Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-11-19
TIE SPIRIT OF A PEOPLE
((By Tom Moodie)

One OF the great eplCS IN the history Oh
northwest development now is taking place
in the drouth area of North Dakota and
Montana. 1t is a bit of human drama most
impressive. 1t is demonstrating the magnit-
cent spirit of a sturdy people.
No land is bigger than the spirit of its
people. That is a generally accepted truth,
often proved in human experience. 1t was
proved in 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 in
spring 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 a weaklings country.
Men and women reduce to pitiful and
sometimes desperate extremes by the calam-
ity of drouth. one of the greatest of them all,
because of its insidious approach and cumu-
lative effects. are making the best of a stu
~ttN lA4dl NOQlQ QlSllldt Hearts less SlOul.
They are making the best of it ch~eerfully.
They have made the best of it cheerfully for
months. There has been anxiety, but some
thing bigger has taken place. 1t is calm and
r%esolute faith in a rich land that has used
most Of its people well and in due time will
again blossom as the rose and bring happin-
ess 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 dis
posing of its weaklings. 1t has a way of well
coming and inspiring its chosen people.
The brown and bleak prairie hinterland
seems a bit desolate in the barren aspect of
mid-November. Neighbors are far apart
Sometimes the little homes look cherries,
but you will not find them SO if you lift the
latch string. You will get a CHEEKY welcome.
You viii find a host who will share with you
such hospitality 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. looking forward, hope
fully, seeking little, willing to give much.
There is no section of the country that
does not feel the depression influence 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
conditions now are better than they were in
the severe winters of homestead days. when
the country was new, the roads were prair-
lie trails, there was no livestock and no poul-
try. only the great white silence over a wild
erness of snow.
We who live near these people should
be very proud of them and we are. We may
well absorb some of the spirit with which
they are meeting a crisis. We may well est
innate the human side of a great and alb
sorbing drama. We owe them much. 1t
is a time to be better neighbors. The north
west has seen human drama before. Its his
tory probably will never again record, how
ever, a finer demonstration of the spirit of a
people who are the children of a big, broad
land than is now evidenced. A man who will
fight for himself is always worth fighting