The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-23

| ton OF the last tenn years. The AmeriC an
! public. which has been good deal puz-
lied and upset by some Of the manifssta-
| tons of the said perturbation, will doubt
! less be relieved to know this.
| The essays which follow this introduce
! tis1n are full of interesting ideas and sig
nificant sentences. There is every rea-
| son to suppose that the progress Of hu-
manity is being studied today on much
more scientific principles than ever before,
/ and that it is possible to make more in
| telligent predictions of its development
| than could be made forty years ago. Mr..
Adams is one of the thinkers who may
claim, with fair reason the ability to make
| such predictions. As the course of the
worlds progress must determine our in
| ternational relations and as the American
people must themselves decide what their
relation to foreign countries is to be for
| the next fifty years, such books as this
| should he widely read and thoughtfully
| discussed, as these essays have already
| been IN their magazine form.
| paragraph in the first chapter, which
| was written about two years ago, is of in
! terest in view of recent developments in
| Asia:
England is our best, almost our only certain
| hafket- She is the chief vent for our surplus
| production, and anything which cripples her
| purchasing power must react us. For years
past she has been losing her commanding in
| dustIial position Her most lucrative trade to-
| day lies with the Far East; and if she is shut
! out there, her resources will be seriously i'm
/ paired, and the money she no longer earns can
| not be spent for food. Moreover, in those re-
glons the interests of the two peoples identi-
| CAL The Russians hardly veil their purpose of
| reversing by means of railways, the current of
| the Chlnese trade as it has flowed for ages, and
| OF using force 10 discriminate against maritime
nations; but those who excluded from the
/ Eastern trade have always Jagged behind in the
| race for life.
Another argument which ought to receive
| general attention occurs in the following
essay, which is along much the same lines.
/ Mr.. Adams points out that our national
I railing. waste, must be checked If we are
TO hope for economic supremacy, and that
our national corporation, created to meet
the wants of small agricultural popula-
ton, has now to deal with immense masses
OF humanity. He remarks upon the fact
that our army during the Spanish war was
put in the field without a general staff and
tnat the foreign service was so helpless
that the Government had to rely on daily
papers for news of the Spanish fleet In
regard to the question of reducing waste
he says:
Parsimony is alien to our habits, and would
hardly become national trait under pressure
less severe than that under which Germany
slowly consolidated after Jena or under which
France began to sink after Moscow But il we
are not Prepared to reduce our scale OF life to
the German or perhaps the Russian standard If
we are not prepared to accept the collective
methods of administration with all that they i'm
ply, we must be prepared to fight our adversary
ana we must arm in earnest.
In other words, 1t is a question of
hghting for our economic institutions. and
| gaining by their preservation the eco
nomic supremacy of the world, since,
other things being equal, the people best
/ fed, best clothed, and best taught will
| rule.
chapter which is especially interesting
in view of one chapter in MIR. Macpher-
sons Spencer and Spencerism' reviewed
IN another column, is that on Natural
Selection in Literature" Mr.. Macpher-
son notes the change Ut ideals which took
place when indus.rialis:n superseded mill
tarism; Mr.. Adams PANTS out directly,
by contrasting Scott aud Dickens, how
this change of ideals ultimately affected
literature. 1t is rather a new view of
the two great English romance-writers,
and will interest all students of literature
as well as many students Of economics
The transformation of human conditions
which resulted from this shifting of ideals
is almost incalculable. 1t lasted for many
generations. and there are still traces
of the military ideal, modified and altered
recognizable
nevertheless. The popularity OF Seott's
novels in our Southern States was both
an effect and a cause of their peculiar
social system. Mr.. Adams says-and this
cool analysis is rather new in the dis
cussion of the Wizard of the North"
II space permitted, there is hardly a quality
OF Scott's mind which might not be traced to
the action of natural selection. Within the lin
its of an article, however, one or two illustra-
m tgf n n loco raj zpd
munities the family instinct, and, therefore, the
hereditary instinct, must be strong, because the
lack Of police throws the burden Of self-defence
upon the family. or the tribe, which is an
larged conception Of the family In centralized
or economic societies the other hand, as
police improves, the family tie is relaxed, and
the family tie is relaxed because the form Of
competition for subsistence is changed, and the
individual, 10 support life, requires perfect free
dom of movement.
Scotts instincts were archaic, hence with him
the hereditary instinct vas strong, and he dwet
to the heritable quality OF mental and
physical characteristics. The horseshoe Of Red
gauntlet, the recognition of Harry Bertram, and
the peculiarities OF the house OF Argyle must
occur 10 every mind.
On the other hand, this is what he has
to say of Dickens:
Taken whole, the salient trait which
through Dickens writing is fear. Fear both OF
the unknown and OF the known. The
rise Of the class of organism to which Dickens
belonged came from the Capitalization of indus
tries, and the Capitalization of industries in turn
consolidated labor But the consolidation of la
Dor implied various social changes besides slim
uating the development of special faculties ft-
ted TO competition amidst masses; chief among
these changes the relaxation Of the family
tie Consolidation Of labor means the reduction
Of a section of the population, 10 a fluid mass
in which every individual must constitute
less completely, competing unit, since
men, women, and children all have energy which
commands a price. Thus each individual must
tend to become isolated, often from early age
and TO act Independently OF that knot Of rela-
tives who, in archaic civilization, form the basis
of society Dickens himself solitary boy. be-
gan to compete in biaching factory at ten
years old
Evidently, the core OF the new civilization
lay in individual adaptability, as the core OF the
old lay in inheritance; consequently inherited
advantages Disseminated against the rising class
and thus the advent Of the Manchester school
conceded with a popular protest against the
hereditary principle. Few writers have express
ed this protest more energetcally
bitterly than Dickens. His excitement often led
TO extravaganza. For example, if Dickens
wansed a heroine a pure, gentle high minded
he saw no Inconsistency in describing her as
the daughter OF semi-imbecile or even criminal
parents Dickens social idea was the
selfmade business man, the perfect child Of the
Industrial Revolution the organism which
presumably owed nothing 10 conditions external
to itself
The last essay in the book, "Russias
Interest in China" appears in the cur
rent number of the Atlantic Monthly"
and may be read there. 1t is as thought
full and as well worth reading as the
others, and of rather more immediate in
terest to the public. New York: The