Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-06
THE PERSISTENCE OF cREDuLIrY As
A HINDRAHcE TO PROGRESS.

When the railroad, the steamship ana
the electric telegraph came into existence,
and added SO enormously to the worlds ca
pacities for communication, it was antici-
pated that from this great access OF ad-
vantages must spring an unprecedented
development of intelligence. This expec.
tation has been borne out IN measure, be-
yond doubt, but the extent TO which the
increased facilities of communication have
operated to the injury of the world, be-
cause OF the persistence OF credulity IN the
masses OF men, is subject which has not
been sufficiently studied. It is true that
it has become possible to disseminate intel
ligence of all kinds more rapidly and gen.
orally than ever before. 1t is true that the
marvellous extension of commerce dur
ing the past fifty years is mainly due
to this advance in communications. Il is
true that all men who are at all civilized
know more of what is going on IN the
world than they ever knew before. But it
is also true that because of and through
this facility for making communication
the most extravagant and misleading ideas
are propagated with the most fatal facility,
and that greater numbers of people every
where than ever before are constantly
being gulled into taking part in enterprises
which can bring them nothing but loss and
disappointment. The results OF this state
of things are peculiar, and deserve to be ex-
amined carefully. In the first place it may
be pointed out that the existence of GER
tain periodicity in progress, and especially
in commercial progress, has frequently
been alleged. Thus it has been calcu.
lated that financial panics in England and
the United States recur at certain definite
intervals, and chronology would seem to
bear out this assertion.
The broad truth no doubt is that tidal
movement does exist in progress, and that
it is owing to the persistence of credulity
in mankind. All progress may be roughly
divided into two kinds of motion one
rapidly forward; the other reactionary
In both the ruling influence is credulity.
Man has thus far in his development shown
himself quite incapable OF maintaining
steady, even advance. He Is always In
extremes now at the top of expectation
anon plunged in despair. And commerce,
though conventionally supposed to engage
the brightest minds of every generation, is
marked by precisely the same tendencies.
We have alternate panics and blooms"
and both conditions are equally unjustifi-
able, and equally the result of that abound
ing credulity which plays so important
part in the hindrance of civilization. The
usual course of things is as follows When
a panic has been somewhat recovered from
somebody starts new mode of invest
ment. Let us suppose it is railways. 1t is
lauded for its practical virtues. Good care
is taken to demonstrat its paying capaci-
ties. 1t becomes popular. And then IN
little time people seem to shut their eyes
and deliberately rush forward blindly 70
invest in the new fancy. Now the modern
facilities of communication greatly favor
the dissemination of all such commercial
and financial epidemics of investment.
Ocean cables bear the sanguine reports
abroad, and the press carries the news
everyW here. The result is that hundreds
of thousands now join in these enterprises
where scores formerly joined.
Credulity is played upon with more
success than ever before, because the
field is larger. The industrial "boom"
of the period is more extensive and makes
a more imposing show than formerly.
1t catches up and whirls away even the
conservative. The tide is so strong and
broad that it cannot be resisted.
q" Booms, too, are no longer confined to
particular countries. They sweep over
whole hemispheres. Each country inocu-
lates its neighbor, and SO the great tidal
movement rises higher and spreads wider
than ever before; and when the reaction
comes in due course it sinks lower than
ever too. 1t is very interesting to observe
that in all these operations the master
weakness of mankind, which is credulity,
has thus far completely overbalanced the
enlightening forces of science. The reason
of this doubtless is that credulity persists
because it is intimately associated with the
great mainsprings of life, namely, selfshness
and acquisitiveness. Men believe easily
the things which they think promise well
to themselves. The majority of men,
however, are not intelligent enough to ana
lyze evidence, and therefore their beliefs
are for the most part without Judgment
and discrimination. The success of the
South Sea imposture in the eighteenth
century showed how easily men could be
cajoled, but it is evident that there has
since then been very little real advance in
the capacity to distinguish between sound
and unsound projects, for it is certainly
as easy, if not easier, than ever to induce
men to invest without giving them any
guarantees.
The present century has swarmed with
illustrations of the popular gullibility. If
a list of the rotten undertakings which
have been foated on the money market
during that period were to be made, the
briefest summary would more than fill
every column of this issue OF the RECORD
UNION. Whatever advances may be
made in other directions, the persistence
of credulity seems to defy all efforts at its
cure. Education is as powerless to deal
with it as anything else. National educa-
tional systems have no apparent effect upon |
it. Experience does not influence it in the /
least. Whenever it has chance to chose
between the truth and a specious false
hood it invariably prefers the latter. And |
the chief popularity about it is that it ap-
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