The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-09-22
TWO DANGEROUS TIE

From Chicago Review
However, this deterioration Of
American morals, serious and deplOr-
able as il is, is only a beginning Of
the depravity that we are likely to
see before certain social forces that
are rapidly being generated have
wrought out their inevitable effects,
says the Independent in discussing
American tendencies
One Of these forces is the passion
ate hysteTiCal emOtiOnaliSm that man
ifests itself in race and class hatred,
mob action and lynchings; in ''crazes.''
''fads'' and ''isms" Whatever else
morality is, il is at any rate a mode
narrow, its exemplars may be bigOts,
its underlying philosophy may be
arrant stupidity, but it certainly is
not an individual or collective hys-
terra The moral man, whatever else
you may say Of him, at least has him
self in hand and no people can long
boast Of its morality or have any
morality 10 boast Of, when il has once
surrendered itself to spiritual jim
jams Just what kind Of drink has
produced these phenomena Of moral
inebriety throughout whole sections
Of the American population il might
nying the fact in one way or another
we've got EN-"
The other social force that is bound
TO work the mischief with US is one
OF a very different character From
time to time we have commented
upon the astonishing fact that a peo-
pie which spends millions OF dollars
annually upon education is neverthe-
less a people that takes almost no in
terest in substantial literature No
other people in the world Boosting Of
its intelligence has so small a percent
age Of readers Of serious books. The
proofs that back up this assertion are
notorious and overwhelming. For ex-
ample, there are at least 10000 some
what pretentiOus public Libraries in
the United States, not counting the
little ones. If One-half of these
bought one copy each Of every stand
ard book that is published there
would be a market for any volume
OF genuinely scholarly or scientific
quality. There would be a sufficient
sale to pay the author and the pub
Usher for the labor and expense Of
producing it. As a matter Of fact
there is almost no market for such
books in this country. New York
publishers say that the public library
call for high-grade book seldom
takes up an edition Of more than $50
or 800 copies. The reading Of one
half of the American population con-
sists OF ephemeral novels and news
papers The reading Of the other
half consists Of the nickel magazines
and scare heads"
The bearing Of this fact upon the
future OF American morality may not
be obvious, but it is real and direct
If a people has no intellectual resour-
ces, what is to become Of il when Il
gets rich and commands leisure? How
will it kill time? History has given
US the answer to this question over
and over again II viii DO the sort Of
things that the luxurious, licentfous
Romans did and that the intellectual,
artistic Geeks did not It viii con-
sumo its substance and its manhood
in material enervating pleasures, not
in creative activity.
Happily, there is still a large hard
working and well-meaning, II some
what philistiue, middle class in Amer
lea which is not yet corrupted BY the
example Of its "betters-" The dan
ger that threatens IT, and that should
be cOmbated BY every influence that
I the intellectual class can bring to
bear, is that which lies in vacant
mindedneSs- The salvation Of Ameri-
can society lies in the possibility that
the people can, even yet, be taught to
read and think But it viii be a big
job