Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-08-16

ltn,at,r, jnauu, 80
All the vast changes of which have
been speaking have been wrought by
the dominating Influences Of business
affairs, and the application OF business
and commercial principles to the pro-
motion OF the we'll being of society.
Business has now become science,
and in the closing years of the nine
tenth century attracts to itself and abb
serbs more of the brains and talent Of
the world than In any other previous
time in history. The best talent now
no longer hesitates between profess
sion and q business career, as to which
Will yield the greater opportunities for
the attainment of a high and worthy
station among men. The two are be-
coming more and more assimilated. We
are just beginning to see that 1T re-
quires the same qualities of mind and
| heart and brain to make successful
business man that 1t does to secure pro-
| fessional success. The scholar and the
business man are coming closer and
closer. The sturdy, manly college grad
uate no longer takes seriously the fop-
pish views of trade and business now
held only by the idle end of society, to
whom, indeed, nothing is dignified but
idleness. This medieval survival of pre-
JUDGES is chiefly cherished by the no.
bility abroad, and their admirers in
America, by that part of the noblese
whom the English wit must have had
in mind when he made his classification
of men OF ability and the men of no.
bility.
The enormous expansion of the
worlds productive power during the
past fifty years is the miracle of the
ages. This result has been attained by
the application Of brains to the prinei-
pes of business Society has changed
| more in the last two generations than 1T
had for twenty generations becC.s. for
| the same reason.
lhese are some of the beneficient
nlnss for which mankind is indebted to
the spirit of trade. And in my iudp
ment the future holds still greater re-
wards for Industrial pursuits. Each.
Year sees new industries added to the
already extended list and the deyelop
fnent OF every new enterprise is urged
with untiring zeal and business ener-
gy. Nearly one-half of those who earn
their living in industrial pursuits do
| SO IN occupations that had no existence
nIty years ago. In short it NAV be
said that ony one who has lived the
greater part of the 18th century has
seen very large proportion of all the
progress in civilization made by the race
4 When seven years old he might have
| seen Fulton's steamboat on her 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 raft
way passenger train; for the first thir-
4 ty-three years of his life he had to RELY
on the tinderbox for fire He was thirty
eight when steam communication be-
tween Europe and America was first es-
tablished. He had arrived at middle
life when the first telegram was sent.
While our material prosperity has
been great, education and intellectual
learning has not been neglected The
United States, as 1t is the first In wealth
Tor all nations, SO it stands first in the
amount of money expended in the edu-
lcation of her children. And in no coun-
/ try are the facilities for securing an
education so ample. and so easy of ac-
lcess. The last census shows a less per
cent OF illiteracy than any other ma
ton has ever shown, and a recent au-
lthority states that .it may be fearless
ly asserted that in the history of the
human race no nation ever before pos
sessed forty-one millions of educated
citizens.
4 With the facilities for intellectual Gull
ture continually extending with bust
ness and industrial pursuits making
larger and larger demands from the
ranks of the educated, can we not now
|claim that the ideals and aims of trade
lare widening and deepening? Is it not
Ialso true that men more and more are
lassociating with the dreams of wealth
j a sense of public responsibility for pub
q lie usefulness? And is it not also true
that the good works of the nation large
ly depend upon the intelligent SYM
Dathy and cooperation of business
men? We need not go far TO find am
ple proof of this beneficient tendency.
1T was reserved to the enterprise,
4 Ingenuity and business ability of the
men of the last sixty years TO develop
La system of transporta ton that makes
|all former attempts mean and insig-
Inificant. Without the railroads now in
use the present conditions OF society
would be impossible. In the world to-
day there are four hundred thousand
miles of railroad, one-half of which are
within the boundaries of our country
This vast and intricate system of trans
portation has revolutionized the bust
mess of the world and made the lives
OF the people absolutely dependent or
Its continuance. ~ competent authority
has stated that if you suspend the ops
leration of the railways of the country
for three months two-thirds of the pop
, ulation would die of starvation. The
, great reduction in the cost of trans
portation of commodities emphasizes
the utility of the railroad and attaches
Int to modern society as one of Its mos
essential conditions. and how necessary
). this reduction has been and is to at
Itainment and maintenance of the pres
emit social condition may be inferred
from the fact that it takes an annua
!. Emoye men of about thousand tons one
mile to keep alive each inhabitant OF
the United States.
"A second potent influence which has
, been largely instrumental in building
up present conditions of society anc
which has exercised an influence nex1
, lonly to that OF railroad transportation