Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1918 — KEEPING BUSINESS "NORMAL” [ARTICLE]

KEEPING BUSINESS "NORMAL”

We are asked by our government, as a vital pre-requisite to the manmouth undertaking in which we are engaged, that we do our utmost to keep business normal. The request is a broad one and comprehends the whole scope of human character, in the concrete as well as in the abstract: individually as well as collectively. It is incumbent that we use energy and industry. This, though, the exigencies of the times insure. The demands for the products of our industry are so great that none but the hopelessly slothful can consent to remain inactive. The pressure of human needs can generally be relied upon to guarantee a corresponding outlay of energy and industry. But there are other equally as important human characteristics that must be considered, and among these we must give first place to unselfishness as opposed to self interest. We must learn to think in the mass, rather than as individuals. We must learn to shape our actions in the light of the public weal, rather than in that of the individual. The temptation is great for a spirit of selfishness amd greed to dominate our lives. The opportunity was never greater for men in all lines of endeavor to make “killings” and “feather their nests,” but we must bear in mind that this will always be done at the expense of the industrial health of the masses. In plain words, what we get out of the present commercial' conditions will be a true guage of our character, The man who emerges with unduly swollen bank balance may know in his heart of hearts that his country has been second in his thoughts and actions. It is

the man whose entire thought and actions have been- devoted to sus- ( taining the commercial life and j strength of his country, who will have the satisfying knowledge that he has measured up to the stand’ ard of a MAN. I “By their fruits ye shall know them” was never more applicable than in the present emergency. The wheat shortage Is destined to make the people of the United States acquainted for the first time in their history with the great American grain—corn. When one comes to think of it, it is really surprising how few people in our land really appreciate this grain as they should. Corn bread, rightly made, has no superior as a regular article of diet. Those who have become accustomed to its use frequently prefer it to all other bread, | and insist that one never loses | relish for it. Corn was the staple ■ article of food of the American In-} dian, than whom a finer race, phys-! ically, never existed. It was also} the mainstay of the African slaves of the South for two centuries, and on it they throve and labored. It is acknowledged by leading physicians that corn bread is much more healthful than wheat bread, and when once one has acquired a taste for it he becomes a convert for* life. It Is the merest drivel, to say nothing of disloyalty, for, any of our people to bewail a forced abstinance from wheat bread so long as we have untold millions of the best grain God ever caused to grow oiit of the ground.