We Must not be Small Now

By Mrs. A. J. Wilder.

We read so much in the papers of graft and price profiteering, of federal investigation of first one business and then another, of treachery and double-dealing and strikes and riots, that one is tempted to be discouraged with people in general until one remembers that crimes and criminals are news and as such are given prominence on first pages of newspapers with glaring headlines. It is seldom that good deeds and their doers have such startling news value, but there are still plenty of them in the world. People are still kind and neighborly and are quietly and unobtrusively helping each other over hard places as they have always done.

Mrs. Sells was left a widow last winter and this spring she wishes to make a start with poultry in order to be self-supporting and able to keep her home. The neighbors have all contributed the eggs and one will hatch them in her incubator to give Mrs. Sells her start.

Mr. Ashton was unable, because of his illness, to put in his crop of oats. his neighbors have done the work for him.

I know a busy up-to-date farmer who in his own way is helping his neighbors and his country. he is selling, for seed, a particularly high-priced kind of bean and some specially good cowpeas at just half the price charged in the seed catalogs. His price makes him a good profit, he says, and that is enough. Poultry is a specialty on his farm but he is selling eggs for hatching at a great reduction from his usual price. he wishes his neighbors to be successful in their farming and to increase the supply of food.

Isn't it refreshing to think of such a man as a change from excess profits? There is more of this kind of thing being done that appears on the surface for it is not given publicity. The spirit of helpfulness and comradeship is moving us all more or less.

Haven't you noticed a kinder feeling, in your heart, for your friends lately—a little more thoughtfulness for their comfort and well-being; just a touch more tenderness for your dear ones, even those who are in no danger of being called by the draft? If seems to me there is a drawing closer together, a feeling of standing shoulder to shoulder with my friends and neighbors that I have never experienced before. I am sure it is not all imagination.

There had been a little misunderstanding and consequent bad feeling, in an organization to which I belong. It has been causing quite a little tempest in a teapot as such things always do, even tho they should not break out where they have more room for mischief. I was surprised to hear one of the parties in the controversy say: "I wish we might all go on and forget it. That's the only thing to do—just go on and forget it."

Another person who has been a strong partisan on the other side said to me the same day: "What's the use of chewing the rag forever? It is much better to let it all drop and work together. There is no time to keep hashing things over and stirring up trouble." How long can any quarrel last when the parties begin to talk in that way?

Our common danger, a common cause and the work we are doing together is making us appreciate one another more and understand the littleness of petty jealousies and disagreements. The big things of life are crowding out the little unpleasant differences.

How can I hold a grudge against my neighbor when I know that his son, "somewhere in France," is interposing his body as a shield between my home and the danger that threatens it? How is it possible for me to do an unkind thing to my acquaintance when her son is braving the dangers of submarines and enemy warships while convoying my son safely to France to do his part in the fighting or perhaps helping to protect the ship that is bringing him home from foreign shores?

Then, too, if I can help my neighbor to raise a better crop or have better success with his stock, it will be just so much more to deed all our "kin folks" at home and abroad. Under these circumstances, how can we be selfish and self-centered? The old saying that, "everybody's business is nobody's business" is certainly all wrong now and anybody's business is everybody's business instead.

We will feel differently toward one another than ever before when we have had time to realize these things and if there has been any friction or misunderstanding, we will surely "just go on and forget it."

Mrs. A. J. Wilder. "We Must not be Small Now." Missouri Ruralist,  (April 20, 1918): page 11.

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