From the Ipswich Tribune May 15, 1930 edition
Towns Worse Foe
Like every town in America has something it wishes it didn’t have, some things we could get along far better without. At the head of the list of unnecessary evils with which we have to contend is the chronic gossiper. We feel sure we have as few of these as any other community, yet so long as there is even one gossiper in our midst it is one too many.
Everyone appreciates the value of constructive criticism. But there is a vast difference between constructive and destructive criticism, as much difference as there is between the citizen who goes out of his way to say something favorable about the town or its people and the one who with tongue of poison goes about whispering suspicious and ugly rumors. Nothing can bring more unhappiness to a community than the long-tongued man or woman who scatters a lot of “they say” whipsers about their townspeople. Nothing can assassinate the character of an innocent person more quickly or more cruelly than gossip. And the worst part of it is that the gossiper is always among the first to raise his or her hands in surprise when the poisonous words have gotten in their damnable work.
We have many problems to solve before we have the ideal town many of us would like to see. But if we could only solve the problem of how to choke off and exterminate the low minded character destroying town gossipers we believe the rest of our needs would take care of themselves.
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