Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-05-13

VI LIS own country 446 siuG6AL VI
sociology may live in Berlin or st.
Petersburg, Rome or London, or he
may live In Melbourne or San Fran
cisco or Buenos Aires, but in whatever
city he lives he must pay heed to the
studies of men who live in each Of
the other cities.
When in America we study labor
problems and attempt to deal with
subjects such as life insurance for
wageworkers, we turn to see what
you do here in Germany, and we also
turn to see what the faroff common
wealth of New Zealand is doing.
When q great German scientist is
warning against the most dreaded Ell
emies of mankind, creatures of infin-
itesimal size which the microscope re-
veals in his blood he may spend his
holidays of study in central Africa or
in eastern Asia, and he must know
what is accomplished in the lahcra-
tories of Tokyo, just as O. ust know
the details of that practica. application
of science which has changed the 18TH
mus of Panama from death trap into
what is almost health resort.
Mankind Knit Together.
From a new discovery in science TO
new method Of combating or apply
ing 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 peo-
pies of mankind are knit together far
closer than ever before.
A hundred years ago, when this uni
versity 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 burden, and by sea in
! boats propelled by sails or by oars,
and news was conveyed as it always
/ had been conveyed.
| What improvements there had been
had been in degree only and not in
kind, and in some respects there had
4 been retrogression rather than advance.
/
| There were many parts Of Europe
where the roads were certainly worse
! than the old Roman post roads, and the
/ Mediterranean sea, for instance, was
/ by no means as well policed as in the
days Of Trajan.
! Now steam and electricity have
worked q complete revolution, and the
result Immensely increased ease Of
/ communication has in its turn COM
/ pletely changed all the physical ques-
/ tons Of human life.
/ Moreover, the invention and use of
machinery run by steam or electricity
/ have worked a revolution In industry
as great as the revolution in transpor-
| tation, so that here again the differ
| ence between ancient and modern civil
/ lization is one not merely of degree
/ but of kind
In many vital respects the huge
modern city differs more from all pre-
/ ceding cities than any of these diff
/ fered 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 it never had before, and now
! the conquest of the air is directly i'm
/ pending. AS books preserve thought
/ through time, so the telegraph and
| telephone transmit it through the space
they annihilate, and therefore minds
are swayed one by another without
regard to the limitations of space and
| time which formerly forced each COM
munity to work in comparative isola-
ton
1t is the same with the body as with
the brain. The machinery Of the fac
tory and the farm enormously multi
plies bodily skill and vigor. Countless
trained intelligences are at work to
teach US how to avoid or counterfeit
the effects of waste.
IronIess Age Is Coming.
The enormous and constantly in
creasing output of coal and iron neces-
sarily means the approach of the day
when our children's children or their
children's children shall dwell in an
ironless age and, later on, in an age
without coal and will have to try to
invent or develop new sources for the
production Of heat and use of energy.
But as regards many another natural
resource scientific civilization teaches
us how to preserve it through use
The best use of field and forest will
leave them decade by decade, century
by century, more fruitful, and we have
barely begun to use the indestructible
power that comes from harnessed wa
ter
The conquests of surgery, of medi-
cine, the conquests in the entire field
of hygiene and sanitation, have been
literally marvellous. The advances in
the past century or two have been
! over more ground than was covered
during the entire previous history Of
the human race.
In this movement there are signs of
much that BODIES H. The machinery
is so highly geared, the tension and
strain are so great, the effort and the
output have alike so increased, that
| there is cause to dread the ruin that
would come from any great accident,
| from any breakdown, and also the ruin
that may come from the mere wearing
| out of the machine itself.
One of the prime dangers of civiliza-
ton has always been its tendency to
cause the loss of the virile fighting
virtues, of the fighting edge. When
men get too comfortable and lead too
luxurious lives there is always danger
lest the softness eat like an acid into
their manliness of fiber The bar
| barian, because Of the very conditions
of his life, is forced to keep and de