The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-28
For Good of
 the Community
Neighborliness the Keynote of Good Business as We'll as the Expression of Mans Depend
 ence on Companionship
TO-DAY we hie churchward. X Why? The

Il A answer tripping on the tongue is to Wor- ship God. Nothing else? Can we not worship God on our front porch? Is He not in the din- ing room, the parlor, out among the trees in front, in the garden, in the silent air?
 Do we go to church to find him? Are there not good books to tell us about Him and His works? Is not the family Bible there on the table? Cannot we summon Him by wish, by mere contemplation of why we are here and whither we believe we are going?
 Why did the Druids have their sacred groves? Why did the Jews build the Ark of the Covenant? Why did the Romans have their temples to Janus, Diana and Olympus? Why do men feel that compulson to gather in coteries and crowds for the bigger things of life?
 It is neighborlness That is the foundation of society. It is the essence of right living. It is the vindication of the ultimate decency of the human He is not living for himself, but for himself and others. He is not happy if cast off the chain of human destiny to lie unattached and not performing his part in the common scheme.
 Wars have been the horrors of the world be- cause they stand opposed to neighborlness In stead of bringing men together they drive them apart Neighborliness is constructive It builds up the waste places and preserves what men have already. Its denial destroys and leaves al void.
 Two can play at the game of hate the same as two can pull together as team mates. He who hates and envies provokes envy and hate in re- turn He who cultivates neighborliness diff : fuses that spirit about him and the benefits of neighborliness come back to him.
 Birmingham is glad that it's freight rates have been so realigned that it is getting that to which it is entitled It seeks no slice off Nash ville's commercial prosperity, none off that of Atlanta, none off that of Cincinnati. It asks only that it's own neighbors trade here in al neighbory way the same as the neighbors of these other cities should do there.
 Birmingham envies Atlanta not a single one of the TAI homes built there up to August l. At lanta should not and will not begrudge us any one of the $50 homes that have been built here in the same length of time.
 Mobile is not envious of Florence Sheffield and Tuscun1bia because they possess Muscle Shoals, because Mobile senses that out of the prosperity of northern Alabama she, the port of Alabama, will get her share in the end, \ Birmingham is glad to see Tuscaloosa get on the river Birmingham talked for Tuscaloosa's S river rights and did what it could to help her be- come port. Birmingham raised it's voice for Demopolis when that lower river town sought to become port Birmingham tried as hard to make Cordova port as did Cordova. II When a man has sum of money which he desires to lay by, he does not tie rag about it and place it in hole behind the chimney-piece. He takes it to bank and hands it over to other men to keep for him. Neighborliness is not only the necessity of men but the expression of mans confidence in his kind.
 So long as the farmer thought the city mans mission was to 'skin" him he turned deaf ear to the business methods which the city man would teach him and the fruits of his toll were scattered by the winds of suspicion In these latter years he andt the city man have learned to understand one another. The farmer is becom- ing more and more independent and the city man is the better off for the nelghborlness be- tween him and the tiller of the soil. II The World war taught neighborness to the world That is the lesson grating itself deeply in the minds and hearts of nations We in America want world neighbor Illness because we want world trade.
 Good business and the dictum of the never in conflict. We live by the law of the pack.
 We go to church with friend and neighbor to worship IL kIo~1s~ csc oOf%I