Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07
THE HIGHER PROGRESS,
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.
Copyright, 1879

Is there any relation between materi-
al discoveries and spiritual? Does ad-
vance in electrical science, or biology
or astronomy. for instance, have any
connection with advance in political
economy, law or the science Of educa-
ton?
The western world is marked by con-
tinuous invention. You have to read
the daily newspapers, books are too
slow. and even monthly or weekly pub
| locations, to keep track of the latest
things in automobile motors, X-ray ap-
paratus. methods of isolating disease
germs, telephones, high explosives, sub
marines and aircraft.
Some of US can remember when the
telephone was plaything, and 1t was
a curiosity when men talked from one
room to another. a hundred feet apart,
over a wire. Like an enormous muSh-
room the telephone has grown and is
a necessary part of business life. And
September 20 the human voice was
transmitted by wireless telephone from
Washington to the Hawaiian Islands
a distance of 4.60O miles.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea-" as a sort of Arabian Nights tale
now undersea craft play an important
part in warfare. The trolley car. the
also come into general use within a
lifetime.
Have we made commensurate prog
ress in the working out Of human re-
lations? That we have gone forward
| to some degree is undeniable. We do
not throw into prison for debt, nor
burn witches, nor hold slaves. nor
countenance duelling. nor torture wit
nesses, nor prosecute free thinkers, nor
do any of a lot of cruel and unjust
H. &LA fv~r
But there remain a lot of amazingly
stupid followers.
The machinery of our criminal law
still continues the manufacture of Grim
| inals, thousands of prisons exist still
where outrageous and inhuman condt-
lions prevail, we still permit myraids
of children to grow up without educa-
ton, inheritance laws still preserve
the accumulated profits of human exer-
ton to remain in the hands of persons
who toll not nor spin, competition still
rules and cooperation makes feeble
Roadway, the party system Is still the
best we can do in the administration
of democracy. adulterated and I'M
of groceries, and we still go about to
regulate the conflicting interests OF
wage earners and employers by the
brutal way of violence, by strikes
lock-outs and boyeotts.
Worst of all. the state. our highest
expression of our collective wisdom,
seems still committed to the plan OF
arranging international affairs by the
amazing process Of numbering vast
numbers of it's best citizens.
Cannot human creatures who talk
1900 miles by wireless invent some
other means than wholesale slaughter
for adjusting their differences?
Cannot the ingenious minds that flash
thought by cable 5000 miles beneath
the waters, that send ponderous trains
whirling across the continent at fifty
miles an hour, that send passengers in
huge, luxurious hotels through storm
and wave from continent to continent,
that conquer yellow fever, smallpox
have weighed and measured the stars
and probed the affinities of elektrons,
cannot these minds find out some other
way Of enabling Briton and German
and Russ to live upon this pleasant
earth than by the astounding besti-
atty of war?