Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-26

(Reprinted from Harper's Magazine.) |
The country town is one OF those
things We have worked out for our
selves here in America Our cities are |
not unlike other cities in the world;
the trolley and the omnibus and the
subway. the tender dollhouse million
aire and the hardy perennial crook are
found in all cities. Glass lines eX-
tend from city to city well around the
globe. And American aversion to
caste disappears when the American
finds himself cooped in a city with
million of his fellows. But in the
country town-the political unit larg-
er than the village and smaller than
the city. the town with a population
between three and one hundred thou
sand-we have built up something dis
tinctively American. Physically, II is
of its own kind; the people for the
most part live in detached wooden
houses on lots with 80 feet of 'front.'
age, and from 100 TO $50 feet in depth.
Grass is the common heritage OF all
the children-grass and flowers.
kitchen garden smiles in the back
ward and the service of public utlll-
ties is so cheap that in most country
towns in America electricity for light
ing and household power. water for
the kitchen sink and the bathroom,
gas for cooking. and the telephone
with unlimited use may be found IN
every house. In the town where these
lines are written there are more tele-
phones than there are houses, ana as
MANY water intakes as there are lam
lilies. and more electric lights than
there are men, women and children.
Civilization brings its labor saving de-
vices to all the people OF an American
country town The uncivilized area is
negligible. if one measures civilization
by the use of the conveniences and lux
uries that civilization has brought.
In the home, the difference between
the rich and the poor, in these towns,
is denoted largely by the multiplied
ton of rooms; there is no very great
difference in the kinds of rooms in the
houses of those who have much and
those who have little. And, indeed,
the economic differences are OF no
consequence. The average American
thinks he is saving for his children,
and for nothing else. But if the child
of the rich man and the child OF the
poor man meet in common school,
graduate from a common high school,
and meet in the country college or in
the state university-and' they do as
sociate thus in the days of their youth
there is no reason why parents
should strain themselves for their
children; and they do not strain them
selves. They relax in their automo-
biles, go to the movies, inhabit the
summer boarding house in the noun
tains or by the sea, and boot at the
vulgarity and stupidity of those strang-
ers who appear to be rich and to be
grunting and sweating and saving and
intriguing for more money, but who
really are only well-to-do middle-class
people.
In the American country town the
race for great wealth has slackened
down. The traveller who sees our half
dozen great cities, who goes into our
industrial centers, loafs about our
pleasant resorts, sees much that is
significantly American. But he misses
much also if he fails to realize tha
that there are in America tens of thou
sands of miles of asphalted streets
arched by elms, bordered by greer
lawns, fringed with flowers marking
the procession of the seasons, and that
back from these streets stand millions
\ of houses owned by their tenants
II houses of from five to ten rooms, that
cost from $500 to s25, 900, and that in
these houses liVea people neither rural
these houses live people neither rural
traditions and urban aspirations, and
who are getting a rather large return
from civilization for the dollars they
spend. Besides the civilization that
comes to these people in pipes and on
wires, they are buying civilization in
the photograph, the moving picture
the automobile. and the 50-cent reprint
of last years fiction success. The Wo-
mans City Federation of Clubs is
bringing what civic beauty it can lug
home from Europe and the eastern
cities; the opportune death Of the
prominent citizen is opening play
grounds and hospitals and parks land
the country college, which has multi
piled as the sands of the sea. supple
ments the state schools of higher
learning in the work of bringing to
youth opportunities for more than the
commons school education.
Now into this peculiar civilization
comes that curious institution, the
country newspaper. The country
newspaper is the incarnation of the
town spirit The newspaper is more
than the voice of the country-town
spirit; the newspaper is in measure
the will Of the town, and the town s
character is displayed with sad real
ism in the towns newspapers. A
newspaper is as honest as its town, is
as intelligent as its town, as kind as
its town, as brave as its town. And