The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1903-10-15

TWO centuries. lnQe6Q IL Is Qlft1cult Tor
us to imagine what the world would
be like had they never been born.
There are other men who are mile
stones marking the progress of the
race, but it seems to me that the two
named overshadow them all. After
Fulton and Stephenson comes, think,
Professor Morse. Through the accom-
plishments of these three the world has
been reduced in size thousand-fold |
within century. Before the invention
of the steam engine, the steamboat and
the telegraph, the geographical posi-
tion of any community was, as we
have seen, very largely responsible for
its material and moral progress. Iso-
lated portions of the globe, such as
Australia, Alaska or central British
Columbia were doomed to comparative
stagnation. They could develop only
to the point where their inner relations
were adjusted to their physical environ
ment, and there, in the very nature of
things, all progress must halt. Their
agriculture, manufactures, ETC., were
limited to the requirements of their in
habitants, and the latter, being out of
touch with the centers of commerce
and advanced thought, naturally re-
laxed into a condition of legarthy. The
cake of custom, instead of continually
splitting and reforming as it does in
healthy communities. became baked and
nothing short of q revolution could in
troduce any new device or line OF
thought, no matter how beneficial it
might be. But since steam and cleo
tricity have been diverted to mans use,
ali this has been changed. Now the
world is united by close bonds of inter.
est, and when portion is affected the
change is felt by the whole. An cpl
demic among the sheep in Australia
would OBJECT the woolen markets of
Berlin, London and New York to a
very considerable degree, and conse-
quently affect the working classes of
those centers of industry. A railroad
strike in Holland is felt by American
as we'll as European manufacturers,
while famine in India or Russia has
direct reaction on wheat-growers all
over the world. The telegraph has
brought the civilized nations into such
close contact with one another that
nothing of Importance can occur in
one that does not Immediately modify
conditions in the rest. 1t will be re-
membered that President Cleveland's
celebrated Venezuela message was al
most as disasterous to the members of
the Paris Bourse as to those doing busi-
ness on the New York and London
stock exchanges. In fact, any move
ment tending to revolutionize existing
conditions, no matter where it may be
inaugurated, is felt by all classes OF
people over all the civilized world-and
the civilized world is constantly en-
larging its sphere. All of which goes
to prove that civilization is constantly
bringing men closer together and max
ing their interests identical.
Along with the growth of this COM
merclal community Of interest has gone
a development and expansion of the
higher feelings of justice and human
sympathy. We have now reached
point in our development where we can
and do actively sympathize with the
down-trodden and oppressed, regardless
of the differences in race or creed. The
commiseratlon expressed in America
for the prosecuted Russian Jews came
from the heart and the feeling for
those poor creatures was as great as
tho they were actually our own coun-
trymen. A like feeling existed in
| England, France and Germany, and the
moral condemnation of these countries
) unquestionably had its effect on the
Russian government and ameliorateo
, the condition of the Jews.
All honest work tends to advance the
, cause of civilization. 1t is not neces
: sary to enter the philanthropic field te
do that. And the time is surely com
5 ing when there will no longer be des
: tructive conflicts between nation anc
!, nation, or class and class; when prog
5 ress, moral, intellectual and materia
: will advance with giant strides, ant
finally when the long warfare between
' science and religion will draw to
s conclusion, and when the universe