Missouri Country Life Conference. 161 



When I think of my old home, the old log house with its 

 sycamore rafters with the bark on them; when I think of the old 

 shade trees in the yard, the blue grass, the bee hive, the holly- 

 hocks, the garden box and everything that made the old style 

 home, a distinct sadness comes to me, for they are gone. In 

 that primitive day the people were so dependent one upon 

 another that they endorsed co-operation; conditions enforced 

 co-operation, and we did not have the need for organized co- 

 operation as we have today. 



As a small boy, I can remember the time when the day 

 would come for the logrolling, for the house raising, the hog 

 killing, the quilting bee, the corn shucking and all those things, 

 and at times it makes me cry when I think that they are gone 

 with all their memories. I know that people at this day and 

 time are looking at the practical side, and in the mad rush for 

 business are inclined to think that those things were sentimental 

 and unnecessary, but I thank God that I had that sentiment. 

 I feel that I am a better citizen today than I would have been 

 if I had not had it, and for those of you who are not old enough 

 to have lived in that day and time, I feel sorry for you; I feel 

 sorry for you now if you have never had such a sentiment. 



The speakers who have preceded me, as I have stated, have 

 spoken so beautifully about co-operation. That was largely 

 the line of my talk, but I will change that now. I want to talk 

 to you about personal responsibility. 



In the business and active business life I have lived I have 

 seen many phases of human life. I fmd that in most of the 

 wrongs of life that those who commit the wrongs are not so 

 much to blame, and in my mind are not so much responsible as 

 the conditions and environments that surround them. We hear 

 a great deal in this day and time of organized effort; we hear 

 about the organized effort to relieve distress, want, suffering and 

 charity; we hear a great deal on public questions of temperance and 

 intemperance; the different evils that surround city life especially, 

 and I have never known an individual case that I looked into 

 but what I felt after having looked into it that I, as a member 

 of society, was partly responsible for that condition. I have 

 felt my responsibility more as a citizen, and I have made more 

 resolutions after seeing these evils, some of which I did not live 

 up to and some I made forcible efforts to live up to, than from 

 any other one thing of life. You know the Big Book tells us 

 that "no man liveth to himself; no man dieth to himself," and 



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