The Mena weekly star., 1910-05-19

from the citizen army to the army of
 mercenarles had been completed.
 Modern Citizens Armies.
 Now. the exact reverse has been the
 case with us in modern times. 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- uRion fin France in the Thirty Years war in Germany. in the wars that imme- dlately marked the beginning of the break-up of the great Polish kingdom, the regiments and brigades of foreign sol diers formed q striking and 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- bearing in but limited numbers in the mercenary armies by which they were plundered. Gradually this has all changed. until now practically every army s a citizen army, and the mercenary has al- moet disappeared, while the army exists on a vaster scale than ever before in his- tory This is so among the military mon archies 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 fin no life-and-death struggle, and Vet. 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 iy war for a principle, war waged by each side for an ideal. and while faults and shortcomings were plentiful among the combatants, there was comparatively little sordldness of motive or conduct. In such 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 in 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 Graeco-Roman or classic civilization Is to be found In the relations of wealth and politics. In clas- sic times as the civilization advanced to-
 ward its zenith, politics became recog- 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 or his political-military career Augustus es- tablished imperial Rome on firm founda- tons 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 Lncolni There were few exceptions in ancient days; but the immense majority of the Greeks and the Romans, as their civilizations culminated, accepted money-making on a large scale as one of the incidents of successful public career. Now all of this is in sharp l 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-maxing | is permissible in an honorable public ca- | reer.
 | In this respect the standard has been 1 constantly elevated, and things which | statesmen had no hesitation in doing | three centuries or two centuries ago, and which did not seriously hurt a public ca- reer even a century ago, are now utterly | impossible Wealthy men still exercise large, and sometimes an improper, infiu- | ence in politics, but it Is apt to be an in- | direct influence; and in the advanced
 states the mere suspicion that the wealth | 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 influ- 1 ence modern political life, but it Is not ac- quired in political life.
 Optimistic for the Future. | MT. Roosevelt called attention to
 the fact that hitherto every civiliza- 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 l civilization will fall. I think that on the whole we have grown better and not worse. l 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- l phied. Neither the military efficiency of | the Mongol. the extraordinary business l 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 well. 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 quali- 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 O 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
 ole. will go down, no matter what may be It's brilliance of artistic development or material achievement. But these home iy qualities arc not enough. There must. fin 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 l 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 1 worst in the theological systems of the l past. but there has never been a greater | need of high and fine religious spirit l than at the present time So, while we l can laugh good-humoredly at some of | the pretensions of modern philosophy fin | 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 visiousness no worse than folly. ErHtf ffnl rsvT~