Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 156, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1911 — A Man and His Town. [ARTICLE]

A Man and His Town.

A man owes it to his town to boost it in public on all occasions and at all times. The correction of its failures and faults are for the privacy of the home circle. A man who would thrash his boy on the front steps of the court house ought to be whipped out of town. The citizen who welcomes the stranger by telling him what a rotten city government we have; what a corrupt set of officials misrule the town; how the town lags behind the age in all matters of progress and development; that it is a dead town and will be so long as certain men rule it, is an undesirable citixen. A man owes it to his town to shout its advantage from the housetops. The entire registry list should be the promotion committee. If necessary, put blinders on the visitor, *and let him see but what you want him to see. When he asks you what chance a poor man has in town, tell him the truth. Tell him the poor man is the only man who has a chance. And that is no joke. Show him the beautiful homes of the men who came here with a capital of working hands and thinking brains. Tell him the story of the man who began with day wages. Tell him you think there should be a law compelling the poor man to give the rich man a chance. It was the penniless boy like John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Phil Armour and that class, who backed the rich men’s sons of their povertyladen days clear off the earth.—Robert J. Burdette.