Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-10-19

Fear is the most prolific source
of all evil. Of course if fear were
understood in its full metaphysical
significance, it would be under
stood to be the provoking cause of
all evil of every sort But even
from the ordinary point of view OF
the world. fear, when it communi-
Gates itself to numbers, is capable
Of causing greater disaster than
any other phase of the human con-
seriousness. The pagan philoso-
pliers realized that there was such
a thing as the fear of fear. in other
words, as they stated it, the fear OF
death was worse than death itself
Centuries later Shakespeare appro-
priated the idea, and put precisely
the same sentiment into the mouth
OF Isabella, in Measure for Meas
ure," and indeed, anyone who
knows anything at all of history
knows how disease was spread
upon the wings of fear in the case
of that awful visitation of the
fourteenth century known as the
black death, and again when
swept London in the seventeenth
century.
Some day the world win come to
see that what it calls contagion is
mental contagion, and that what 1t
calls infection is the infection OF
one mind from another. Orthodox
medical practice today largely rec
cgnizes this, but it draws back from
the logical consequences of its own
admission, and endeavors to shelter
itself in a halfway which is
built partially out of mind and par
tally out of matter. Any person
who has watched the ravages of
such a disease as cholera in the
east must know exactly what this
means. The European sahib, going
about doing his duty, and quite
fearless of consequences, moves
through the cholera camps with
perfect immunity from the disease.
But the native, stricken by this dis
case, lies down almost where he is
overcome by 1t, whether in his
house or by the roadside, conVinc-
ed, in the suddenness of the shock
and the confusion of his fear, that
the moment has come from which
il is useless for him to attempt to
escape.
In such condition it is surely OBJ
viOus that the sanest treatment is
to do everything possible to de-
stroy fear Fear in a Christian
community should be self-con-
demned. Some nineteen centuries
Of reading the Johannine epistles
should surely have effected this II
Christendom is understanding what
it reads. 1t is little to the point to
say that fear is uncomfortable, for
any person who has ever had any
thing to do with causes which pro-
duce fear knows that this is not
the case. Probably every man Who
has made the sea his profession
has been through periods OF fear
which he has had to overcome to
gain that sereneness in danger,
without which he would be a la
bility instead of an asset on board
his ship. Practically every man
who has ever been into action on
land can tell you something of the
sickening sensation of the first ex-
perience of battle. But as time
goes Oh IlG NCLCI al loCO 81 AOl
to the fears of the recruit, and
daily takes his life in his hands,
with a calmness which shows that
he has learned something at any
rate of the dominion over fear. 1t
IS surely obvious then that in an
hour of great fear, when the pre-
vailing tone of the human mind, in
the midst of the conflict of Arma-
geddon. finds expression in an cpl
demic, that q Christian country
should rather resort to its
churches to relieve itself of its
fears, than close their doors SO as
to sound the top note of human
agony in a belief that Gods hand
is so shortened that it cannot save.
Let any person who has been
brough in contact with the condi-
tons of today ask himself frankly
whether it is not fear which is
playing such fearful havoc in the
world. Everywhere men and wOm-
en- are afraid. Afraid in the areas
of war of a storm blast that may