermont farms will {
of much to bring about, Give Bailey q