The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1898-05-28
THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEsT.

The following selection i. mn
extract from the now famou
speech of Lord Salisbury before
the Primrose League in London.
and contains the utterances which
have shaken Europe as no other
public speech has done for many
years. Its appropriateness, fclic-
ity Of expression, and extraordi-
mary interest TO all Americans is
the best excuse for the length Of
the extract:
you may roughly divide the
nations of the world as the living
and the dying. On one side YOU
have great countries of enormous
power growing in power every
year, growing in wealth, growing
in dominion, growing in the per-
lection of their organization.
Railways have given to them
the power to concentrate upon
any one point the whole mil
itary force Of their population and
to assemble armies of maUpitude
and power never dreamt of in the
generations that have gone by.
Science has placed in the hands of
those armies weapons ever grow
ING in their efficacy of destruction,
and, therefore, adding to the pow
cr-fearfuIly to the power-of
those who have the opportunity Ct
using them. By the side of these
splendid organizations, Of which
nothing seems to diminish the
forces and which prevent rival
claims which the future may only
be able by a bloody arbitument
to adJust-by the side Of these
there are Il number of commune
ties which | can only describe It's
dying, though the epithet applies
to them of course in very different
degrees and with "a very different
amount of certain application.
They are mainly communities that
are not Christian, but | regret to
say that is not exclusively the case,
and m these States DISCRIMINATION
and decay are advancing al 4 st as
fast as concentration and ,lncreas-
ING power are advancing in the
living nations that stand beside
thom Decade after decade they
are weaker, poorer and less pro-
yided with leading men or institu-
tions in which they can trust, APP
parently drawing nearer and near
Of to their fate and yet clinging
with strange tenacity to the life
which they have got, In them
misgoyerument is not only not
cured, but is constantly on the m
crease. The society, and official
society the administration, is a
mass of corruption, so that there
is no firm ground on which any
hope of reform on restoration
could he based, and in their vari-
Gus degrees they are presenting Il
terrible picture to the more en-
lightened portion of the world Il
picture which, unfortunately, the
increase in the means of our infor-
nation and communication draws
with darker and more conspicuous
lineaments in the face Of all ma
tons, appealing to their feelings
as well as to their interests, calling
upon them to bring forward a
remedy. How long this state of
things is likely to 90 on, of course
/ do not attempt to prophecy. All
| can indicate is that that process
is proceeding, that the weak States
are becoming weaker and the
strong States are becoming strong
err, Itneeds no speciality of proph-
ecy to point out to you what the
inevitable result of that combined
process must be. For one reason
or for another-from the necessi-
ties of politics or under the pre-
tense of philanthropy-the living
nations will gradually encroach on
the territory of the dying, and the
seeds and causes of conflict among
civilized nations will speedily APP
pear, "