Barbour County index., 1910-05-18
MODERN CIVILIZATION
is ROOSEVELT.S TOPIC
Interesting Lecture on |'7he World
MoUement" DeliDered at the Uni
Uersity of Berlin by the Ex-Presi-
dent of the United States

Berlin. - EX-Pres1dent Theodore
Roosevelt appeared Thursday before
an audience that tested the CAPACITY
OF the aula at the University of Berlin,
and delivered lecture on "The World
Movement" He spoke in English and
was listened to with the deepest in
terest
Beginning with an eloquent eulogy
OF the German race and it's achieve
ments, the lecturer soon reached the
main theme Of his discourse. and re-
viewed the civilization and culture, so
far as we know them, of the earliest
peoples and their contributions to the
modern world. He then continued.
At last. a little over 400 years
ago, the movement towards a world civili-
cation took up it's interrupted march. The
beginning Of the modern movement NAV
roughly De taken as synchroniZing with
the discovery Of printing, and with that
series OF bold sea ventures which culmf-
mated In the discovery of America; and
after these two epochal feats had begun
to produce their full effects in material
and intellectual life, 1t became inevitable
that civilization should thereafter differ
not only in degree but even in kind from
all that had gone before Immediately
after the voyage of Columbus and Vasco
da Cana there began a tremendous re-
ng1ous ferment; the awakening of intel
lect went hand in hand with the moral
uprising; the great names of Copernicus
Bruno. Kepler, and Calico show that the
mind OF man was breaking the letters
that had cramped 1t; and for the first
time experimentation was used as a checl
upon observation and theorization Since
then, century by century, the changes
have increased in rapidity and complex
ity, and have attained their maximum in
both respects during the century Just
past
Instead of being directed by one or two
dominant peoples, as was the case with
all similar movements of the past the
new movement was shared by many diff
ferent nations. From every standpoint It
has been of infinitely greater moment
than anything hitherto seen. Not in one
but in many different peoples there has
been extraordinary growth in wealth, in
population, in power of organization, and
in mastery over mechanical activity and
natural resources. All of this has been
accompanied and signalized by an i'm
mense outburst of energy and restless
initiative. The result is varied as it is
striking.
Conquest of the World.
In the first place, representatives of this
civilization, by their conquest of space,
were enabled to spread into all the prac-
tically vacant continents, while at the
same time, by their triumphs In organiza-
ton and mechanical invention, they ac-
quired an unheard-of military superiority
as compared with their former rivals To
these two facts is primarily due the
further fact that for the first time there
Is really something that approaches a
world civilization, world movement The
spread of the European peoples since the
days of Ferdinand the Catholic and Ivan
hos
and over every continent. In places the
conqueSts have been ethnic; that Is there
has been a new wandering of the peoples
and new commonWSalths have sprung up
In which the people are entirely or main
ly of European blood. This is what hap
pened in the temperate and sub-tropical
regions of the Western Hemisphere in
Australia, in portions of northern Asia
and southern Africa. In other places the
conquest has been purely political, the
Europeans representing for the most part
merely a small caste of soldiers and ad-
mfnistrators, as in most of tropical Asia
and Africa and in much of tropical Amer
lea. Finally, here and there instances oc-
cur where there has been no conquest at
all, but where an alien people is profound
ly and radically changed by the mere i'm
pact of western civilization.
There are of course many grades be-
tween these different types of influence
but the net outcome of what has occurred
during the last four centuries is that civil
lization of the European type now exer-
ctses a more or less profound effect over
practically the entire world There are
hooks and corners to which it has not yet
penetrated; but there is at present no
large space of territory in which the gem
eral movement of civilized activity does
not make itself more or less felt This
represents something wholly different
from what has ever hitherto been SEEN
n ORC oct dove Of TT
the influence of Rome was felt over only
relatively small portion Of the worlds
surface Over much the larger part of the
world the process of change and develop
ment was absolutely unaffected by any
thing that occurred in the Roman empire;
and those communities the play of whose
influence was felt in action and reaction,
and in inter-action, among themselves,
were grouped Immediately around the
Mediterranean. Now. however, the whole
world is bound together as never before;
the bonds are sometimes those Of hatred
rather than love. but they are bonds
nevertheless.
All the Nations Linked.
Frownng or hopeful. every man Of lead
ership in any line of thought or effort
must now look beyond the limits of his
own country. The student of sociology
may live in Berlin or ST. Petersburg
Rome or London. or he may live in Mel
bourne or san FRANCISCO or Buen0S AIRES;
but in whatever city he lives, he must pay
heed to the studies OF men who live in
each of the other cities. When in Amer
lea we study labor problems and attempt
to deal with subjects such as life insur-
ance for wage-workers. we turn to see
what you do here in Germany, and we
also turn to see what the far-off COM
monwealth of New Zealand is doing
When a great German scientist is warning
against the most dreaded enemies of man
kind, creatures of infinitesimal size which
the microscope reveals in his blood, he
may spend his holidays of study in CEN
trail Africa or in eastern Asia: and he
must know what is accomplished in the
laboratories of Tokyo just as he must
know the details of that practical apphca-
ton of science which has changed the
Isthmus of Panama from a death-trap
into what is almost health resort. Every
progressive in China is striving to intro
duce western methods of education and
administration, and hundreds of European
and American books are now translated
into Chinese. The influence of European
governmental principles is strikingly IL
lustrated by the fact that admiration for
hao hea.