The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-05-12

and American books are now translated
into Chinese The influence OF European
governmental principles is strikingly IL
Illustrated by the fact that admiration for
them has broken down the iron barriers OF
Moslem conservatism no that their intro
duction has become n burning question In
Turkey and Persia; while the very unrest,
the impatience OF European OF American
control. In India. Egypt. OF the Philip
pines. takes the form OF demanding that
the government be assimilated more close
ly to what II In 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 a new discovery In
science to a 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
or for woe. the peoples Of mankind are
knit together far closer than ever before
| So much for the geographical side OF
the expansion OF modern civilization. But
only a few OF the many aud intense
| uvities of modern civilization have found
their expression on this side, The move
ment has been just as striking in Its con
quest over natural forces. in its searching
inquiry into and about the soul of things.
Conquest Over Nature.
| The conquest over nature has included
| an extraordinary increase in every form
| of knowledge OF the world we live in. and
| also an extraordinary Increase in the pow
er of utilizing forces OF nature. In both
| directions the advance has been very
| great during the past four or five CEN
| turtles and In both directions II has gone
| on with ever increasing rapidity during
| the last century. After the great age Of
Rome had passed. the boundaries Of
| knowledge shrank and in many cases II
| was not until well-nlgh our own times
| that her domain was once again pushed
| beyond the ancient landmarks About the
| year $50 A. ID. Ptolemy. the geographer.
| published his map of central Africa and
| the sources OF the Nile. and this map was
more accurate than any which we had as
| late as 1850 A. ID. More was known OF
| physical science, and more OF the truth
| about the physical world was guessed at.
| In the DAYS OF Pllny. than was known or
| guessed until the modern movement be-
| gan. The case was the same regards
| military science At the close of the Mid
| die Ages the weapons were what they
had always been-sword, shield, bow,
| spear: and any Improvement in them was
| more than Offset by the loss in knowledge
| of military organization, In the science of
| war, and in military leadership since the
| days of Hannibal and Caesar.
hundred years ago. when this uni
| verslty was founded, the methods of
| transportation did not differ in the es-
| sentials from what they had been among
| the highly civilized nations of antiquity.
| Travellers and merchandise went by land
| in wheeled vehicles or on beasts of bur
| den. and by sea in boats propelled by
| sails or by oars and news was conveyed
| as 1t always had been conveyed. grad
| uate of your university today can go to
| mid-Asia or mid-Africa with far less con-
| sciousness of performing a feat of note
1 hn NfntNlA ha. hAA th. 4
years ago with a student who visited
Sicily and Andalusla.
| Moreover. the invention and use OF ma
| chinery run by steam or electricity have
| worked a revolution in industry as great
| as the revolution in transportation; so
| that here again the difference between
| ancient and modern civilization is one not
| merely of degree but of kind. In many
| vital respects the huge modern city differs
more from all preceding cities than any
| of these differed one from the other; and
| the giant factory town is of and by Itself
| one of the most formidable problems OF
| modern life.
| 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
| 1t 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 comparative
| isolation. 1t is the same with the body as
| with the brain. The machinery OF the fac
| tory and the farm enormously multplies
| bodily skill and vigor. Countless trained
| intelligences are at work to teach us how
| to avoid or counteract the effects of
| waste.
In the Realm of Intellect.
The advances in the realm of pure intel
| lect 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 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
| II training and knowledge and method
I which are in effect instruments Of pre-
| cisiTn diferentiating 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.
| pht VI lut prime hangers OF clNlllZattOn
| has always been its tendency to cause
| the loss of the virile fighting virtues. of
| the fiIhting edge. When men set too com
| Portable and lead too luxurious lives there
| Is always danger lest the softness eat like
| an acid into their manness 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, or even a
| certain type of farmer Now ! 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 curtously shown by the military
| history of the Graeco- Roman period as
compared with the history of the last four
| or fve centuries here in Europe and
| among nations of European descent In
| the Grecian and Roman military history
| the change was steadily from a citizen
| army to an army OF merCenares In the
| days Of the early greatness of Athens
| 'Thehes and Sparta. in the days when the
| Roman republic conquered what world IL
| knew the armies were filled with citizen
soldiers But gradually the citizens re-
| fused To serve In the armies. or became