New-York tribune., 1910-06-08

time that 4,,vht- and powerful rivals. In
their aboundinE youth or strong maturity,
were eager IN set bounds to her greatness
and TO tear from her what she had won
afar England has peopled continents with
her children has swayed the destlnles OF
teeming nayriads of alien race, mas ruieo
ancient nlonarchies and wrested from al
oorners the right TO the worlds waste
spaces while at home she has heid her
own before nations each of military power
comparable TO Romes at her zenith
Self Mastery Secret OF Power.
Rome fell bv attack from without only
because +be ills within her own borders
had grown incurable. What is true of
your country. my hearers, is true or my
own: while we should be vigiIant against
foes from without, yet Te need never
really fear them so long as we sa1eguard
ourselves against the enemies WITHIN our
own households; and these enemies are
our own passions and foliies. Free peo-
ples can escape being mastered by others
only by being able to master themselves.
We Americans and you people or the
British Isles alike need ever to keep IN
mind that among the many qualities IN
dfspcnsable TO the success of great de-
mocracy, and second only to high and
stern sense of duty, Of moral obligation,
are seIf-knowledge and self-mastery. You.
my hosts. and 1 may not agree in all our
views: some Of you would think me
very radical democrat-as, for the matter
of that. I am; and my theory of imperial
ism would probably suit the anti-imperial-
lists as little as It would suit a certain
type of forcibIe-feeble imperiaIist-but
there are some points on which we must
all agree if we think soundly. The pre-
else form of government, democratic or
otherwise is the instrument the tool
with which we work. 1t is important 10
have a good tool But even if 1t is the
best possible it is only a tool. No imple-
ment can ever take the place Of the guild
ing intelligence that wields it. A very
bad tool will ruin the work of the best
craftsman: but a good tool in bad hands
is no better In the last analysis the all
important factor in national greatness is
national character.
Fewer Births Grave Peril.
There are questions which we of the great
civilized nations are ever tempted to ask of
the future. Is our time of growth drawing
to an end? Are we as nations soon to come
under the rule OF that great law Of death
which ts itself but part of the great law of
see and other forces that are hidden or that
can but dimly be apprehended are al work
all around us. both for good and for evil
The growth in luxury, in love of ease, in
taste for vapid and frivolous excitement. Is
both evident and unhealthy. The most
ominous sign is the diminution In the birth
rate in the rate Of natural increase, now to
q larger or lesser degree shared by most OF
the civilized nations of central and western
Europe, Of America and Australia; a dim1-
mutton so great that if it continues for the
next century at the rate which has obtained
for the last twenty-five years all the more
highly civilized peoples will be stationary
or else have begun to go backward in popu-
lation, while many of them will have al
ready gone very far backward.
High Hopes for the Future.
There is much that should give US con-
Germ for the future But there is much also
which should give US hope. No man is more
apt to be mistaken than the prophet of evil
After the French Revolution in 1850 Niebuhr
hazarded the guess that all civilization was
about to go down with crash, that we
were all about 10 share the fall of third and
fourth century Rome-a respectable but
painfully overworked comparison. The fears
once expressed by the followers of Nautilus
as 10 tie future of the world have proved
groundIess as regards the civilized portion
of the world il is strange indeed to ioo&
back at Car!yIe's prophecies Of some sew
enty years ago and then think of the teem-
ing life of achievement, the life of conquest
of every kind, and Of noble effort crowned
by success, which has been ours for the two
generations since he complained TO high
heaven that all the tales had been told and
all the songs sung. and that all the deeds
really worth doing had been done be-
lieve with AL my heart that great future
remains for US, but whether it does or does
not. our duty is not altered However the
battle may go, the soldier worthy Of the
name will with utmost vigOr do his allotted
task and bear himself as valiantly in defeat
as in victory. Come what VIII. we belong
to peoples who have not yielded to the era
ven fear Of being great. In the ages that
have gone by, the great nations, the ma
tions that have expanded and that have
played mighty part in the world, have in
the end grown old and weakened and van
fsted. but so have the nations whose only
thought was to avoid all danger, all effort
who would risk nothing, and who therefore
gained nothing. In the end the same fate
may overwhelm all alike, but the memory
of the one type perishes with it, while the
other leaves its mark deep on the history OF
all the future of mankind
National Regeneration.
nation that seemingly dies may be born
again, and even though in the physical
sense it die utterly it may yet hand down
a history of heroic achievement, and for all
time 10 come may profoundly influence the
nations that arise in Its place by the i'm
press Of what it has done. Best of all is it
to do our part well, and at the same time to
see our blood live young and vital in men
and women fit TO take up the task as we lay
it down, for so shall our seed inherit the
earth But il this. which is best, is denied
US then at least it is ours to remember
that if we choose we can be torch bearers,
as our fathers were before us. The torch
has been handed on from nation to nation
from civilization to civilization, throughout
all recorded time from the dim years be-
fore history dawned, down to the blazing
splendor of this teeming century Of ours.
It dropped from the hand OF the coward
and the sluggard, of the man wrapped in
luxury or love Of ease. the man whose soul
was eaten away by self-indulgence; it has
been kept alight only by those who were
mighty of heart and cunning Of hand What
they worked at, providing it was worth do
ing at all was Of less matter than how
they worked whether in the realm of the
mind or the realm Of the body. II their
work was good, If what they achieved was