The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1912-06-03

In few days the goods come piling
back. For the time being We viii
wave all question OF whether the
goods are or are not satisfactory. To
be sure, Hiram Scroggs makes a great
TODD because the trousers he sent for
do not fit and gets angry when the
local clothier fails to listen attentive
ly to his troubles, refusing absolutely
to swap the Bingbang trousers for a
pair Of Auburn trousers. We will
waive all this and get down to the
meat In the cocoanut.
This trading out OF town is felt at
once by the local merchant whose
sales have fallen OF considerably
Then. too, he notes that the cash Gus
toners having sent all their money to
Chicago, are asking him to carry them.
Bingbang doesn't do this, but the
home merchant is compelled to give
credit.
How II Affects General Business.
The banker getting nervous over
the accounts of the local store brings
a bit Of pressure to bear. The mer-
chant does the best he can but, in
time, with so much money going out
Of town. he gives up and quits. The
store building he was in is owned by
Andrew Dodds. Andrew comes down
town the next day after the merchants
failure wearing an overcoat he has
bought Of Bingbang, and when he sees
his vacant storeroom, he bushes for
himself. This store room represented
about all his surplus capital and he
may be pressed to pay his bills. To
his chagrin there doesn't seem to be
much chance to re-rent the building
because Smith, across the street, is
wabbling on his business pins since
Wheeler & Wheeze, of New York, un-
loaded that last carload of mail-order
catalogs-and that store room is even
better located than his. Taxes are
due and there isn't enough money In
his bank account to meet the obliga-
ton. To his utter amazement, An
drew finds that others are in the same
predicament. The parcels post and
the mailorder houses have been do
ing a rushing business and have
bloodsucked Auburn until she is no
longer thriving business town. The
travelling statesmen begin to say
sighting things of Auburn and the
town is bruited about as being on the
down grade. There is no sale for
residence or vacant property and
many who would move away are COM
PEELED to stay and starve along.
Dissatisfied families without hold
ings move away. The town board
and the school board get together and
decide not to appropriate money for
high school the next year because
everybody is poor, business is poor
and the town is poor. Your boy was
about to enter the high school, but
now he has to go to work instead.
There is very little for him to do in
Auburn and it is not at all in line with
your dream for him that he should
get a job driving delivery wagon or
become an apprentice in livery barn.
In your disappointment, you appeal
to the pastor of your church He looks
decidedly sober when he hears your
story, and then
He tells you that for weeks he
hasn't had his salary, that he is in
actual need. The power that is at the
vitals of Auburn has reached with its
tentacles even to the man of the cloth,
and unless something happens soon to
aid him, he will be compelled to give
up his pastorate and go to the city or
somewhere, he doesn't know where!
Mother, when you stop to think that
Auburn is like the town you actually
live In, and like thousands Of towns
over this country, you may begin to
realize what Il means to tear down
the country town In the upbuiIding Of
the great city. You may begin to
realize how many mothers are weep
ing over shattered dreams, how many
are asking with tear-dlmmed eyes,
"Where 10 my wandering boy to-
niaht?"
Organize the Women.
You love your boy! You are will
ing to fight for him! Then take, up
arms against the parcels post. Or
ganize the women OF your community
and begin a systematic campaign for
your boys and your girls. Write your
SOA6A CooAAoA W ACip yOu A6AI LuO UdI.
tie for your children. Make no mis-
take-this will be a fight worthy OF
your most earnest effort, your su-
premest zeal, your mother-love cour-
age.
The foe you are fighting Is striving
to throttle your town, striving to
close your stores and your churches
| and your schools. 1t Is taking away
from the country with its health and
its freedom, its morality and it's de-
cency. the chanee for you to live other
than clod upon the land, and it Is
enticing-yes. forcing-your boy into
the city with its filth and its servility.
its immortality and it's indecency, to
become flatdweller between cold
and sitting walls, with people above
and below and around HMM q home
that has no right to be called home.
that has no flowers or pure air or
| things that ennoble and make men