Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-01-25
DUTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
War Conditions Require Us to Do
Things Very Differently.

War Conditions Require Us to Do
Things Very Differently.
Because of prevailing war condi-
tionS there has come to each OF us n
peculiar change in our attitude toward
our most personal problems.
Formerly we were pretty much for
ourselves. in the ordering of our home
life. conduct OF our business. indul-
gencc in pleasure and satisfaction OF
the social instinct. If we responded
to community calls" and performed
public duties" It was with the Idea
that these were incidental to our real
business, secondary in their claim
nYon us and that they must await &as 2AE
inclination Of convenience.
4 man could still be n good citizen,
self respecting and respected, and
eyadc all these calls and duties II he
attended strictly to his own business
and took no active part and manifest
cd no particular interest in the large
business of the community or nation.
Now. however. all this is changed; or
rather, changed conditions have re-
moved the hoodwink from our eyes 80
that. that which had come to seem
negligible to us. being to loom before
our vision rs of supreme and most
vital Importance
In the home the obligation rests
upon us to choose our food and rcgu-
late our appetite In consideration not
only OF the needs of this country, but
lof those Of our Allies-other countries
across the sea. Not only Is Americas
isolation broken but our own isolation
as individual units OF O social order
has been broken through as we'll.
In business the same consideration
rules in determining what we shall
produce from the SOIL grow on our
stock farms and ranges. or manufac-
ture in our mills and factories. This
reconsideration is paramount In deter
mining what we shall store and what
we shall ship, into what market our
products can so and what price we are
liberty TO ask for them. what the con-
sumcr Is entitled to buy and what the
Wholesaler and retailer are authorized
TO keep In stock and to sell. over all
this business OF private enterprise
which had come to be regarded as In
dependent OF public consideration and
n law unto itself II certain perfume
tory and well-defined regulations were
observed. there has descended the
rcsulativc spirit OF a common need so
vital and imperative that 1t can no
LONGER be disregarded.
To attend strictly to ones own
business today with no regard Tor
what lies beyond and above ts no
longer praiseworthy: 1t is disloyal.
This changed attitude Of men Is
distinct gain. II Is an upward and
forward movement in the evolution OF
the human consciousness. and can
never he reversed without a distinct
sense of loss.
In reality, the common good mas
never been merely incidental and OF
subordinate importance. no matter
how II may have seemed to men ao-
sorbed in their own affairs. And II
can never take that place even IN
seeming again.
Under the aegis OF this new spirit
of aroused democracy. CIVILIZATION
will win this war against tyranny and
military usurption and, after the war
, Is won. will take tremendous stride
forward by settling the perplexins
and disturbing social and Industrial
problems Of the world in accordance
with the principles OF justice and right
which are simply the principles OF
the common good.-Alfred H. Henry
in Yakima Daily Republic,