Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1918-05-02
No Man, Under Modern Condi-
tons, Can Live Entirely
Unto Himself.
EACH DEPENDENT ON OTHERS
Citizen Who Does Not Aid In Building
Up Community Can Not Expect
to Have Prosperity
Himself.
(Copyright.)


There was time in the world when
4 man could do pretty much as he
pleased. What one man did was of
little concern to anyone else, for it had
little effect on anyone else. Those
days are gone, however, and they
never will return. Today, no man can
live entirely unto himself. Life is q
complicated affair under modern con-
ditions. No one man in any commun-
ity is entirely independent Of oil others
in that community.
Organized society, in the form OF
governments, national, state and local,
have recognized the new conditions
and have decreed that every man must
observe certain rules in his relations
with his fellow men. He must not do
certain things that would endanger the
health Of other people in his cOmmun-
ity. He must not do such things as
would disturb the peace and quiet or
his neighbOrhood. He must remember
that he owes duty to his community.
Not Question of Right.
A man may say that he has the right
to spend his money where he pleases;
that no one can stop him if he wants
to buy his groceries, his clothes and
his furniture in some city miles away
from where he earns the money to pay
for them. He is right. There is no
law to prevent him from doing so, I'M
less it is the law Of self-preservation.
no ho ho ri RI Cpn6 hiS
money away to some distant city IN
stead of spending it at home, also has
the right to send his children to that
city to be educated in the schools,
which his money helps to support, but
he doesn't exercise that right. lie
sends his children to the local schools,
the maintenance of which is made pos
sible by the men who spend their
money at home.
Life in any community today is q
give-and-take proposition. A man can
not take everything and give nothing
and get away with it for any great
length of time. He can not take his
living from community and give
nothing back to help the other fellow
make living. If he cuts off the other
fellows living, he is bound eventually
| to cut off his own, for unless the other
| fellow has money to buy his labor or
his goods he cannot make q living
himself.
You may say that what you buy
doesn't amount to much and the money
that you send away to the mail order
houses in other cities can not have any
great effect upon the general business
conditions in your town. Maybe It
doesn't amount to much and maybe 1t
won't have any great effect upon the
community's prosperity in itself, bur
what will be the result if every person
in the community, or half OF them, or
tenth of them, take the same view
of the matter. Your business, In IT.
self, may not amount to much, but
taken together with the business Of
hundred others in the community, 1t
amounts to q great deal. 1t amounts
TO the difference between prosper
Gus community and dead one. lt
amounts to the difference, in the end
between good times and bad times for
yourself and your own family. If you
lived on a desert isle, it would make
no difference where you sent your
money because it would make no diff
ference whether you had any money at
all or not. But you are not living upon
desert isle. You are living in q
modern community. To do everything
possible to build up that community Is
not only q duty which you owe to the
community, but-mOre important still
it is q duty which you owe to your
self.
Taxes Will Increase.
You have children to educate. You
want your community to have good
schools so that your children may have
the same advantages that the children
in the big city have. If you live on q
farm you need good roads over which
to haul your products to market. You
may say that you pay your share OF
the taxes out Of which the school,
houses are built and the roads con-
structed. Maybe you do pay your share,
In proportion to the value Of your
worlds goods, but where is the other
fellow to get the money to pay his
share of the taxes If, after you pay
your taxes, you send the remainder Of
your money to some other community
to help build their schools and con-
struct their roads. The merchants OF
any community pay a very consider
able part Of the taxes collected in that
community. Go to the tax books and
you will find this tc be the case. When,
the business Of the merchant falls Off
and he carries smaller stocks and has.
less money in the bank, he pays small
er taxes, and as the amount he pays
in taxes decreases, the amount you
pay must increase If the schools are
to be maintained and the roads kept
up. 1t may be a mans own business IL
he wants to send his money to help
build up the big cities where the mail