The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-04-04


and home-maker were Joined in this
resistless march, and the emotions OF
all humanity will be found in the in
effaceable track of the prairie schooner
lying like a scar across the face OF
the plains country.
BENEFICENCE OF INDIAN CORN.
Some one in that time may recog-
nize the influence of the maize ear upon
the civilization of the Occident-may
read in the sloven corn patch of the
rude Indian village q higher scheme
and older than was that of the human
founders of the republic. From the At
lantic to the Pacific the regal corn
| stalk has been made to flourish as the
| ally Of civilization. For the red nomads
of the wilderness it stood for all that
was suggestive of home-of fixed habi-
! tation--and to the white settler it was
natures daily bread, nodded and need
! ing only the baker. No other grain
could have taken its place in the COM
| nfissary of the white man. From the
! formation of the grain upon the stalk
| IL was food for him in its natural
state; ripened, it was more adapted
| to his crude milling processes than any
/ other cereal could have been. Primarily
it was food for the pioneer, adapted
| to the needs that came with the long
cold of winter, and without its boun-
! teous yield the history of the United
States might have been written more
| slowly.
| In this peopling of the central and
| far West millions of acres of forest
lands have been stripped and their
| timbers brought to the saw. Semi
| arid plains have been criss-crossed by
| irrigation bitches and made fertile.
| Rivers have been made to take new
| channels. Mountain ranges have been
tunneled through and through. The
! pick of the miner has disembowled the
! solid ground. Cities have been planted
| and grown up in a day. And all this
only after every mile of it had been
fought for against some of the most
savage races that have peopled the
| earth.
In this stupendous accomplishment,
where the utilitarian has been so neces-
sary and so fruitful of results, the
mark of it has been put upon the age.
But no less certainly In this latter part
of the century the fruits of ripening
process are manifest. Circumstances
and environment cannot long be such
more than it's relative meaning the
brand of "the age of steel"
OTHER NATIONAL ILLUSTRA-
TIONS.
For the other and newer civilizations
of the earth one may see in their steps
of progress the haltings that education
al defects and prescribed liberties en-
tail. Mexico has made a wonderful
progress in this century, yet in the
crossing of the Rio Grande there is
transition of 200 years backward. South
America beyond the equatorial zone
has done much in the progress of lib
erty, but it is dragging in its train in
stitutions and things that appertain to
a past age. Its governments generally
are unsettled and unstable.
Australia, from a penal colony for
Great Britain, has become an island
nation of the magnitude of a continent
New Zealand, in the same zone, has
given some startling examples of gov
ernmental expediency to the world.
South Africa, as a geographical pos
sibility scarcely second to that of the
United States, does not promise to the
new century the mark that America
has put upon the old. Lack of homo
oNhScuSlltSo III lllS Sll uClult VI It's
civilization points to less rapid pro-
Gress. just to the extent that the
broader liberty of the age is abridged
to that extent must it's accomplish
ments be abridged. At this end of the
century, however, the milling processes
of war are busy with it. and guaged by
the past of history the way is to be
made palmer for that larger liberty
that has been promised as the world s
legacy to the future
GREAT ARMIES CAUSE DEBT
Everywhere the century has marked
progress and wealth for the world.
With the growth of individual riches
however, the national debts Of the
world have grown to the incomprc.
hensible total of $27. .524976,9 9l5, an in
crease of more than $4,000. COO, 900 since
1S4S. In their order of Indebtedness
come France, Russia, Great Britain,
Austria Hungary Italy, Spain and the
United States. The total indebtedne SIS
Of the United States in 1880 was s3,045,
196OO0-a total that in ten years was
reduced by $1,OlS,OO0,OOO.
For the world at large, militarism
and it's eXactions even in times OF
peace have been responsible for most
of this burden, Armed Europe, when
not at war, has been in a competitive
struggle for modern armament that is
scarcely less costly than open conflict
would have been. The evolution OF
arms and armmakirg has made this
struggle as necessary as any campaign
, in the field might have been in time of
war.
Yet the dawnng of the twentieth CEN
dc nf
with it's hand upon the sword, build.
ing, arming and equipping, one against
the other. No one has seen the end OF
; it, Perhaps only the unaccountably op-
! timistic hope to do so.
YOUNG AMERICA REACHING OUT