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Show NELS. DARLING INTERESTING, INSTRUCTIVE LYCEUM COURSE AUSPICIOUSLY INAUGURATED Lar&'C Audience Greets Noted Lecturer Lec-turer and AH Get "Money's Worth" SPLENDID SI GGESTIONS FOR LOCAL CONDITIONS A large and enthusiastic audience greeted Hon. Nels S. Darling, at the high school auditorium. Monday evening, ev-ening, upon his appearance as the initial attraction of the Lyceum course of entertainments scheduled Tor the Fall and Winter. Prior to the lecture. Mr. Darling was the honor guest of the T.usiness Men's Association, at a luncheon at ; Hotel Milford. About two dozen members of the Association vere present and after the desserts had ! been served, Mr. Darling made a brief but business-like and interesting interest-ing address to the guests present. In substance, the speaker emphasized' the necessity of closer unity and more harmony among the business men, citing instances iw other towns and cities, where rival business men actually furnished the refreshments, j music and other expenses for the opening night of a business concern which had just begun business in the city. He also spoke of the closing clos-ing of every store, factory, streetcar street-car line and other industry in a eer-; eer-; tain city, out of respect to a 'Jewish ; clothing merchant, who. by his assistance as-sistance as a "booster" for the town and a friend to the unfortunate, h;ul won the love and resped of the entire en-tire town. He especially em nlvasized the need of a community dub here, something outside tiie functions of a Business Men's Association, in 1 which the merchant, lawyer, doctor, i plasterer, carpenter, druggist, tench-ler, tench-ler, day laborer and. in lad, eery ! citizen, would unite for the best interests in-terests of the community. During I Mr. Darling's remarks the corridors and doorways of the hotel were crowded with other hotel guests, listening to the excellent address. I At the high school, Mr. Darling j spoke on the "Village Store," using i that topic to illustrate the truths lie j later pounded hohie with a fort e ' and logic which were irresistible. In j substance, Mr. Darling spoke first of the unequal distribution of wealth : f. s one of the economic questions which should concern the country. With sixty p"r ceni of the wealth .owned by hut two per cent of the people, the speaker drew realist d 'examples of the handicap of the laboring la-boring man. While disclaiming to be a Socialist in the generally-;. ccept-ed ccept-ed meaning of the term, Mr. Darling stated that he. with every thinking man or woman, was. in tic brne -est sense of the word, socialistic iu :d ency. although not of the Socialistic propagandist va rid y. lie toadied interestingly on the overcrowd in fr o;' 'the citi"s at the expense of th" rural communities. lie ci'ed a case of a young m in, who, while only rcceiv-! rcceiv-! ing a very small wage, was abb1, by 1 thrift and economy, to maintain a home and Mi n uort his fa m i 1 y in a .-mall cr.e'MMt:,;!. T!e ; n :o- n wa s a Hie :n ! - er of Hi' town a ;; i ! , r'-spected by all. am! a leading d:i-zen d:i-zen in his little wirld. f;n idiiur. a ; friend of bis desire to remov to a I larg'T city, the frbmd widely advi.-ed diiei to remain where In- v. as. as. v. the bir-'er fit y t he ma n won Id lo. i his identity in his com m u nit v, be iin-jable iin-jable to maintain bis family in the same comforts they had in the smaller small-er town, where his expenses were proportionately smaller. The speak-j speak-j er strongly urged the dweller in the small community to re m a i n t h re and help build it up and grow up with it, rather than drift to Hi" already overcrowded cities. Continued on Page 8 NELS DARLING INTERESXEXG, ' i IXSTKVC'TIVK (Continueu from pane 1; , Addressing himself particularly to 1 business men, he used his "Village 1 Store" theme as an illustration of his ideas along the line of commercial prosperity in the small community. Summarizing his remarks, Mr. Darling Dar-ling told the merchants that there must lie harmony among them no ( jealousies or bickerings but com- j plete co-operation, lie rapped the ! mail order houses soundly, and said I that the merchants were to blame for their getting any foothold. He : stated that the mail order houses took almost every country paper of consequence in the United States and carefully watched the columns to see 1 who advertised, who did not, and I who did not know how to advertise. Their lists of local names, checked with lists previously obtained, were made up from towns in wdiich the business men were "so well known that they didn't need to advertise." He reminded the business men that the loyal country newspaper could sell out its entire advertising space to these mail order houses, but does not do so because it wants to protect its home patrons. "And yet," said the speaker, "there are those who j say " 'I just advertise to help the paper out.' " Mr. Darling offered to enter into contract, backed up by bondf that he could go into a town of five thousand inhabitants, take full charge of the business interests, advertise ad-vertise as he wished, take as his remuneration re-muneration five per cent of the increase in-crease he produced in the town's business in one year, and walk out of town with $20,000 as His own. He also warned merchants against over-reaching in the way of prices and urged them to be up-to-date in their service. Speaking of the community in general, Mr. Darling j advocated the "Spotless Town" idea and called attention to the fact that Milford wasn't altogether in that class. He advocated a public rest room, where citizens, especially ladies, la-dies, could rest while waiting for trains or shopping orders. He earnestly earn-estly pleaded for a real community spirit, regardless of political, religious, relig-ious, social or other differences of opinion and stated that all the interests inter-ests of a town, commercial, social, religious, educational, moral, are interwoven in-terwoven in one fabric, and whatever what-ever brings discredit or disgrace on one element of community life, the entire citizen body is affected. While enunciating some plain and : unwholesome truths and scathingly i arraigning the loose business meth- ods prevalent in many small towns. ! not forgetting to rap other phases of ' community life that need correcting, j Mr, Darling did it all with a smile j and in such a winning manner that his remarks did not offend. Interspersed Inter-spersed with a deep sense of humor, which, at times, puts his audience almost into convulsions, Mr. Darling weaves into his discourse a thread of good solid sense that grips and clinches the understanding and reason rea-son in a way which could, probably, not be driven home in any other manner. The News has arranged with Mr. Darling for a series of articles affecting affect-ing local business and community interests, as will be noted by reference refer-ence to a special article on the subject. |
