Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-12-15
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
Dawn Of the Golden Age Of Man.

l
sis is able to furnish the comforts for
about what they cost in the small
| household. But there is the rub. What
| the multitude pays for can be furnish
| ed cheaper than that which falls upon
a few pockets.
Growth in population greases the
wheels of progress. Two schools and
two churches soon take~the place of
| one. and each school and church is
spurred to do its best and not fall be-
| hind the advancing tastes of the peo-
pie. One of the marvellous creations of
the nineteenth century is the city on
the plains or beyond the Rockies where
the most cultivated eastern man feels
perfectly at home, missing nothing in
the way of refined environment The
new century cannot add this sensation
to American life. but it can and will
multiply cities of the kind until the
terms great ccnterS of wealth" great
centers of culture great centers of
refinement" nave no meaning. The
Columbian fair of 1892 may be held in
some city which now has no existence
and its creators be men engaged in the
most prosaic and commonplace voca-
lions. In that day agriculture may be
king and financing. transporting and
mining be settled in vulgar ruts, at
tracing only the lowest order of tai
ent. The problem then will be to feed
the 40O,OOOOOO of people. to cheaper
the price of corn to make ten bush
els grow where now one is talked about
as marvellous productiveness.
Kew Ideals For Man.
Differentiation is not among the pos
Siblc evils of the twentieth century.
China supports O0000.0O0 souls upon
an area no larger than that of the
United States, and it is declared that
the Chinese do not begin TO utilize the
resources nature has given them.
Doubtless the American of the future
will slow up the pace of gastrOnomic
indulgence. This will not be a matter
of necessity so much as Of common
sense. 1t is a waste OF energy to have
to digest more than is needed for food,
so that gluttony is Il double waste.
Men will look closely after their health,
and when they do that the first act Will
be to Top off some of the good things of
the table Sickness and death are no
longer laid to Providence, but to pre-
ventible causes in all except certain
cases, as. for instance, accident and old
age. Since man was put here to work,
he naturally thinks the necessary stam-
ina was given him to fill the bill. In
these strenuous days there are some
who prefer to go the pace and take the
penalty The prizes of life in the TWEEN
tieth century may not be found worth
the sacrifice of health and existence.
MT oil
notion that the average is the highest
type of life and the most desirable. 1t
may be attained by the mass and main
tained indefinitely.
The more one dips into the future,
reasoning from the facts and tenden-
cies of this time, the more ii seems GER
tain that the problem of the twentieth
century will be man and not matter.
If there is any logic in the thing called
progress, it points clearly to the de-
velopment of new ideals. For what
purpose are abundance and power Stor-
ed in nature if not for the good of all
mankind, and why are they but slow
" unfOlded if not to keep pace with
mans capacity and ncedE The right
to share in molding their political des-
tinicS has been fought for ana won
by the people. The thirst for knowl-
edge and the hunger for means to feed
the intellectual tastes have been held
in check during the struggle of society
to get control into its own hands.
The TOIIer's millennium.
The queries. What have we fought
for?" and What have we toiled fOr?'
are natural. The question is up for
settlement, and the people are asking,
What is there in it for u.s." When
fighting and toll were the chief bust
ness of mankind, life did not seem
worth living and the struggle for sur
vival worth keeping up. The fighting
and toiling phases have had their day
in America. The wiIds are all explored
and conquered. The spelling book and
the newspaper are everywhere; also
the taste for white bread and the fash
ion for boiled shirts, as we'll as the
means for INDUCING in them. OF what
use is the newspaper if the reader
cannot see something of the life it
tells him about? OF what good the
boiled shirt if its owner cannot in all
things come up to the plane which it
is supposed TO adorn?
Wise men everywhere-in the pulpit,
in the sanctum and in halls of author
ity-are wrestling with the universal
cry of More, more of eyerythingr
The rational man does not shout
Bread or Blood but he does turn
away when stone is offered him and
rests his longing eyes upon the bread
lying unused all about him. He wants
his full share in the Inheritance nature
plus his own toll has piled up for him.
Nothing short Of social cataclysm can
prevent his getting it in the twentieth
century.
The workingman in America today
has more of the creature comforts and
greater intellectual range than the av-
erage English nobleman Of the Eliza
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