The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1910-04-28
To Rome.
TSt. Louis Republic. |

All roads lead to Rome. Thither went
Gauls, Goths, Lombards-militant; and
Egyptians, Greeks, Idum@ans, under the
white flag of peace.
The relation of Rome to the world is of
philosophic interest. Rome is only clear
house; the city never originated any
thing except law. Rome supplied the
string; the rest of the world furnished the
beads. Rome has no springs-only agreat
pool, into which poured the waters of the
streams of the world.
Rome did not originate the forms of
beauty which appear in her architecture;
she borrowed them from Greece. She had
great engineering skill; she invented the
concrete dome; but the ornament of the
Pantheon she slavishly copied from Greece.
Her poets obtained their inspiration from
Greece and Greek learning filled her
schools. Under the Empire Rome's great
men came from North Italy, from Gaul,
froa. britain, from Spain. Their native
genius they brought from far; in Rome
they found the theater for its display.
Christian Rome tells the same tale. Rome
did not originate Christianity; it came to
her from Syria; but with her acquisition Of
it her peculiar genius asserted itself; she
became the clearing house Of Western
Christianity. The great Christian move
ments of the Middle Ages originated else
where. The Franciscan order arose in
Umbria, the Dominican in Spain; Bernard
was of France, Anselm of Britain. But
at Rome the roads met.
Rome in the days of the Renaissance
was as barren of original impulse and as
hospitable to alien genius as the Rome OF
earlier days. She received the artists of
Venice, Florence, Umbria, Spain, and by
their means made splendid her domes and
palaces. Then, as always, the genius of
the city was directive, not original.
Modern Rome, the capital of Italy, is
also the creation of genius not Roman.
Garabaldi, Cavour and Victor Emanuel
were not Romans. At the present moment
Venetian occupies the throne of the Vati-
can; a Savoyard King rules from the Quiri-
nal. The might of Rome is thing mys-
ferrous and inscrutable; the cityis ga land
that eateth up the inhabitants thereof"
with strength austere and terrible, that,
sooner or later, draws all things to itself.
>>-
The New Orleans Times-Democrat, in op-
posing the Aswell- Harris political scheme
to ignore the Police Juries of the several
parishes of the State and give the power to
the School Boards to levy direct taxation,
without consulting the voters, says:
"There is no need of it. No State in
the Union has given more willingly to
schools, nor increased more rapidly its
revenue for educational purposes. The
voters on their part have given money will
lingly whenever they felt that they could
afford to do so; but they themselves are
the best judges of what they can afford to
give, and they should be allowed to decide
this matter. We do not believe that there
is any reason, or that it is good policy, to
push the question of more school revenue
too far. 1t will be far better for the schools
if this proposition fails, for if it carries it
will arouse much popular antagonism from
those who oppose the tax and think they
ought not to be deprived Of their control
over it. AS it is, any just and fair tax,
which the voters believe they can pay and
the benefit from which they can appre-
ciate, is quite certain of meeting with
their approval. The proposition amounts
to declaration that the people of Louisi-
ana are opposed to schools and cannot be
trusted to give them the money required
for their adequate support. This we know
to be untrue, and presents the people and
the entire school question in false light
before the world"
! The Mansfield Enterprise wants the Lou
isiana Legislature during its next session
to repeal as many useless laws as it can,
but edo not write another on the statuto