The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-07-27

SIMPLER WAYS
OF LIFE
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William Clarke, M. A., in New York
Independent: The question has often
been discussed, What are the causes of
the decay of nations? To that ques-
ton many answers have been given,
but it seems to me that, whatever the
causes, remote or obvious. may be, the
outbreak Of luxury on a great scale and
extending through society has invari-
ably accompanied social decadence. /
cannot think Of a single exception to
this rule. Swollen luxury affects soci-
ETY. in many ways. In the first place,
life. The greatest danger to the soul
Of man comes from the temptation to
heap up riches; and this Is why all
wise men. all religious teachers, have
hated riches. and have warned men
against them. The great philosophers
bread and dates, or who. like Socrates,
wore the same dress all the year round,
were not mere "cranks;" they were men
who had little time for eating and
drinking, no time for dressing them
selves up; they wanted their time and
energy for something else infinitely
more important. When st. Francis Of
Assist embraced poverty as his bride,
it does not mean that he did anything
very painful; 1t means that he wanted
detachment from burdensome possess
sions He wanted to possess, not lands
and finery. but goodness. justice, truth
in a word, he wanted to possess his
own soul. Whatever makes for the soul
makes for human progress. Whatever
makes against the soul makes for hui
man decay. The law is clear and Ger
tain; and we may therefore say that
the growth of luxury means the growth
of disease in society, leading to decline.
Luxury on great scale, too, causes
economic ruin. Every great economic
thinker from Adam Smith to John Rus
kin, agrees that the production Of lux
urious articles for rich classes Of soci-
ETY. means a waste Of time and energy
on the part Of the workers, and the neg
lecting Of those products which are of
use to all. To quote poet who had
more wisdom on this theme than he Is
given credit for. we find wealth ac-
cumulate and men decay" This has
been called sentimentalism; it is sound
sense. All the humane and beneficent
thinkers of the last century-Turgot,
Franklin, Observation-Disclosures the vir-
tues Of simplicity and not without rea-
son. They saw before their eyes the
results Of prodigality in the condition of
France. One Of the chief causes of the
French revolution was the enormous
expenditure Of the French court and no.
blesse. The great palace at Versailles
cost f40,0O0,0OO; tens Of thousands were
lost and won at cards in it's salons
every night. One of the great facts
which struck the young French officers
who went over to America to help
Washington was the union of simplicity
with general comfort. While France
was Keeling headlong to economic ruin
Prussia was growing under the reign
of king whose life was simple, and
his simplicity Of life was shared by all
his subjects. In the ancient world it
was the same The Greeks and Ro-
mans conquered while they were hardy
and abstemious; they were enslaved
when they became wealthy and took
their ease at great banquets. Gibbon
on the simplest fare. They drank wa
ter, wine not being introduced until in
late period of the republic. Even the
chief fruits were not known in Rome
until hundreds of years after the foun-
dalton Of the city. Compare that con-
the Emperor vitellius Is said to haxe
squandered upon single banquet.
Simplicity of life is also favorable to
democracy. I shall not intrude into
what are generally called politics; but
it is a vital problem which we cannot
shirk when, on the one hand we are
told that all the political tendencies
are toward democracy, while, on the
other hand, all the social and economic
tendencies are in the other direction.
Must not serious collision be the re.
suit Of opposing tendencies in society?
And is it not the duty Of all honest peo-
pie. whatever their personal political
opinions. to avert such a catastrophe?
Must modern society be destined to re.
trace the same old path by which an
Client society was destroyed? Most
states have begun with a rough equal
ity, and as luxury has spread Unequal
.ity has spread also, with the result Of
either violent revolution or slow decline
under an oligarchy. Can we say that
the old symptoms are absent from the
modern world? When reading while
ago Of the poor in New York freezing
to death In the blizzard, and when read
ing a few days before some statistics