Milford chronicle., 1929-05-03
NATIONAL NEWS OF INTEREST
TO EVERYBODY WHO READS
Written for this Paper by
FRANK p. LITSCHERIT

According to the Minneapolis
Journal Arthur G. Staples, editor OF
the Lewiston (Maine) Journal, has
done the active generation OF today
a distinct service by casting retro
spective eye on the good old days"
of New England and finding that
conditions then were much worse
than today; that the family of 1929
is much better off than that OF few
generations ago. The Maine editor is
quoted as saying:
What ails many of these lachry-
NOSE potboiler-makers is that tney
have set up a wholly fictitious old
New England 1t wasn't so much.
Poverty was grinding. The city or
the town square was not so pictures
que as we fancy. We select examples
of sturdy and conscientious man
hood; but the village of sixty years
ago was too full of drunkenness and
cruelty in many cases to be worthy
of praise. There was always VII
lage drunkard and perhaps more
and there were always communities
of such degenerate folks as were a
public nuisance and shame to Coo.
/ The life of the country town, today
in Maine, is so much better, cleaner,
more sober, industrious and happier
than it was sixty years ago, tnat nS-
ures would fail and words are mean
ingless to express"
The Journal declares that while
ME-, Staples was writing of Maine he
might Just as well have been writing
of Minnesota, that the good old
days are a myth" and that the peo-
ple who recur to them in their COM
parsons are ''mistaking homeslck-
ness for their departed youth, for
memories of better environment and
finer manners"
If the case fits Minnesota as well
as Maine we are sure that 1t suits
the other commemorative in the
United States to an equal degree.
We have improved steadily and rap
idly during the past several years.
There are millions of men and wo-
men still in middle age who remem-
ber the day when sobriety, courtesy
and industry in the individual did
not meet the standards of today.
Hearken back in memory to the old
time circus crowds and political
rally, and compare them with the
people in similar celebrations of to-
day. And it is not without slgnltl-
canoe that some of our foremost
educators have been quoted only re-
Gently as saying that the standard OF
honor among our college youth is
higher today than ever before in
their memory. This despite all the
talk about the wild" college
youngsters of the present era.
Passing from ethical to material
conditions we find the changes even
more marked. Compare the city, and
the middle sized town and the vii
lage of today with the same sized
communities of a generation or so
ago. There can hardly be a COM
parison. The village and even the
truly rural home have more COM
forts and conveniences, more legitl-
mate amusements than were pos
SeSSeQ Dy the City q qu1A eSA " -
century ago. And the talking movie
bids fair to bring to the smallest
community the latest stage presen-
tations, just as the radio has brought
the best in oratory and musical en-
tertainment.
Transportation, both Of a public
and private. nature, has improved.
The horse and buggy has been sue
ceeded by the motor car. Roads IN
the country are better than the city
pavements of dozen years ago. The
travel radius of the ordinary citizen
of today reaches from one ocean to
the other. We are no longer hemmed
in by the forty mile travelling possi-
bilities of old Dobbin for weekend
pleasure jaunt. And as result of
this travelling our people are being
made broader and more nationally
minded. They are learning from ex-
perience what they have been taught
by the books; that the United States
is the finest and most prosperous
] country in the world, and that we