The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-01
CIVILIZATION VS.. HAPPINESS.

CIVILIZATION VS.. HAPPINESS.
The nineteenth century, born in the
smoke of battle, BIDS fair to pass away
! amid the green fumes of lyddite. Slain
thousands strewed the battle fields of
Europe in the opening years of the cen
tury, and slain thousands VIII lie scat
! tered over the battle fields of Asia, At
RIGA and the islands of the sea at its
| close.
While it is pretended that civilization
has made giant strides during the nine
been greater than during any similar pc
riod in the worlds history, mankind
knows no more about the virtue of liv-
| ing and letting live than it did century
ago. Civilization has proved herself no
friend of peace or of Christianity. Her
| choicest talents have been devoted to the
purposes of war ard destruction, and
her strength Of intellect to destroying the
soul-satisfying, simple faith of old.
Civilization has made known to the gen
erations of man during the nineteenth
century an enormous number of new
wants, and filled their hearts with crav-
ings which cannot be satisfied The hu-
man victims Of civilization suffer the tor
ments of Tantalus. Things wonderful
and new are spread before them, but far
beyond the reach of all but a few; and
the few who grasp the prizes find them
rot only unsatisfying but provocative Of
greater hunger and thirst and stronger
desire for other things beyond their reach.
To the multitude civilization has brought
not happiness but unrest and anxiety
The ignorant peasant who dragged his
wooden pillow across his patch of land
had not one-tenth the cares of the high
ly civilized farmer of today, with his
sullly plow, his harvesting machinery and
his thresher. The peasant had all he
could eat and drink and wear, and a place
to lay his head and when he died he left
his wooden plow and his patch Of land
behind him. The modern farmer can take
no more with him on his journey into the
beyond; but all his life he will WORRY
about notes and mortgages, loans and
deeds, engines and gears labor-saving de-
vices which create more work, and he
will sow and reap fifty times as much as
ne can eat or use. He does this at the
behest OF civilization. which says, Get
rich; work more than you need; grow
more than you can consume; have more
clothes than you can wear; draw more
water than you can drink
And to the scholars and scientists civ
lizat1on says much the same thing.
Learn more than you can use; read more
than you can understand; write more
than others can read; think on things
that are incomprehensible; measure dis
tances which you can never travel and
atoms you will never see; theorize on the
ineXplicable; assiduously demonstrate the
immaterial. All this means progress, on
ward and upward
And with it all we have not advanced
one step in the knowledge of how to live
IN peace with our neighbor If he has
something we covet, civilization says:
''Slay him and take it from his carcass
for you can use it better than he can
If he is contented and at peace. civiliza-
ton says: Ride over him and destroy
him. for he is not obeyIng the laws of
progress"
When the poet Cowper yearned
60 for a lodge in some vast wider
ness
Where rumor of oppression or deceit,
OF unsuccessful or successful war
Might never reach me more"
he simply gave expression to longing to
escape from the thralldom of civilization,
and if man could have good company
such solitude as Cowper desired might
be made very enjoyable, especially by
| one who has suffered from this surfeit Of
wars and war rumors-Cuban wars, Span
ish war, Philippine war, Boer war, Asian
ii war, Dervish war, tariff war and Chi
nese war