The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1911-12-23
COUNTRY STORES.
Why Allow the Mail Order Trade
to Destroy Them?
THEY SUPPLY MANY NEEDS,

uisted by the Opportunity They Give
to See With Ones Own Eyes the Ar
tieIss Purchased.
The adjacent village or the nearby
town which furnishes for the farmer
the social side to his life that the iso-
lation of the farm denies to him Is
potent factor in the development Of
the fully rounded out, broad and patri-
otto character that makes the Ameri.
can farmer the bulwark Of the nations
stability.
Not the farmer alone, but the whole
life and environment of the commu-
nifty Of which he is part, the country
merchant, the editor of the home pa
per, the preacher. the village school
master, the country doctor and all the
men of many vocations who form the
village community, bound together by
ties Of close neighborly affection and
friendly intercourse as well as the
feeling of mutual regard born of mu-
tual interdependence in their lives,
create social circle welded together
by closer personal bonds than are pos
sible among dwellers in cities.
The whole circle of citizenship in
the country village or town has the
same elements of quiet faith in the
final triumph Of the good and loyal
devotion to country and the principles
for which our nation stands as Lincoln
declared them on the battlefield of
Gettysburg.
The well stocked general store Of the
country town, which the mail trade
would destroy, is great educational
influence in itself, with its variety of
goods gathered from many places and
supplying many varied needs. The
mental interest is awakened and stim-
ulated by the opportunity it gives to
see with ones own eyes the thing that
will best supply need and discuss its
merits and cost with the merchant OF
his salesman.
The social side Of human nature Is
developed by the personal contact in
volved In such intercourse, and the
trip to town or village to make the
purchase is oftentimes one Of the most
agreeable breaks in the monotony Of
farm life for the farmer and his whole
family. They meet there a whole cir
Gle of friends, whose .,eighborly greet
ings give an added cheeriness to the
homely happenings Of the day. Blot
all this out from the farmers life and
you take from it something that has
n human and social value that cannot
be measured by money any more than
family affection can be so measured.
Schools, churches, libraries, social in.
tercourse and entertainments and all
that is educational and social in the
rural life cluster around the village.
1t is the social center Of the country
side, and it is the trade that comes to
it that supports the village or the
town.
The Capitalization of trade in the
great cities Of the country resulting
from the growth of the mail order
business is national menace of far
reaching proportions.
Population follows trade. II the
business is done in the country town
and village Of supplying the needs of
the countryside for merchandise and
manufactured articles of all kinds the
people who carry on the trade, the
merchant and his helpers will live in
the town or village.
If, on the other hand. the trade is
done by mail, cutting out the country
merchant, the latter is finally driven
list, his village home is abandoned. and
if he should continue in the trade he
and his assistants must move to the
city and become employees for some
great. centralized mail trade institu-
ton, fitting like cogs into one great
wheel, with which they must day after
day revolve.
The country merchant, with his self
reliance, his sturdy individuality, his
broad acquaintance, his knowledge of
local affairs and needs, his support for
local institutions, his civic usefulness,
his neighborly Offices, his public serv.
ices and his cooperation in movements
for local improvement, has been up
rooted and driven away. There is no
one to take his place. The trade that
gave him his vocation. has gone. and
with 1t has gone the prosperity Of the
town or village which was his home.
The mail trade has destroyed him.
The village life and the citizenship
developed by 1t constitute the only
hope of perpetuity for the free institu-
tons of this country. The most grave
and serious dangers that now menace
its future result from the overgrowth
of our great cities and the consequent
degeneration Of the average citizenship
Of the nation.
In the place of the 'plain people"
whose country environment has made
them stable, steady headed, self reli-
ant and independent in action. thought
and character VIE have the volatile
city multitude, a floating population,
anchored to nothing. either mentally
or physically, and blown about by
every breeze of popular prejudice or
passion-ready for any rash expert
ment, social or political
~