The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
For Good of
 the Community

friends and neighbors, she would be con- sidered light-headed. An able-bodied young man who helped support home for the aged in distant state and neglect ed his own father and mother, would not be mistaken for philanthropist by those who knew him.
 What makes the life we lead worth while? Let man ask himself that. Is 1t altoghether the money he amasses or the smiles ofmen and women who know him? Is man happy on desert island even though climate is ideal and food sweet, abundant and nutritious? He is not. The cry is for companionship for understand ing, for some one to share ones thoughts, emotions and aspirations.
 Can a man hide himself out from his fellow to the extent that he desires and publish himself to his fellow only in the way that he would like to be taken? He cannot His only safe plan is the open book. The one sure road to the estima- tion of ones fellow is doing right by him.
 Has man the right to live in com munity and apart from it? He has not. A community is wonderful thing. It arose out of men's necessities. He did not like earning his living as beasts do, by fighting over the kill and division of feeding ground. He organized the community that all might have enough through CO., operative effort.
 Is Trade at Home" a mere piece of cant? Do we sense what 1t means? Does it signify that some one is to give some thing for nothing? Does it mean that a community bears ill-Will to other com munities? Does itmean that those at home must eat rotten apples and wear shoddy clothes? Not at all.
 Trade at Home" means that one citi- zen shall do by the other precisely what he expects the other to do by him. That and nothing more. It is in consonance with the golden rule. It means no injury to anyone, but good for all, because a community feels the impact of each dol lar that starts it's rounds in that conn munity.
 The dollar that issues from A $ pocket for basket of peaches may go out to Mt. Pinson It will probably remain in a Bir- mingham restaurant. Thence it pays laundry bill. Thence it goes into wages of a laundry worker. The laundry worker may rent house from A, get legal coun- sel from A, buy hat from A, have his eyes, ears, nose and throat treated by A. The dollar that A starts in his community travels around the chain and comes back to the pocket out of which it issued on it's merry community rounds.
 The Romans called their city Alma Mater" dear mother" Our college boys refer to their university as Alma Mater" Isnot the city where one gets his all entitled to that appellation? The Romans, fresh from the soil, sensed the eternal truth of the community life Had later Rome not forgotten, the Huns and Visigoths would not have torn the empire to pieces.
 Trade at Home" because it is home. We shed tears when lovely singer re- peats the, simple words of that immortal composition. Why? Because it stirs thoughts of father and mother, the old swimming hole, the boyhood sweetheart.
 Trade at Home" means exactly what the words say. It means doing business with friends and neighbors and making community real home with friends and sympathetic men, women and children in it.
 There is romance in the common and simple things of life. The real sweetness of living is there. Do the common and the Ia icht l>