St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-23
SERVANTS AS MASTERS.

Centuries ago, in the beginnings of
the subsection 10y man of the forces of
nature to his service, men discovered a
fact that has become more significant as
the progress of conquest and subsection
has brought into service more and more
of those giant forces. and expressed
their discovery in the saying that fire
is cool servant, but hard master"
1t served TO warm him as servant, but
when it escaped from thraldom and
burned his house, it became a cruel and
relentless master, full of brutal ferocity.
Men early found the waters of the
seas valuable servant, facilitating
their travels and transport of their
products, but they found, too, that it
Vas master who would choke them to
death without conjunction or remorse
when it had the opportunity. The wind,
too, was found TO be good servant
when 1t filled the sail and carried HIM
and his load over the waters without
eXertion, but when in rage no raven
Gus beast felt less pity for its victim
than did the furies of the storm for the
men who had haplessly trusted their
lives to them.
When men had spanned fire and
water to their industries and opened up
the aye of steam, they but added TO
their help another servant, whose hard
ness as master was increased in the
direct fatio of its usefulness as a ser
want. Having the power of both its
parents 1t became the more effective,
whether its power was used to serve or
destroy. The same attendant POSSIBLE
tiles came with the reduction TO mans
service of the subtle fluid of the clouds,
and electricity is added TO the servants
who are hard masters when they get
beyond control. We have had, in this
October month, with its genial warmth
and sunlight cuItained by the languOr-
Gus haZlreSS of the Indian summer.
Illustrations on land and sea of the hor-
rorS our servants enact when they be-
come masters of their masters. Acct.
dent succeeds accident, with drownings
and DurnIngS and manglings OF human
beings in such rapid succession, and
with such increase of horror, that the
heart turns sick at the recitals OF the
agony and the awfulness of it all, and
we lay aside with Shqdder, half-read.
the paper which tells the fearsome
story, with sense of the helplessness
after all of this proud man who has
brought to his service forces SO destruct-
i've.
Must it always be thus? Is civiliza-
ton to go OH thus achieving material
progress at the cost of human lives? Is
this the penalty Nature exacts for our in
vasion of her domain? DO the forces of
the air watch for the chance when their
masters vigilance is relaxed, that they
may turn and rend him? Or is it ONLY
that men are but men, and that in the
use OF the great forces we have sub
Jukated the human factor cannot be
eliminated? We can construct perfectly
operating machines; we can put into
them steam and fire and electricity, but
the perfect man is wanting. The switch
man forgets, the engineer miSreads his
orders, the train dispatcher miscalcu-
lates, the freight brakeman forgetS to
close the switch. and the servant steam.
faithful yet 10 its work, nurIS men and
women and children instantly into
eternity. Have we outrun ourselves?
Have we. IN our haste to utilize force,
neglected the man who must safely use
that force? Can men become as per-
fectly automatic as the machines we
have made to eonfine and utilize the
forces we have evolved? Or must we
ever be at the risk of negligence, of for
getfulness, of stupidity? Can we ever
be safe from the fury of our servants?