The Washington herald., 1911-07-05
THE LADDER OF PROGRESS
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Tells How the World X
Advancing in the Right Direction

We are all growing into the habit of re-
fcrring TO this era as "a pure mecantiIe
age "an age of mechanical invention, -
and nc.hing more.
= yr4Ee favor the words with a pinch of
scorn, and'.,s refer to the old days when
men made beautiful works of art and
wrote Lseutifui literature for the benefit
OF succeeding generations, with no
taought of personal gain or immediate
reward OF fame.
Then We sigh and say again: Yes; this
is an age OF commonplace achievements.
Art is dead, religion extinct, ideals de-
tAroned. Men think only of physical
comfort, personal aggrandizement and
mechanical progress. We will leave moth
ing TO the generations who succeed US,
nothing TO the centuries ahead but a his
tory Of material gain and noisy inven-
ton, and automatic devices which de-
stroyed mems ideals of patient toll for
the sake of beauty and perfection"
uninterrupted Progress.
And all this talk which one hears
continually in Europe and more and
more in America is rank nonsense.
Progress climbs by many and various
stairways.
Some are hewn from marble, some are
built of wood, some are iron ladders.
But the climbing is continuous and un-
interrupted.
Sometimes the stairways wind and
seem to descend, but it is only to make
a more direct ascent farther on.
We are now on the ladder of iron, and
there is nothing beautiful in its work.
manship, and its top seems to rest on
nothing but empty air. Yet 1t is secure
and safe, and is leading to fairer heights
than humanity has ever known before.
There have been always too great OBJ
stacles in the path Of humanity.
DrudgeFy of Civilization.
These obstacles are cruelty and drudg-
cry, or perhaps it is better to reverse
the words, since drudgery has perhaps
led to much of the cruelty
AS civilization advanced these two OBJ
stacles grew, like monstrous snowbaIls,
gathering strength and dimensions as
they were rolled along.
Civilization has led to the necessity for
more and more drudgery for man and
beast. Watch for an hour the traffic In
any great city-think what it means
Think of the hot kitchens where cooks
and scullery drudges toll through the
beautiful summer days to supply food to
restaurants and hotels.
Think of the early morning laborers,
who are up in the chill dawn Of win
ter to carry on the industries which give
Us our cream for the breakfast coffee,
our rolls and our newspapers and our
warm fires for the morning comfort
Think Of the workers in the coal mines
who supply our fuel, and of the stokers
on the ships who bring US over seas In
search OF pleasure!
Think Of the truckman, and the cab
men, and the horses, and the engineers
and fremen on the trains, ard thou
sand more toilers who are working with
might and main to keep this great
mechanism OF civilization running!
In the olden days slaves and rascals
performed the erudgery Of the world for
kings and barons and rulers OF an
kinds. And they were beaten or be-
headed II they failed in any duty,
Times have improved bit since then.
but there are still cruelty and selhshness
on earth
When machinery came into the worlds
work It was looked upon az q demon,
taking the bread from poor mems
mouths There are stiH thousands OF
people who so regard it. but It Is q
mistaken point Of view. y
HeraIds OF Freedom.
The mechanical inventions OF this age
are the advance heraids Of mans ultl-
mate freedom from drudgery and Of the
elimination Of cruelty from the world.
The people who visited Paris twenty