The Washington times., 1920-12-26

mas staggered at the collapse oil Mt.
Wilson.
1t would have been far better if his
part had been played by Theodore
Roosevelt, though he would have out
tigered Clemenccau. With him the
scientific politicians would have
known where they were and where
civilization was from the beginning.
There would have been no disillu-
sion, no disappointment, no panic, no
despair. AS it is, there is hardly n
serious student oi political science
in the world over forty Il do not
count amiable, optimist uplifters
who are proof against facts because
they cannot observe facts and never
read anything except Browning's
Rabbi Ben Ezra who is not limp and
helpless, feeling like the Dean of st.
Paul's, that the civilized European
is the fiercest OF all beasts of prey
and must needs wreck his civilization
as he has always done before.
POWER HAS GONE.
When | have said this | have been
told that | was reckoning without
the hundred-per-cent American. |
have asked what hundred-per-cent
American is.
Tho reply was vague at first, but
under pressure shaped itself into
clear-cut definition, to wit: That a
hundred-per-cent American is one
who does not read the Hearst news
papers. | began to study this spe-
cies, and soon became convinced that
the hundred-per-cent American is
ninety-fve per cent village idiot.
Now. this is not the time for vii
lage idiots to be at large, especially
when they are so idiotic as to be
proud of being villagers first, last,
and all the time. Modern civiliza-
ton is a world garment. If Europe
begins to tear holes in it, America
will soon be shivering. American
idealsts must be cathode If they arc
to be anything more than what trade
papers call local advantages.
They must come to the rescue Of
Europen idealists and tell them they
have no right to their despair until
they have tried their utmost TO rally
the forces of death all over the
world.
WON'T TRUST WILSON.
II is true that nobody will ever
trust Wilson again. but the torch
that Wilson threw away is inextin-
guishable. We are quite willing to
believe he dropped it rs an individ-
ual and not as recreant, but some
body must pick it, up.
We cannot sanely sit down to this
chemical warfare business and bot
tie up plague germs for the next
climax with TIE certainty that when
it is reached every living soul, wom-
an or child, civilian or soldier, will
have to wear gas mask and hide
a hundred feet deep in the earth
after being inoculated vainly against
every disease under the sun.
Karl Marx called on proleterians
of the world TO unite, and his Rus
sian disciples are uniting the prole-
tarians by shooting them when they
begin arguing or thinking.
IL is perhaps to be regretted that
no one is in a position to shoot the
idealists Of the world for not uniting,
but all the shooting facilities are SO
far in the opposite camp.
Unless the idealists unite spon-
taneously there will presently be no
idealists and very few others. The
danger is very real and very near.
However, highly developed civiliza.
tons have stood strains beyond their
utmost previously ascertained pow
ers and even stood them easily, yet
the end always has come, and the
symptoms have been remarkably like
those now visible.
have not seen New York in its
splendor, but | have seen Carthage
and noted how like Ramsgate II Is
except there arc no people or no