River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-05-19

by each side for an ideal, and while faults
| and shortcomings were plentiful among
| the combatants, there was comparatively
| Httle sordidness of motive or conduct. In
such giant struggle, where across the
| warp of so many interests 10 shot the
wool Of so many purposes, dark strands
and bright, strands somber and brilliant,
are always intertwined; inevitably there
| was corruption here and there in the Civil
| war; but all the leaders on both sides,
and the great majority Of the enormous
| masses of fighting men, wholly diSre-
| garded and were wholly uninf1uenced by.
pecuniary considerations.
Wealth and Politics.
Another striking contrast in the course
| of modern civilization as compared with
/ the later stages of the Graeco-Roman or
/ classic civilization is to be found in the
| relations of wealth and politics. In clas-
| sic times, as the civilization advanced to-
/ ward its zenith, politics became a recog-
/ nized means of accommodating great
| wealth. Caesar was again and again on
the verge Of bankruptcy; he spent an
| enormous fortune; and he recouped him
/ self by the money which he made out of
/ his political-military career. Augustus es-
! tablished imperial Rome on firm founda-
| tons by the use he made of the huge
| fortune he had acquired by plumber. What
| Washington and Lincoln! There were a
| few exceptions in ancient days; but the
| immense majority of the Greeks and the
| Romans, as their civilizations eliminated,
! accepted money-making on a large scale
| as one of the incidents of a successful
public career. Now all of this is in sharp
contrast to what has happened within
the last two or three centuries. During
this time there has been a steady growth
away from the theory that money-making
is permissible in an honorable public ca
reer.
In this respect the standard has been
constantly elevated, and things which
statesmen had no hesitation in doing
three centuries or two centuries ago, and
which did not seriously hurt public ca
reer even a century ago, are now utterly
impossible. Wealthy men still exercise
large, and sometimes an improper, 1nf1u-
ence in politics, but it Is apt to be an in
direct influence and in the advanced
states the mere suspicion that the wealth
of public men is obtained or added to as
an incident of their public careers will
bar them from public life. Speaking
generally, wealth may very greatly inf1u-
ence modern political life. but it is not &C"
quired in political life.
Optimistic for the Future.
Mr.. Roosevelt called attention to
the fact that hitherto every civiliza-
ton that has arisen has been able to
develop only a few activities, its field
of endeavor being limited in kind as
we'll as in locality, and each of these
civilizations has fallen. What is the
lesson to us of today? he asked. VIII
the crash come, and be all the more
terrible because of the immense in
crease in activities and area? To this
he replied:
Personally, I do not believe that our
civilization will fall. I think that on the
whole we have grown better and not
worse. I think that on the whole the flu
ture holds more for us than even the
great past has held. But, assuredly, the
dreams of golden glory in the future will
not come true unless, high Of heart and
strong of hand, by our own mighty deeds
we make them come true. We cannot af-
ford to develop any set of qualities,
any one set Of activities, at the cost of
seeing others, equally necessary, afro
phied. Neither the military efficiency Of
the Mongol the extraordinary business
ability of the Phoenician, nor the subtle
and polished intellect of the Greek awaited
to avert destruction.
We, the men OF today and of the fu-
ture need many qualities if we to do
our work we'll. We need, first of all and
stand at the base Of individual, Of family
life, the fundamental and essential quail
ties-the homely, everyday, all-important
virtues. If the average man will not
work, If he has not in him the will and
the power to be a good husband and ia
Their; if the average woman is not a good
housewife, a good mother of many
healthy children, then the state will top
pie, will go down, no matter what may
be it's brilliance of artistic development
or material achievement. But these home
ly qualities are not enough. There must,
in addition, be that power of organization,
that power of working in common for
common end, which the German people
have shown in such signal fashion during
the last half-century. Moreover, the
things of the spirit are even more impor-
tant than the things of the body. We can
we'll Go without the hard intolerance and
arid intellectual barrenness Of what was
worst in the theological systems of the
past but there has never been a greater
need of a high and fine religious spirit
than at the present time. So, while we
can laugh good-humoredly at some of
the pretensions of modern philosophy in
it's various branches, it would be worse
than folly on our part to ignore our need
of intellectual leadership.
Must Steer Middle Course.
Never has philanthropy, humanitarian
though we must all beware of the folly
and the viciousnesS no worse than folly,
which marks the believer in the perfec-
tibility of man when his heart runs away
with his head, or when vanity usurps the
place of conscience, yet we must remem-
Der also that it is only by working along
the lines laid down by the philanthropists,
by the lovers Of mankind, that we can
be sure Of lifting our civilization to
higher and more permanent plane OF we'll
being than was ever attained by any pre-
ceding civilization. Unjust war is to be
abhorred; but woe to the nation that does
not make ready to hold its own in time
of need against oil who would harm it;
and woe thrice over to the nation in
which the average man loses the fighting
edge, loses the power to serve as SOL
der if the day Of need should arise.
1t is no impossible dream to build up
civilization in which morality, ethical de-
velopment, and a true feeling of brother
hood shall alike be divorced from false
sentimentality and from the rancorous
and evil passions which, curiously enough,
so often accompany professions of senti-
mental attachment to the rights Of man;
in which a high material development in
the things of the body shall be achieved
without subordination of the things of
the soul; in which there shall be a genu-
inc desire Tor peace apd justice without
loss Of those virile qualities without which
no love of peace or justice shall avail any
race; in which the fullest development of
scientific research, the great distinguish
ing feature of our present civilization,
shall yet not imply belief that intellect
can ever take the place Of character-for,
from the standpoint Of the nation as of
the individual, it is character that IL the
one vital possession.