The daily Nome industrial worker., 1915-12-21

About this great war, ana us re- lation to human progress, we are so close to it that we cannot appraise its value if value it has, says re, cent writer. Which is quite true. The war itself as we'll as the na- tions engaged therein are but very very small incidents in the story of human kind, and in the history ot life from a lower to a higher form.
 We can endeavor of course to un veil if possible the fundamental causes of the war and blaming them, blame also the war which is merely the resultant effect. That is the common error of every day ana lysis. We lose perspective; we fail to reason out the relation of things; NC usually end by deploring somt vile effect of vile cause because both seom objectionable. What part this war is playing in human devel- opment it is impossible now fitly to to appraise. That it is playing some part and an important part cannot be doubted. Social activities of 50 extensive Q form bet okcn great ana impelling causes wi!:ch lie deep down in the current of vital cnerg. that loads mankind onwardG.
 We may have trouble discerning why mankind should move from a flower to a higher plano and We may have trouble sometimes dis corning that during present times mankind actually is moving upwaro and onward But we have only to glance back to former ages ana former epochs to realize that soci ,ty -mankind-:s constantly adv2nc- ing in progress intellectually, mo- rally and socially.
 Those who praise past eras and deplore present time decadonce d2 so because they take as the example of the past the very highest forms that present themselves for consid- eration, and contrast them with the very lowest forms in the present. Almost everyone who praises the ancients has either Gn eye upon the beautiful literature or the splendid philosophy thGt adorned but Q V2ry few of these peoples. The condl- ton of the masses is overlooked, and the vile slavery which sup. ported this upper crust of applied wisdom and exquisite literature is completely ignored.
 Most of the critics of social move ments in the preeent day gre pessi- mistic when they gi,u tir reaction ary tendencies which are SO strong that they appear to be the reat movement; it is tho larger perspec- tive that enables people to realize that on the whole the progressive movement still continues, and when the present joins the past it will also mark a distinct advance upon previous eras despite the many eX- traordinary reactions that delayed hampered and even threatened to upset the mass of progress.
 Investigation shows conclusively that existence moves forward al ways, and what we know as evoiu- tion is unQuestionably Gn advance from a lower to higher form. We cannot doubt the progress humanity has made since the era of the cave man. Now and then entire commu mites may have shown reactions and may have given examples of all atavistic tendency to revert to the degraded ancestral type. But the reactions themselves wcrC part ot the stream of evolution which dis played merely in that the side bac6 eddies of the streams fullness.
 This war, then, looked at in this light is the continuation of a system which has made wGr inevitable. 1t IS increasing the necessary experience of mankind which is essentially q creature of experiences. It is prov ing the unfitnoss of system which otherwise would never have it's fi-- ness questioned and it is revealing with intensity the vital necessity of mankind regulating it's social rela- tions upon some other standard than the antagonizing standard of the dollar It is proving that the groundwork of human justice Is mutuality of relationship; that the Fundamental basis of human inter course must be founded upon equal ity and that the Golden Rule which