Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1923-05-03
COMMUNITY NEEDS

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the moon and stars by night. He
created the birds Of the air and the
beasts Of the forest. He made the
beautiful hills the smiling valleys;
the sunrise and the sunset; the COR
geous rainbow; in fact, God created
a wonderful world.
The time came when this world
was divided into communities, both
large and small. People were placed
in these communities and God willed
that each community should thrive
as the people in it used their power
Of development.
A few lines Of poetry best express
my thoughts in regard to this won
derful power Of development which
has been given every Individual.
Drop pebble in the water; just .
splash and it is gone,
But there's half hundred ripples,
circling on and on,
Spreading from the center, flowing
on out to the sea,
And there's on way Of telling
where the end is going to be.
Drop pebble in the water; in =
minute you forget,
But there's little waves ALLOWING
and there's ripples circling yet,
And those little waves ALLOWING, to
great big wave have grown,
You've distributed mighty river,
just by dropping in a stone.
In order that any community may
be given what it wants or requires,
the community spirit must first be
aroused. Some one person drops
the little pebble that starts the
mighty wave ALLOWING, then the
rest of the people must join in on
the splash, thus rolling up mighty
wave Of enthusiasm which will
carry community efforts to a sue
cessful conclusion Difficulties are
only made to be overcome.
"Great movements in the affairs
Of men are like tides Of the sea
which reach and effect the remotest
and quietest hooks and in1ets, i'm
parting thrill and swell Of the
general motion.
The first thing any community
needs, is Christian spirit. We
must obey the laws Of God and man.
We must cultivate the spirit that we
were put on this glorious earth to
love and help each other, striving
earnestly to develop the moral side
Of our community, first Of all. Other
developments will quickly follow our
efforts along this line.
We know that education is the
handspring Of the nation, therefore,
we need the very best Of schools in
which to train and develop each gem
Grafton. Our school buildings should
be large enough to avoid the possi-
.bility Of, crowd;ng too many pupils
into one room. Over-crowded school
rooms result in the neglect Of pro-
per instruction to backward pupils,
We should also provide for the ply
sical'sas well as the mental growth
of the children Athletics develop
strong bodies and strong minds. A
well equipped gymnasium should be a
part Of our High. School, SO that the
boys and girls may be enabled not
only to develop their, bodies, but to
cultivate a spirit Of, determination
which will help them. TO win many a,
battle in later years.
We need Parents Organization
which will cooperate with the teach
ers. Most parents seem too busy
now days to visit the schools and to
give encouragement to the teachers
as we'll as TO the pupils, This lack
Of attention or interest is one Of the
greatest drawbacks to the commun-
ity. Every parent, evtry teacher and
every pupil must work together in
order TO have thriving community.
Another great need, is the awaken
ing Of the spirit Of Americanism.
The war taught Us many lessons, a.
mong them, the fact that our civili-.
zation needs true blue Americans m
order. to prosper and succeed. Our
Civic League should aid in the
spreading Of this spirit By striving
TO induce the people to road good 1T
trature, instead Of the trashy kind
which is often scattered through our
community. It takes time and patti
ence to educate the majority Of peo-
pie into reading good literature, but
if our organizations, preachers and
teachers would encourage and aid