Barbour County index., 1910-06-08

with the nations OF Europe: but with
whatever changes in detail. their civiliza-
ton is nevertheless of the general Euro
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 nation-differences 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 it's 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
Inherent processes: the analogy with
what occurs in biological history being
complete. Certain tribes Of savages, the
Tasmanfans. for instance, and various lit
tie clans OF American Indians, have within
the last century two completely died
out; all of the individuals have perished
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 tntruders, 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.
In dealing, not with groups of human
beings In simple and primitive relations
but with highly complex, highly special
lied. civilized. 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 it is curious to sec
how some of the phenomena in the
growth and disappearance OF these COM
pleX. 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 a 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. If in any such case
the centrifugal forces overcome the CEN
tripetal, the nation will of course hy TO
pieces, and the reason for its failure to
become a dominant force is patent TO
every one. The minute that the spirit
which finds its healthy DEVELOPMENT in
local government, and in the antidote
to the dangers of an extreme centraliza-
ton, develops into mere partfcularism
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 wILh them, and its
name would have become a byword of
dersiOn, II the forces of union had not
triumphed in the civil war So the
| growth of soft luxury after it has reached
a certain point becomes national danger
| patent to all Again, 1t needs but little of
| the vision of a seer to foretell what must
| happen In any community If the average
woman ceases to become the mother of a
| family of healthy children, If the average
man loses the will and the power to work
up to old age and to fight whenever the
need arises. If the homely, commonplace
virtues die out, II strength of character
vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, if 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
or the citizens grew to depend, not upon
their own eXertions, but upon the state
for their pleasures and their very livel-
hood. But this does not explain why the
forward movement stopped at different
times
concerned; at one time as regards litera-
ture, at another time as regards architec-
ture, at another time as regards citv
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 instance that
| or Holland For a period covering a
! little more than the seventeenth century
! Holland, like some of the Italian citv
! states at an earlier period, stood on the
! dangerous heights of greatness beside ma
! tons so vastly her superior in territory
| and population as to make it inevitable
that sooner or later she must fall from the
| glorious and perilous eminence to which
| she had been raised by her own fndomita
| BILE soul. Her fall came: 1t could not
| have been indefinitely postponed; but If
| came far quicker than it needed to come
| which both Great Britain and the United
| states would be wise to pay heed Her
| government was singularly ineffective. the
| decentralization being such as often TO
| permit the separatist, the particuIarist
| 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 possi-
| bic, and try to justify their own reluctance
! to face II either by high-sounding moral
| platitudes or else by philosophy of
| short-sighted materialism. The Dutch
| were very wealthy. They grew to be-
| heve 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
| hcient as either to insure the Dutch
| against the peace being broken or else
! to give them the victory when war
came. To be opulent and unarmed is to
| secure ease in the present at the almost
certain cost of disaster in the future.