The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-03-15
OPPOSES THE PARCELS POST

x "iAIci, III d lcIJeT TO u
Z Southwestern Lumberman's Associ
: ton held recently at Kansas City, h;
! the following to say:
Z Il am exceedingly sorry that cal
! not attend your convention. 1t seen
: to me that the lumbermen of thi
Z section are undertaking a work tha
Z should commend them to all goo
Z citizens.
q The preservation of the HON
I trade to the home town carries wit
! 1t the preservation of many of GU
American institutions.
1T seems to me that a lot O
good things in American life will pas
) II the country town passes. And i
will pass just so surely as centraliza
ton of retail mail order business II
cities continues.
The American country town, the
town of from one hundred to, one
hundred thousand people, preserves
better than the crowded city and bet
ter than the lonely ranch and isolated
farm life, the things that make
America great.
! Here in these country towns the
spirit of neighborliness is the pre-
vailing spirit. Men come to know
one another and when any two human
beings come to know one another, in
the one who is intelligent and wise
respect always rises for the other. To
know ones fellow always is to SYM
pathize with them. ghborliness
spells fraternity.
The American country town with
its broad circle of friendships, with
its close homely simple relations be-
tween men, with its spirit of cooper
alton and with its economic status
that permits the creation of no indie
Gently rich and no abjectly poor, the
American country town, it seems to
me, is the most hopeful of our Amer
lean institutions.
To destroy that town, furnishing
the market for the farmer and CIV
ing steady employment to labor.
means a reorganization of our COM
social and industrial life
that will be revolutionary-and more
matter of doubtful value.
THE mail order house therefore t
becomes a menace to this country, t
he mail order house unrestricted {
viii kill our smaller towns, creating +
treat cities with their cruel social 9
Citations, with their inevitable caste
ceiling that come from the presence
t strangers who are rich and poor
wing side by side.
Friendship, neigh borliness, fra
srnity or whatever you wish to call
1at spirit of comradery that comes
hen men know one another we'll, is
he cement that holds together this
MON OF the states. 1t is not created
great cities. ...
Great cities give much in aims,
1T little in justice. Only as we
1ow each other we'll can we treat
'ch other we'll and we treat each
her justly; and the city is a wilder
'ss OF careless strangers whose in i,
lncts of humanity are daily becom-
g more blunted to suffering, be-
use in the nature of things suffer-
in cities must be impersonal. 1t
not the suffering of friends and
ighbors and kith and kin as it is in
9 smaller towns. So the mail or
house crushing out our towns is
wing up the milk of human kind
IS in our hearts.
And that brings us back to first
nciples; If we who live in these
all towns in America cannot see
1t our duty to our country lies
st of all in our duty to our neigh
rs, then we are blind indeed to
basis of real patriotism, for after
patriotism is only neighborly
dness Patriotism is not in
ering for the flag; it is not in
ling our eyes filled with emotion
tears at hearing "The Star
ngled Banner" patriotism is
old fashioned human duty
To sacrifice our reighbor-the
who helps the town with his
IS, with it's public business, with
myriad activities for neighborly
lteousness-to sacrifice that man
his business for the mere sake
saving dollar on the purchase
hundred dollars worth of
Is is just as unpatriotic as it is
pit at the flag.
For the flag If it means any,
g means the golden rule. tho