Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1915-08-13
MAIL ORDER FIRMS
HURT SMALL TOWN
If UNRESTRICTED WILL DESTROY
THE MARKET FOR FARMER
AND LABoRER.
REAL MENACE TO COUNTRY
Will Create Great Cities Where Friend
ship, Neighboriness and Frater-
nifty is Not Considered in
Big Commercial Centers.

That the preservation Oh the nOlne
trade to the home town carries with
it the preservation of many of our
American institutions, is truth we'll
said. The increasing grasp of the
mail order business on the preserves
of the country dealer is an apt illus
tration of this statement, and that
farm journals, which have pretty gen.
orally fostered the business Of cat
houses, are beginning to see the men
ace of the mail order business is APP
parent from the following by William
Allen White in Campbelps Scientific
Farmer, which the Trade believes that
every merchant would do well to have
his local paper publish;
1t seems to me that lot of good
things in American life will pass II
the country town passes. And it will
pass just as surely as Capitalization
of retail mail order business in cities
continues.
The American country town, the
town of from 100 to 100000 people, pre-
serves 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 prevail
ing spirit. Men come to know one
another and when any two human be-
ings come to know one another, in
| Al. &c inf and WiCo
respect always rises for the other To
know ones fellows is to sympathize
with them. Neighborliness spells fra
ternity.
The American country town with
its broad circle of friendships, with
it's close, homely, simple relations be-
tween men, with it's spirit of co-opera-
ton and with it's economic status that
permits the creation of no indecently
rich and no abjectly poor, the Ameri-
can country town, it seems to me, is
the most hopeful Of our American in
stitutions.
To destroy that town, furnishing the
market for the farmer and giving
steady employment to labor, means a
reorganization of our commercial, So
cial and industrial life that will be
revolutionary-and more, matter of
doubtful value.
The mail order house therefore be-
comes a menace to this country, the
mail order house unrestricted will kill
our smaller towns, creating great
| a.. ctc nf
, life with their cruel social relations,
with their inevitable caste feeling
that comes from the presence of stran'
gers who are rich and poor living side
by side.
Friendship, neighborliness, frater
nifty or whatever you call that spirit
of comradery that comes when mel
: know one another well, is the cement
| that holds together this union of the
states. 1t is not created in great
2 cities.
t Great cities give much in aims, bu
5 little in justice. Only as we know
e each other we'll can we treat eacl
other justly; and the city is wilder
= ness of careless strangers whose in
+ stincts of humanity are daily becom
ing more and more blunted to suffer
. ing, because in the nature of thing
suffering in cities must be impersonal
> 1t is not the suffering of friends ant
. neighbCrs and kith and kin as it is il
. the smaller town. So the mail orde
n house crushing out our towns is dry
ing up the milk of human kindnes
g in our hearts.
r And that brings us back to frs
/ principles; if We who live in thes
il small towns in America cannot Sc
L. that our duty to our country lies frs
It Of all in our duty to our neighbors
II then we are blind indeed to the basi
q of real patriotism, which is onl
neighborly kindness. Patriotism
u not in cheering for the flag; it is nc
q in feeling our eyes filled with emf
y tional tears at hearing "The Sta
- Spangled Banner" patriotism is jus
:, old-fashioned human duty.
To sacrifice our neighbor-the ma
= who helps the town with its take
Will It's puDliC DuolhCooy Win It's A1J
10 lad activities for neighborly righteou
G. ness-to sacrifice that man and h
a business for the mere sake of savin
ID dollar on the purchase of a HUI
8. bred dollars worth of goods is jul
as unpatriotic as it is to spit at tn
flag.
For the flag, if it means anythin
ie means the golden rule; the flag NEAR
~ friendly burden bearing; it means M
20 tual help in trouble; it means stan
~ ing together against common foes.
a. That spirit never fails to work; an
the weak man, the unprotected ma
q, the man alone-the man OF the farr
~ at the end of the fact, when his far
in market is gone, when his town is gon
Ie- when the spirit of selfshness al
ch greed has left this country cold al
- hard and mean and neighbOrIess-tl