The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-09-11

sent to the papers were 'doctored" by
the censor; that the enemy was vilified,
and put in false light; that grievances,
such as would arrest England's atten-
tion, were deliberately invented" that
the distributing of falsifed reports gen.
Grated feelings of savage animosity,
which were presently exhibited all
over the kingdom in brutal treatment
of those who ventured to think and to
say that the right was not all on our
side;" and that "the passions thus
manifested were the passions OF those
educated by the state up to the level
of newspaper reading"
We will at once concede that the
press dispatches are not always reliable.
In time of war, not only in England,
but in every country under the sun,
the people feel strong desire to hear
favorable news, and regard all those
who profess to see good qualities in the
enemy as traitors to their country.
And not only those who are educated
by the state up to the level of news
paper reading" but men of superior
education, as lawyers, doctors, profess
sors, ministers, and especially retired
military officers have been known to
take leading part in the mobbing
of those who ventured to say that the
fright was not all on our side." And
those feelings of savage animosity"
towards men who refuse to shout "Our
country, right or wrongw we're exhibi-
ted long before Mr.. Spencer's time,
long before DR.. Johnson's time, long
before state education was begun
in England, long before there were
any daily journals in London, long
! before the laboring and artisan classes
were able to read. And the reports
from the field of carnage circulated
in or before DR.. Johnson's time
contained no more truth than do
the press dispatches of today. So that
if the education of the people by the
state cup to the level of newspaper
reading" has wrought no change for
the better in the moral condition of
man, it at least cannot be truthfully
asserted that it has wrought change
for the worse.
Mr.. Spencer seems to consider state
education a step towards Socialism.
Perhaps it is. But this much we venture
to say without fear of successful con-
tradictiOn: Mendacfous and sensation
al journalism1s not the growth of So
cialistic tendencies, but the direct re-
suit of that system of industrialism
which Mr.. Spencer seems to consider
the very pinnacle of human progress;
that system, under which every man
tries, by fair or foul means, to outstrip
his neighbor; that system, under which
truth and justice are set aside to make
room for false ambition and the all
consuming desire to acquire wealth, or
power or distinction, even at the sacri-
flee of many traits that are distinctly
human, and as such separate man from
the brute.
| Mr.. Spencer next ascribes the spread
Tof anarchism to the growth of intel
lectuation in advance of moralization.
He lays stress on the supposition that
"withCu those facilities for communi-
cation which reading and writing and
certain amount of knowledge give
them (the anarchists) there could not
be found these schools of anarchy
This assertion we cannot dispute. But
anarchism must at least be considered
as only by-product of education. It
would be interesting to know if Mr..
Spencer would prefer state of affairs
as existed in the dark ages when Igno-
rance and her handmaids, Superstition
and Intolerance, inthralled the mental
and moral faculties of man, to the pre-
vailing conditions, brought about chief
ly by the spread of education among
the masses, with superstition dying
out, and intolerance restricted to the
few. And that anarchism is not more
prevalent today than in the "saintly
J days Of yore" anyone may know who