The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-01-15
HARMONY IS AD-
VISED BY WRITER
las A MAN THINKS" HIS TEXT
Leroy Armstrong Points Way to Valleys
Success, Telling Citizens to Back
Worthy Movements Comparatively
(By Leroy Armstrong;

Did you see John Mason in his big
play, "As 3 Man Thinks?" Seems tC
me the lesson of it is broader ever
than the application made by the gooc
DIR. Selig. 1t even becomes personal
and the people of Hood River can ap'
ply II to their own valley conditions.
We have here pretty much what We
think We have. We can do pretty much
what we want to do. And is we thinl
disaster lies ahead of us-or for any oi
our interests Man Disaster i:
likely to be there on absolute schedule
time.
Once in the old interviewing days
| got 7. ID. Armour to talk of the be
ginnings of business at the stockyards,
and he spoke Of the careless buying
the haphszsrd shipping and slipshoC
yarding, the wasteful method oi
slaughtering and the flinging away Of
parts of the carcass altogether. He
looked from that to the later days OF
his life, when everything was organ
lied, and lifting his hands he declared
II don't see how we made a living
Had to 60 through its uniformed stage,
you see. Boys do that. Youth throws
away so much Of strength and of ma.
terial that we older men find of price.
less value. But as they get oldes
they settle down and use all the forces
they have. And then they "ge,
there"
Another Chicago man told mo ons
time of the days when he hunted ducks
on the ground nov occupied by the
Board of Trade building; OF the stalled
wagons he had seen in State street all
the way from Lake to Madison, and
asked him how they managed to make
city there. any way. He laid his
hand on my shoulder and said impress
sively: my friend, a hundred men,
working together. can make city any.
where" Ii is true. And hundred
men, working together, can achieve
any other result desired. They car. .dc
it even if their materials are not al
that could be desired. They can do II
so much more easily and so much more
splendidly If they have been favored
by nature. II is easy to make the
marvel of the world here in Hooc
River valley. because the good LORD
has provided so much that is needful
so many elements in the final achieve.
ment; so rich an endowment in al
that man really needs for the winning
of magnificent success.
But they have to pull together. IL {
hundred united men can make success
1t is equally true that far fewer than 9
hundred can neutralize their efforts
Did you ever see that forty.mule team
that hauled horax over the country
The driver told me be had ''pull
back" mule in the line. and that fel
low would do everything the rest Of
she mules and the driver didn't want
done. | asked if that "pullback mule
ever got his own way. ''No," said the
teamster. "but he makes it harder for
the rest of Us to get ahead. 1t is all
as man thinks.
One man told me the other day that
40 per cent of the people of this valley
would fight anything the Commercial
club of Hood River wanted, no matter
whether it was good or bad. ] think
he oVerrated the proportion. | don't
believe there are 40 men out of hun
dred in this or any other valley that
will oppose d measure regardless OF
its merit. That is placing too low al
estimate on intelligence, and too high q
rating on pure cussedness. If the
Commercial club suggests Q good
measure, the people of this valley will
work for it, will give it their support,
will be a strong contributing element
in making it success. And they will
do it because it is good not necessar.
lily BECAUSE the Commercial club asks
for it.
A man told me he wasn't satisfied
with the paving in State street from
First to Ninth; that it was no better
than the street had been three years
ago. feel serry for Heaven when
that man gets there. ] don't know
what he will compare it with, but he
will not be satisfied with it.
Another man told me he had lost
money on apples. because of worms
and other .pests. asked him how
often he sprayed. He told me he had
sprayed twice some years. and that
was all he proposes to spray. IL he
couldn't raise apples without spending
tire value of them for insecticides, the
crop might go to Ballyhack. Well.
that is as he thinks about II. But
before he takes good apples off his
trees he is gong to put all the spray
on them that the facts in the case re-
quire. Nature is pretty generous; but
there are inevitables that every man
will have to reckon with. And proper
care of trees is one of them.
Another man said he was tired OF
| ~ ka
out with as much as he brought IN.
He hadn't found it any bonanza. "
His nearest neighbor on the south
wouldn't want to get out with five
times what he brouhgt in. But the
neihgbor to the south has been work
ing early and late; has been working
with his hands and with his head has
been putting on his land whatever the
nature of the land has required, and
has been taking profitable crops of
every year.
There was time when the growing.
the marketing and the distributing OF
Hood River products were as unorgan-
lied as the butcher business was at the
time rich old P. d. Armour told me
about. But that time has passed.
Good orchardists have found the things
to do. and they are doing them. They
have learned to harvest their fruit
right, with the least possible loss Of
time, and the greatest possible conser-
walton of energy. They have been in
strumental in perfecting a distribution
and marketing in every section OF
country which assures to the producers
the best possible prices, and the least
possible waste, In that important de-
partment of the business. And they
are taking their profits now.
Farming whether you want apples
or wheat, strawberries or butter-hat
to be managed according to business
principles.
Brain backs and directs and glorifiei
muscle. The waste is eliminated. Lit
tie is left to chance. Laws of nature