The daily sentinel., 1906-08-23
THE CALAMITY HOWLER

AT Intervals said the man with
an oratorical style OF utterance, the
calamity howler. Tapping his shadowy
wings. riseth on his roost somewhere
along the ridgepole of our national
being and croweth alond: Babylon
is fallen; is fallen. Babylon. the
mighty, has taken tumble. Like
wise Rome and Athens and Thebes
and Jerusalem. Our turn is coming
next. and great viii be the fall there
of Stand from under, all yea' Or
words to that effect. which when they
get into print look just as serious
and truthful as the past tense of the
biblical prophecies.
But are they? 1t is rather risky to
,leal in futures. but think | am safe
in predicting that the national decay
Ing season has forever passed, and
that any radical changes which may
occur in the future will not be in the
nature OF revolutions. but reforms. In
the ancient days the progress of ma
tons was through the Individual
civilization was possible because the
people were without opportunities for
destroying or disseminating. this
centripetal force. There were no rail-
roads, no telegraphs. no telephones,
no steamships. no newspapers no pub.
lie schools. no polltics-the great dis
seminators of human thought and pur-
pose and progress. The people were
dumb driven cattle in those DAYS and
didn't vote and strike and make cam.
paign speeches. and go West and get
rich quick and enjoy all the other
glorious popular opportunities of
these mo1ern material days
"Of course. we are threatened with
Capitalization, and there are men
among us who would Caesarize all
civilization. but they cannot accom-
plisl. their purpose. because the peo-
pie will not etand for it. II there is
10 be any manipulation OF monopolles
tney want to take hand themselves.
ard if they cannot accomplish their
purpose they know enough and have
the means to prevent ANYBODY else
getting a vital hold The decentral-
lzing processes OF the past year show
that pvetty concluslvely. and the end
is not yet
"If Rome had built little red school
houses all over Europe; had con
structed a railroad from Naples to the
North Sea. with cross line from the
Urals to the United Kingdom: had
strung telegraph wires from Carthage
TO the North Cape: had established
the Alexandria, Athens & Rome
Steamship company: had extended a
trolley line through the Hun and Van
dal districts; had connected all the
towns of the empire by long-distance
telephone: had sub-divided the Cam.
pagna and put the lots on the mar
ket; had started boom towns in Gaul
and Britain, and had bored holes in
Byzantium for OIL she would to-day
be sitting on her seven hills and from
her throne of doodle be boss of the
beanery.
"The IS p. @. r. and the 'Vox
Poruli' would have been the power
behind the tribune. and they could
uCt have been downed however Sc
verely they might have been Jared
That Is our condition at this writing.
and We have come to stay. The
calamity howler may continue to let
on his calamitous howl and cancel
his ,tfe insurance and retire from
politics, but the great mass of the
people are too busy to pay any atten-
lion to him, and Progress will pere-
srlnate TO an appropriate finish. what
aver that may be Babylon Is fallen;
is fallen with a dun thud. but we,
'he people of this glorious republic,
are standing straight up with a spinal
column that no earthly power car
yarE out Of the perpendicular New
Ynrl, Press.