Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-03-23
WHAT AN IDEA MAY DO.

Few of us have even fair appre-
citation of the power of an idea-that
| is a world idea. For as man think
eth in his heart, so is he" We have
seen the German idea-the Darwinian
doctrine of the survival of the fittest
converted into survival of the strong
est--plunge the world into cataclysm
of blood and pillage. Also we have
convert the world from cruelty and
| lust to. high practical regard for
| the rights of the individual physic-
ally incapable of protecting himself
from those stronger than he,
Through the teachings of Christian
ity we have seen the idea of personal
values become recognized throughout
the greater part of the world.
But one of the extreme examples
of the power of an idea is shown in
the past history and present condi-
ton of the Mongols.
About ten years ago Jeremiah Cur
tin, one of the greatest of our oriental
scholars. wrote a book on the Mon
gols. He showed with the ascend
ancy of Genghis Khan these plains
men from the north of Asia became
the fierciest, the cruelest and swftest
conquerors of all the centuries. Dur
ing the lifetime of Genghis Khan his
armies conquered China. Turkestan,
Persia, the Arab sultinates of Bag
dad and Damascus, Russia and be-
You'd the gates of Warsaw and Buda
pest 1t was the most ruthless con-
quest in history, one terrible orgy of
blood and lust and loot. Curtin says
Genghis Khan was responsible for the
slaughter of more than twenty-five
million human beings.
Against these yellow horsemen of
the plains of Asia nothing IN the
world could stand. They moved with
incredible speed and they fought with
miraculous fury. The east, from Sa-
MARYLAND to Damascus has not to this
day recovered from the devastations.
Mesopotamia has remained a desert.
though it was prior to that time rich
and populous and had in it a high
degree of civilization. Persia has be-
come a degenerate nation and Turk
estan a half-populated one, because
of what the MonGols wrought in them
in a few years of fire and sword.
But it was Buddhism, a religion of
pacifism teaching the wickedness of
destroying any form of life. that
wrought the change of the Mongol
from the fiercest and cruelest warrior
of all time to the herdsman who will
not put a pillow into the ground for
fear he will kill worms and insects in
so doing. He will kill a sheep for food,
since that can be done back of his
tenty without Buddha's knowing of it.
No doubt the conversion of the
Mongols to Buddhism has been good
thing for Asia and eastern Europe.
But it degraded the Mongol, until
today he is mere filthy blanket
Indian" The great wall of China was
built for protection against this mans
ANCESTORS, and it failed to keep them
out of China whenever they wanted
to raid popalous cities for loot and
slaves and to kill for the mere lust
of killing. But now the Mongol has
implanted in him the doctrine of non
resistance so deeply that he submits,
without resentment to being robbed
of his herds, of having wife and chill
dren taken from him into slavery, by
Chinese bandits who prey upon the
country at will.
Than the career of the Mongols
there is not stranger in the annals
of mankind. But their history tells
what an idea may do in making or
running a people.