The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-05-07

oman PlIIs Small Do9es
Small Price.
Opportunities of Twentieth Century Young
Men.
Continued from page ~
improvements of civilization which shall
give us a good start In the life of the new
century. The young man who acts out In
the new century with life before him has
new environments, unprecedented advant-
ages. AS Fowler says, 1.-The race never un'
dertook the work of a new century with
such allies and prophecies" The young man
who stands at the portal of the new century
may sing with Walt Whitman:
sImmense have been the preparations for me-,
Faithful and friendly the arms that have helped
me,
All forces have been steadily employed to com
plete and delight me-"
For the young men of the twentieth CEN
fury all the past centuries have consecrated
their achievements, whether in peace or
war, literature or discovery, commerce or
art. He has the most precious heritage Of
all the ages. Dean Farrar, in writing ct the
unequalled opportunities enjoyed by the
men of the present age, exclaims: ''For us
Plato and Shakespeare thought; for rs Dante
and Milton sang; for US Bacon and Newton
toiled; for us Angelo and Raphael painted;
for us Benedict and Francis lived sanity
lives; for the heritage of our liberty have
myriads of heroes persisted "n the battle
fields, and for the purity OF our religion
hundreds Of martyrs sighed away their
souls amid the flames" All this is true of
the men Of the nineteenth century, but the
treasures and possessions which it was theirs
to inherit have been wonderfully augmented
Il had almost said infinitely increased) dur
ing the hundred years now closing.
CONTRIBUTIONS.
Let us take a brief review of the contri-
buttons which this dying age has made to
life and civilization. The contribution is so
vast that it almost battles portrayal; the ad-
vancement has been along so many lines,
the improvement is so important In every
department of human thought and action, in
every sphere of life. that it would require
Of the century.
GOVERNMENT N INTERNATIONAL RE-
LATIoNs.
For one thing, vast progress has been
made in matters of government and in rela-
ions between tribes and peoples. In the
beginning of the century the nations were
in the grip of despots. Men were simply
subjects. simply tools, simply food for pow.
der. At the beginning Of this century
nearly all the nations of the earth were en-
gagged in war. Today, whilst there are fire.
quent wars, and rumors of war, the senti.
ment of peace is more prevalent than ever
for the settlement of disputes by arbitration
is positive, %Outspoken and imperative. The
field of conquest is today not regarded as
the avenue to honor and power. The mill
tary hero IS not the man who receives the
greatest praise of men and women, the
sword is not the passport to popular favor.
The hero of this age will not be the greatest
military general, but the man who intro
duces a reign of peace by securing the final
establishment of international relations that
will make war practically impossible.
MATERIAL PROGRESS.
The progress of the century along materl-
al lines has been most marked. The Pulse
and pace of the world have wonderfully
quickened along the lines of material ad-
vancement. 1 imagine that very few people
appreciate a large proportion of the worlds
progress that has been made in the last GEN.
fury. At the beginning of this century men
travelled very little. They lived in isolated
communities. The lack of intercourse re.
suited In ignorance and this naturally In
suspicion. The result was that a stranger
IN a village or city was al enemy. There
could not be, therefore, much interchange
of trade, for, as Buxton says, intercourse
is the very soul of progress" If there were
living today a man who was born at the be-
ginning of this century he would be witness
to a large proportion of that progress in
civilization made by the human race. AS
Strong, In his wonderful book, "Our
Country" says, "When seven years old he
night have seen Fulton's steamboat on its
trial trip up the Hudson. Until twenty
years of age he could not have found in all
the world an iron plow. At thirty he might
have travelled on the FIRST passenger train.'
The century has been distinguished by a
rising tide of invention for the promotion of
commercial and material interests of the
world. Today the world is one. There are
no foreign lands. We talk with people of
foreign countries over our morning meal and
visit them at our leisure in the evening. The
whole world is one nelghborhood. Fowler
says, ''There are more comforts in the poor
mans cottage today than there were in the
palace of good King Arthur, and the dinner
of the day -laborer has Iuxuries from more