Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1919-06-09
LIVING IN IOWA.



en-, had just robbed cash drawer o
4 81 40. The other member of the gang
! fourteen years old. was trying to iii
vide the spells three ways. They quar-
relied The youngest lad hit the oldes
on the head with beer bottle anl
killed him. Next day the police fount
the murcrled boy in the alley shack
and arrested the tiny murderer.
Where is the writer of fiction wh'
can evolve Il more vivid and more hor
riblc story of depravity: And yet, thi:
actually happened the, other day in Chi
cago. The newspapers carried grea
headlines: two mothers hearts were
broken-two homes made desolate
There will be a trial; the ten year ole
boy will go to the reform school ant
the incident will be forgotten.
OF such is the child life of great
city.
Ponder this. you mothers and fathers
lol IONa, loI ItIe VIC HdNc no SiuIHS-
no alley rats-no poverty. In this
beautiful Iowa of ours, with its roll
| ing prairies, its swift running streams
| it's peace and its prosperity, there arc
none of these causes which cOngregate
children TO conspire in crime. The chill.
,lren of Iowa romp beneath wide
spreading trees and across green
lawns their ruddy cheeks are kissed
by Gods own sunshine and in the spar
kle OF their eyes we see the glory OF
the great outdoors.
State of Small Towns.
In Iowa we have forty-two persons
to the square milc-or more than four
teen acres of room for each man, wO-
man and child of our 100000 popula-
ton. We are a state Of small towns.
Half of our population lives in rural
districts. We have no large cities-and
yet our cities offer metropolitan adj
|vantages in merchandising and diver
tisement, without denying that charm
of individuality which enables us to
know our neighbors and be known by
them: which permits each of us to
feel that we are an essential part of
the community in which we live.
Friends are the essence of life
friends and health. IT may seem para
doXical. but one can make more and
better friends in smaller town than
in great city. And surely there is
more health from beneath the trees
and across the fragrant fields than from
the dingy canyons and cavcrns in the
dense centers of population.
Oftimes our people, and especially
some of our boys and girls, look long
ingly toward what they call metropol-
Iitan life. "A three room flat, on the
eighth floor back, seems better to them
than bungalow on the prairies OF
Iowa. A big city job behind rib
bon counter appeals TO them more than
the management Of a small town store
Atom in City.
Do they ever contemplate what a
tiny atom one human is in the hum
drum of great city's existence; how
can they go day after day and not meet
one friendly face; how can they so
month after month and not know their
neighbOrs in the fiat across the hall
Do they know that the psychology of
the great city is dollars and not friend
ship? Do they realize that amidst this
ultra urban environment the average
individual is utterly observation-disclosures
that we are all average you and I.
He was ten. years old--and drunk.
Oh. what an Indictment against the
slumS. When will we Iowans fully ap-
preciate our heritage? In the big cit
les they call us the farmer state" and
think we are provincial--when, in fact.
lit is they who are prOvincial-it is
they who do not understand. Mothers
and fathers of Iowa---think of your
children, and of their children; think
of our schools and our churches, of our
fields and our nowerS-and of the hard
roads that are on the way.
OF all the equal areas throughout the
world. Iowa has the least illiteracy.
OF any equal population throughout the
world Iowa has the greatest wealth.
And when the summer breeZes play
with the tassels on her corn and the
sun sets radiantly in the far reaches of
the west---let us repeat this creed !:
Iowa, in the springtime, you are the
land of promise-and in the autumn,
always and never-failing, you are the
land of fuliiilment.
Let us believe in this; let us appre-
ciate our heritage.
The army recruiting circus from
CamD Dodge secured no new recruits