Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1910-05-20

U
citizen army, and the meScenary has al
moot disappeared, while the army exists
on 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 moro than
two generations had passed since the
War OF Independence. During the whole
of that period the people had been en-
gagged in no life-and-death struggle; and
| yet, 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
ly war for principle, a 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 tho
woof of SO many purposes, dark strands
and bright, strands somber and brilliant,
nre always intertwined; inevitably there
was corruption hero 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 n recog-
nized means of accommodating great
wealth. Caesar was again and again on
| the verge of bankruptcy; he spent an
enormous fortune; ARD he recouped him
w m n
| 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
q contrast is offered by the careers of
Washington and Lincoln! There were
| few exceptions in ancient days; but the
| immense majority of the Greeks and tho
Romans, as their civilizations eliminated.
| accepted money-making on a large scale
| as one of the incidents of a successful
| public career. Now all of this is in sharp
| 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-makina
| is permissible in an honorable public ca
| reer.
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 century ago, are now utterly
impossible. Wealthy men still exercise a
| large, and sometimes an improper, infiu-
| ence in politics, but II 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 infiu-
ence modern political life. but it is not ac-
| Quired in political life.
Optimistic for the Future.
Mr.. Roosevelt called attention to
the fact that hitherto every civiliza-
ton that has arisen has been able to
develop only few activities, its field
of endeavor being limited in kind as
we'll as in locality, and each of these
civilizations has fallen. What is the
lesson to us of today? he asked. VIII
the crash come, and be all the more
terrible because of the immense in
crease in activities and area7 To this
he replied:
Personally. do not believe that our
civilization will fall think that on the
whole we have grown better and not
worse. I 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 ore set of activities. at the cost of
seeing others. equally necessary, afro
| phied. Neither the military efficiency of
| the Mongol, the extraordinary business
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 IL we are to do
our work we'll. 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, II he has not in him the will and
the power to be good husband and ia
| ther; If the average woman Is not good
housewife. a good mother of many
healthy children, then the state will top
| pie. will go down, no matter what may
be It's brilliance of artistic development
or material achievement. But these home
ly qualities are not enough. There must
in 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
the last half-century. Moreover, the
things of the spirit are even more impor-
IaUl tndH lilc Innings Ol Tie DOuy. we Cal
well do without the hard intolerance and
arid intellectual barrenness of what was
worst in the theological systems of the
past, but there has never been greater
need of 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 ir
it's various branches 1t would be worse
than folly on our part to ignore our neeC
of intellectual leadership
Must Steer Middle Course.
Never has philanthropy, humanitarian
ism, seen such development as now; ant
though we must all beware of the folly
and the vieiousness no worse than folly
which marks the believer In the perfec
tibility of man when his heart runs away
with his head, or when vanity usurps th'
place of conscience, yet we must remem
ber also that 1t Is only by working alonl
the lines laid down by the philanthropists
by the lovers of mankind. that we car
| alxrs Nta. 80 .