El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-12
ROOSEVELT THINKS MACHINERY
Of THE WORLD IS MOVING TOO FAST
CONTINUED From Page One)

modern civilization can be in any way
compared is that period of Graeco-Ro-
man civilization extending. say, from
the Athens of Themistocles to the
Rome of Marcus Aurelius.
The Old And the New.
Many of the forces and tendencies
which were then at work are at work
now. knowledge. luxury, and refine
msnt, wide material conquests, terri
tofial administration on vast scale,
an increase in the mastery Of me-
chanical appliances and in applied sci
ence-all these mark our civilization
as they marked the wonderful civil
zation that fiourished in the Mediter-
ranean lands 20 centuries ago; and
they preceded the downfall of the older
civilization. Yet the differences are
many, and some Of them are quite as
striking as the similarities. The single
fact that the old civilization was based
upon slavery shows the chasm thai
separates the two Let me point our
one further and very significant diff
ference in the development of the two
civilizations a difference so obvious
that il is astonishing that it has not
been dwelt upon by men Of letters.
Civilizations Danger.
lone of the prime dangers of civil
cation has always been its tendency to
cause the loss OF the virile fighting
virtues, of the fighting edge When
men get too comfortable and lead too
luxurious lives there is always danger
lest the softness eat like an acid into
their manliness Of fiber. The bar
marian. beca use of the very conditions
Of mis- life is forced to keep and de
velop certain hardy qualities which
the man of civilization tends TO lose,
whether he be clerk, factory hand
merchant or even q certain type OF
farmer Now I will not assert that
in modern civilized society these tend
encies have been wholly overcome; but
there has been a much more success
full effort to overcome them than was
the case in the early civilizations
The Danger Today.
"What is the lesson to us today
Are we to go the way Of the Older CIV
citations? The immense increase in
the area of civilized activity today, so
that It is nearly coterminous with the
worlds surface: the immense increase
in the multitudinous variety or It's &C
tivities: the immense increase IN the
velocity of the world movement-are
all these TO mean merely that the crash
will he all the more complete and ter
rible that the answer will be in the
negative: but Of this we can be Ger
tain. that we shall not go down in ruin
unless we deserve and earn our end
There is no necessity for US TO fall; we
can hew out our destiny for ourselves
Il only we have the wit and the cour-
age and the honesty.
People Better; Not Worse.
al hat II
civilization will fall. I think that on
the whole we have grown better and
not worse ] think that on the whole
the future holds more for US than even
the great past has held But. assuredly,
the dreams Of golden glory in the ~
ture will not come true unless, high Of
heart and strong of hand, by our own
mighty deeds we make them como true
We cannot afford to develop any one
set Of qualities, any one set Of actiVs-
ties at the cost Of seeing others
equally necessary. atrophied. Neither the
military efficiency of the Mongol, the
extraordinary business ability Of the
Phoenician, nor the subtle and poi
ished intellect of the Greek availed
70 avert destruction.
Men Need Virtues.
I'VE. the men Of today and of the
future, need many qualities if we are
of all and most important of all, the
qualities which stand at the base Of
individual, Of family life, the funda-
mental and essential qualities-the
homely, everyday. all important viz
tues If the average man viii not
work, If he has not in him the viii
and the power to be a good husband
and father; il the average woman is
not a good housewife, good mother
of many healthy children, then the
state will topple, will go down, no
matter what may be its brilliance Of
artistic development Of material
achievement.
But these homely qualities are not
enough There must, in addition, be
that mower Of organization, that power
of working in common for a 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 i'm
portant than the things of the body. !
We can well do without the hard in
tolerance and arid intellectual barren
ness of what was worst in the theo- /
logical systems of the past. but there /
has never been greater need Of a high i
and fine religious spirit than at the 1
present time
Need Intellectual Leaders.
$50. while we can laugh good hu- l
moredly at some Of the pretensions Of 1
modern philosophy in It's various /
branches, 1t would be worse than folly {
on our part 70 ignore our need Of in |
telIectual leadership. Your own great |
Frederick once said that if he wished /
to punish a province he would leave it !
TO be governed by philosophers: the !
sneer had in It an element Of justice; /
and vet no one better than the great /
Frederick knew the value Of philoso-
nhers. the value Of men Of science,
men Of letters. men of art 1t would |
be a bad thing indeed TO accept Toll 4
STOW as a guide in social and moral I
matters: but It would also be a bad
thing not to have Tolstoy, not to
profit by the lofty side Of his teach
fngs-
@Srhere are plenty OF scientific men
whose hard arrogance, whose cynical
materiaIism- whose dogmatic intoler-
ance put Them on a levei with the
NOTICE TO FAT WOMEN.