The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1912-03-11
TRUE PATRIOTISM

| NkAuUS0SSO W Tue COuvS uLlO0 Oh SOUt0
western Lumbermen,s Association, Kal
ses. City. MOI
Il am exceedingly sorry that can
not attend your convention. 1t seems
to me that the lumhermen of this Sec
ton are undertaking work that
should commend them to all good citi-
Gems.
The preservation Of the home trade
to the ho1ne town carries with 1t the
preservation Of many of our American
institutions.
It seems to me that lot Of good
things in American life win pass If the
country town passes. And it will pass
just SO surely as Capitalization Of re-
tail mail order business in the cities
continues.
The American country town, the
town of from 100 to 100000 people,
preserves better than the crowded city
and better than the lonely ranch and
isolated farm life, the things that make
America great.
Here in these country towns the spir-
1t of neighborliness is the prevailing
spirit Men come to know one anoth-
er and when any two human beings
come to know one another, in the one
who Is intelligent and wise respect al
ways rises for the other. To know
ones fellows always is to sympathize
with them. Neighborliness spells fra
ternity.
The American country town with its
broad circle Of friendships, with it's
close homely simple relations between
men, with its spirit Of cooperation and
with its economic status permits the
creation of no indecently rich and no
ab5ectly poor, the American country
town, 1t seems to me, is the most hone.
ful OF our American institutions.
To destroy that town furnishing the
market for the farmer and giving stea-
dy employment to labor, means a re-
organization Of our commercial. social
and industrial life that will be rev.
ohantary more matter of doubt
full ,valua
The mail order house therefore be-
comes q menace to this country. The
mail order house Unrestricted win XIII
our smaller towns, creating great cit
les with their terrible contrasts Of
life, with their cruel social relations.
with their inevitable caste feeling that
comes from the presence Of strangers
who are rich and poor living side by
side.
Friendship. neighborlinees, fraternt-
U or whatever you will call that
spirit Of comradeship that comes when
men know one another wen. Is the
cement that holds together this un.
lon Of states. It is not created in
great cities.
: Great cities. give much In aims. but
little in justice. Only as we know ea 4
other well can we trust each other Jus =
~; and the city Is a wilderness of care
less. strangers whose instincts Of hum.
anlty are daily becoming more ana
more blunted to suffering. because In
the nature Of things suffering in cities
must bs tmpenoaal It is net tho suf-
fering Of friends and neighbors and
kith and kin A. 1t il In the smaller
towns. So the mail order house. crust.
Ing out our towns. is drying up the,
milk of human Kindness In our hearts.
And that brings W back to first
principales: II we who live in these
small towns in America can not see.
that our duty to our country liee first
Of al In our duty. to our neighbour.
then we ars. blind indeed to tho ,bas,C,
OF real patriotism. for after all Pat
riotism b only neishboriF Kindness. Pa
triotism b not In cheering for tha flag:
1t Is not In feeling our eyes filled with
emotional tears at hearing 1.-THE Star
Spangied Banner; patriotism 10 lust
old-fashioned human duty.
. To sacrifice our neighbor-the man
who helps the town with its taxes.
with its public business. with its myr.
led activities for neighborIy righteous
ness-to sacrifice that man and his
business for the mere sake of saving
ia dollar on the purchase Of hundred
dollars worth Of goods y just as un-
patriotic as it is to spit at the flag.
For the flag, If 1t means anything
means the golden rule: the flag means
friendly burden bearing; 1t means mu-
tual help In trouble; 1t means standing
together against common foes.
The motto Of the mail order house
Is. every man for himself and the dew
Il take thehindermost-and you bet the
devil will.
That spirie never fails to work; and
the weak man, the unprotected man,
the man alone-the man on the farm,
at the end Of the fact, when his farm