Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-05-13
MODERN TON
is o p
Lecture on "7he World
MoUen1ent' Delivered at the Uni
Uersity of Berlin by the Ex-Presi-
dent of the United States

~ to what it is in England or the United
States
the expansion of modern civilization. But
only a few of the many and intense ac-
tivitIes of modern civilization have found
their expression on this side. The move
ment has been just as striking in its con-
quest over natural forces. in it's searching
inquiry into and about the soul Of things.
Conquest Over Nature.
The conquest over nature has included
an extraordinary increase in every form
OF knowledge of the world we live in, and
also an extra ordinary increase in the pow
er OF utilizing forces of nature. In both
directions the advance has been very
great during the past four or five CEN
turtles. and in both directions 1t has gone
on with ever increasing rapidly during
the last century. After the great age of
Rome had passed, the boundaries of
knowledge shrank, and in many cases it
was not until well-nigh our, own times
that her domain was once again pushed
beyond the ancient landmarks. About the
year $50 A. D. PtoleIny, the geographer,
published his map of central Africa and
the sources of the Nile, and this map was
more accurate than any which we had as
late as 1850 A. D. More was known of
physical science, and more Of the truth
about the physical world was guessed at,
in the days Of Pliny, than was known or
guessed until the modern movement be-
gan. The case was the same as regards
military science. At the close of the Mid
die Ages the weapons were what they
had always been-sWord, shield, bow,
spear; and any Improvement in them was
more than offset by the loss in knowledge
of military organization, in the science of
war, and in military leadership since the
days Of Hannibal and Caesar.
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
fbo hSrh11y o;E,ili1oI ,oo4|o-- - -AS;k
Travellers and merchandise went by land
in wheeled vehicles or on beasts OF bur-
den, and by sea in boats propelled by
sails or by oars; and news was conveyed
as it always had been conveyed. A grad
uate of your university today can go to
mid-Asia or A with far less con-
seriousness of performing a feat of note
than would rave been the case a hundred
years ago with a student who visited
Sicily and Andalusia.
Moreover, the invention and use of ma
chinery run by steam or electricity have
worked a revolution IN industry as great
as the revolution in transportation; so
that here again the difference between
ancient and modern civilization is one not
merely of degree but of kind. In many
vital respects the huge modern city differs
more from all preceding cities than any
of these differed 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 1t never had before; and now the con-
quest of the air is directly impending. AS
books preserve thought through time. so
the telegraph and the telephone transmit
1t through the space they annihilate, and
therefore minds are SWaye one by an
other without regard to the limitations OF
space and time which formerly forced
each community to work in comparative
isolation. 1t is the same with the body as
Urifh tho hroin Tho y onhinnry ~ tho foo
tory and the farm enormously multiplies
bodily skill and Vigor. Countless trained
intelligences are at work to teach US how
to avoid or counteract the effects of
waste.
The advances in the realm Of pure intel
lect have been of equal note, and they
have been both intensive and extensive.
Great virgin fields of learning and wis
dom have been discovered by the few,
and at the same time knowledge has
spread among the many to a degree never
dreamed of before. Old men among us
have seen in their own generation the
rise of the first rational science of the
evolution of life. The astronomer and the
chemist, the psychologist and the his
torian, INC all their brethren in many diff
ferent fields of wide endeavor, work with
a training and knowledge and method
which are in effect instruments of pre-
cision differentiating their labors from
the labors Of their predecessors as the
rifle is differentiated from the bow.
The play of new forces is as evident in
the moral and spiritual world as in the
world OF the mind and the body.
One Danger Of Civilization.
One of the prime dangers of civilization
has always been its endency to cause
the loss of the Virile fighting virtues, of
the fighting edge. When men get too COM
Portable and lead too luxurious lives there
is always danger lest the softness eat like
an acid into their manliness of fiber. The
barbarian. because of the very conditions
of his life. is forced to keep and develop
certain hardy qualities which the man of
civilization tends to lose. whether he be
clerk. factory hand, merchant. or even a
certain type of farmer. New !. will not
assert that in modern civilized society
these tendencies have been wholly over
come; but there has been a much more
successful effort to overcome them than
was the case in the early civilizations.
This is Curiously shown by the military
history of the G~raeco-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 mercenaries. In the
days OF the early greatness of Athens,
Thebes, and Sparta, in the days when the
Roman republic conquered what world it
knew. the armies were filled with citizen
soldiers But gradually the citizens re-
fused to serve in the armies, or became
unable to render good service. The Greek
states described by Polybius, with but few
exceptions, hired others to do their fight
ing for them. The Romans of the days of
Augustus had utterly ceased to furnish
any cavalry, and were rapidly ceasing to
furnish any infantry. to the legions and
cohorts. When the civilization came to
an end. there were no longer citizens in
the ranks of the soldiers. The change
from the citizen army to the army of
mercenaries bad been completed.
Modern Citizens Armies.
Now, the exact reverse has been the
case witt US in modern times. A few
centuries ago the m~ercenary soldier was
the principal figure in most armies. and in
great number of cases the mercenary
soldier was an alien. In the wars of re-
ligion in France, in the Thirty Years
war in Germany, in the wars that imme-
diately marked the beginning of the