The Bismarck tribune., 1931-11-28
The Spirit of a People
(WilliSton Herald

One of the great epics in the his
tory of northwest development now
is taking place in the drouth area
of North Dakota and Montana. It
is a bit of human drama most inn
pressive. 1t is demonstrating the
magnificent spirit of a sturdy people.
No land is bigger than the spirit
of it's people. That is a generally
accepted truth, often proved in hui
man experience. 1t was proved iE
Kansas in homestead days, in Ne
braska, in Iowa, in Minnesota and in
every one of the western states, at
some time or other in their history.
The testing time that is here to try
the spirit of a people, however, Is one
of the most severe ever recorded. 1t
has developed accordingly, a spirit
most inspiring to all who come in
touch with it.
Winter is just around the corner,
but in this land every man has met
the situation existing as a man should
meet it. There are few weaklings
left in this section of the northwest.
This is not weakling's country.
Men and women reduced to pitiful
and sometimes desperate extremes
by the calamity of drouth, one of the
greatest of them all, because of its
insidious approach and cumulative
effects, are making the best of a sit
uation that would dismay hearts less
stout. They are making the best of
it cheerfully. They have made the
best of it cheerfully for months.
There has been anxiety, but some
thing bigger has taken its place. It
is calm and resolute faith in a rich
land that has used most of its people
we'll and in due time will again bios
som as the rose and bring happiness
and prosperity to justify the faith
fine men and women are displaying
in it in these times of stress. The
west has a way of dispoSing of its
weaklings. It has a way of welcom-
ing and inspiring its chosen people.
The brown and bleak prairie him
terland seems bit deSolate in the
barren aspect of mid = November.
Neighbors are far apart. Sometimes
the little homes look cherries, but
l
:; the latch string. You will get
CHEEKY welcome. You will find a host
who will share with you such hospi-
tality as he has graciously. You will
find men and women who have
ceased to worry about what is past
and gone and can never be recalled
locking forward, hopefully, seeking
little, willing to give much.
There is no section of the country
that does not feel the depressing in
fluence of these times. There are few
sections harder hit than this. There
is less complaint here than in more
fortunate districts. The man who has
lived here long will tell you that con-
ditions now are better than they were
in the severe winters of homestead
days, when the country was new, the
roads were prairie trails, there was
no livestock and no poultry, only the
great white silence over a wilderness
of snow.
We who live near these people
should be very proud of them and we
are. We may we'll absorb some of
the spirit with which they are meet
ing a crisis. We may we'll estimate
the human side of great and alb
sorbing drama. We owe them much
1t should be a privilege, and it is, to
aid them in such ways as we may
and can. 1t is time to dismiss need
. less anxiety. 1t is a time to be
cheered and inspired by the spirit OF
this people. It is time to be better
neighbors. The northwest has seer,
human drama before. It's history
, probably will never again record
, however, finer demonstration of the
spirit of a people who are the chill
dren of a big, broad land than is now
evidenced. A man who will fight fol
; himself is always worth fighting for
We owe that to our neighbors of thes.
times. 1t is a time for human serv.
ice. The duty is before us ALL A.
we meet it. and discharge it we shal
glorify this thing we call life. W.
shall learn to love our neighbors as
j.. ourselves and we shall lay up treas.
ures in heaven where neither mot
nor rust can corrupt, nor thieve.
$ break through and steal.
n