Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-05-12
HAS FAITH IN THE FUTURE
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full effort to overcome them than was
the case IN the early civilizations.
What is the lesson to us today?
Are we to go the way Of the older
civilizations The immense increase
in the area of civilized activity today,
so that it is nearly coterminous with
the worlds surface; the immense in
crease in the velocity of the world
movements-are all these to mean
merely that the crash Will be all the
more complete and terrible that the
answer will be in the negative; but
of this we can be certain, 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, If
only we have the wit and the courage
and the honesty.
Believes 1t VIII stand.
Personally, I do not believe that
our civilization will fall. l think that
and not worse. l 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 future will not come true
unless, high OF heart and strong of
hand, by our own mighty deeds we
make them come true. We cannot
afford to develop any one set of quail
ties, any one set of activities, at the
cost Of seeing others, equally neces.
sary, atrophied. Neither the military
efficiency of the Mongol. the extraor-
binary business ability of the Phoeni-
clan, nor the subtle and polished in
tellect of the Greek awaited to avert
destruction.
Need Many Qualities.
I'VE, the men of today and OF the
future, need many qualities If we are
to do our work well. We need. first
of ali 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 vir-
tues. If the average man will not
work, If he has not in him the will and
the power to be a good husband and
father; il the average woman is not a
good housewife, a good mother of
many healthy children, then the state
will topple, will go down, no matter
what may be it's brilliance of artistic
or material achievement
But these homely qualities are not
enough There must, In addition be
that power of organization. that power
of working in common for a common
end, which the German people have
shown in tsuch 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.
Not Impossible Dream.
at is no impossible dream to build
ND a civilization in which morality,
ethical development, and a true feel
ing of brotherhood shall all alike be
divorced from false sentimentaIity,
and from the rancorous and evil pas
sions which, curiously enough, so often
accompany professions of sentimental
to, the rights of man; in
which a high material development in
the things of the body shall be achiev-
ed without subordination of the things
of the soul; in which there shall be a
genuine desire for peace and justice
without loss of those virile qualities
without which no love of peace or JUS
tice shall avail any race: in which the
fullest development of scientific re-
search, the great distinguishing fea-
.ure OF our present civilization, shall
yet not imply belief that intellect