The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-05-27
Wanted-a Tonic

Wanted-a Tonic
We have the utmost interest in and
sympathy with, anything that prom
Uses growth. Improvement or better
ment of Vermont. We are aware
that one of the essential things is a
toning up in morals and spirit Our
people have heard too long and had
brought before them too often and
vividly the discouraging story of the
states alleged decadence They
hang their heads when they should
raise them.
Not every prospect pieases in Yer
mont Neither does 1t elsewhere.
The average should be considered
Vermont averages we'll. 1t can and
should do better.
One of the necessary things is to
stimulate the lacking state pride. The
good side of Vermont should be stress
ed, and as quietly and effectively as
possible the other side should receive
corrective attention. Much OF this
would flow automatically, were Yer
mont to assume proper self respect.
We cannot expect others TO think
more Of us than we seem to think of
ourselves. When our minds are fill
ed with dismal forebodings, how can
we brace up?
The first thing that Vermont needs
is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the
greatest asset in the world, anyway.
We lack it here regarding our own
state. We explain and excuse and
apologize for this and that shortcom-
| ing that other states would never
think to mention. We call attention
to our own defects by constant tier
ation-like chronic invalid. We
are so busy trying to discover and
point out what is the matter with
Vermont that We quite convince our
selves that it is a really desperate
case. OF course we have no trouble
convincing others.
| II Vermonters could only give up
the disgusting habit of putting on
blue spectacles when looking out over
our lovely hills and valleys and lakes
and streams, and seeing nothing but
sandheap and gully, bog and sedge,
ii would be ever so much better. A
change in our spectacles is more
needed in Vermont than the direct
primary or the initiative and referen-
DUN. Or at least the same colored
glasses as we use when We contem-
plate other states.
Vermont has its problems. grave
ones, to be sure. but they are not
problems of the grave. They are the
same live questions that other states
are meeting. We must not quail be
fore them or give them up as hope
less. Cheerful courage and real op
timism will solve them all
The Greater Vermont and the Bet
ter Vermont will begin to dawn the
day we, its citizens, catch the impetus
of the actual upward and forward
movement. 1t will not come as the
result OF legislation, but will precede
, legislation, as the cause does the
} effect.
r Think and talk Vermont up; no
: down. Know what your state hai
: and is that is good, and spread thu
, gospel. Believe it yourself-you
D ought to, anyway. for ii is SO Pound
! it into others, your neighbors. your
9 friends, the stranger within your
/ gates
3 Two men bought farms adjoining
and very similar. The first years
4 crops were disappointing to Smith be
8 cause they were not larger; the.
5 were satisfactory to Jones becaus,
4 they were not smaller. Smith spen
his time in moaning and complaining
Jones. in singing and working. On,
cannot work and moan, but one cal
work and sing. Next year Smith
crops were poorer than the year be
} fore and he more dismal; Jones, bet
ter and he more cheerful. SO 1t wen
year after year. Smith growing poore
and more melancholy; Jones richie
and more prosperous. Ii was no
many years before people riding b.
remarked on the contrast between
the farms and not many more befor,
they said that Smith got the poo
land anyway when he bought an,
Jones the good. In fact. there wa
, mo difference; merely the result o
: the way they both attacked the task
merely the mental state OF the two
Canvassing all the needs of Ver
mont, so often mooted. we find thi
great one. without which all else i
vain and with which little else 4
needed-a tonic for Vermonters, in
diyidually and collectively, that vii
drive out the bile and enable them {,
see clearly what of Joy. comfort, lux
ury and wealth lies abused and des
pissed at their feet.-Randolph Heral,
] and News.