FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



It is doubtful if the citizenship, individually speaking, of the 

 former is better than that of the latter, and yet what a differ- 

 ence in their village life! In the former the business and 

 professional men are a unit in village activities. There is 

 constantly something doing looking to the welfare of the com- 

 munity. There are several churches all of which are fine new 

 structures. The school is an excellent building and under the 

 direction of a good corps of teachers. The business district 

 has an up-to-date appearance and the homes of the people 

 indicate contentment and happiness. One can not remain in 

 the village an hour without realizing that village life is on a 

 high plane in nearly all respects. The other village is not 

 decadent; but one who studies it sees that it has not risen to 

 its possibilities. There are not so many evidences of tidiness 

 and neatness in either the business or the residence district. 

 The streets are not so well kept and the residents do not seem 

 to possess that wide-awake spirit that characterizes the resi- 

 dents of the other village. In village activities that should 

 interest all the people there is not that unanimity of effort or 

 enthusiasm that one finds in the other village. In grading the 

 two villages from the standpoint of all the activities of village 

 life, village number one would receive a far higher grade 

 than village number two, not because the inhabitants of the 

 former are in their individual capacity better, but because in 

 cooperative activities they greatly excel the inhabitants of 

 the latter. Villages are seldom compared in this way because 

 of the great number of individuals included, but how 

 frequently baseball nines and football elevens are thus com- 

 pared ! And the thought that is emphasized is that of team- 

 work. In 1914 the Boston National League team, after having 

 for a number of seasons played a very minor role in its league 

 of eight clubs, won not only the championship of its league but 

 the world championship as well, defeating in the world series 

 in four successive victories the team, the Athletics of Phil- 

 adelphia, that during the three or four years preceding this 

 series had been considered the greatest baseball aggregation 

 that the country in all its history had produced. Individually 



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