The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1905-05-17
PRAISE FOR OUR MORALS
Higher In America Than In Eu-
rope, Says James Bryce.
DECLARES BUSINESS Is KING HERE

states Leads In Condition of the
PeopIe-Absence of Pauperism Re-
markable, He Says Universities
Rank with Europe's Best-Growth
of Aesthetic Sentiment Noted.
The Right Hon. James Bryce the
English historian and parliamentarian
who a quarter of century ago visited
America and produced as a result of
his study of America and her institu-
tons that remarkable work, 1.-The
| American Commonwealth" again visit
| ed America short time ago, and now
In a recent issue Of the outlook he
sums up the changes which have taken
place since his visit in 1888. What
will appeal to most readers most
strongly is what Mr.. Bryce has to say
on American morals.
THE general moral standard of the
United States" he writes, still ap-
| pears to me, as it did twenty years
ago, to be, on the whole, higher than
that of western Europe. Even in the
wealthiest class, where luxury weak
ems the sense of duty and lays men
and women most open to temptation,
there are apparently fewer scandals
than the same class shows elsewhere.
Nor is the morality Of any country
to be measured by the number Of di-
vorces. Its condition may be really
worse II people cynically abstain from
obtaining divorces where there are
grounds for obtaining them.
That which most strikes the visitor
to America today" he writes, sis It's
prodigious material development In
dustrial growth, swift thirty or forty
years ago, advances more swiftly now.
The rural districts are being studded
with villages, the villages are growing
into cities, the cities are stretching out
long arms of suburbs, which follow the
| lines of road and railway in every d.
rection.
"The increase of wealth, even more
remarkable than the increase of pop
ulation, impresses Il European more
deeply now than ever before because
the contrast with Europe is greater.
In America every class seems rich in
comparison with the corresponding
class in the old world. The huge for
| tunes, the fortunes of those whose in
come reaches or exceeds S1000,OO0 a
year. are Of course far more numerous
than in any other country.
But the absence of pauperism IS
still more remarkable. In 1870 l care
fully examined the poor law system Of
two great eastern cities and found
that, although there were very few
persons needing or receiving support
at public expense, the number was eX-
pected to grow steadily and quickly as
the cities grew. Today l am told
that in these cities pauperism, though
Of course absolutely larger increases
more slowly than population.
Business is king" Mr.. Bryce OBJ
serves a little further along. And he
continues.
with this extraordinary material
development 1t is natural that, In the
United States, business-that is to say
industry, commerce and finance 49,
should have more and more come to
overshadow and dwarf all other inter-
European who visited the country
since the beginning Of the last CEN
fury seems TO have been struck by
this fact. 1t is more striking now Than
II was thirty-five years ago. But the
contrast with Europe is not greater now
than it was then. Rather is II less, for
H. this respect England and Germany
40 In 4 =
steps"
Mr.. Bryce also makes this observa-
ton with regard to the trend Of the
population Of the country:
"They are ceasing to be a folk OF
country jewellers. 1t is not only that
the greater cities extend themselves
with amazing speed and that many OF
the mineral areas are becoming so
covered with villages as to differ little
from cities-there is a general dispos.-
ton to migrate from rural districts to
centers of population, where a briskeS
life and more amusements can be ell
joyed. The change is all the more re-
markable because agriculture continues
to be prosperous"
provement in our educational facilities.
There has been within these last
thirty-five years." he writes, "a devel-
opment Of the higher education in the
United States perhaps without paral-
lei in the world. Roughly speaking
for IT is impossible to speak with ex-
actness-America has now not less than
fifteen or perhaps even twenty seats
of learning fit to be ranked beside the
universities of Germany, France and
England as respects the completeness
of the instruction which they provide
and the thoroughness at which they
aim
1.-The improvement In the range and
quality of university teaching Is a
change scarcely more remarkable than
the increased afflux of students, and
whereas in England the vast majority
Of students 90 70 Drenare themselves