Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1915-08-12
TRUE PATRIOTISM AND
MAIL ORDER MENACE.
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BY W, A. White.

The preservation or the home
trade to the home town carries with
It the preservation OF many of our
American institutions.
II seems to me that lot OF good
things in American life will pass II
the country town passes. And II
will pass just as surely as centrali-
zation OF retail mail order business
In cities continues.
The American country town. the
town of from one hundred to one
hundred thousand people, preserves
better than the crowded city and
better than the lonely ranch and
isolated farm life, the things that
make America great.
Here in these country towns the
spirit of neighborliness is the pre-
yailing spirit. Men come to know
one another and when any two hui
man beings come to know one
another, in the one who is intelli-
gent and wise respect always rises
for the other. To know ones fell
lows always is to sympathize with
them. Neighborliness spells fra
ternity.
The American country town with
its broad circle of friendships, with
its close, homely, simple relations
between men, with its spirit of CO.
operation and with its economic
status that permits the creation of
no indecently rich and no abjectly
poor, the American country town,
1t seems to me, is the most hopeful
of our American institutions.
To destroy that town, furnishing
the market for the farmer and Civ
ing steady employment to labor,
means a reorganization of our COM
mercial, social and industrial life
that will be revolutionary-and
more a matter of doubtful value.
The mail order house therefore
becomes a menace TO this country,
the mail order house unrestricted
will kill our smaller towns, creating
great cities with their terrible con-
trasts of life. with their cruel social
relations, with their inevitable caste
feeling that comes from the pres
ence of strangers who are rich and
poor living side by side.
Friendship, neighborliness, fra
ternity or whatever you call that
spirit of comradery that comes
when men know one another well,
is the cement that holds together
this union of the states. 1t is not
created in great cities.
Great cities give much in aims,
but little in justice. Only as we
know each other we'll can we treat
each other justly; and the city is
of careless strangers
whose instincts of humanity are
daily becoming more and more
blunted to suffering, because in the
nature of things suffering in cities
must be impersonal. 1t is not the
of friends and neighbors
and kith and kin as 1t is In the
smaller town. So the mail order
crushing out our towns is drying
lp the milk of human kindness in
,ur hearts.
And that brings us back to first
principles; If we who live in these
mall towns in America cannot see
hat our duty to our country lies
irst of all in our duty to our
leighbors, then we are blind in
Iced to the basis of real patriotism, {
which is only neighborly kindness.
Patriotism is not in cheering for {
he flag; it is not in feeling our
yes filled with emotional tears at s
earring The Star Spangled Ban
err" patriotism is just old-fasL-
oned human duty. {
To sacrifice our neighbor--tlle !
IAN who helps the town with its :
axes, with its public business, with :
s myriad activities for neighborly I
Ighteousness- sacrifice that man 6
nd his business for the mere sake ,
saving a dollar on the purchase
( a hundred dollars worth Of goods
Just as unpatriotic as 1t is to spit
t the flag.
For the flag, il 1t means anything
cans the golden rule; the flag
eans friendly burden bearing; 1t
cans mutual help in trouble; 1t