The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-02-11
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

A READER Of my column has written in to
y ask me what regard as the half-dozen
outstanding dates or events in modern history
which helped to explain how we come to be
what We are today.
1t may not be a had thing for me to turn
away for day from my customary discussion
of current problems and fiirt a bit with the
intriguing subject of the historical basis of the
present age.
Any selection of outstanding dates and
achievements is bound to be arbitrary and
hardly likely to please any considerable num-
Der of readers But here is my list for what
it is worth:
1895. Marco Polo returns from his visit to
the golden court" of the Chinese emperor. He
proves the correctness Of the tales of the wealth
of the Far Orient. He shows the practicability
of overland travel to this fairy realm. From
this time on, the West attempts to tap this
source of untold fortunes in trade. The Italian
city-states first monopolize this rich commerce.
But the new cities of western Europe soon grow
Jealous of this Italian corner on world trade.
This envy provides the motive power for the
search for the sea route to the East and soon
produced Columbus, Vasco de Cana and the
conquest Of the ocean route to the indies"
1920. The publication of Francis Bacon's NO
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rebellion against the intellectual life of the med-
eval age. 1t denounces the theological and meta
physical approach to knowledge, repudiating
Aristotle as we'll as Augustine. 1t holds that ma
ture is more subtle than any argument" and
thus blasts the hope of aScertaining truth by
means of deductive logic. Bacon thus establishes
himself the herald" of the new scientific age,
and his essays remain the best literary statement
OF the case for science and the experimental
method.
1890. John Locke publishes his Second Treat
Use of Government" This is the embodiment of
and inspiration for the revolutionary political
philosophy which defends the right of rebellion
and the triumph of representative government.
1t not only justifes the British revolutions of
1649 and 1859, but inspires jefferson and Rous-
seau Locke's doctrines thus furnish the basis
of the Declaration of independence" and The
Declaration of the Rights of Man" They SYM
bolize mans triumph over arbitrary political au-
thority as decisively as Bacon's exemplify the
victory over intellectual tyranny.
1923. Votaire returns from England and cir
culateS his Letters on the English" These fore
cast the career of the most representative and
famous ntellectS of the eighteenth century, He
took over the British scientific thought revo-
lutionary doctrines and rationalstic religion and
made them common intellectual property of edu-
Gated continentalS He worked valiantly against
oppression and bigotry, his versatility and en-
ergy enabling his to carry on a many-sided
Dattle. Far better than any one else in his age
he stands out as the supreme figure in the battle
of reason against intolerance and cruelty in the
eighteenth century. He is the supreme ration
alist.
1873. The establishment of the Federal gov
eminent of the United States. This marks the
fusion OF the most significant political innova-
lions of the preceding centuries-revoution fed
erallSm, constitutionalism and republicanism. 1t
constitutes the summation and vindication of
those political aspirations which pushed forward
from Magma Charta to Yorktown. It sets the
pace Tor the political evolution of the nineteenth
century, which everywhere seeks to establish
federalism and republicanism on constitution
al basis paying when necessary the price of
revolution.
1840. The publication of the Communist
Manifesto" by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
This is as much of a challenge to the established
economic order as the writings of Bacon Locke
and others had been to the medieval regime and
the rise OF political absolutism. 1t frankly
eSpouses the doctrines of philosophic determn-
Ism, economic materialism and the ultimate SUI
premacy OF the working proletariat. Whether
one agrees with the doctrine or not. this work
occupies the same place in proletarian demo-
cratic Strlvings as that of Locke did in the rise
OF bourgeois politics and economics. This tract
rather than the revolutions of the seventeenth
ana eighteenth centuries, lies at the basis of the
present Russian experiment .