The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-13
Can We Not Have Peace?

my faith in free Institutions. originally strong
Though always Joined with tho belief that the
maintenance and success of them /, question
OF popular character, has In these later years
been greatly decreased by the conviction that the
at character Is not possessed by any people nor
Is likely to be possessed for ages TO come. VA
lion OF rhtch tho Regulators cote they Did and
of rhtch the WORKERS surrender their rights o; selling
ihetr tabor a, they plsdIe has neither the ideas
the sentiments needed 10, the maintenance OF Hoerv"
Several years have elapsed since Mr..
HERBERT SPENCER wrote this, and the
world has not been standing still. In
fact, we have been making great deal
of progress, and it has not been Of kind
to cause him to change his opinions or
alter his deductions. Conditions being
as he described them, he concluded that
"we are on the way back to tho rule Of
the strong hand in the shape Of the
bureaucratic despotism of socialist
organization, and then of tho military
despotism which must follow it; if, in
deed, some social crash does not bring
this last upon us more quickly
We have made history very fast Of late
and many things are now revealed in
clearer light. Our legislators vote as
they are bid more than they formerly
did Indeed, there is no longer any
disguise or pretenoe that they do other
wise. Few and far between are those
who can be identified as shaping their
public course in accord with their own
convictions or who betray any innate
sense of the duties and Inspirations of
q statesman
AS to the workers Of the nation, not
only have they surrendered their rights
Of selling their labor as they please, but
they have assumed pretensions that are
destructive of the liberty of their fellow
men and which have for their open aim
the subversion of the social structure.
Assuming that the labor organizations
succeed in enforcing their present claims,
the inevitable result, and the immediate
result, is the one pointed out by Mr..
SPENCER That it is now measurably
within reach and that it is no longer, az
it presumably was when he wrote, rela-
lively remote contingency, no thoughtful
observer of the times can successfully
dispute.
People who are looking ahead and en-
deavoring to reassure themselves as to
what five more years of President RoosE-
vELT's rule may portend have here an
occasion of grave concern. 1t is difficult
to persuade them that those five years
will be commonplace and uneventful. A
period of unexampled prosperity and
expansive growth Of the national spirit
has engendered neither rest nor content
The increase of wealth among all classes
and the general betterment of mankind
have had quite the contrary result from
what naturally might have been ex-
pected Instead of universal goodwill
we have universal unrest, mistrust and
hostility. The head of the nation has
seen fit to create this condition. He has
arrayed one class against the other. He
has promoted discomfort on the part of
labor with the best conditions that labor
ever enjoyed in its history. He has
fomented the most dangerous passions
against all forms Of wealth and he has
himself assailed it with hatred almost
fanatic in it's intensity And he has allied
himself openly with the elements of law
lessness, turbulence and defiance of the
social status which we inherit from the
founders OF our Government
If we admit Mr.. SPENCER's deductions
to be true, and we must respect him az
the foremost intellectual observer and
sociologic authority Of modern times,
then the attitude which President ROosE-
=