The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-05-19
FRANK E. HOWE, Editor and Pub'r.
VERMONT

VERMONT
The Banner e in receipt o. . copy
OF the year hook of the Vermont So
ciety OF Southern California. 1t Is an
interesting publication and coatains
the names of seventeen hundred for
mer Vermonters now resident Of
Southern California. 1t is a remark
able list and we presume there aren't
a dozen in the lot who are not cred
table to the state of Vermont and
to the state of their adoption.
We are proud Of them and OF the
good names they have made for them
selves and we appreciate the feeling
Of loyalty and friendship that they
have for the good old state of Yer
mont. But there is another side to
the picture. Seventeen hundred sons
and daughters of Vermont gone out
to settle in part of one western
state. The total number of Vermont
born people living outside the state
is over one hundred and twenty thous-
and. They are good children mostly
and they've made things hump where
ever they've settled. They had
right to go and it was a question sole
ly for their own judgment.
There is no use crying over the
loss of what is gone and cannot be
regained, but we Vermonters at home
ought to look the question squarely
in the face. 1t is idle and childish
to abuse Mr.. Rossiter for calling at
tention to a few facts which cannot
be gainsaid, though some OF his con-
illusions are erroneous. The plain,
simple, unadorned truth is that no
small state like Vermont can lose
one hundred twenty-five thousand of
its most active, progressive, and chief
ly, young people and not suffer from
the loss.
Vermont has suffered in the past, is
suffering now and will in the future,
from this great drain. The less ac-
tive, the less ambitious, the older, the
weaker, the more ignorant remained
and, in many cases, inbred with their
own kind. The result is that many
in the state have stagna-
ted and ceased to progress, and every
town, even the larger, has some of
this run out and degenerating human
stock.
We do not mean to say that all
the good blood left or that all the
poor remained, but so much OF the
good went and so little of the less
good, that the proportions remaining
were not conducive to the develop
ment OF the state. During the last
few years, there has been a change
for the better and the pendulum now
swings our way Some new blood is
coming in and less is going out. Yer
mont is now going ahead but we of
the Green Mountain state must real
lie that we have more to contend with
than other states, because of the
great drain from forty years of wes-
tern emigration.
Ii we want the Vermont OF the fu-
ture to be commensurate with the
Vermont of the past we must use
every means to build up the weaken
ed communities of our state, develop
every resource and, chiefly, train our
boys and girls to try first the posi-
bilities of their own state before 60
ing beyond its borders TO seek per-
manent home.
Look the facts in the face and dare
to try to go ahead. What matter if it
costs a few dollars in taxes? What
matter if it compels the risking of a
few dollars in Vermont investment?
What matter if it means taking few
chances? Haven't we enough patri-
otto sons and daughters of patriots to
mae the attempt?