River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-05-19

fca 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 mis- 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 applica-
ton of science which has changed the
| Isthmus of Panama from a death-trap
into what is almost a 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
| 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 Impotence 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 1T 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 hemisphereS and In
every continent. From new discovery in
/ science to new method of combating or
| 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
|
knit together far closer than ever before.
So much for the geographical side or
/ the expansion of modern civilization. But
/ only 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.
Steam and electricity have given the
| race dominion over land and water such
| as 1t 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
| IT through the space they annihilate, and
| therefore minds are swayed one by an
| other without regard to the limitations Of
| space and time which formerly forced
each community to work in comp arative
isolation. It is the same with the body as
with the brain The machinery of the fac
tory and the farm enormously multiples
bodily skill and vigor. Countless trained
intelligences are at work to teach us how
to avoid or counterfeit the effects of
waste.
In the Realm of Intellect.
The advances in the realm of pure intel
1ect 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,
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 and method
which are in effect instruments Of pre-
cision differentiating their labors from
the labors of their predecessors as the
rifle is differentiated from the bow.
The play of new forces is as evident in
the moral and spiritual world as in the
world Of the mind and the body.
One Danger of Civilization.
One of the prime dangers of civilization
has always been it's tendency to cause
the loss of the virile fighting virtues, of
the fighting edge. When men get too com
Portable and lead too luxurious lives there
is always danger lest the softness eat like
an acid into their manliness of fiber. The
barbarian, because of the very conditions
of his life, is forced to keep and develop
certain hardy qualities which the man of
civilization tends to lose, whether he be
clerk, factory hand, merchant, even q
certain type of farmer. Now I will not
assert that in modern civilized society
these tendencies have been wholly over
come; but there has been a much more
successful effort to overcome them than
was the case in the early civilizations
This is curiously shown by the military
history Of the Graeco-Roman period as
compared with the history of the last four
or five centuries here in Europe and
among nations of European descent. In
the Grecian and Roman military history
the change was steadily from citizen
army to an army of mercenaries. In the
days of the early greatness Of Athens,
Thebes, and Sparta, in the days when the
Roman republic conquered what world it
knew, the armies were filled with citizen
soldiers. But gradually the citizens re-
fused to serve in the armies, or became
unable to render good service. The Greek
states described by Polybius, with but few
exceptions, hired others to do their fight
ing for them. The Romans of the days of
Augustus had utterly ceased to furnish
any cavalry, and were rapidly ceasing to
furnish any infantry, to the legions and
cohorts. When the civilization came to
an end, there were no longer citizens in
the ranks of the soldiers. The change
from the citizen army to the army of
mercenaries had been completed
Modern Citizens Armies.
Now, the exact reverse has been the
case with us in modern times. A few
centuries ago the mercenary soldier was
the principal figure in most armies, and in
great numbers of cases the mercenary
soldier was an alien. In the wars of re-
ligion in France, in the Thirty Years
war in Germany, in the wars that imme-
diately marked the beginning Of the
breakup OF the great Polish kingdom, the
regiments and brigades Of foreign SOL
diers formed a striking ano leading fea-
ture in every army. Too often the men
of the country in which the fighting took
place played merely the ignoble part Of
victims, the burghers and peasants ap-
pearing in but limited numbers in the
mercenary armies by which they were
plundered. Gradually this has all changed.
until now practically every army is a
citizen army, and the mercenary has al
most disappeared, while the army exists
on vaster scale than ever before in his
tory This is so among the military mon
arches of Europe.
In our own Civil war of the United
States the same thing occurred, peaceful
people as we are. At that time more than
two generations had passed since the
War of independence. During the whole
Of that period the people had been en-
gagged in no life-and-death struggle; and
yet, when the Civil war broke out, and
after some costly and bitter lessons at
the beginning, the fighting spirit of the
people was shown to better advantage
than ever before. The war was peculiar
ly war for principle, a war waged