The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1910-06-09


pean type, as shown in Portugal. Spain.
and England. The differences between
these new" American and these ''old"
European nations are not as great as those
which separate the new" nations one
from another and the "old" nations one
from another. There are In each case
very real differences between the new and
the old Acknowledgement both for good
and for evil but in each case there Is
the same ancestral history to reckon with,
the same type of civilization, with its at
tendant benefits and shortcomings: and.
after the pioneer stages are passed. the
problems to be solved. in spite of superb
cial differences. are In their essence the
same; they are those that confront all
civilized peoples. not those that confront
peoples struggling from barbarism into
civilization
So. when we speak of the death" of
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 savages. the
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 persisted.
leaving no descendants and the blood has
disappeared Certain other tribes of
Indians have as tribes disappeared or
are now disappearing; but their blood
remains. being absorbed into the veins of
the white intruders. or of the black men
introduced by these white intruders: so
that In reality they are merely being
transformed into something absolutely
different from what they were.
A like wide diversity in fact may be
covered In the statement that a civiliza-
ton has died out"
Phenomena That Puzzle.
Tn x.,i+I
beings in simple and primitive relations,
but with highly complex, highly special
lied. civilized, or semi-civiized societies,
there is need of great caution in drawing
analogies with what has occurred in the
development of the animal world. Yet
even in these cases II Is curious to SEE
how some of the phenomena in the
growth and disappearance of these COM
pick, 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 more than by bond of
blood, show periods of extraordinary
growth. and again OF sudden or lingering
decay? In some cases we can answer
readily enough; in other cases we can
not as yet even guess what the proper
answer should be. II in any such case
| 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 antidote
| to the dangers of an extreme centraliza-
| ton. develops into mere particularism.
| into inability to combine. effectively for
| achievement of a common end. then It Is
| hopeless 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 its
name would have become a byword of
| derision, If the forces of union had not
| triumphed In 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 II the average
| woman ceases to become the mother of a
| family of healthy children IL the average
man loses the will and the power to work
| up to old age and to fight whenever the
| need arises. II the homely, commonplace
| virtues die out, If strength of character
vanishes in graceful sef-indulgsnce II the
| virile qualities atrophy, then the nation
| has lost what no material prosperity can
| Offset.
But there are plenty of other phenom-
ena wholly or partially inexplicable. 1t 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 sensuality ate like acids into the
fiber of the upper classes. while the 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 ltera-
| ture, at another time as regards architec-
ture, at another time as regards city
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 instanc, that
| of Holland. For a period covering a
| 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 ma
lions 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-
BILE soul. Her fall came; 1t could not
have been indefinitely postponed: but IT
| j
| because of shortcomings on her part to
| which both Great Britain and the United
| States would be wise to pay heed Her
| government was singulsrly ineffective the
| decentralization being such as often to
permit the separatist. the particuarist
| 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 posi-
BILE. and try to Justify their own reluctance
to face 1t either by high-sounding moral
platitudes or else by philosophy of
short-sighted materiaism 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 fighting,
| and fought very well. they refused in
| time of peace to make ready fleets SO eff
| flcient as either to insure the Dutch
| against the peace being broken or else
! to give them the victory when war
| came. To be opuient and unarmed is to
secure ease in the present at the almost
| certain cost of disaster in the future
| 1t is therefore easy to see why Holland
lost when she did her position among the
| powers; but It is far more difficult to ex-
| plain why at the same time there should