The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-07-05


thing.
One by one the shadows fail across
the path Of the editor. The merchants
hang on and then hang on some more.
They do their best, but their best
isn't much when in the Jaws OF the
neutrality-suspicious. monster, and
they get "chaWnked" in time.
AS the vacant store rooms appear
on the main street, as the mechanics
begin to wander ainisssiy about and
kick because nobody is building
houses, as the tax collector wonders
why he doesn't collect, az the school
teacher notes that the attendance is
falling of because families 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 a funereal aspect and the gay
travelling man forgets to get on the
Is iguring-and he is figuring hard
And he can keep right on figuring
hard. He is done for-he is III.
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 I 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 newspaper
| man who has gone down with the
| mail order houses at his heels ought
| to make good if anybody does, because
| he can live so long on strap ends and
gasoline fumes-but, it's a long shot
| and the bulls eye isn't worth a clean
little newspaper in the country with
home and family being reared in
| the atmosphere of a good. thriving
| town. I'm not going to preach a ser
! mon on it, but you can take it from
me that I'm in the immediate neigh.
| borhood Of truth when tell you this
| and l 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 let the
parcels post bill pass, I'm making an
| Allegretti bet with myself that the
editors-the rural editors-are going
to get most awfuIly butted!
They tell you how it win help bust
ness and cite what a wonderful thing
| the parcels post has been for foreign
countries. We know that! All We
have to do to prove it is to go down
to Castle Square garden in New YORK
city and see the poor devils come il
| from the home of the parcels post!
See them staggering in with theiI
earthly possessions on their backs ant
the doWntrodden essence of Goldfish
ness in their eyes. Look at then
blank faces and their bent bodies
see that woman staggering under hei
coarse luggage and chung TO by half
dozen children! Just look at them!
And then go back home and bocst
for the parcels post bill-the bill that
makes life in their countries so beau
tiful and so easy and SO charming
they run away from it and come tc
America while there is still a drop O.
hope in their hearts!
And the villages of the old couH
tries. Possibly you've never beer
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 it and {
government tobacconist who also sells
stamps The supplies are purchased
say from Paris. by parcels post! Anc
that community will be the same &
hundred years from now, except thas
there may be smaller farms and more
farmers. There is nothing in thai
community to make a boy ambitious
or to give him his inspiration. He
will be raised like the clod he is anC
the national life will never know OF
him unless he commits some crime OF
great interest.
How would you like to run news
paper in community like that?
And yet this very movement is
tending to give the United States tins
same conditions. in time. Naturally
the American people will be slower il
| becoming clOaSt out JUST as surrey ~
the sun shines. posterity will beeome
so if the villages of this land are al
lowed to retrogTade. for the good
folks mostly come from the country
the able. healthy. hearty. do-somethins
people. | wouldn't trade a live. ambi,
tious, healthy country boy who has
an inspiration TO get there for a 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!
can take you out on pretty fair
road near my home-and l can take
you in my own automobile If 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
were raised. They were about the
same age. they went to school to-