Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-12-30
CHAPTER XII.
rL AI 1L

accomplished. was in its broad issues
simple one Essentially 1t was to
place social organization upon the new
footing that the swift. accelerated ad-
vance Of human knowledge had rem
dered necessary. The council was
gathered together with the haste Of a
salvage expedition, and it was con-
fronted with wreckage, but the wreck
age was irreparable wreckage. and the
only possibilities of the case were ei-
ther the relapse Of mankind to the Hg-
r1cultural barbarism from which it had
emerged so painfully or the acceptance
Of achieved science as the basis of
new social order. The old tendencies
OF human nature. suspicion. jealousy.
particularism and belligerency were in
compatible with the monstrouS deStruc-
tive power Of the new appliances the
inhuman logic Of science had produced.
The equilibrium could be restored only
by civilization destroying itself down
to level at which modern apparatus
could no longer be produced or by hui
man nature adapting itself and it's in
situations to the new conditions 1t
was for the latter alternative that the
assembly existed
Sooner or later this choice would
have confronted mankind The sudden
development of atomic science did but
prec1pitate and render rapid and dra-
matte clash between the new and the
customary that had been gathering
since the first flint was Clipped or the
first fire built together. From the day
when man cOntrived himself tool and
suffered another male to draw near him
he ceased to be altogether Il thing Of
instinct and untrOubleu convictions
From that day forth widening breach
can be traced between his egotistical
passions and the social need Slowly
he adapted himself to the life of the
homestead and his passionate impulses
widened out to the demands Of the
'lan and the tribe, But widen though
his impulses might the latent hunter
and wanderer and wonderer in bis
imagination outstripped their develop
ment. He was never quite subdued to
the soil nor quite tanned to the home.
Everywhere it needed teaching and the
priest to keep him within the bounds
OF the plough life and the beast tend
Ing Slowly vast system of tradi-
tlona] imperatives superposed itself
upon his Instincts. imperatives that
were admirably fitted to make him that
cultvator, that cattle minder. who was
for twice ten thousand years the nor.
NAL man.
And. unprecedented. undestred. out
or the Accommodations Of his till1ng
came civilization. Civilization was the
agricultural surplus. 1t appeared rs
trade and tracks and roads, it pushed
boats out upon the rivers and presently
invaded the seas. and within it's primi-
tive courts, within temples grown rich
and le1sure!y and amidst the gathering
medley of the seaport towns rose spec.
ulat1on and philosophy and science and
the beginning Of the new order that
has at last established itself as human
life. Slowly ut first as we traced it and
then with an accommodating velocity
the new powers were Fabricated Man
as a whole did not seek them nor de-
sire them; they were thrust into his
hand. For time men took up and
used these new things and the new
powers Inadvertently as they came to
him. rocking nothing of the conse-
quences. For endless generations
change led him very gently. But when
he had been led far enough change
quickened the pace. 1t was with a
series Of shocks that he realized at last
that he was living the old life less and
less and Il new life more and more.
Already before the release of atomic
energy the tensions between the old
way of living and the new were in
fense. They were far intenser than
they had been even at the collapse of
the Roman imperial system. On the
one hand was the ancient life of the
family and the small community and
the petty industry; on the other was a
new life on a larger scale with remoter
horizons and a strange sense Of pur-
pose. Already it was growing clear
that men must live on one side or the
other. One could not have little trades
people and syndicated businesses In
the same market, sleeping carriers and
motor trolleys on the same road, bows
and arrows and aeroplane sharpshoot-
ers In the same army, or illiterate peas
ant industries and power driven fac
tories in the same world. And still
less was it possible that one could have
the ideas and ambitions and greed and
Jealousy of peasants equipped with the
vast appliances Of the new age. If
there had been no atomic bombs to
bring together most of the directing in
telligence of the world to that hasty
conference at Brissago there would still
have been, extended over great areas
and considerable space Of time per.
haps, a less formal conference Of re-
sponsible and understanding people
upon the perplexities Of this worldwide
opposition. If the work Of Holster
had been spread over centuries and i'm
parted to the world by imperceptible
degrees it would, nevertheless. have
made it necessary for men to take
counsel upon and set plan for the
future. Indeed already there had been
accommodating for a hundred years be-
fore the crisis literature of foresight
there was a whole mass Of "moder1
state" scheming available for the con
ference to 60 upon. These bombs die
but accentuate and dramatize an al
ready developing problem.
This assembly was no leap Of excep
tional minds and superinteligencies
into the control of affairs II was