The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-03-08
IS THE WORLD GROWING WORSE?

Many good people arising from
the reading of their morning daily
which contains SO many records of
crime, despairingly say The
world is constantly growing worse,
what will it come to?' We think
these good souls are very much
mistaken. 1t is true that our daily
papers have very numerous items Of
all kinds of crimes from suicide to
homicide. But we must recollect
that our daily paper is a condensed
history of all civilized nations for
the preceding day. 1t records all
the discovered wickedness of millions
of people, Before the days of the
telegraph our daily paper was sim
ply an epitome of the doings within
a single city or limited district of
country.
To know that the country is much
better instead of worse we need but
review the condition of things cen
fury ago. Then the most cultured
of all nations of Europe was in the
thrOes of the most cruel and bloody
revolution the world had ever wit
messed. This revolution had been
produced by long ages of cruel and
grinding oppression Of the masses.
The favored few who arrogated to
themselves the claim of Divine
rights had SO outraged humanity
that blind and bloody force seemed
the only remedy.
Then the rights of the masses were
never taken into consideration Then
the idea of abstinence from alcoholic
| stimulants had not dawned upon the
minds of our most advanced re-
formers.
Then the realm Of hygiene was an
unexplored region and the discovery
that "cleanliness was next to Godli-
ness" had not been made.
Then education was the privilege
of the few and of those having
money. Then the rights of labor
had been scarcely discovered and
there had been very little effort made
to ameliorate the condition of the
toillng masses. Then there was per-
haps less agitation because there had
been as yet no extended awakening
az to the inequalities of human con
ditions.
Then there were no institutions for
the humane treatment of the blind,
the dumb, the insane and the inebri-
ate. Lunatics were loaded with
chains and treated with great cruelty
Prisons were places of horror; dark,
gloomy, filthy and hopeless. Asso-
Citations for preventing cruelty to
children and dumb animals had
never been dreamed Of. The vast
system of hospitals where human
suffering is now assuaged and human
lives are saved had then no exis-
te1ce. None of the great eleemoy-
sonary movements, of which the
world is now SO full, for the anchor
alton of poverty, misfortune and
accident had then been even inaug-
urated. Above the world of christ
endom there brooded a gloomy the
ology which accused humanity of
total depravity and sentenced a ma
jority of the race to endless torment.
Natural law was looked upon as the
blind and implacable foe of man in
stead Of his best friend.
All this now changed in one short
century. Humanity in it's upward
march is rapidly emerging from the
State of brute force into the clear
realm of reason and morality and
kindly beneficence and human broth
erhoOd. Society recognizes the fact
that man is "his brothers keeper"
1t begins way down almost at the
cradle, gathers the waits of vicious
and criminal parents into kinder
garten and gives them an impetus
towards industry, sobriety, honesty
and virtue. 1t kindly cares for it's
unfortunates, tries to reform it's
criminals, educates all it's youths,
protects the weak, restraints the
strong and brutal, and is intently
studying all the problems which
promise further elevation of the
race.
One of the best proofs that noble
acts of humanity are rapidly increas-
ing is afforded in France-France,
the scene of the bloody revolution of
80 and the horrors of the guillotine.
In 1888 Nj. de Monthyon left fund
to the French Academy for the re-
ward of virtuous conduct. Since
that time others have added to the
fund. In 1888 the Academy found
only one case of heroic virtue which
it considered worthy of public recog-
ton. In 1889 they found eighty-six
such cases. This demonstrates that
in France, at least, there is much
more heroism, self-sacrifce and vir-
tue than one century ago. No! The
world is not growing worse. With
all its crime, with all its suicides,
with all its agitation and unrest,
with all its injustice and oppres-
sions, humanity is certainly climb
ing toward the nights of justice and
equity San Jose Mercury