The Mena weekly star., 1910-05-19

world the process of change and develop ment was absolutely unaffected by my thing that occurred In the Roman empire. and those communities the play of whose influence was fe1t in action and reaction. and in intersection, 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.
 Browning 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. Petershurg Rome or London. or he may live fin Mel bourne or San Francisco or Buenos Ares 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 fin Germany. and we also turn to see what the far-oR com monwealth of New Zealand is doing When a great German scientist is warning against the most dreaded enemies of man kind creatures of lnfnitesimal size which
 
 may spend his holidays of study in cen trai Africa or in eastern Asia; and he must know what is accomplished in tho laboratories of Tokyo. just as he must know the details of that practical appica- ton of science which has changed the Isthmus of Panama from 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 translate. Into Chinese The influence of European governmental principles Is strikingly il- frustrated by the fact that admiration for them has broken down the Iron barriers of Moslem conservatism, so that their Intro duction has become burning question in Turkey and Persia. while the very unrest. the impatience of European or American control, in India, Egypt. or the Philip pines, takes the form of demanding that the government be assimilated more close- ly to what it is in England or the United States. The deeds and works of any great statesman the preachings of any great ethical social. or political teacher, now find echoes in both hemlspheres and in every continent. From new discovery in science to a new method of combating Of applying Socialism, there is no movement of note which can take place in any part of the globe without powerfully affecting masses of people in Europe America, and Australia. in Asia and Africa. For veal or for woe. the peoples of mankind are knit together far closer than ever before.
 So much for the geographical side of the expansion of modern civilization. But only a few of the many and intense &C., tivities of modern civilization have found their expression on this side The move ment has been just as striking in It's con quest over natural forces. in it's searching
 inquiry Into and about the soul of things.
 Conquest Over Nature.
 Tho conquest over nature has included an extraordinary increase in every form of Knowledge of the world we live In, and also an extraordinary increase in the pow CT of utilizing forces of nature. In both directions the advance has been very great during the past four or five cen turies. and in both directions 1t has gone on with ever increasing rapidlty during the last century After the great age of Rome had passed, the boundaries of knowledge shrank. and in many cases it was not until well-nigh sour own times that her domain was once again pushed beyond the ancient landmarks. About the year 150 A. D. Ptoleny, the geographer, published his map of central Africa and the sources of the Nile, and this map was more accurate than any which we had as late us 1850 A. D. More was known of
  about the physical world was guessed at, in the days of Pliny. than was known or guessed until the modern movement be- gan. The case was the same as regards military science. At the close of the Mid de Ages the weapons were what they had always been-sword, shield. bow, spear; and any improvement in them was more than offset by the loss in knowledge | of military organization. in the science of | war, and in military leadership since the | days of Hannibal and Caesar
 A hundred years ago, when this uni l versity was founded the methods of | transportation did not differ in the es- | sentials from what they had been among | the highly civilized nations of antiquity, | Travellers and merchandise went by land | in wheeled vehicles or on beasts of bur | den, and by sea In boats propelled by | sails or by oars: and news was conveyed l as 1t always had been conveyed. A grad | uate of your university today can go to | mid-Asia or mid-Africa with far less con | sciousness of performing a feat of note | than would have been the case hundred | years ago with student who visited | Sicily and Andalusia.
 | Moreover, the invention and use of ma | chinery run by steam or electricity have worked revolution in industry as great as the revolution in transportatlon Sd | that here again the difference between |
 merely of degree but of kind. Tn many vital respects the huge modern city differs l more from all preceding cities than any | of these differed one from the other; and
 the giant factory town Is of and by itself
 one of the most formidable problems of | modern life.
 Steam and electricity have given the ] race dominion over land and water such
 as it never had before; and now the con
 quest of the air is directly impending. As | books preserve thought through time so
 the telegraph and the telephone transmit 1 it through the space they annihilate and
 therefore minds are swayed one by an-
 other without regard to the limitations of 1 space and time which formerly forced
 each community 10 work in comparative
 isolation. II is the same with the body as
 with the brain The machinery of the fac
 tory and the farm enormously multipiies l bodily skill and vigor. Countless trained | intelligences are at work to teach us how
 to avoid or counteract the effects of l waste.
 In the Realm of Intellect.
 The advances in the realm of pure inteI-
 lect have been of equal note, and they
 have been both intensive and extensive.
 Great virgin fields of learning and wis
 dom have been discovered by the few, l and at the same time knowledge has spread among the many to a degree never | dreamed of before. Old men among us
 have seen in their own generation the | rise of the first rational science of the evolution of life. The astronomer and the | chemist, the psychologist and the his- | torian, and all their brethren in many diff | ferent fields of wide endeavor. work with a training and knowledge end method | which are in effect instruments of pre- l cision differentiating their iahors from | the iahors of their predecessors as the