The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-07-03
WELFARE OF OUR NATION
DEPENDS ON WELFARE
OF RURAL COMMUNITIES
Wolferlingen, Germany,
June 18th, 1919.

for a small space in the Sun to speak
with them, and trust the same will be
granted.
Dear Friends and Citizens
If Mr.. Editor sees fit to grant my
request and this letter escapes the
scrap basket or the misfortune of be-
ing lost on it's way, I'll write you a
few lines from Wclferlingcn, Ger
many, which is situated on the neu-
trail border of our occupied terri
tory and where we are at present
doing outpost guard duty. Its not
nv desire to speak OF the war OF
this country, as / konw you have al
ready heard too much of them both,
but | do want to speak of each COM
munity of Greene county as a unit,
ard try if possible with SO few words
to give you my opinion of the import
ance of each of these units and the
part each individual of the unit plays.
First of all, let us remember that
these units combined make the great
est nation of the world, and there
fore, we have every reason to be
proud of the fact that we have an in
dividual part in the making up of
these units. No doubt you have lis
tened to the stories of the different
soldiers who have been discharged
and have noticed that each of them
spoke especially favorable of their
own division, infantry or company
if he didn't come right out and say
it was the best. | know there have
been a great many arguments and
even fights occurred here in the Army
of Occupation as to which outfit was
the best and had done the most fight
ing. You see that competition, and
the right sort of competition, is good
the right sort of competition, is good.
These arguments and fights were the
outcome of all the units of the SER
vice trying to be the best. Thus all
were good, and none the best. But
these units combined, went to make
up the best army. Of course I've
only spoken of this as an illustration
to show the Importance of unit com
petition when carried on in the right
spirit. The war has done much to-
ward bringing us to realization of
the fact that each community of
America has a part to play; that the
welfare of our nation depends entire
ly upon the the welfare of the rural
communities. That the humblest ser
vice one can render is the greatest
and that after all, it's the little things
that count These lessons have been
engraven on our minds by actual
facts and experiences during the past
war. When war was declared, there
were many of our communities sleep
ing, but when they were called upon
to do their little bit, they cheerfully
responded. When there was a Red
Cross drive the churches and school
houses of each respective community
was filled and they worked with en-
thusiasm and unity, going cover the
top" ever ytime. Competition arose.
and each community felt that they
wanted to do the most. Probably for
the first time in their history they
fully realized that they were really
unit of America and had an impor-
tant part to play in her behalf. And
now that the war is seemingly over,
it's up to every individual of each
community to see to it, that this same
spirit of cooperation, unity and COM
petition that they felt when backing
up their boys at the front, will be
continued in all communities with the
same zeal and earnestness, ever try
ing to make their community the best
Everybody can do something. You
can at least give every one you meet
smile-and that means much. When
you see fault don't abuse but rather
get at the cause of the fault, and see
if it can't be made profitable instead,
You know we profit sometimes by our
faults. When you see an opportuni-
ty to make an improvement, take ad
vantage of it. Boost your own COM
munity and whatever you do don't
be grawler. Follow the Golden
Rule; make life cheerful for yourself
and those about you. Forget selfish
ness and the nyou are playing the
part of an American.
Friends, | haven't any more time
now, so must close. We have great
county and let's make it better. !
love Greene county and hope to soon
be back there a civilian. Would be
pleased to hear from any one in the
county, as any bit of mail fro mthe
States helps to make our time more
cheerful while doing this continual
guard duty.
Pm enjoying good health and far
ing as we'll as any doughboy.
Sincerely yours,
CORPL R. R. OTTINGER,