The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1912-05-30

city with your large family to sup
portf Can you look forward now and
Q your children in the sweatshopsf
Can you see yourself and your family
living In a tenement surrounded by
people OF all nationalities, with habits
and tastes far inferior to yours? Do
you want to leave the free, open coun-
try. the flowers, the running brooks,
the birds and all rural life means to
you, to go into the squalor and filth
and sorrow and disgrace Of a great
city? Do you want to ride ten and
fifteen and twenty miles every morn
Ing to your work and back again at
night? Do you want to feel the teeth
of the cold, heartless, cruel life of
the city? Do you want to live In a
community whore you do not know
your nearest neighbors? Do you want
to exist selfishly for yourself alone,
where no n has any interest In you
and where you are the merest iota In
the great plan of things?
What You Are at Home.
Where you now live you are a factor
In the community; you are respected
and, If you are a square fellow, are
looked up to by men who are worth
more money than you. In the coun-
try We do not gauge every man by his
bank account. He is what he is, be-
cause we have al opportunity to know
his heart, to know what sort Of a life
he lives. In the city, men have little
opportunity of getting close together.
1t is a struggle for the almighty dol
lar. Men go down in the morning
with an idea Of taking away from
some other fellow a necessary amount
of money to run their families through
the day. 1t is a case of business riot
from morning to night.
would you take on this sort of a
proposition and give up the ideal life
you live In the country where you are
respected and loved; where you take
part in the political affairs OF the
community and where the small boys
look up to you as a good mechanic,
a square man and a good citizen?
Get Into the Fight.
In your town there is not at the
present time more work than there
should be. Does 1t not stand to rea-
son that the mail order houses work
ing under the proposed parcels post
law will work an injury and make
even less work for you? 1t Is your
duty as an American citizen who loves
his family, his home and his fellow
business man to stand with these,
shoulder to shoulder, In this fight for
preseryation-a fight In which no man
should enlist without a full under
standing Of the evil, and with no false
notions Of the enemy he has to COM
bat?
The Bill Far Reaching In EVIL.
/ Too many people in talking about
the parcels post evils refer to them
only as affecting the merchants. The
result of this is that tho average in
dividual disregards the merchants po-
sition in the matter and announces
that he will buy where he can buy for
the smallest amount Of money. He
does not stop to realize that the bust
ness of the merchant Is an index to
the entire community. II the mer-
chant is prosperous the people are
prosperous and vice versa.
parcels post refer to ito workings in
the old countries!
But wait!
Instead Of this being an argument,
for parcels post, 1t is exactly the re-
verse.
What is the average small town in
France, for instance?
] A hamlet of sordid, clod-like people
who group themselves about a tavern
and the government tobacccnist who
sells tobacco and stamps. They buy
by mail. Their very ignorance is a
biting reflection upon the parcels
post. Their schools are a joke, their
markets are beyond their reach, they
have no gas, no electric light, no mod
ern convenience of any sort. Would
you raise your children amid such
stultifying influences?
And yet this Is exactly what the
parcels post and mail order house
will bring to America in time, If the
people Of the country towns do not
arise and crush the evils.
See Your Editor About 1t.
Talk with your local editor about
the situation. He will b. rosted.
Work up a feeling against mail order
houses and parcels post. This Is your
fight. Do not be afraid to go to the
war, just as your fathers have, In
times gone by, and perhaps you your
self did when your country called. All
vars are not fought with powder and
shell. Some wars, v fiercer than
those where blood was shed through
the avenues we naturally associate
with war, have been quite as sangu.
mary.
In my humble opinion, country life
in the United States is the more nat
ural life, by far. 1t is the life to be
most desired. II ! were to have my
way / would take the people out Of
the sordid. weakening, slavish life,
the dirty, hooking, cold and cruel city
and set them upon the land, around
the villages of this country. I would
make them happy, free and noble
because the great stretches create
freedom and nobility. would make