Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-05-14

end. There Is no necessity for us to
fall; we can hew out our destiny for
ourselves, if only we have the wit and
the courage and honesty.
Thinks World is Better.
Personally. do not believe that our
civilization will fall. l think that on
the whole we have grown better and
not worse. I think that on the whole
the future holds more for us than even
the great past has held. But, assur-
eddy, the dreams of golden glory in the
future will not come true unless, high
Of heart and strong of hand, by our own
in mighty deeds we make them come
true. We cannot afford to develop any
one set of qualities, any one set OF
activities, at the cost Of seeing others,
equally necessary, atrophied. Neither
the military efficiency of the Mongol,
the Phoenician, nor the subtle and pol
ished intellect Of the Greek awaited to
avert destruction.
"We, the men of today and Of the
future, need many qualities II 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
mental and essential qualities-the
homely, everyday, all-important vir-
tues. If the average man Will not work,
If he has not In him the will and the
power to be good husband and faith
err; if the average woman is not a
good housewife, a good mother Of
many healthy children, then the state
will topple,, will go down, no matter
what may be it's brilliancy of artistic
development or material achievement
Religious Spirit Needed.
But these homely qualities are not
enough. There must, in addition. be
that power Of organization, that pow
er of working in common for a COM
mon end, which the Germany people
during the last half century. More
over. the things Of the spirit are even
more important than the things of the
body. We can we'll do without the hard
intolerance and arid Intellectual bar
renness Of what was worst in the
theological systems of the past. but
there has never been greater need Of
a high and fine religious spirit than
at the present time. So, while we can
laugh good humoredly at some of the
pretensions of modern philosophy in
in its various branches, 1t would be
worse than folly on our part to
ignore our need Of intellectual
leadership. Your own great
Frederick once said that II he wished
to punish province he would leave IT
to be governed by philosophers; the
sheer had in it an element of Justice;
and yet no one better than the great
Frederick knew the value of philos-
ophers, the value Of men of science,
men of letters, men Of art. 1t would be.
bad thing indeed to accept Tolstoy
as a guide in social and moral mat
tiers; but it would also be bad thing
not to have Tolstoy, not to profit by
are plenty of scientific men whose
hard arrogance, whose cynical ma
terialism, whose dogmatic intolerance
put them on a level with the bigoted
medieval ecclesiasticism which they
denounce. Yet our debt to scientific
men is incalculable, and our clVlllza-
ton today would have refit from 1t all
that which most highly distinguishes
1t if the work Of the great masters OF
science during the past four centuries
were now undone or forgotten. Never
has philanthropy, humanitarian1sm.
seen such development as now; and
though we must all beware of the fol-
ly, and the viciousness no worse than
folly, which maks the believer in the
perfectibility Of man when his heart
runs away with his head, or when
vanit- usurps the place of conscience.
yet we must remember also that It
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
higher and more permanent plane OF
we'll being than was ever attained by
any preceding civilization Unjust war
is to be abhorred: but woe to the ma
ton that does not make ready to hold
it's own in time Of need against all
who would harm it: ard woe thrice
over to the nation in which the aver
age man loses the fighting edge, loses
tie power to serve as soldier If the
dav Of need should arise.
Tho Civilization he Would Build.
ut is no impossible dream to build
up civilization in which morality,
ethical development, and true feel
ing Of brotherhood shall all alike be
divorced from false sentimentality,
and from the rancorous and evil pas
sions which, curiously enough, so
often accompany professions Of senti-
mental attachment to the rights of
man: In which high material de-
yelopment in the things Of the body
shall be achieved without subordina-
ton Of the things Of the soul: in which
there shall be a genuine desire for
peace and justice without loss Of those
virile qualities without which no love
OF peace or Justice shall avail any race;
in which the fullest development of
scientific research. the great distin-
gushing feature of our present civili-
intellect can ever take the place Of
character--for, from the standpoint Of
the nation as Of the Individual, it Is
character that is the one vital possess
ion.
. Finally this world movement Of
civilization, this movement which Is
now felt throbbing in every corner Of
the globe Should bind the nations Of
the world. together while yet leaving
unilnpaired that love of country in the
individual citizen which in the present
stage of the worlds progress is essen
tial to the worlds well being. You, my
hearers, and 1 who speak to you, be-
long to different nations. Under mod
ern conditions the books we read, the
news sent by telegraph to our news
papers. the strangers we meet, half OF
the things we hear and do each day,
all tend to bring us into touch with
other people. Each people can do JUS
tioe itself only If it does Justice to
others: but each people can do Its
part in the world movement for all
only If it first does it's duty within it's
own household. The good citizen must
be good citizen of his own country