The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-01

| nave been done. No superficial bonds could
have held them together. The fact that
this was war of the people, on both sides.
! was the saving point. The men of both
| armies were thinking over the problem,
! albeit from opposite points of view. They
had been taught from childhood that it
was their business to think to have opin-
ions, TO know why they adhered to one or
! the other party. Had they been mere
peasants, guided by blind prejudice and
| emotion, there never could have been an
| American people. but the country must
have been divided. first on the question of
| slavery. and then, perhaps. on other ques-
tions. The war of 1S60-'65 proved not only
that the tendency OF the age was toward
unity. but that the intelligence of the
whole people is the only true basis for
| that union
! Meanwhile, in Europe another unifying
process was going on. under Bismarck.
/ He had different material to deal with
! from that encountered by Lincoln or Ma
poleon. He had the German people to
! mold into one; and his method was suited
| TO their character because he himself was
/ ore of them. He made Germany, by arous-
! ing the two emotions latent in the German
! heart-love of the soil. and respect for
authority. He became "the man of blood
and iron''-simple, straightforward I'M
deviating. inhexible, a Crusader under the
coat of a diplomat
The spirit of nationality. of patriotism,
was by this time astir all over the world,
and Russia. tho great. sluggish half ORR
entail power of Eastern Europe, felt it. The
result of that was twofold-the emancpa-
ticn az the serfs and the formation of the
Nihilist party. What the Nihilist. the
patriot. the lover of freedom and of indi-
vidual rights, will do with the emanci-
pated serf remains to be seen. Russia is
the unanswered problem which the nine
teenth century hands over to the TWEEN
tieth.
The Spanish American war proved the
touchstone of American union 1t proved
that the American spirit was stronger
than that Of North or South. There we're
grumblers here and there. but they were
in the minority. The North honored
Schley, Wheeler, and Lee, as Dewey. Sigs-
bee. Lawton and Chaffee were honored in
the South. Moreover, the problems which
have been forced upon us by this war are
OF nature TO call out all the wisdom and
patriotism of the people. The fight be-
tween the trusts and the people, in 1900,
showed the growing ability Of the democ-
racy to deal with general questions There
has, perhaps never been a time when
seventy-six millions of people have at
tempted TO settle abstract problems of
government till the last quarter of the
nineteenth century began. That nearly
every campaign has turned more or less
upon such questions is a significant thing
1t proves that the masses of the people are
getting beyond partisanship and beginning
TO consider principles which do not di-
rectly concern them in ways that they can
easily understand. The only question in
volving such principle. which came up to
be settled at the beginning of the century,
was that of manhood suffrage, and there
were no such distractions about that as
are involved in the tariff, the trusts. the
questions of international law and colonial
government. Most old politicians will adj
nit that during the first half of the CEN
noise, enthusiasm, and oratory 1t is not
so now. Argument counts more and more.
OF the material progress made in this
century it may be noted that the same
unifying tendency has characterized it.
New inventions, discoveries, changes of
all kinds, have tended to make the world
smaller. to make the interests of mankind
one instead OF diverse The printing press.
which has reached its full Development
within comparatively recent time; the
telegraph. the telephone, the sewing ma
chine, the steam engine, the electric mo-
tor, the deep-water cable. the ocean
steamer, the electric light, the thousand
and one devices which cause life TO be
more simple and Tor the most Fart
more comfortable than 1t used TO be. all
make the people of the world dependent
upon one another. not only for pleasure
and prosperity but almost for very life
1t seems to the casual observer as if ma
terial progress had nearly reached its
limit, but so it probably seemed to that
impersonal being in the year 1901. There
may be ways Of adding to the comfort of
living and the powers of the human body
and brain which we do not as yet antici-
pate, and some future American, at the
dawn of the twenty first century. may find
a yellowed and archaic copy of this paper
and feel amused at the blindness of those
who could not see the wonderful things
which were to happen in the first half of
the twentieth. The only tremendous ma
terial change which can be foreseen at
this present minute is the certain in
vention of practicable and cheap flying
machine, and that would certainly revo-
lutionize the commerce of the world.
The problem which the nineteenth CEN
fury bequeaths to the twentieth in the
way of material progress, is one which is
partly ethical and religious. There should
be, there must be, some way to alleviate
the misery of the poor, to extend the COM
fort and prosperity of the few TO the
homes of the many. The sweat-shop and
the oyercrowded tenement. the insufficient
and polluted water supply. the adultera-
tion of food and the tax imposed by mo-
nopolies on all necessary articles, are
evils which cannot with safety to the
world continue TO exist There is no es-
sential necessity for extreme poverty The
land in this Republic is rich enough to
support every inhabitant in comfort This
is not an oyer-crowded country like China
or India, and large tracts of it are still
comparatively undeveloped. There are
ways to house the working people of
city so that disease and death will not
be more common among them than among
the rich There are laws which can be