The Carlisle independent., 1910-05-12

| 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- moEt disappeared, while the army exists on vaster scale than ever before in his- tory. This is so among the military mon arehies 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 lfe-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 a war for principle, war waged by each side for an ideal. and while faults and shortcomings were plentiful among the combatants, there was comparatively little sordidness of motive or conduct. In such a giant struggle, where across the warp of so many interests is shot the wool of so many purposes, dark strands and bright, strands somber and brilliant. are always intertwined inevitably there was corruption here and there !n the Civil war; but all the leaders on both sides, and the great majority of the enormous masses of fighting men. wholly disre- garded, and were wholly uninfiuenced by, pecuniary considerations.
 Wealth and Politics.
 Another striking contrast in the course of modern civilization as compared with the later stages of the Roman or classic civilization is to be found in the relations of wealth and politics. In clas- sic times, as the civilization advanced to- V1 a nized means of accommodating great wealth. Caesar was again and again on the verge of bankruptcy; he spent an enormous fortune; and he recouped him self by the money which he made out of his politcal-military career. Augustus es- tablished imperial Rome on firm founda- tions by the use he made of the huge fortune he had acquired by plunder. What a contrast is offered by the careers of Washington and Lincoln. There were a few exceptions in ancient days; but the immense majority of the Greeks and the Romans, as their civilizations eliminated, accepted money making on a large scale as one of the incidents of a successful public career. Now all of this is in sharp contrast to what has happened within the last two or three centuries. During this time there has been a steady growth away from the theory that money-making is permissible in an honorable public ca reer.
 In this respect the standard has been constantly elevated. and things which statesmen had no hesitation in doing three centuries or two centuries ago. and which did not seriously hurt public ca reer even a century ago, are now utterly impossible Wealthy men still exercise a large, and sometimes an improper, infu- enee in politics. but it is apt to be an in direct influence; and in the advanced Nf,fo 4I,of h of public men Is obtained or added to as an incident of their public careers will bar them from public life. Speaking generally, wealth may very greatly infiu- enee modern political life, but it is not &C., quired in political life.
 Optimistic for the Future.
 MT. Roosevelt called attention to the fact that hitherto every eiviliza- tion that has arisen has been able to develop only few activities, it's field of endeavor being limited in kind as well as. in locality, and each of these civilizations has fallen. What is the lesson to us of today? he asked. Will the crash come, and be all the more terrible because of the immense in crease in activities and area? To this he replied:
 Personally, I do not believe that our civilization will fall. I think that on the whole we have grown better and not worse. I think that on the whole the fu- ture 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 af ford to develop any one set of qualities, any one set of activities, at the cost Of seeing others. equally necessary, atro- phied. Neither the military efficiency of the Mongol, the extraordinary business ability of the Phoenician. nor the subtle and polished intellect of the Greek availed to avert destruction.
 We the men of today and of the fu- ture, need many qualities if we are to do our work we'll We need, first of all and most important of all, the qualities which stand at the base of individual, of family life, the fundamental and essential quail ties-the homely, everyday, all-important virtues. If the average man will not work, if he has not in him the will and the power to be a good husband and fa- ther; If the average woman Is not a good housewife, a good mother of many healthy children, then the state will top pie, will go down, no matter what may be its brilliance of artistic development or material achievement. But these home ly 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 such signal fashion during the last half-century. Moreover, the things of the spirit are even more impor- tant than the things of the body. We can well do without the hard intolerance and arid intellectual barrenness of what was worst in the theological systems of the past, but there has never been greater need of high and fine religious spirit than at the present time So, while we can laugh od-humoredly at some of the pretensions of modern philosophy in it's various branches. 1t would be worse than folly on our part to ignore our need of intellectual leadership.
 Must Steer Middle Course.
 Never has philanthropy. humanitarian ism, seen such development as now; and though we must all beware of the folly and the viciousness no worse than folly, which marks the believer in the perfec- tibility of man when his heart runs away with his head or when vanity usurps the place of conscience, yet we must remem- Der also that 1t is only by working along the lines laid down by the philanthropists, by the lovers of mankind that we can be sure of lifting our civilization to a higher and more permanent plane of we'll being than was ever attained by any pre-