The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1912-04-19
True Patriotism.

1t seems to me that a lot Of gooC
things in American life will pas.
if the country town passes. Ant
it will pass just so surely as
Capitalization Of retail mail or
der business in cities continues
The American country town
the town of from one hundred t.
one hundred thousand people
preserves better than the
crowded city and better thar
the lonely ranch and isolated
farm life, the things that made
America great. Here in these
country towns the spirit OF
neighborliness is the prevailing
spirit. Men come to know one
another, in the one who is intel
ligent and wise, respect always
rises for the other. To know
one's fellows always is to Sympa-
thize with them. Neighbours
ness spells fraternity. The Amer
lean country town, with its broad
circle of friendships. with its
close, homely, simple relations be-
tween men, with its spirit of CO.
operation, and with its economic
status that permits the creation
of no ~mdecently rich and no
abjectly poor, the American
country town, it seems to me, is
bhe most hopeful of our Ameri-
can institutions. To destroy
that town furnishing the market
for the farmer and giving steady
employment to lobor, means a
reorganization of our CONNER
cial, social and industrial life
that will be revolutionary-and
more, a matter of doubtful value.
The mail order house, there
fore, becomes a menace to this
country. The mail order house
unrestricted will kill our smaller
towns, creating great cities with
their terrible contrasts Of life,
with their cruel social relations
with their inevitable caste feel
ing that comes from the pres
ence Of strangers who are rich
and poor, living side by side.
Friendship, neighborless, fra
ternity Or whatever you will
call that spirit Of comradery that
comes when men know one an
other well, is the cement that
holds together this union of The
States. 1t is not created in
great cities. Great cities give
much in aims, but little in JUS
tile. Only as we know each
other justly; and the city is a
wilderness of careless strangers
whose Instincts of humanity are
daily becoming more and more
blunted to suffering, because
in the nature of things, suffering
in cities must be %impersonal. 1t
is not the suffering of friends
and ncighbors, and kith and kin,
as at is in the smaller towns. SO
the mail order house, crushing
out our towns is drying up the
milk of human kindness in our
hearts, and that brings us back
to first principles if we who live
in these small towns in America
cannot see that our duty to our
country lies first of all in our
duty to our neighbors, then we
are blind indeed to the bases Of
real patriotism, for, after all,
patriotism is only neighbOrly
kindness; patriotism is not in
cheering for the flag. 1t is not
in feeling our eyes filled with
emotional tears at hearing "The
Star Spangled Banner" patriot
ism is just old fashioned human
duty to sacrifice our neighbor-
the man who helps the town with
its taxes, with it's public business,
with its myriad activities for
neighborly righteousness-to sac
rifice that man and his business
for the mere sake of saving a
dollar on the purchase of a hun
dred dollars worth of goods is