Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-10-21
THE FUTURE.
Our Real Progress Will Begin
when We Shall Have Con-
quered That Dread of the
Future Which Controls US
Today as 1t Controlled the

Wnen we snail Have Con-
quered That Dread of the
Future Which Controls Us
Today as it Controlled the
Primitive Savage.
Every one of us, swept along ire
sistibly in the current of life, has his
mind fixed upon the future, and
especially upon its dangers. Our
only real life is in the future. The
actual moment is slipping away from
MS so that we do not really possess it;
the past is dead, gone forever, un-
chaDgeable. In the future alone lie
Our hopes and our fears. And thus
far in the worlds history fear has
had the upper hand.
Have you thought OF the part
which the future plays In our lives,
how absolutely and exclusively we
live In the days to come? The great
est financial institutions in the world
are our life insurance companies
organized exclusively to provide
against trouble in the future. The
savings banks, with their hundreds
of millions of deposits, are so many
witnesses to the anxiety which fear
OF the future plants in every heart.
Our laws are all rules for future
guidance 1t is a fixed principle
that no law must be made 'retroac-
tive"-that is to say, the new law
must apply only to what shall hap
pen In future, never to what has been
done in the past.
There is not a man or woman or
child in the United States-outside
the idiot asylums-but has intense
thought and determination fixed on
the future. Every one of us is plan
ming ahead, thinking ahead. And
millions, of us, through anxiety for
the future, are kept from useful ac-
complishment in the present. The
father has not time to stop and in-
terest himself in anything but money
making, because he must have
enough for his children.
The children, in their turn, worry
and fret and keep their minds on
money, because they will need more
for their children. The man who is
drudging along, doing commonplace
but remunerative work, feels that he
might do something worth while if
he could devote time to conscien-
tlous effort without regard to pay.
He tells himself that some day he
will produce the best that is in him,
some day he will stop and devote his
energies solely to some achievement
worth while. But first he must rro-
tect himself against the future. First
he must secure that financial Inde-
pendence which means freedom from
slavery. His few years go by, his
present and his future melt into the
past, death comes and finds that his
few hours have all been given mp to
his fear of that future which is now
forever gone.
How many men that could have
been great have been mere money
earning drudges because their actual
moments of work were devoted to
providing for the future that never
came! How many of our politicians,
beginning life with real ambition,
give up everything to their servile
fear of the future, using the bright
possibilities of today simply to pro-
tect themselves against sordid fears
for tomorrow! You see man of
Tom Reeds great power, almost at
the head of the National Govern
ment, deliberately leave dignified
public office to enter the service of
dishonest corporations as u law twist
ing lawyer. He announced that he
felt it his duty to make some money
and provide for the future. he died
almost as soon as he had begun this
work that was to make his future
secure. What would be his feeling
If he could look back now?
How many doctors would like to
study as they should study and make
real progress in their science, vet
keep on grubbing away at their
practice In semi.ignorance-because
semi-ignorance now means a safe
future, while study now might mean
a precarious future! How many men
that could have been fine musicians
are grinding away in the worlds or
chestras, known only to the public by
the tops of their bald heads-men that
might have been not only famous and
successful, but genuinely useful, had
not dread of the future kept them
fiddling or footing for their daily
wage and their small savings bank
account, instead of stopping and risk
ing something to give their ability
real chance of development. They
wanted Wagner to write trashy,
light music, after one or two
of his great works had been con-
temptuously refused. His own wife
begged him to give up his foolish
ideas of originality ard protect him.
self against poverty stricken future
by pot boiling work in the present.
He might have led an orchestra con-
ventiopally, he might have written
Meyerbeerish trash, tunes to which
chorus girls could have lifted their
toes rhythmically, had he chosen to
do so. Like the rest of us, he was
full of fear Of the future, spurred
on by actual want in the present, as
is proved by his begging letters to
Liszt and Others. Fortunately, he
cared more for the future of his art
than the future of his stomach. He
might have regretted that had not a
half crazy king turned up to appre-
ciate him. Anyhow, we have his
good work because the future die
not rule him.
The worlds great men, the worlds
greatest spirits put thought of the
future behind them through rever-
enee for the duty of the present.