The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-09-19
rnE GREAT REPUBLIC.
An Address Delivered by Prof. II. B.
Norton Before the Lyon County
Teachers Institute. Sept.
9Th. 1873.

Biologists Tell us that the world
is very old, but man Is new conner
upon il. The human race is still in Q
state of scmi-conscious childhood
Humanity has not yet reached ia
reasoning age, its years of discretion
In our social and political organiza-
lions, our laws, our fashions in diet
and dress, our systems of hygiene,
education, architecture and all forms
reproductive industry, the thought
full observer sees predominating
the barbarism and childishness of
Man Primeval. We come into the
world loaded, brief as the hu-
man period on earth has been, with
the burden OF ancestral sins. Our
fathers ate sour grapes, and our
teeth are set on edge. Our fathers
violated Gods lave, and we suffer.
From their gluttonies, sbrieties and
debaucheries, come streams of poi
son, pouring through our veins.
ScroIula; consumption, insanity,
idi"cy, are The punishment for sins
of past ages which we must vicari-
ousiy bear. Cholera, spotted fever,
plaque, are sent TO teach us present
purify, or sometimes as tokens of
the haze which the lower powers
of Nature bear toward man, when
he seeks TO drive them from their
dens aud 'fens. For there are in
Nature beastly, tigerish, drsconian
forces, which are hostile to man,
the daring. incoming conqueror, and
when driven from their lairs they
send back PartbIan arrows. The
philosophic observer sees in all hu-
man institutions abundant eviden-
ces that the human race is still
immature, and not fully acclimated
upon the earth; that our institu-
lions, our systems, our symbols,
are the outgrowths of childish
barbarism that these institutions
and systems, hardening into concrete
forms, while they sustain the
structure and life of Humanity, i'm
pede its gro with. The lobster, in its
growth, is a type of humanity. In
its infancy, it secretes shell from
its own substance, which protects
IL from harm, and yet by harden
ing into an infiexible armor imped-
es its growth. But the principle
of growth is within it, and finally,
with much striving and agony, it
bursts and casts away its shell, and
forms a more generous one, which
serves its purpose for n time, and
must in turn be cast away. Just so
humanity forms political and relig-
Gus institutions, laws, fashions, Gus
toms and creeds, which, as ages
pass, aud the race grows OH, are
rupturcd and cast off amid the hor-
rors of war aud civil convultions.
Among the modern institutions
which are especially childish, chaot-
&c, unjust aud abused, will speak
of but a very few tonight. .JIl
Human language still bears the
curse of Babel. Christendom suf-
fers the unspeakable embarrassment
of vast variety of different Ian.
gusges, whereby communion be-
tween races is impeded, national
hatred and peculiarities are intensi-
fled, and human progress retarded,
Coming down from this general
survey to our own language, we
find 1t to be exceedingly unscientfic,
irregular, and imperfect. Our sys'
TEN of spelling is utterly barbarous
and horrible. sthe language now
stands, Il is the work of lifetime
to learn how TO spell English. OuI
foreigner recoils from our oWgh'S
Though the tough cough and hic-
cough plough me through" Our
alphabet Is a composite affair, absurd
in all respects. What the human
race needs is a universal language
having a scientific phonetic basis
and this is certain to come in due
time.
Our industrial and economical
systems need o similar reform
That is not just, rational, or per
feet social system, in which enor'
nous wealth stands contrasted will
iaborious but starving, suffering
jying poverty. There must and
will yet be devised some better adj
iustment of the relations between
Labor and Capital, which will we
make it ossible for all men to receive
the just rewards of labor, to dwell
in comfortable homes, to be clothed
fed and educated, in such a uanne
as to promote bodily and menta
health and growth.
Our systems of weights, measure
and coin ages, are almost beneatl
criticism. Take the tables of de
nominations as given in our arith
metics. Three barley-corns max,
an inch. Twelve inches make foo
Three feet make a yard. 81
yards make rod. 272l4 feet max
q square rod. But why go through
that childish, heathenish list
Avoirdupois weight, Troy weigh
Apothecary's weight, Jeweler
weight-Wine measure, ale or bee
measure, dry measure, Ellis Englisl
Flemish, and French; York shi
lings, Yankee shillings, Sterlin
shiilings-how simple, how scieu
tfic, and how altogether lovely!
And then, to complicate thi
chaos still futher, each nation b;
its own system of measures. TT
ton of England is not ours. III
acre of ireland varies from that
England. English wheat is estim
ted by quarters; their beeves a
rated at so many stone weight,
the great bewilderment of reade
on this side of the Atlantic. In Il
matter of coinage we find confusio
worse COMPOUNDED. The precioI
metals are everywhere nsed fl
coin, but there is no Uniform stanC
ard of fitness, and no two natiol
have coin of identical name
value.
Our theory of international ira
is selfish with an ignorant selfishne
which recoils upon and destroys
self. Unconsciously to themselv,
Horace Greeley and Henry c. Car
have given their lives to the perp,
uation OF the political economy
feudal age. To intensity natiC
II ,Nacylia.;,taa ana ,,,ofu1g,as