The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-10-06
COURIER TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1905

fighting the old battles over again. For
those who were arch-Radicals and re-
formers a few years ago suddenly find
themselves held Up to the public gaze as
bourbons and reaetionaries for still sup
porting the economic gospel of their ear
lier days. If Golden were now alive. he
would undoubtedly hear whispered
asides concerning himself, How very
unprogressive.
Illustrations might be multiplied. per-
haps indefinitely. of the quick shifting
Of positions by radicalism and conser-
vatism, by the 'Old'' thought and the
new" 1t might almost be said that
the world of thought is ball which
continually revOlves, each revolution
bringing to the top now this idea and
then that. in perpetual alienation.
| Every turn seems to bring new idea.
yet examination will show that there is
nothing new on the ball any more than
| there is anything new under the sun.
Now and then some one daZZles US with
an idea of universal empire, as of a sim
gle state embracing all the peoples OF
| the earth. Is it new? BY no means.
In the days Of ancient Rome the Stoics
had that idea worked out, philosophical
ly and politically. A time comes, per-
haps, when men begin to despair of de-
| mocracy and to hint that a little injec-
! ton of the aristocratic idea would save
| the country. Here, again, there is moth
| ing new either in idea or experience.
| People have been despairing of repub-
Il linS fTxTn Thousand ha7
| been bemoaning the failure of democra-
cy. No one in our time can make any
| contribution, in theory, to Aristotles
analysis of the various kinds of govern
ment or add materially to his diagnosis
of their respective fundamental weak
nesses. If new battles arise in the
| twentieth century over the respective
merits of aristocratic and democratic
forms of government, they will be sim
ply old battles over again. j..
Probably the majority of enlightened
people to-day believe that it viii never
| again be necessary to fight battles for
religious freedom-outside of Russia or
| the Ottoman empire. How can they be
sure of this? WHO knows what forms
| religion will take on in the future? Ex-
| perience already, some people think, is
showing that religion needs TO be taught
| positively in the schools. Suppose that
| that idea gains ground. In the reaction
| from gross materialism and de-
| cayed faith that may some time come,
| religion may have revival which could
| be compared in intensity and scope only
| to the conquest of the civilized world by
Christianity within three centuries after
| the death of Jesus. And, in that event,
| the world might witness another long
battle between church and state like
unto that which was waged for ten cen
turtles between the Papacy and the ma
tionalities that sprung from the ruins
, of the empire Of Augustus and Constan-
tine. Even Hildebrande may have a
successor and there may be another
King Henry to so to Canossa. -
| We are constantly fighting old battles
over again. In our own land, the revi-
val of the issue of the colored citizens
| political rights and status is a very con-
| crete example. Every form that the
world-old contest between privilege or
monopoly and the. mass of the people as
sumes is but an. old fight renewed. The
plebs and the. patricians struggled in
republican Rome, for generations; 50 in
our time the same battle may in essence
be waged between the beneficiaries Of
| organized and legalized spoliation and
| the modern multitude. Apparently no
| battle Is forever won So that it may not
break out in later. times under changed
conditions. In changed conditions is
the secret OF the phenomena which has
been noted. 1t is an era, 1t seems, to
| assume that whole world, or a whole
people, Is ever absolutely converted to
views not held befofe. The >fiuidity Of
| the human mind Is such that itscan new
er be confined; and ideas once rooted in
it can apparently never be entirely dis
| lodged. ......
Let conditions change in the least de-
gree and the dormant opposition to the
prevailing idea Immediately springs up
with fresh vigor and challenges the &C.
| cupant of the citadel to renewed war.
Not all Engiismmen have been con-
WINGED free traders the past fifty years
Not all Americans since 1870 have re-
garded the colored race as fit for the