Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-13
kaiser, whose

enormously multiplies bodily skill and
vigor. Countless trained intelligencies are
at work TO teach US how to avoid the
effects of waste.
"Of course some of the agents in the
modern scientific development of natural
resources deal with resources of such a
kind that their development means their
destruction. so that exploitation on
grand scale means an intense rapidity of
development purchased at a cost or
speedy exhaustion. The enormous and
constantly increasing output of coal and
iron necessarily means the approach of
the day when our children's children, or
their chiIdren's children, shall dwell in an
ironless age-and later on in an age with
out coal-and will have to try to invent
or develop new sources for the produc-
ton of heat and use of energy. But, as
regards many another natural resources.
scientific civilization teaches US how 10
preserve it through use.
PLEA FOR CONSERVATION OF
NATURAL RESOURCES.
The best use OF field and forest will
leave them decade by decade, century
.by century, more fruitful; and we have
hardly begun to use the indescrucu-
BILE power that comes from harnessed
water.
The advances in the realm OF pure
intellect have been OF equal note. Old
men among us have seen in their own
science of the evolution Of life. The
advances Of the past century or two
generation the rise of the first national
have been over more ground than was
covered during the entire history or
the human race. The play OF new
forces is as evident in the moral and
H., .1wnA sNF Ia
mind and the body.
In this movement there are the
signs of much that BODIES ILL The
machinery is so highly geared, the ten
sion and strain are so great, that there
is cause TO dread the ruin that would
come from a great accident, a break
down, and also from the mere wear
ing out Of the machine itself. Com
pared with the Greco-Roman civiliZa-
ton, our only possible standard OF COM
parison, many OF the forces and ten
denotes which were at work then are
at work now. These forces and ten
denotes precede the downfall Of the
older civilization.
Yet the differences between the
present and older civilization are many,
and some OF them are quite as striking
as the similarities. The single fact
that the old civilization was based on
slavery shows the chAsm that sepa-
rates the two. There is a further and
very significant difference.
"One OF the prime dangers OF civilI-
! zation has always been its tendency
/ to cause the loss of the virile fight
/ ing virtues, the lighting edge. When
\ men get too comfortable, and lead too
| luxurious lives, there is always dan
] ger lest the softness eat like an acid
into their manliness of fiber. Now,
/ will not assert that in modern civiliz-
| ed society these tendencies have been
! wholly overcome; but there has been a
much more successful effort to over
! come them than was the case in the
early civilizations This is curiously
| shown by the military history OF the
Greco-Roman period as compared with
/ the history of the last four or five
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 merce-
naries.
Now the exact reverse has been the
case with US in modern times. A few
I centuries ago the mercenary soldier was
the principal figure in most armies. ami
, in great numbers of cases the mercenary
F. soldier was an alien. Gradually this
has all changed. until now practically
, every army is citizen army and the
/ mercenary has almost disappeared. while
! the army exists on a vaster scale than
ever before in history. Our own Civil war
was, even more than the Revolutionary
war. a strue citizens fight. the armies
Of Grant and Lee were as emphatically
citizens armies as Armenian. Theban or
Spartan armies I'm he great age OF
Greece. Inevitably there was Corrup-
ton here and there in che civil war, put
the leaders and the great majority of
fighting men wholly dlsregaI ded and
were wholly uninfIuenced by pecuniary
considerations The fighting spirit of
the people was shown to better advaDt-
age than ever before.
, WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN COM
JARED TO CAESAR.
Another striking contrast between
the moaern AMI classic civilization IL
found in the relations Of wealth and
politics In classic times politics be-
came q recognized means Of accumulat-