The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-12-12
TUESDAY, DECEMBER IL, 1922.
rs MODERN CIVILIZATION
FAILURE?

relieve that tie human race is max
ing rapid strides towards a perfect
civilization. Everything is right, or,
rapidly approaching that happy state.
Others would have US believe that
everything is wrong and everybody
headed for sudden and swift destruc-
ton.
1t is true that the world has made
very great strides in invention. Me-
chanical devices have multiplied. In
the making Of these things greater
physical comfort has been brought to
mankind. The burden has been lifted
from the backs Of many. But the
question arises, have the slaves lib
Grated from drudgery, been really
benefited. Machinery having liberated
their bodies are they simply turned
loose to Craze, left stranded in the
track Of marching civilization, left
to starve by the wayside? If so, their
Liberation is a mistake. The sewing
machine has given us better made
garments. The loom furnishes us
better cloth from which to make them.
The application Of steam to transpor-
tation has brought us a greater va
riety of foods and has helped in ma
terial things. We have triumphed
over many physical barriers. But the
triumph is discredited by the recent
world war that destroyed the greater
part of the worlds accumulated value
and swallowed ten millions of human
bodies into its Unsuitable nav, more
than one Of each hundred human be-
ings ON the earth. The property loss
and the loss in human life cause us
to pause and reflect. A civilization
tnat destroys itself is not going for
ward. 1t is in the way to death. If
man is to turn all the wealth, inven-
tion and skill of the advancement
made into engines Of torture and de-
struction, the whole thing is failure.
Some people tell us that the war prin-
c!ples, creates new ideals and sets up
new standards. This we doubt. Ger
tainly the new creations of war have
not led to the abolition of war The
clouds Of war are thick over the earth
today, and the gloom is deepening. II
is beginning to appear that thr war
settled nothing, improved nothing. 1t
failed to put us forward. as some
people predicted it would. The phi
iosophy Of war that might makes
i1ght," gives the lie to all the boasted
blessings of war Civilization came
near to perishing from the earth dur
ing the period from 1914 A. d. to
1919 A. D., and it is by no means
assured that we have passed out from
The shadow If death. There are more
hungry people in the world today than
ever before in its history. There are
more people clothed in rags than at
any time since the world began.
There are more people carrying about
in their hearts the spirit of fear than
has been known since the world be-
gan. This fear grips the heart and
raralyzes the hands of multtudes.
This Is true nf the people without re-
raro to the question of war. Mer-
chants, farmers, rich men, poor men.
men Of all races anl all creeds and
to q very great extent, gripped with
fear. Labor IS afraid it will lose its
dinner pail. The rich are afraid they
will lose their limousines. The for
tunes of enterprise are exceedingly
tckle, and everywhere there is fear,
i nameless dread. We submit that
a civilization that cannot cast out fear
is, in large degree, failure. Fear
predicts failure, and then turns about
and produces it. A civilization that
does not liberate the mind is a fail.
ure. Physical slavery is bad enough;
mental slavery is worse.
There is this further fact to be con-
Veneer is not real quality.
Fine feathers, fine nests do not make
fine birds. Vice, adorned with fine
raiment and bedecked with jewels, is
more the less vice, and will bring
forth death just as will the unadorn-
ed, hideous vice that is so repulsive
to the eye. The wanton, brazen guild
ed sin Of the age may not have the
serpent's hiss, but 1t has the SER
pent's sting. A man who oppresses