The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-18
EROA OTHER PENS
NATIONAL SUICIDE.

The government statistics show that
the children of the old American stock
become fewer year by year. The sup
ply is kept up, but 1T does not repre-
sent an increase Of the original fa1ni-
hes. Given this decrease of births on
the one side, with the increase of immi-
grafton, and even the maintenance of
normal increase in the newer American
families and the final result is clear
this country will soon boast of a people
practically new. Is not a change al
ready observable in new ideals, new
conceptions of our relations to the laws
and q new character in those leaders
who succeed in making themselves
popular?
In France the deaths outnumber the
births. 1t Is said that parents refuse
the burden of large family. In Amer
lea 1t is charged that wives care too
much for society and too little for
home life. The result is the same. In
France the sons and daughters must
be portioned and the end of too much
division is poverty In America sons
and daughters are alike supposed COM
petent to take care of themselves, and
it is the burden they impose as chill
dren that We prefer to escape. France
Is seeing her population steadily de-
crease. It may be that our danger is
greater when numbers increase while
fitness decreases.
The tide Of immigration must finally
ebb. We cannot always draw from the
same spring without deplenishing it.
Already we should supply our own
need of increase and leave the immi-
grants from Europe to civilize South
America as he has enriched our con-
tinent,. but our need continues and
even grows. We tax ourselves to water
the desert and drain the swamp We
have lately added the burden of for
eign dependencies and the cost of a
military establishment crushing IN
al OH
that this is a 500. 900, 100000 country,
where but lately the statement that 1t
was a 81, 600, 600 600 one aroused remark.
Florida Times-Union.
OPTIMISTS AND PESSIMISTS.
Aside from individual differences OF
views of life, based chiefly on temper
ament, there seems to be geographi-
cal line dividing opttmists and pessl-
mists To jewellers in the west as a
whole there has been general con-
sensus that life is good, that happiness
is the lot of most and that the wretch
edness which exists is a passing dis
ease To the old heather world life
was a joyous existence, from winch II
was calamity to be taken. and it was
only under theological auspices that it
came to be considered vale OF
tears or "city of wrath" to be fed
ffrom On the other hand, underlying
the religions Buddhistic and Brahmtn-
ical, which dominate the vast popula-
ton of the east, is the sentiment that
life per Sc Is an evil. The westerner
shrinks from the idea of destruction,
and rather than harbor it has been
willing to contemplate undying exis-
tence in an eternal and terrifying hell
The dweller OF the east, on the con-
trary, given to contemplation and
psychical theorizing, hopes by many
successive incarnations spent in con-
slant self-abnegation to at last reap
the reward of being able to plunge
himself into nothingness.
1t is only with civilization that pes
simism has developed. 1t grows large
| ly out of the apparent impossibility
Of reconciling all the long continued
suffering, misery, oppression and
crime Of earth with any theory of di-
vine power and goodness That a
man is a pessimist does not necessar-
| lily mean that he is a worse man than
| his neighbors. Such a view may be
the result of a keener realization OF
the suffering and evil in the world
than comes to most, and far more
poignant than any one felt in earlier
days. when pessimism was compara-
lively unknown.-Cinciu Enquirer