Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1912-07-05

Iallfng on because famlleB are NOV
ing out of town and the stork is afraid
to drop into the place with an on
coming crop, as everybody begins to
take on funereai aspect and the gay
travelling man forgets to get of the
2:40 accommodation train, the editor
is figuring-and he is figuring hard.
And he can keep right on figuring
hard. He is done for--he is 1T.
The editor can stick until nothing
remains but a suburban ticket and @
shooting stick slightly battered at the
business end, or he can go into the
city and get famous! did the lat
ter-and l want to say to you that
the man with one arm and the hives
didn't go any faster than did to keep
out of the discard. Getting famous in
the city is all right and a newspaper
man who has gone down with the
mail order houses at his heels ought
to make good II anybody does. because
he can live SO long on strap ends and
gasoline fumes-but, it's long shot
and the bulls eye isn't worth clean
little newspaper in the country with
home and a family being reared In
the atmosphere OF good, thriving
town. I'm not going to preach ser
mon on 1t. but you can take 1t from
me that I'm In the immediate neigh
borhood of truth when tell you this
and know. I've had the newspaper
and the country and I've had some
affiliations of fame and the city.
But If the people of this country are
going to be goats enough to e, the
parcels post bill pass, I'm making an
Allegretti bet with myself that the
editors-the rural editors-are going
to get most awfully butted!
They tell you how 1t will help bust
ness and cite what wonderful thing
the parcels post has been for foreign
countries. We know that! All we
have to do to prove 1t is to go down
to Castle Square garden in New York
city and see the poor devils come In
from the home of the parcels post
See them staggering in with their
earthly possessions on their backs and
the downtrodden essence of Goldfish
ness in their eyes. Look at their
blank faces and their bent bodies,
see that woman staggering under her
coarse luggage and chung to by half
dozen children! Just look at them!
And then go back home and boost
for the parcels post bill-the bill that
makes life in their countries so beau
tiful and 80 easy and SO charming,
they run away from it and come to
America while there is still drop OF
hope In their hearts!
And the villages of the old coun-
tries. Possibly you've never been
there and you don't know that the vii
lagos are a joke, for the most part.
Farmers do not live on their farms,
as do the American tillers Of the soil,
They reside in neighborhood communi-
ties and this community will have
halfway house with bar in 1t and
government tobacconist who also sells
stamps. The supplies are purchased,
say from Paris, by parcels post! And
that community will be the same
hundred years from now, except that
there may be smaller farms and more
farmers. There Is nothing in that
community to make a boy ambitious
or to give him his inspiration. He
will be raised like the eiod he is and
the national life will never know o.
him unless he commits some crime %
great interest.
How would you like to run a news,
paper In a community like that?
And yet this very movement ia
tending to give the United States the
same conditions, in time. Naturally.
the American people will be slower In
becoming clods, but just as surely as
the sun shines. posterity will become
SO IL the villages of this land are al,
lowed to retrograde, for the good
folks mostly come from the country
the able, healthy. hearty, do-something
people. l wouldn't trade live, ambi'
tious, healthy country boy who has
an inspiration to get there for half
dozen city bred fellows who know so
much they never concentrate on any
thing or get anywhere. Who Is run
ming the big business in the New York
city today? Country boys!
l can take you out on a pretty fa1r
road near my home-and / can take
you in my own automobile IL the
burned thing doesn't get coughing
fit-and show you two farm houses, al
most directly across the street from
each other. Here two country boys
we're raised. They were about the
same age, they went to school to
gether, they enjoyed the privileges OF
the average country boy of America.
Who are they today?
They went to the city and when the
stuff that was in them came out the
world knew them as John Gates and
Ebert Gary. That's all. Just two
country boys who made good on the
milk and inspiration and the advan-
tages Of the country. Suppose they
had been raised In one OF those par
cels post countries?
Well, maybe, Just about now. We
might go down to Castle Square gar
den and see them come In with
blank void on their faces and a car
petbag on their backs!
Mr.. Newspaper man, don't you let
them fool you. Strike out from the
shoulder and do nice, clean job Of
polishing on. It will help some!
BYRON WILLIAMS.