The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-07

cIaIIzed nation. In this case the nation
- usually spoken of as a young" and
- correctly spoken of as a new ma
ton; but the term should ALWAYS he
uSeo with clear sense of the differ
ence between what is described in such
case and what is described by the
SINE term In speaking of a civilized
.ldlion just developed from a barbar-
ISM Carthage and Syracuse were new
cIties compared with Tyre and Cor
lnth; but the Greek or Phoenician
race was in every sense of the word
az Ola IN the new city as in the old
CITY. so, nowadays, Victoria or Man
llopa is a new community compared
with england or Scotland but the an
cestral type of civilization and Gull
ture Is as old in one case as in the
other. of course do not mean for
moment that great changes are not
produced by the mere fact that the old
civilized race is suddenly placed in
surroundings where it has again to go
through the work of tanning the will
uerness, work finished many CEN
lures before in the original home of
the race; I merely mean that the an
cestral history is the same in. each
case We can rightly use the phrase
a new people" in speaking of Cana
4lans or Australians, Americans or
AIrlkanders. But We use it in an en-
tlrely dlnerent- sense from that in
which we use it when speaking of such
communities as. those founded by the
Northmen and their descendants dur
ing that period of astonishing growth
winch saw the descendants of the
Morse sea-thieves conquer and trans
FORM Normandy, Sicily, and the British
Islands; we Use it in an entirely differ
ent sense from that in which we use
~ Wnen speaking of the new states
that grew UP around Warsaw, Kief,
NoVgorod. and Moscow, as the wild
savages of the steppes and the marshy
Forests struggle haltingly and STUN
Dllngly upward to become builders of
cities and to form stable governments.
The kingdoms of Charlemange and
Alfred were new compared with
the empire on the Bosphorus; they
were also in every way different; their
lines of ancestral descent had nothing
In common with those of the polyglot
realm which paid tribute to the
Caesars of Byzantium; their social
problems and aftertime history were
totally different. This is not true of
those "new'' nations which spring df-
rect from old nations. Brazil, the
Argentine, the. United States, are all
new nations, compared with the ma
tons of Europe; but, with whatever
changes in detail, their civilization is
nevertheless of the general European
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" ma
lions one from another and the "old"
nations one from another. There are
In each case very real differences be-
tween the new and the old nation
differences both for good and for evil;
but in each case there is the same an
cestral history to reckon with, the same
type of civilization, with its attendant
benefits and shortcomings; and, after
the pioneer stages are passed, the
problems to be solved, in spite of
superficial differences are in their es-
sence the same; they are those that
confront all civilized peoples, not those
that confront peoples struggling from
barbarism into civilization.
Disappearing Tribes.
So, when we speak of the death of
tribe, nation, or 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 aTasmanians, for in
stance, and various little clans s.f
American Indians,fhav within the last
century or twoacOmpietely died out: all
Of the individuals have persisted, leav-
ing 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 intrud-
ers; so that in reality they are merely
being transformed into something alb
solutely different from what they were.
In the United States, in the new state
of Oklahoma, the Creeks, Cherokees,
Chtckasaws, Delawares, and other
tribes are in process of absorption into
the mass OF the white population; when
the state was admitted, a couple of
years ago, one of the two senators and
three of the five representatives in
congress were partly of Indian blood.
In but a few years these Indian tribes
VIII have disappeared as completely as
those that have actually died out; but
the disappearance will be by absorp-
tin and Transformation into the mass
of the American population.
A like wide diversity in fact NAV be
covered in the statement that a civil
ization has died out" The nationality
ers of the lower Mesopotamian Plain
have completely disappeared and
though doubtless certain influences
dating therefrom are still at work, they
are in such changed and hidden form
as to be unrecognizable But the dis
appearance of the Roman empire was
of no such character. There was COM
plete change, far-reaching TRANSFORMED
ton, and at one period violent. dis
location; but it would not be correct
to spe : either of the blood or the
culture of old Rome as extinct We
are not yet in a position to dogmatize
as to the permanence or evanescence of
the various strains of blood that go to
make up every civilized nationality;
but 1t is reasonably certain that the
blood of the old Roman still flows
through the veins of the modern
Italian; and though there has been
much fntermixture, from many differ
ent foreign sources-from foreign con-
querors and from foreign slaves-yet
it is probable that the italian type of
today finds its dominant ancestral type
in the ancient Latin. AS for the Gull
ture, the civilization of Rome. this is
even more true. 1t has suffered a COM
plete transformation, partly by natural
growth. partly by absorption of totally
alien elements, such as a Semitic re-
ligion, and certain Teutonic govern
mental and social customs; but the
process was not one of extinction, but
one of growth and transformation. both