The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-11-16
VERMONT PROGRESS

are from last weeks issue of the
Springfield Reporter They are not
even all from the same article but
they all breathe the right kind of
spirit and indicate that the new edi-
tor of the Reporter. Mr. Wild is an
added strength TO the progressive for
ces in Vermont.
Vermont has done well-wonder-
fully well-when it is considered that
during the past generation forty-two
per cent of the young, active, am
bilious energetic and aggressive
born and reared in the state have
gone away to other states to make
their homes and help in building up
those states. Think of it, men and
brethren, almost half of the children
born here since the Civil war have
left the state, and practically all
those who have gone were of the
highest grade while the half that re-
mains, contains considerable pro
portion of slower, duller, older and
weaker, both physically and men
tally, for these classes seldom emf
crate. They remain passive and dor
mant and the inbreeding of some of
these weakened strains have given
Vermont a considerable and a menac-
ing number of degenerates, or those
with a tendency toward degeneracy.
This is the secret OF stagnant com
munities and of the startling series
of crimes in rural communities or by
persons bred and trained in isolated
places.
Vermont is not the only state that
has suffered. The rural sections of
every eastern state and even the
states of the middle west have sim
liar conditions but In most of the
states the cities and large towns
have attracted immigration to more
than replace that lost by emigration.
Vermont has gained some in this way
but not enough to Offset the loss and
especially in the small towns. Hence
the problems of Vermont are a little
different from those of the other
states.
And the remedy isn't political, but
social Vermont can be better gov
erned as the Reporter we'll says, but
so can every community and com
monwealth on the face of the earth.
Considering all things. 1t has been
nothing short of wonderful that Yer.
mont has come through so well In
the face of an emigration that has
Slapped much of the vitality, lifeblood,
and God-given energy of almost every
town in the state. We are all some
times FESTIVE at the slowness of ar.
irving at ideals we have set for cur.
selves. but other states and other
peoples have their troubles and their
Heterogeneous just as we have
ours.
The Reporter is right in turning
toward the future. The past is gone
forever. while OF the future we may
live to be ashamed
But let us not make the mistake OF
thinking that there is any political
cure for the evils that state is heir
to- Parties and candidates, seekers
of place and purveyors of power will
claim large and promise everything
but deeper, and broader and higher
is the issue itself and that in Yer
mont, thank God. is not a party is
sue.
The world gains only as its citizen
ship improves. Anything that tends
to overcome ignorance. sloth, folly
crime, disease, poverty, stupidity, sci
fishness. hate. narrowness and big
otry, is a step toward making the fu
ture better than the past. Educa
tional, industrial. business and socia
conditions all enter into the general
problems and all are more important
than the political issue.
Vermont has been doing prett.
well during the past few years an,
has made real progress, but the state
can do better. Not everything tina
is labeled Progress and Reform 4
such in reality and discrimination be
tween the things that mean real ad
vance and those which are designed
as leverage for some selfish end. IL
most important duty OF the citizen
zen.
II is well to pay some attention al
to who shall hold the state offices
but the greater need is the study an
understanding of state resources an,
the ways TO make them effective II
upbullding Vermont. We spend to
much time discussing the progress o
political campaigns and too little II
pushing the progress of the communi
~ and commonwealth.