Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-02-25
When People Get Together

JUMAN beings are gregarious. They flock
L 1 together, as a rule for sclf-defense
In large communities there is theoretically
the greatest safety. Rapacious creatures
generally do not flock together: excepting
such animals wolves, which are notorious
ly timid, save when travelling with the pack.
y single human being isolated suddenly from
his pack. as it were is less sclf-reliant. finds
himself less depcnda BILE than in his natural
state of gregarous existence This is true
until the great necessities of survival arouse
in him the savage instinct that lies latent be-
hind all intelligence Then he becomes ndi-
vdually dangerous
In recent years there has been a wave of
agitation in the direction of doing things in
company. We have. as examples. the Go-to-
Church Sunday recently the Go-to- Prayer
Meeting movement, in Wisconsin a few days
ago the Pay-up-Week. when all who owe are
supposed TO settle. In Baltimore just before
the holidays there was a huge demonstration
Of doing things together. when more than
$4,000 was raised for charity by the Self
Denial Day plan. when all who possibly
could gave something by self-denal to meet
urgent needs OF the charity organizations. a
less practical, perhaps, but, nevertheless,
characteristic event was the day OF prayer
for peace. when all were asked by President
Wilson to unite in suppication.
We are tmid creatures taken singly and
thrown on our own resources But shoulder
TO shoulder we face death unfinchingly. fall
tcrtng only when the directly personal con
tact with the danger finds us away from our
comrades. 1t is the instinct OF mutually,
not marked i'll any other breathing creature
so strongly as in man, the dominant animal
of them all. In the histories Of all nations
you will find This fact written large; in
politics, in religion in commerce, in all the
affairs of life, you will find strength where
there are numbers. 1t is one recognized
principle that never will change.
If to-day the whole people should DENY
every evil that apparently confronts them.
there is no power this side of the super
natural that could resist them For in
stance, if the whole people should demand
peace in Europe, that peace would assuredly
come, and quickly II the whole people
should assert an immediate resumption of
full trade relations. in far as they affect
the happiness OF individuals, factories would
open, new trains would go into service docks
and warehouses and elevators would TEEN
with activity. If the whole people should
move what money each possessed, with "A
declaration Of actual prosperity, no bank
could close it's vaults TO investment.
Insane asylum attendants will tell YOU
that their safety from violent unatics lies in
the fact that no more than one at Il time ever
attacks a keeper Crazy people and fools do
not act together Acting together requires
common intelligence, or as in the case of
the wolf, common cunning. In the affairs
Of nation, could those in power feel this
unity OF intelligence, few mistakes would
ever be made. Could they have felt and
realized unity of the actual mind OF Europe,
there would to-day be no such hySterical
struggle as that which is making even the
comhatants wonder at its sheer imbccility.