Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-07-04
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.
Are Things Really Going to the Bad
The PeSslmiStic Theories that Are
Worrying People Who Like 10 be
Worried-The Matter of HUI
man Discomfort.


Plcayune. The world is going to the
dogs or the devil. " is what they agree up-
on IN effect. Some of the theories of the
philosophers, physical, political and
moral are curious, more particularly in
the fact that they generally approach the
conclusion that matters are going from
bad to worse.
Let US examine them a little. The as
tonomer and the geologlSt to tell us a
gloomy story. The sun is burning up all
the fuel 1t can get from flying commets
and wandering meteors, and will finally
grow so cold, by reason of having ex-
hausted It's coal bunkers. that there will be
no longer warmth enough left in the
universe to sustain vegetable and animate
life.
But while the sun Is looSing its heat and
light the earth is drying up. The central
heat of our globe is cooling. and will one
day leave our planet mere Shrunken anu
burned out clnder, penetrated in every part
by lnnumerabe and enormous creyices
and cayernous hOllows. Into these the
water will retire; the seas will sink into
them and disappear, and there will not
be no longer any rivers or springs. but
there will be no water of any sort upon the
face of the globe. Since there will be no
water, there will be no evaporation. and
by consequence no rain. Should there
then be any wretched mortals left upon the
earth, they will be forced to draw their
water from tathomleSs depth or they will
die of thirst. Washing clothes and bath
ing of the person will then be ont of cues
ton, as water will be too precious for such
use.
The scientists tell US that the moon is
already dried-up body, with no water on
Its surface and destitute of rain with a SKY
eternally clear and cloudlesS.
When we turn for comfort from the
hopeless prediction of the physical philoso-
pliers to the social and moral theorists.
we find nothing better. They, too. are
all rendering to peSSimism. They tell us
the growth of civilization means in IFS
simplest terms the growth of luxury, of
corruption and decentralization. The rich
are daily growing richer and the Door
quite as surely sinking lower into poverty.
Soon few persons will own the earth. and
the masses will be reduced to miserable
mendicancy A limited class will monopo-
lie all the power, all the rights and all
the wealth, and the many will exist bv
sCferanCe only.
Already one class of political philoso-
pliers, foreseeing these evils, proposes no
better remedy than to destroy all and
everything, Dynamite is there only refuge.
To explode and scatter and DESTROY is all
they have to offer, while still another class
discovers hope only i'll replacing the tyran-
ny individuals and of corporations with
the tyranny of powerful paternal des-
polc government, which will seize ON all
and own and CONTROL all industries. In
ont bpr tho Of h., L
be reduced to hopeless slavery. and all in
dividualism must be crushed. Turn
where we will to the philosophers and the
so-called leaders of thought. we find only
the most gloomy future of our planet and
Its people.
1t is not strange that the science and
civilization of Il enimteenth century sbouId
have conducted the human rlind to pros
pect worthy only of the dark ages?
After all there is more comfort in the
dynamite doctrine than III many others.
atrocious as that is. Natures method of
purifying the atmosphere is by the cyclone.
1t brings death and desOlation TO some,
but 1t revlvlties the air of hemisphere.
When a continent is exhausted of its
natural capabilities, when its soil will no
longer respond to the husbandman and its
worked out, divine law comes into opera
ton. 1t is overwhelmed by titinic con-
illusions. Mountain ranges rise from its
depths or sink bodily into the ocean, while
virgin land untrOd by man, rise up TO
furnish a fresh field of human effort and
development. Should the nations of the
earth become so corrupt and ungOvenable
as to outrage divine fOrbearance and mercy.
tbn11 how h., i
are consumed by a cOnhagratiOn, leaving
only remnant for the repeopling of the
new earth; for there is always a new earth.
Despite the forboding of the physical
pesslmist, there is no destruction. The
sun Is not a blazing furnace burningupa ali
the stray words that are wandering in
space. 1t Is. on the contrary. a grand in
candescent electrict lights which warns
and illuminateS forever without consuming
or being consumed. As to the earth. It
will never dry up. When one surface
grows old and etfete it will sink in to the
sea and give place to another Even the
ancient lost Atlantis may come back to the
sunshine purified from the mighty crimes
that caused its down-sinking into the sea.
And human society-it is not always
purified by blood and travail?
Society is constantly icing renewed
from below, but not always from the lowest
depths. There is a middle class, conser-
vati and honest, that holds the balance
of power. In that there is hope. When
the governing class becomes wholly cor
rupt then from the lowest depths of the
Sums comes a depravity of despair to
wrestle with the depravity of pride and
luxury. This is a social cyclone that puri-
ies society. 1t did its terrible work in the
Reign of Terror nearly one hundred years
ago. 1t has done its work in every social
revolution that history records.
Science and philosophy see only the
cyclones, the catacysm> in nature and
morals. Hope tells us there is no destruc-
ton, but only dissolution and regeneration.
There Is always regeneration in nature
and in society. After all the clouds and
gloom, the storms, the overwheImings by
water and by fire. amid the travails of the
ages and the grOans and agOnies of count
less generations. there has always been
seasons of revivifcations and relief Be
hind all stands the New Jerusalem.
beautiful and fair, and offering rest and
safety to all who will reach it.
After all. there is reasons to believe
that the world is not going straight 70
the devil.