Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1910-04-28
FATAL TO PROGRESS
GRAVE DANGER IN MAKING LIFE
TOO EASY.
Mans Energies and Usefulness De-
veloped by truogIe-HIstory Shows
unwisdom Of the Paternal sys-
tenn of Government.

u What sort of creature would man
become If an omnipresent, powerful,
protecting influence watched over him
In his walks and his rides, at his play
and at his work. Would not the man
SO treated as a child soon become
thoughtless and improvident as a
child, confiding for all the good OF
life in the protection accorded him
and finally claiming it as a right and
its withdrawal as a crime? Remem-
Der that while 1t may be permitted to
doubt whether the monkey became
the man by struggle and the expert
enee of years, we yet know that the
savage has developed into the civilized
man by the survival of the fttest, by
the elimination of the weak, and that
the rule seems to hold good in the
mental and moral kingdoms as well
as in the ruder and more strenuous
battles of the muscles.
The legions enforced the Roman
peace upon the world, and what fol-
lowed? Civilization grew soft and
corrupt-the superiority of its arms
and its knowledge proved insufficient
to protect it, and from the icy forests
OF the north swept the storm of saw
age strength and brute force, declares
writer In the New Orleans Picayune.
Miracles could not save the church
when armies failed the throne; all for
which man had labored for centuries
was swept away and darkness brood
ed over Europe till another beginning
could be founded on the relics OF the
old Is peace desirable? Enough OF
doubt fingers in the question to make
us careful how we give to law for the /
Individual the protecting care that |
seems fatal to mans energies and use
fulness in the mass.
If we could eliminate from civiliza. |
tion the sports that MAIN or Stay, the /
drinks or foods that injure, the naked,
ness that leaves disease behind, and
the poisoned airs that Stay at hand,
can we be sure that man would be
saved and not annihilated? Once civ.
ilization set the church in the position
Of responsibility. only to learn that
even the church could play the tyrant:
shall we trust science after the failure
Of the church?
Our ancestors began to look for
savage foe behind every tree as soon
IS the boy set out with a rifle to find
he meat for the breakfast table: we
ind football game too dangerous for
'ur sons. In contempt Of germs and
microbes the soldier of Yesterday
marched out to the field of battle and
lept stout heart; now he dies before
ie can leave his own soil and we up
III our hands in prayer, knowing that
he microbe is too powerful for us.
he southern soldier Of the Cos faced
rmies whose recruiting ground EN-.
raced the world, and he kept them
ack for four long years till he was
ricken in the rear; now the authori.
les OF the national army report that
he southern recruit is unfit because
e has the book worm now or suffered {
rom it in his youth.
We do not despise the triumphs OF
iorality and scienee-if we must be
lxed for protection we must accept
s seeming benefits. But sometimes
70 wonder what pleasure will be left
boy whose peaches must be steri. 7
zed, whose melons must be bathed. I
nd whose kisses must be perfumed
ON bottle and nozzle before they 2
an be accepted.