The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-12
FOR PESSIMISTS ONLY.
From the Springfield Republican.

From the Springfield Republican.
The pcssimists who in comm ancement
or Independence-day orations saw little
hope for the republic, should remember
these things. Other nations have fu-
tcre no brighter than ours. France has
declining population, showing exhausted
vitality. She has the ablest political cor
ruptionists In the world; shoals OF All
arohists who occasionally indulge in pis-
tol practice at the presidents socialism
constantly knocking at the doors; while
In foreign politics she is dragged around
by the Muscovte, the hopeless victim of
a national enmity which she ought to
overcome and ccntrol and Germany may
be compared to a trunk packed with dy-
Mantle. With the most formidable So
cialistic party to be found in any coun-
try, the liberty of her citizens has al
most reached the vanishing point. The
young emperor sits on the trunk, sword
in hand, but a little jar may blow him
into eternity.
Russia, the country of despotism un-
tempered and uEshorn, has had her nihtl-
lists and, II her future be not one or ad-
vancing civilization, she will have them
again. Great wars, meantime, may oc-
cupy her energies, but then Will come the
struggle of the people themselves for the
mastery at home. The Austrian empire
is cauldron of jealous and antagonistic
races. Italy, sapped of strength by the
feud of church and state, Impoverished,
discouraged, sends hosts of emigrants to
America but those few she plants under
italian protection in Abyssinia are QUICK
ly eXterminated, or left to die. Even Eng
land-proud and stately England-has
problems to face. She has monopolies
and trusts, elias ses and masses and multi
millionaires. She has her Ireland, which
e1ax ,nth hftN,r t, NJ, 70 In
60 years reign; her India, now strangely
and violently agitated by bloody riots.
filling all persons In authority with feel
ings of deepest al6lm. Most remarkable
of all, the imperial even the national,
existence is believed by Englishmen to
depend absolutely upon the number and
tonnage Of the war ships each year added
to the royal navy. And fancy an empire
resting upon things of steel and ma
chinery that plow the sea! The next in
vention may be its death blow.
But the United States is not declining
in population; is not being dragged
around by some other power; Is no CONF
bination of a youthful despot and a can
of dynamite; is not made up of jealous
and irreconcilable races; has no inher-
tied problem of church and state; has
no great, religious possession; and its ter
ritorial integrity no more depends upon
the number Of war ships the country
owns than upon its lighthouses or noun
tain peaks. We may undergo startling,
disturbing changes. But remember that
England chopped off the head of Charles
1 and survived. They drove the Stuarts
out of the country, imported new line
of royalty and still live. France be-
headed Louis XVI and did several other
things the historians love to tell about,
and France remains. Even terrible
events can happen, which God forbid, yet
chaos does not necessarily come on that
account In some of the worst hours OF
the French revolution the theaters were
packed and the people smoked, laughed
and chatted on the boulevards. In the
darkest days of the civil war things went
on as usual in these parts. The stores
opened and closed just the same and the
church bells rang on Sunday. All OF
which simply shows that if the worst our
pessimists fear should come TO pass civil
society would continue. If forms of gov
ernment should change the nation would
go on.
But we need anticipate no such con-
vulsions. Reform will come, but not vio-
lent revolution. The cover is always off
and we have abundant room to boil and
hiss and pour forth the steam and gases
of the national ebulHtions. The Ameri-
can has always been an optimist; he
should be an optimist still. So cheer up
and take a little ride on the wings of the
morning. Get out of the cellar of de-
spair and let the sunburst give you in
spiration and hope. All nature changes;
for we should die did 1t not; fresh young
life succeeds the old, and new forms dis
place those that have lost the hfe-giv-
ing function. There Is but one thing
to fear, which is no change at all, for
that always has and always will mean
death,