The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-05
CHARLES T. ADAMS ON SPAIN
THE C0UNTRY's SINS FINDING
IT OUT
Over GS Per Cent of It's People Hit
erate-Anaerica Beats Spain ON
the Sea Because the Castilianx
DO Not Understand Machinery
Spain's Loss Cf Territory Since
the Sixteenth Century

the Sixteenth Century,
The Psi Epsilon fraternity held a
public meeting last evening in the Ply
mouth church as a part of the pro-
Sramme of the SiXty-SiXth annual con-
vention Of the fraternity being now
held In Minneapolis. Last evening S
programme consisted chiefly of an ad-
dress by President Charles F. Adams,
of Wisconsin university.
An invocation was offered by Samuel
Goo6aie. of Oakland, Neb., one of the
three living founders of the fraternity.
He invoked blessing upon the broth
erhood. upon teachers and upon the
country in it's difficulties, closing with
the Lords prayer. Edward c. Gale,
as moderator of the meeting, spoke of
the conservative traditions of the Psi
Epsilon fraternity and how it has con-
fined itself chiefly to the Eastern COL
leges, saying that this is the first time
1T has ever come west of the MissIA-
stppf river and questioning whether it
has now crossed it's Rubicon.
Piano selections were rendered by
Charles A. Ridgway, now a Junior at
the Minnesota university, and a mem
Der of the fraternity. An original poem
Tor the occasion was read by Charles
F. Mcclure, Of Chicago. The poem
- ONSAi I'LL co6A CollGSc dIlu OUT
into the world, always reporting him
self to be doing very well indeed" 1t
closed with the sentiment that all
should be doing very well indeed
When the great commencement comes.
At the close of the programme the
members of the fraternity and the au-
dience sang the fraternity song to the
air Tramp, Tramp. Tramp"
In his address President Adams said
portant or more interesting than the
study Of the causes Of the elevation of
some nations and the DECAY of others.
only one nation has had a continuous
history during historic time, he said,
and that nation Is China Babylon,
NlneYeh and the nations Of Egypt all
Went to ruin. Even Greece, with its
art and architecture, went down under
foreign pressure and internal disturb
ances torn by her own dogs Her civil
fzat1on was plotted out with Roman oc-
cupat1on. The Romans themselves
could conquer, but not bind their pos
sessions together and hold them. The
cities In the East became Indifferent
TO the mother country and cared not
Whetner Romans or barbarilans govern
co them. The Roman empire from the
Orkneys to the Indies fell before the
Germans on the north and the Otto
mans IN the east.
There seems to be different elements
at work In society IN modern times.
Nations which have arisen since the
advent of Christianity have steadily
and continually grown stronger. Italy
mas had her parts bound together.
thanks to Garibaldi and others. The
speaker doubted whether any nation
shows more power and intellectual
growth than does Italy. France was
broken up under the rule Of many in
dependent noblemen. Louis XII. bound
these fragments together. But the
power OF the noble remained greater
than that Of the people, and led to the
french revolution. By this revolution
the growth of population in France
was so interfered with that 1t has not
yet recovered; but France is greatly
advanced in real civilization and in
telligence. Since the lesson Of 1870, she
has made great progress in arts and
letters, and become better and stronger
Austria and Hungary have ex-
perienced similar results Austria, has
advanced more than almost any other
nation, especially in civil government.
We learn from her that large cities
can be economically governed; that
government need not prey
on the people and spend enormous
sums Of money. President Adams cit
ed the book on this subject by Dr.
Albert Shaw, formerly Of this city. as
authority on this point
The growth Of Germany has been
especially great Consisting Of many
small towns, each with standing ar
mics, not bound together, but suffering
anarchy. Napoleon easily overeame
her. But Richter showed his people
what could be done by education. He
made Germany a leader in education,
q md ynd hot hn 11o{ Sc,
cation. Even Russia has. grown bet
ter than ever before. Great Britain,
with her jury, her parliament, her CIV
iliZation, has led in progress. All the
lesser nations have likewise improved,
though some of them, perhaps, Slowly.
1t is impossible to say that any Of
them are on the way to ruin.
There are two notable exceptions to
this rule of Improvement. Poland was
a fertile and large country, abound
ing in forests mines and nearly ev-
erything needed. But she suffered I'M
der a government Of 10000 mobiles,
while all others were tillers of the soil.
They would elect none Of their num-
Der king, they had no chief executive
officer, and when they elected some
foreigner king he was generally anx-
icus to get away, and one Of them,
Henry Ill. Of France, did run away.
Carlyle has said that anarchy is not
tolerated for long in this world. It was
this kind Of liberty that "shrieked when
Kosciusko fell" Partition followed
partition by the neighboring nations,
and still the people learned no better.
The fate Of Poland was. the just judg-
ment OF God on the follies in govern
ment which existed there.
Spain forms the other exception to
the rule of progress. She has been los
ing fragments of her empire all the
time I'm the sixteenth century she was
the largest and richest country in the
world Until 1903 this ground belonged
to Spain The Spaniards are not eth
nfcally much different from tine TtaI-
ians and the French. But certain
causes made them different in charac-
ter. When the Franks went to Spain
they carried orthodox Christianity with
them, and a contest of religions follow
ed with the Aryanism, of the Visigoths
already there. Spiritual and temporal
authority early became united. The
rise of Mohammedanism followed, aid
the Saracens conquered Spain. Then
ensued for 730 years the fiercest and
most bitter strife known. At the close
the population consisted of bad Chris
tians, bad Mohammedans and bad
Jews. Religious persecution resulted in
the Inqufsition. In America all the
Span1ards were cruel, even Columbus
marked out the conduct of Pizarro and
Cortez. The native women were given
to the Spanish soldiers, and the men
and children to the bloodhounds.
The discovery of gold and silver in
the new world helped Charles and
Philip in their absolute rule. 1t made
them independent Of the people. This
money was bad for the morals of the
people also in various ways
President Adams then sketched the
history Of Spain to the present time
and asked: What has Spain done for