Self Help

They had been friendly neighbors for three generations. A razor-back pig belonging to the McCoy family crawled through the fence into the Hatfield family's corn field. The Hatfields turned their hound loose on the pig. The McCoys retaliated by killing the dog. Then began a feud that has lasted for three generations and cost many lives of the Hatfields and McCoys.

In a fashionable suburb of Philadelphia certain gentlemen of wealth have built their homes. In front of each house the word "INTOLERANCE" is written.

One man builds a high steel fence in front of his house. The neighbor next to him, not to be outdone, builds a fence twice as high.

Another buys a new motor car and the man next door goes him one better by purchasing two new cars.

One remodels his house adding a colonial style porch. The man next door adds a new porch and a Spanish style garage for good measure.

The big mansion on top of the hill gives a reception, which brings a long line of motor cars filled with people who have nothing in particular in common with the host. Then follows a series of "receptions" all down the "gold-coast" line, each trying to outshine all the others.

The "Mister" (but they don't call him that in fashionable neighborhoods) goes to business in the back seat of a Rolls Royce that is managed by a chauffeur and a footman. Why does he go to business?

To make money, of course!

Why does he want more money when he already has millions of dollars?

So he can keep on out-doing his wealthy neighbors. Poverty has some advantages - it never drives those who are poverty-stricken to "lock horns" in the attempt to out-poverty their neighbors.

Wherever you see men with their "horns locked" in conflict you may trace the cause of the combat to one of the three causes of intolerance - religious difference of opinion, economic competition or sex competition. The next time you observe two men engaged in any sort of hostility toward each other, just close your eyes and THINK for a moment and you may see them, in their transformed nature, very much resembling the male deer shown in the picture above.

Off at one side you may see the object of the combat - a pile of gold, a religious emblem or a female (or females). Remember, the purpose of this essay is to tell some of the TRUTH about human nature, with the object of causing its readers to THINK. Its writer seeks no glory or praise, and likely he will receive neither in connection with this particular subject.