The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-11-01
1'Main Street. Residents Haze
Big Advantage Ouer City Man

cause ne QOeSn nave TO i've up TO dIl
artificial standard and is able to save
a big chunk of his income every year
to say nothing of his hunting trips
and other outings that he gets as q
matter of course!
In the big city is the relentless
hurry of the crowd; and those who
have become inoculated with the city
virus go with the crowd, think with
the crowd act with the crowd; they
are followers, not leaders. To this
fact is due the circumstance that
most of the real progress in the civic
affairs of the big cities is under the
leadership of men who developed
their initiative and energy and vision
in the smaller towns.
Look to your nearest "big city
count its big men; you will find that
majority of them came from the
farm or the small town, Mr.. Sim
clair Lewis to the contrary, notwith-
standing. The man who has grown
up in small town thinks more, as a
rule, than his city cousin, simply be-
cause he has not so many things
to keep him from thinking. 1t is not
the intention of this article to keep
him from going to the city-lf he is
sure there is real need for him there.
Every man should live in the city or
village where he can best serve his
fellow man, the welfare of his own
family and himself.
But the man whose career spells
tragedy is he who goes to the city for
no particular reason except that some
exceptional men have made success
there; with no particular end in view
such a man CLOCKS for a job," which
means that he is the kind Of man
that wants somebody else to do his
thinking for him. He hasn't thought
enough to know the kind of job he
wants! He hasn't found himself and
is doomed to join the ranks of the
underpaid, underfed, discouraged,
hand-to-mouth clerical workers whose
name is legion and whose lives are
treadmill existence without hope.
have known many small-town
men of affairs; they are capable, hon
est, optimistic, many sided. The cat
cher of the local ball team maybe
works in the store of one of them;
and at the weekly games the boss is
there to see the kid perform. Beyond
the town a few miles in the gas
buggy, are the ducks and partridges
and on the way to the shooting
grounds the small town merchant
stops off at the farms of his good
customers and talks over the crops,
the prices of same, the policies of the
new governor and who the presiden-
tial nominee will be in "a. / claim
that merchant is success-he knows
and loves his fellows both in and out
of town. His customers are not
Just so many automatons that pass
through his doors, leave him bit of
change, and then go out again; they
are real human beings.
And that is the difference between
the city and the small town; the small
town is human-the city mechanical.
Small wonder that the flow cityward
is counterbalanced already by the
flow small-townward by the middle
aged and elderly who wish to get away
from the coldness and hardness and
harshness of the big city to the quiet
and comfort and human quality OF
the friends and neighbors in the
smaller community where the sun
seems to shine brighter, the atmos-
phere is clearer, human sympathy
more quick and spontaneous.
After all, what is there in life more
desirable than to know ones neigh
bors in friendly way, to feel con-
tent, to be familiar with the doings of
ones community and to be free from
worrying over the proverbially hun
cry wolf just outside the door?
That is the state of the average
man and woman in the average
"Main Street" town.