The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-04-22
OUR CIVILIZATION
University Professor Talks of What Our Sys-
TEN Has Accomplished.

America. For nearly ten decades the
new education has toiled with unspar-
Ing pains and with colossal confidence,
and has produced--a cultured pagan.
A Cultured Pagan.
Is that not the fostering sore in the
educational system Of today? cul-
tured pagan may not be a bad sort Of
he is not tempted. I'm
der favorable conditions he may not be
a bad husband. bad father. a bad
voter, n bnd citizens. But when the
hour OF temptation comes will he have
the moral stamina to stand firmly for
the right The ancient Athenian was
marvel in culture. He could recite
poetry by the yard, quote philosophy
by the pound, and waste in glitteripg
rhetoric enough muscular power to run
came so skillful In the light fingered
art OF separating fool and his money
that to this day common saying In
Europe runs, The Jew skins tho
Christian, and the Turk skins the Jew.
but the Greek skins them ALL After
were right when they insisted upon in
sitting into their children the fear OF
God.
Mere artistic or beautiful environ
ment. therefore. does not seem really
to create that mental state and atti-
II, to- - In
most artistic continent this globe pos
sesses, civilization has at this very
hour almost totally broken down. In
deed may we not suspect that civ
ilization based on an artistic appeal to
the sensuous must inevitably col
lapse?
Mental Training.
Again. can we confidently rest our
hope on that form OF mental training
which consists merely in charging
public information? The present war
would make the thoughtful hesitate
before answering in the affirmative.
The universities of Germany and
! France have been for Il century the
wonder of all nations as machines for
producing facts. Their professors have
been walking encyclopedias. The
theses OF their graduates have been
mnrvels Of accuracy in the laborious
task Of finding the needle in the hay
stack Given another century, these
institutions would have discovered
enough facts to cause n permanent
dearth of print paper But In mo-
mcnt when the choice between ad-
vancing true civilization and returning
to harbarism confronted the nations.
then. not only the masses. but these
identical mental giants" these tire
! less producers of information, not only
choose barbarism. but indeed threw
! all the power of their undoubted intel
lectual ability upon the side OF bar
harism. The very richness Of their IN
! forma ton has made war 80 hideous
that the clashes OF ancient nations
seem. in comparison, but crude child
play.
/ The mere acquaintance, then. with a
vast fund OF information apparently
| will not make civilization, Will not
save a country from moral dry-rot
It seems to- me that everybody in New
York reads daily four or five news
papers. The street cars and the sub
way trains are Uttered with papers:
the citizens almost mob the newsboy
as he appears with the latest "Uxtra;"
the average New Yorker seems to con-
| al, 81 rt Observation-Disclosures. thu
lower part human, and the upper part
"A newspaper. But l have not found
the New Yorker one whit more hon.
est. more truthful. more moral than
, those villages who read an imported
daily delivered a half day after 1t has
been printed.
Tho Something Else"
Artistic environment and public in
formation may be helpful in advancing
toward civilization. Mental discipline
the god before which many an edu-
Gator knecls--may also assist. A study
of the anatomy of that academic
corpse known as ethics may possibly
aid by proving that honesty Is the best
policy: but the something else" need
cd in the American and European edu-
cational system. il 1t is really going TO
lead toward true civilization. Is a de-
Selopment of the moral emotions, an
education OF the soul, In short. a re-
turn to that which for half a century
we have SHE'D from-some form Of re
ligious training.
No great movement has ever sue.
ceeded that did not take to itself some
OF the attributes Of a mighty religious
wave. Henry George told his follow
ers that his single tax theory could
never become a living issue until 1t had
developed into "throbbing, emotional
religious movement" For practically
a century our people discussed negro
emancipation and prohibition aca-
demically-just as we now discuss
ethics and morality in college classes
but emancipation and prohibition made
r little genuine advancement until a form