The Natchitoches enterprise., 1921-09-08
The Chamber of Commerce in
the Community.

the American small town and in the
, American city is the leading exponent
of altruism in the community. 1t is
not wide interurban altruism that the
Chamber of Commerce fosters; it is
Higginsyille all the time. The Cham
cussedness of the average selfish. hard
boiled, picayunsh, penny;;pinching.
narrow-galged human porker, and
him see further than his home, his
business, and his personal interest, and
sets him roofing for his community.
1t is a shorter step from the city to
the State. from the State to the nation,
and from the nation to humanity than
the tremendous jump which a man
must take to consider his city before
his own interest.
A man, no matter how greedy and
squint-eyed he may be, cannot work a
year upon any moderately important
commmittee of his towns Chamber Of
Commerce without being a better
father, better husband, better ci!i-
zen, better brother.
After this apprenticeship he falls an
easy victim to the Kotarians, or the
Lions, or the Kiwanis Club. These
groups interest men in somewhat
broader fellowship than the one which
the Chamber of Commerce promotes.
They are interested in the neighbOring
, under dog; in man as a suffering or
as an aspiring creature. The Rotarians
typify the others. ''He who serves
best thrlves most" they declare.
| They are interested in friendship, in
boys, in jollying up the country people
around the towns, in the pore and
needy ones that clusters all about, in
the parks and playgrou IDS, and they
nationalize number of highly altruis-
; tic activities.
Men in these gay groups of rough
necked, low-browed Samaritans are
making the Jericho Road fairly safe
and decently comfortable highway
wherever they roll their chariots
along. And they interlock with the
Chamber Of Commerce. 1t is bad form
| for Rotarian or for member of any
of these societies not to be member
of the Chamber of Commerce. Thus
stream Of rather intelligent altruism
keeps flowing into the Chamber of
Commerce.
! Around these influences, and largely
of them and deeply affected by the
organized altruism of the country
town, are the Masons, the Knights Of
Columbus, the Red Men, the Elks, and
the Moose, whose chief reason tor be-
ing is fellowship. And he is a rather
lneasly citizen who is not member of
one of these bodies. And being a
member, no matter what mean motives
may sneak him in, he must be cast
iron man who resists the infection of
neighborliness that saturates them all.
He cannot escape the uplift except by
going indoors and sealing himself and
bis family behind air-tight openings.
Once he could go to church and get
away from Christianity, but now it
will get him even there. And he is
liable to hnd whole congregation in a
raging fever of altruistic desire. In
which case the church blossoms out
with parish house or Plymouth
/ Hall, or basement for gymnastic and
social activities for the young-even
dances or a hospital or recreational
center Of some kind.
All over America in the small towns
towns of from !, 800 to 25O. 600, the
churches are burning with the new
order of fellowship, which the old
deacons, elders, or wardens still call
socialistic in want Of a profaner term
of opprobrium.
Then, py ramided upon the Chamber
of Commerce, the ROtarians and their
kith and kin, upon the lodges and the
churches, rise in every community OF
over three thousand American people
I'm.
flower of community altruism, those
charitable associations which in one
and out. The Red Cross, since tne
ands ct country towns. And here i3 q
munity there is network of inter-
pnbIic utilities, banks, local industries
and newspapers, one finds also in the
upllft another labyrinth of directorates
tightly interlocked with the Chamber
of Commerce, the ROtarians, and their
associate societies, the lodges and the
benevolent institutions. There is no
marked line where the altruism Of the
Chamber of Commerce crowd stops
and the professional uplifter begins.
Good-fellowship has shot its virus
through the whole community. 1t is
an American disease-or blessing,
whichever way one looks at it.
Collective neighborliness has mark,
the American small town for its owl
The farmer still is an indlvidualist.
He is az independent as hog on ico;
he still retains his suspicious, his res
his self-suficiency, and yo
them in politics. So does your urba!
Broadway is hard. 1t has no mel
bors. Death, poverty, grief, trag
visit the city and no friends hurry
to heal the wounds. But good will
the American country town is instit.
tionalized. In some organized way ii.
towns good will touches every family
Men feel the strength of it, take cour-
age from it, give themselves to it more
or less, and thus grow in stature by
what they give. This big growth of
curious, emotional kindness in tho
heart of the American country-town
dweller has sown the seed Of our ma.
tional belief in fairies. This belief
more than any other-this belief t.iat
if you are good to somebody, somebody
will be good to you; this conviction that
you can get something for nothing Dy
giving something for nothing dis
tinguishes Americans from the rest of
mankind. And it is not the product Of
our great cities, and not primarily IS it
q farm product. 1t is made in our
country towns.
Of course it is Grass sentimentality,
this belief in the efficacy Of mutual aid.
And much of the mutual aid may be
Yet the lodge does carry the cement
dealer through sickness and keeps his
widow after his death. The Rotarians
do look altar tho hous of tho com.