The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-02-03

The World Not Half Bad After All.
When big gun Of the educated
Four Hundred comes out at the turn
d the year with arguments to prove
that the world is really growing bet
ter plain folks with less time to probe
The question want to know how he
| xrikes that cheering conclusion The
Rev. DR.. Henry Van Dyke is big gun.
A father in Israel. he is likewise
professor at Princeton university and
4 writer of prose and poetry which
Are read by thousands with pleasure
and profit Says DR.. Van Dyke in an
article in Everybody's Magazine:
The world is really growing better. not
n every eddy, but in the main current Of
is life; not in a straight line. but with a
winding course: not in every respect. but
IN at least two of the three main points
Of goodness; not swiftly, bat slowly,
surely, really growing better.
| The doctor doubts that there has
been an increase in crime in recent
years. The impression that crime is
on the increase is due. he says. Ito the
new definition of misdemeanors" and
he greater efficiency in the execution
in the tabulation of reports
| Increase in the number of criminals
does not prove that more offenses are
committed, but that detections and con-
victiOns are more certain.
| In regard to justice DR.. Van Dyke
| asks:
| Who can fail to see a process of i'm
| provement in the spirit and temper OF
| tegisla ton, a conscientious effort to make
/ the law more efficient in the protection OF
human rights and more just in the pun
| lshment of offenses?
Brutal and degrading methods Of eX-
ecutiOn have been abolished, and laws
have been enacted for the protection CT
the young against cruelty and injus-
| tee
There are more people in the world
! who love mercy, and they are having
| better success in making their spirit pre-
! vail More Is being done today to prevent
and mitigate human suffering. to shelter
and protect the weak and helpless, to
minister wisely to the sick and wounded
| n body and in mind than ever before in
| The history Of mankind.
DR.. Van Dyke does not shrink from
presenting the reverse of the picture,
IAN unmistakable increase of the Grim
inal class which lives at war with the
social order" Corporations and un-
ions flock arms in a struggle so fierce
/ that the rights and interests of the
community are equally forgotten by
| BOTH In our own country lynchings
grow more common, divorces increase,
and there is an epidemic of accidents
and disasters. due apparently to the
| spirit of unrestraint and rechlessness
which is sweeping furiously along the
highway of modern life
These backward tendencies. Dr. Van
| Dyke thinks. are more than counter
balanced by the growth of mercy and
Justice lie says.
| Is this selfish and headlong spirit grow
Ing? Will it continue to accelerate the
pace at which men live and diminish the
control by which they are guided? VIII
it weaken more and more the bonds of
reverence and mutual considera ton and
household fidelity and civic virtue until
the states which have been civilized by
| The sanctions of love and the convictions
Of duty are whirled backward by the pas
sion of self indulgence into the barbarism
Of luxurious pleasure or the anarchy Of
bloody social strife?
These are the questions that rise to
trouble us in our moments of despond-
ency and foreboding. But | think that 1T
is neither wise nor brave to give them an
answer Of despair. Two are stronger than
one The growth of justice and Of kind
! ness, / guess, will in the long run pre-
vail. and the selfish, reckless spirit will
pc overcome.