The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-09-24
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER "a. 1918.
WHO KNOWS:

The poet tells us of 1.-The beauty
that was Greece" That beauty. in
are and in literature, has been a joy
to the world. an inspiration. and a
stimulus to progress, Macauley's trib-
ute to the influence of Athens does
not overstate the fact at all. Today.
on the prairies of North Dakota.
twenty centuries after h most glor-
ious period in Grecian history. every
child i'm every country schoolhouse is
receiving something from, the art. the
literature and the philosophy of the
Greek.
We speak of the Grecian democracy.
In a sense there is no such thing. AT
NO period in her history was Greece
other than a community Of caste II
privilege. And the very things of
most value which Greece has left us
were possible because of this very
fact, because ONE were rich and M
were poor; because some had leisure
and others had not: because one man
was able to he a patron Of art and an
other was obliged to perform the
manual labor necessary to the life of
the community. Was it we'll that this
should be SO? Or would it have been
better to have the social status Of the
Grecians reduced Il an average. SO
that there would be no rich and no
poor. no pinnacle of excellence and no
class in the community condemned to
manual labor: Who knows?
A king of Egypt kept 100. 900 men
great pyramid. that he might leave a
proper monument to his glory and
have a fitting resting place for his
body after death. Other Egyptian
monarchs kept vast armies of men at
work. often under the lash, with like
objects in view. The slaves who built
the pyramids are gone. and their very
bones have mingled with the elements.
Other than these great monuments
there liz no trace left of their lives.
The kings are represented today yhY
shriveled mummies, But through the
great monuments which they caused
to be erected. and through the carved
records which they left. we today are
able to read Of the history of the
world -four thousand years ago. and
the philosophy and all the other activi-
ties of those ancient people with the
activities of the people Of today. and
to draw lessons from the comparison.
Those great works would not have
been quilt had there beer no rich and
no poor, or, what would have amount
ed to the same thing, had all been rich.
Is it better for the world that Egyptian
society had these contrasts, against
which we of the present strive: Who
knows?
Years ago the spaniard took pos
session of a little island in the Paci-
fc. For their own convenience the
c~onquerors caused public works Of
some importance to be constructed,
and among these were a number OF
excellent roads and some fne bridges.
Time passed and the Spanish power
waned. and, as there was little on the
island to make it attractive t o Euro
peans, the spaniards withdrew all but
q little garrison, and left the island
to the natives and mixed bloods. The
island vas rich, and produced with
practically no labor all that its inhab-
itants needed. The people we're rich.
for every family had it's share of the
land. And this condition of uniform
richness was disastrous to the little
country. Roads needed to be repaired.
and the landed proprietors did not
wish to perform the necessary. man
ual labor. and there was no n else.
Bridges began to crumhle, The
country deteriorated because labor
could not be hired. they continued
to crumble. The country deteriorated
because all its people were too rich to
need to work for wages. We fight pov-
erty. Generally we deplore great
riches. What would happen il we
could abolish both? Who knows?