Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1910-06-10

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 as great as those |
which separate the new" nations one |
from another and the "old" nations ono |
from another. There are in each case
very real differences between the new and
the old nation-differences both for good
and for evil; but in each case there Is
the same ancestral history to reckon with,
the same type of civilization, with Its at
tendant benefits and shortcomings; and,
after the pioneer stages are passed, the
problems to be solved, In spite of superb
cial differences, 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 the death of
a tribe, nation OF a civilization. the term
may be used for either one or two totally
different processes; the analogy with
what occurs in biological history being
complete. Certain tribes OF savages, the
Tasmanfans, 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 perished.
| leaving no descendants. and the 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 intruders, or of the black men
introduced by these white intruders; so
that in reality they are merely being
| transformed into something absolutely
| different from what they were.
A like wide diversity in fact may be
covered In the statement that civiliza-
| ton has died out"
Phenomena That Puzzle.
In dealing, not with groups of human
beings in simple and primitive relations,
but with highly complex, highly special
ized 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 1t is curious to see
how some of the phenomena in the
growth and disappearance of these COM
| plex, 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 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 its failure to
become a dominant force Is patent to
| every one. The minute that the spirit
which finds it's healthy development in
local self-government, and in the antidote
| to the dangers of an extreme centraliza-
tion, develops into mere particularism
Into inability to combine effectively for
achievement of a common end, then II 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 Its
name would have become a byword of
derision, IL the forces of union had not
triumphed in the civil war. So the
growth of soft luxury after it has reached
certain point becomes a national danger
patent to all. Again, 1t needs but little of
the vision of a seer to foretell what must
happen in any community IL the average
woman ceases to become the mother of a
family of healthy children, IL the average
man loses the will and the power to work
: up to old age and to fight whenever the
need arises. If the homely, commonplace
virtues die out II strength of character
vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, If the
virile qualities atrophy, then the nation
| has lost what no material prosperity can
3 offset.
But there are plenty of other phenom-
i ena wholly or partially ineXplicable. It is
easy to see why Rome trended downward
when great slave-tilled farms spread over
{ what had once been countryside OF
4 peasant proprietors, when greed and lux
i ury and sensuality ate like acids into the
|. fiber of the upper classes, while the mass
of the citizens grew to depend, not upon
4 their own exertions, but upon the state
for their pleasures and their very liveli.
3 hood. But this does not explain why the
< forward movement stopped at different
r times, so far as different matters were
concerned; at one time as regards litera
!. ture, at another time as regards architec
q ture, at another time as regards city
y building. We cannot even guess why tn,
n springs of one kind of energy dried VI
j. while there was yet no cessation of an
g other kind.
u Holland as an Example.
4 Take another and smaller instance, tina
e of Holland. For u period covering
Il little more than the seventeenth century
e Holland like some of the Italian cit,
J. dangerous heights of greatness beside ma
10 tons so vastly her superior In territor-
e and population as to make it inevitabl
% that sooner or later she must fall from tn
,f glorious and perilous eminence to whicl
1t she had been raised by her own indomita
n BILE SOUL Her fall came; 1t could no
have been indefinitely postponed but
came far quicker than 1t needed to come
- because of shortcomings on her part t
~ which both Great Britain and the Unite
- States would be wise to pay heed. He
- government was singularly ineffective, th
I, decentralization being such as often t
70 permit the separatist, the PARTICULARS
70 70 spirit of the provinces to rob the centra
=. authority of all efficiency. This was ba
- enough But the fatal weakness was tha
:, so common in rich, peace-loving societie.
=. where men hate to think of war as poss
90 . BILE, and try to Justify their own reluctanc
~ ~ to face it either by hgh-sounding morl
70 platitudes or else by q philosophy c
- - short-sighted materiallsm. The Dutc
~ ~ were very wealthy. They grew to b,
., leve that they could hire others to d
~ their fighting for them on land; and O
u sea. where they did their own fghtin,
- and fought very well, they refused
- time of peace to make ready fleets so e
-. y. ficient as either to insure the Dutc
~ ~ against the peace being broken or els
re Sr ~ -. 80 Mnen ;"s