Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-06-08

speaking OF the new states that grew up
around Warsaw, Kief, Nov9orod. and
MOSCOW as the wild savages Of the
steppes and the marshy forests struggled
haltlngly and stumblingly upward to
become builders Of cities and to form
stable governments. The kinRdoms Of
Charlemagne and Alfred were s'naw. "
compared with the empire on the Bos.
phorus; they were also in every wav dif-
ferent: their lines Of ancestral descent had
nothing In common with those Of the
polyglot realm which paid tribute to the
Caesars Of Byzantium: their social nroh-
lens and aftertime history were totally
different. This is not true OF those s.new;'
nations which spring direct from o1d ma.
lions. Brazil. tho Argentine. the United
States. are all ''rew'' nations. compared
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 az great as those
which separate the ''new'' nations ono
from another and the "old" nations one
from another. There are In each case
very real differences between tho new and
the old nation differences both for GOOD
ana Tor evil: but in each case there is
the same ancestral history to reckon with
the same type Of civilization. with ita at.
tendant benefits and shortcomings: and.
AFTER the pioneer stages are passed. tho
problems to be solved, in spite OF superf1-
claI olnerences, 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 tho death" Of
4 trloe' nation or q civilization, the term
~.
dinerent processes; the analogy with
what occurs IN biological history being
complete. Certain tribes Of savages. tho
Tasmanlans. for instance, and various lit
tie clans OF American Indians, have within
the last century or two completely died
out; all OF the individuals have persisted,
leaving no descendants. and tho 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
olnerent from what they were.
A like wide diversity In fact may be
covered In the statement that a civillza-
ton has ''died OUT
Phenomena That Puzzle.
Il dealing. not with groups Of human
beings In simple and primitive relations,
but with highly complex, highly special
lied. civilized, or semi civilized 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 see
how some Of the phenomena in the
growth and disappearance Of these COM
pick, 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. II In any such case
the centrifugal forces overcome the CEN
tripetal, the nation will of course fly to
pieces, and the reason for it's failure to
become a dominant force is patent to
every one. The minute that the spirit
which finds its healthy development in
local self-government. and in the antidote
TO the dangers Of an extreme centraliza-
ton, develops into mere particularism,
into inability to combine effectively for
achievement Of 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 with them, and 1ts
name would have become byword of
derision, If the forces Of union had not
triumphed in tho civil war. So the
growth Of soft luxury after it has reached
certain point becomes a national danger
patent to all. Again, it needs but little OF
the vision of a seer to foretell what must
happen In any community II the average
woman ceases to become the mother of q
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. II tho homely, commonplace
virtues die out, II strength Of character
vanishes in gracefuAself- Indulgence, If the
virile qualities atrophy, then the nation
Offset.
But there are plenty Of other phenom-
ena wholly or partially inexplicable. It is
easy to see why Rome trended downward
when great s1ave-tilled farms spread over
what had once been countryside of
peasant proprietors, when greed and lux
ury and sensuaity ate like acids into the
fiber OF the upper classes, while the mass
OF the citizens grew to depend, not upon
their own exertions, but upon the state,
for their pleasures and their very liyeli-
hood. But this does not explain why the
forward movement stopped at different
times, so far as different matters were
concerned; at one time as regards litera-
ture, at another time as regards architec-
ture, at another time as regards city
building. We cannot even guess WIN 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
Of Holland. For period covering a
little more than tho seventeenth century.
Holland, like some Of the italian city
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 indomita-
BILE soul. Her fall came; it could not
have been indefinitely postponed; but It
came far quicker than it needed to come.
because OF shortcomings on her part to
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 particularist.
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-lovtng societies.
where men hate to think Of war as possi-
BILE, and try to justify their own reluctance
to face it either by high-sounding moral
platttudes or else by philosophy of
short-sighted materialism. The Dutch
were very wealthy. They grew to be-
lieve that they could hire others to do
preted by his unfortunate opposite, he