The Mena weekly star., 1910-06-16

| ctitf uffTcrcnccs. are In their essence the same; they arc those that confront all civilized peoples. not those that confront peoples struggling from barbarism into civilization.
 So, when we speak of the death" of 1 tribe. nation or a civilization, the term may be used for either one or two totally | different processes; the analogy with what occurs In biological history being | complete. Certain tribes of savagee. tho | Tasmanians. for instance, and various lit- tie clans of American Indians have within the last century or two completely died out; all of the individuals have perished. | leaving no descendants. and the blood has | disappeared. Certain other tribes of Indians have as tribes disappeared or are now disappearing; but their blood rema> Ss. being absorbed into the veins of | the white intruders. or of the black men introduced by these white intruders; so that in reality they arc merely being l transformed Into something absolutely l different from what they were.
 A like wide diversity in fact may be covered Tn tho statement that civillza- ton has ''died out'
 Phenomena That Puzzle.
 Tn dealing. not with groups of human beings in simple and primitive relations. but with highly complex. highly special ized. civilized. or semi-civilized societies, there is need of great caution fin drawing analoeies with what has occurred in the development of the animal world Yet even In these cases 1t Is curious to see how some of the phenomena in the growth and disappearance of these com plex. artificial groups of human beings resemble what has happened in myriads of instances in the history of life on this planet
 Why do great artificial empires. whose citizens are knit by bond of speech and culture much moro than by bond of blood, show periods of extraordinary growth. and again of sudden or lingering decay7 In some cases we can answer readily enough; in other cases we can not as yet even guess what the proper answer should be. if in any such case the centrifugal forces overcome the cen tripetal. the nation will of course fly to pieces. and the reason for its failure to become dominant force Is patent to every one. The minute that the spirit which finds its healthy development in local self government. and in the antdote 10 the dangers of an extreme centralza- ton. develops into mere particularism, Into inability 10 combine effectively for achievement of common end. then it is bopeless to expect great results. Poland and certain republics of the western hemisphere are the standard examples of failure of this kind and the United States would have ranked with them, and it's name would have become a byword of derision, If the forces of union had not triumphed fin the civil war. So the growth of soft luxury after 1t has reached certain point becomes a national danger patent to all. Again, 1t needs but little of the vision of seer to foretell what must happen in any community if the average woman ceases to become the mother of a family of healthy children. if the average man loses the will and the power to worl. fO nld and n fight ub need arises. If the horfely. commonplace virtues die out, if strength of character vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, if the virilc qualities atrophy. ihen the nation has lost what no material prosperity can offert
 But there are plenty of other phenom- ena wholly or partially incxplicable. It Is easy to see why Rome trended downward when great slave-tilled farms spread over what had once been a countryside of peasant proprietors. when greed and lux. ury and sensuaiity ate like acids into the fiber of the upper classes, VI ''e tlse mass of the citizens grew to depend, not upon their own exertions, but upon the state for their pleasures and their very liveli- hood. But this does not explain why the forward movement stopped at different times so far as different matters were concerned; at one time as regards Itera- ture. at another time regards architec-
 
 building We cannot even guess why the springs of one kind of energy dried up while there was yet no cessation of an- other kind.
 Holland as an Example.
 Take another and smaller instano4 that of Holland. For a period covering @ little more than the seventeenth century Holland. like some of the Italian city states at an earlier period, stood on the dangerous heights of greatness beside na- tons so vastly her superior in territory and population as to make 1t inevitable that sooner or later she must fall from the glorious and perilous eminence to which she had been raised by her own indomita- ble soul Her fall came; 1t could not have been indefinitely postponed but 1t came far quicker than 1t needed to come, because of shortcomings on her part to which both Great Britain and the United States would be wise to pay heed. Her government was singuiarly ineffective. the decentralization being such as often to permit the separatist. the particularist spirit of the provinces to rob the central authority of all efficiency. This was bad enough. But the fatal weakness was that so common in rich. peace-loving societies, where men hate to think of war as possi- ble and try to justify their own reluctance to face it either by hfgh-soundns moral platitudes or else by philosophy of short-sighted undertaken. The Dutch were very wealthy. They grew to be- lieve that they could hire others to do their fighting for them on land: and on sea. where they did their own lighting, and fought very well. they refused in time of peace to make ready fleets so ef- fcient as either to insure the Dutch against the peace being broken or else 10 give them the victory when war came. To be opulent and unarmed is to secure ease in the present at the almost certain cost of disaster in the future
 IL Is therefore easy to see why Holland lost when she did her position among the powers; but 1t is far more difficult to ex- plain why at the same time there should have come at least partial loss of posi- tion in the world of art and letters Some spark of divine fire burned itself out in the national soul. As the line Of great statesmen. of great warriors by land and sea, came to an end so the line of the great Dutch painters ended. The loss of pre-eminence in the schools followed the loss of pre-eminence in camp and in council chamber.
 In the little republic of Holland, as in the great empire of Rome. 1t was not death which came. but transformation. Both Holland and Italy teach us that races that fall may rise again.
 Danger of Race Suicide.
 There are questions which we or the great civilized nations are ever tempted to ask of the future. Is our time of growth drawing to an end7 Are we as nations soon to come under the rule of that great law of death, which is itself but part of the great law of lIfe7 None can tell Forces that we can see and other forces that are hidden or that can but dimly be appre- hended are at work all around us, both for fyaod and for evfl 7,ba .,roxx,ft t,, Inv