The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1918-02-05


came TO Chicago a few years before
the great fire and started a printing
business which was destroyed in the
fire. After this, he drifted into the
country a few miles away from the
city and with an old bachelor brother
and an old maid sister lived in seclu-
sion for more than forty years, never
taking any part in any community al
fairs, and never going anywhere eX
cept to the postoffice and country
store once in a great while. Having
been left alone by the death of both
his brother and sister some years,
when his own health became so inn
paired that he could not care for him
self, he was removed by the county
officials to the poor house, where >he
died at the age of eighty-four. 1t
cannot be said of him that he was a
bad man. l never heard any one say
that His chief fault was that he
tried to do what no man can do and
at the same time prosper and be hap
Ply: he tried to live unto and for him
self alone. He was better than the
person who purposely sought to in
jure others, infinitely better. But he
was not as good as the man who lived
with and for the welfare of society at
large. The right life is the social
life. Marriage and home and school
and church and community welfare
organizations all call for our sup
port. He had never married, nor had
a home, nor helped build and support
the school or the church, nor partici-
pated in any welfare work for the
community. He had lived the unsocial
life.
The Community minded.
But we are interested in the other
side of this question. Who are the
people who do help to make their
community a better community? What
types shall we depend upon for COM
/, munity Improvement? The expert
ence of all those who have done COM
munity work in the country, as also
in the city, has made evident one
thing: only as people come to possess
the community point of view and to
! feel some pride in their own commu
> nifty life will they be of much value
to their community in its welfare.
The selfish man cannot co-operte with
his neighbors. He is always think
ing of himself and of what he will
have to pay. He closes up like
clam when new proposition is pre-
scented for the advancement of the
moral or social or religious interests
: of the community. The man who has
5 some community pride and who is
! willing to submerge self certainly has
at least one necessary qualification
: for helping to make his community
. a better community in which to live.
u The Well-infOrmed.
In addition to community pride,
:, knowledge is essential in the build
T. ing of your community. One can no
/ more be the social architect of his
d community and build it into a beau
Il tiful social structure without first
Il having mastered some of the princi-
II pies of his art than could the builder
e of the Brooklyn bridge have sus-
pended that vast mass of steel with
Z, d out knowing the principle upon
IL which it could be done. The bridge
existed in his mind before it existed
as a completed reality and a wonder
y of the inventive genius. So, he who
n would build the social structure of
b community must know how to do it
And this knowledge is available
Within the last ten years there ha!
come into being a vast literature OF
\ rural life. 1t is not necessary tina
y one should read every piece of this
4 literature, but if he is to understand
\ his task, he certainly should reaC
much of it. A new era for countr,
b life was ushered in when Theodore
n Roosevelt appointed his Country Lift
Is Commission to investigate and repor
4 upon the, exact conditions as thu
= members of this commission fount
luOlu olnCe luen, SCHOOLGIRLS ant
economists, teachers and preachers
and other public-spirited men hav
been studying the problem and hav'
written much which is well wortl
reading.
Perhaps there are no classes o
people who by virtue of their posi-
tions and qualifications are bette
fitted for leadership in this splendid
work than the teachers and preach
80. Wy
would not at all imply that no other
are fitted for it. In nearly ever
community there are some who d
have the qualifications and with thes
the time necessary to work out an
put into operation an intelligen
community program. These Shout
always be willing to work with tn
- public leaders, and the public lead
q ers should be able to recognize sue
( would be of incalculable help t
Z them. 1t is community job, not
4 one-man or a one-woman job. TIL
! people themselves need to be educat
2 ed up to the point where they wi
< gladly cooperate in such a program
= as is adapted to their communit,
2 And usually most people will respon
< as they are convinced of the intelli
y gence and the social good of an ur
Z dertaking The different drives with
Z in the last year has done a wonder
. ful amount of good in the way
< finding out who are the social an
< who the unsocial. In every con
2 munity both town and city, these tw
< classes are already pretty we'll mari
! ed. And another thing which the va
3 rious drives have done is to singl
< out the natural leaders in the variou
i communities and train them for con
mun1ty action One of the mos
( heartening things which we hay