The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1915-06-12
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH
WEST FELiCIANA?
(Contributed.)

liciana? Ask every third man you
meet this question and every second
one of these will have different an
swer to give you. All are agreed that
something is the matter and, in truth,
this seems to be the only subject upon
which the people are unanimous.
AS a matter of truth and fact, there
is nothing the matter with West Fee
lliciana. We have merely been told
that there is for so long and so con-
tinuously, we have heard the mourners
weeping over the expected demise,
until the thing has become an obses-
sion; we have thought in circles until
our heads swim at the effort; we have
failed to see that the whole situation
is a result of mental suggestion and
merely a state of mind.
| Let us see how the matter stands. 1t
is trite to say we have the best hill
parish in the State; the richest lands;
the most beautiful natural surround
ings; the finest all-year-round climate;
the most ideally located farms for d.
Iversification. You've heard all that
beforehand it's all true. 1t is also
true that we have as good men and
women as the South produces, and that
in itself is a high compliment.
Why then is West Feliciana stand
i ing still or even slipping backward,
while other parishes are forging to the
front in civic improvement, wealth, and
bettered agricultural conditions-par-
ishes less favorably blessed in natural
resources and fertile lands?
1t is because we distrust each other
1t is because we fail to unite our ener-
gies for the common good We fail to
get acquainted with our neighbor. We
of the towns fail to know the hopes,
the ideals, and the needs of you in the
country. Each little settlement, each
little ward is a community unto itself.
We need to get better acquainted with
ourselves and with out neighbor, and
with out friends across the parish line.
A family deprived of all communica-
ton, social and otherwise, with it's
neighbor, is morose family; so also
a community shut in from it's neighbor
becomes morose community. Also,
in this day of competition, it becomes
a stagnant community, and that is pre-
cisely what is the matter with West
Feliciana: we are morose and stagnant
Time was, in the good old days of
cotton, money and mortgages, when we
could afford to build a Chinese wall
about our little principality; invite the
rest of the world to feed us with her
hog, hominy and canned horrors, in
return for the privilege of clothing
them with out cotton. This business
fOrmality having been attended to, we
invited them, by implication, at their
convenience to go to the devil, while
we would proceed to attend to our own
affairs in our own way. But these good
old days, no matter how much regret
ted, are gone and we can no longer
afford to live behind Chinese walls. |
We can no longer afford to overlook
the fact that we are obliged to compete
with out hustling neighbors to the
north, east, south and west of us. We
must fight for our share of the good
things of life; we must peep over that
Chinese wall and find out what is hap
pening on the other side.
Very we'll then, if we must fight so
be it! The men of West Feliciana are !
real men and they are real fighters, but
all the AZ centimeter howftzers, the
Cuttings, Springfelds, and six-shooters
in the world will avail us nothing in
this fight. We must needs be ARMED |
with plows and harrows and engines of
not destruction, and roads
and more roads and better roads and
bridges and more bridges and better
no we haven't any Just think of that: !
we haven't any; and roads and bridges
and means of quick communication are !
the biggest single things in educating
and developing country that any COM
munity can have-and the cheapest.
A number of years ago, as far back !
as the time, you will remember, when
It was as easy to raise cotton, money
and mortgages in West Feliciana as it
IS to raise hell to-day by starting
discussion on the subject of taxation,
he State of Kansas was about the
most woe-begone, poverty-stricken, run
1own-at-the-heel object of commisera-
ion in your Uncle Samueps family:
pessimism and populism
had soaked deep into the souls of her
individually and collectively, /
privately and publicly, Kansas was
nortgaged until her farms groaned
With the weight of them: Kansas was Il