The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-01-19

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while ever a conservative force, yet holds
the only warrant for real progress. 1t Is
| ignorance of its teachings which leads
men of. good intentions to advocate either
| reaction or revolution, and knowledge
| of its forces which aids men to promote
| the public welfare. In judging of the
strength of a state it is necessary to know
what has gone before. what point of deyel-
opment has been reached by the people
| of that state, and whether their present
plan of society is justified by their past
| experience.
The Growth of States.
! States grow and there is an memorable
law of their growth. They must go
through the process step by step. There
is no hiatus in their development. Lib
erty is not bestowed, it is an achievement,
but it comes to no people who have not
passed through the successive stages which
always precede it. 1t is very far from
state of nature. 1t is no light and easy
thing to secure or to maintain, but difficult
of accomplishment and hard to bear.
: While there are no conditions under
which it Is better to be a slave than to be
free there are many conditions under
which it is infinitely easier to be Il slave
! than to be free and for the sake of their
ease there are those who have chosen to
relinquish much of liberty rather than
/ bear the responsibilities of the free. The
greatest example of this was the develop
| HenI OF IeuuallSln III tDP lnluuIe ages. Men
sought their security and protection at the
/ expense of their freedom of action. so
| that whole communities were bound to
varying servitudeS which reached from
honor to lnfamy, yet all with the same OBJ
ject-their greater ease and safety.
! While such u state has seemed to delay
progress it really resulted in wedding out
the incompetent and developing those who
had the capacity to advance.
The process of each state in government
has been from unOrganized races to the
deSpOtlc rule of an absolute monarch
which in time became limited and its func-
tiOnS shared in by a nobility. gradually
charging into some form of parliament,
and finally extending to all the people.
There have been many grades and forms
OF such development under many and
various names, but the process has ever
been from anarchy through desDOtism to
Oligarchy, which has brOadened out into
democracy, and ended in representative
government, based on universal suffrage.
Many nations have failed somewhere
along the way. The absolute monarchy
has fallen into weak or vicious hands 50
that disorder at home or some superior
force from abroad has overcome the state
Or people have seemed TO lack the genius
tor government, or strong king has
overcome popular assembly, and what at
one time appeared to be free institutions
administered by Il Legislative body with
generous powers, as in CASTLE and Aragon
at the beginning, and in France at later
, period, of the Middle Ages has lapSed back
To deSpOtic rule. 1t is interesting to note
that no nation ever lost its liberties in
which there was maintained a strong rep
resentative body vested with the authority
of providing the public revenue. 1t has
/ been suggested that Spain was able "a
, disregard the liberties of the people be.
, cause her rulers became enriched by
the revenues of the new world that they
no longer had need to call on the repre-
sentatives of their subjects for funds, but
had ample means TO provide an army
which overawed the people and finally
made the Spanish monarchy absolute.
! When the French people at the time OF
their Revolution summoned the states
general, after q period of nearly two cen
turtles of absolute monarchy, and attempt
ed TO step ut once into' a republic. of
course they failed and landed in a new
and worse despotism than that which
, they threw off. In our own day We have
seen a like result in Russia. There is a
/ step between absolutlsm and a republic
which cannot be avoided in the experience
OF q people Journeying toward popular
, sovereignty. Russia, with all the exam
pies of the free nations before her. is
under a despOtism more deSDOtic than
! ever was administered by a ear. Russia
; and France, failing to reach at a single
, bound the form of government they
, sought, fell back into DISCRIMINATION
. which is always the opportunity for the
despot.
Hope for Stricken Russia
: There is a certain amount OF ground for
! faith in progress III the fact that appar-
ntly there could have been no other means
10 break the despotic hold o. the Bourbons
il France, so that she might finally emerge
F. after the Christening experience of sink
ing from world glory to humiliating defeat
under the Empire of Napoleon she
{ emerged free, republic, and with a
, strength of character and a power of re
sistance which has restored her to a true
glory In the estimation of the world
: which no nation ever outranked. In her
example there Is hope for stricken Russia
> Evidently she reached an impasse in her
= progress which threw her people back on
the first principles of development. Lack
l ing the advance of France in the late DAYS
. of the eighteenth century, she will lack her
speed of recovery. But modern science
: Is on her side if she will but use it Who
= now can say what service to progress
| Lenlne and TrOtzky may not be perform
ing when he remembers the Three FurieS
I of the French Revolution?
Always before we decide too hastily
that the decline of the nations of antiauity
constitute a total loss. it is well to exam
inc what was destroyed and what was
- saved. The ancient civilizations which
hOuriShed along the Nile and in the valleys
OF the TigriS and Euphrates ran Their
= courses. They performed their tasks and
= went the way of all the earth. Modern
T. scholarship is revealing to us, year by
= year, the completeness of their OrganiZa-
ton and the high attachments of their
civilization. They were not destroyed i'm
day but grew up, flourished for a time
and gradually, as their work was taken
| up by the Greek, Babylon and ThebeS.
passed into Obscurity. \ stronger took
= their place. Through the long generations
Z that marked the decay of Greece, after