Montana labor news., 1939-07-06
) U. 5. A. TRAILING
ROMAN EMPIRE!

has SO nan pOlnlS Oh resemblance
as to warrant the most serious con-
sideration. A short synopsis of
Roman history, pointing out leading
events there with related events here
should be both instructive and of
considerable help in shaping today's
history.
Some 600 years B. c., groups of
semi-civilized people came sea-ward
from the Mediterranean and settled
part Of the Italian peninsula. Previ-
Gus to that other northern tribes
had alternately raided and settled
different strips of the coast line from
time to time.
This corresponds to a similar series
of events here in the 18th century
A. D., after the discovery of America
by Columbus.
More or less friction and open
fighting was the order of the day
until 500 B. c., the first year of the
republic. The Samnite Wars con-
tinued between 326 and $50 B. c.
Considerable democracy existed in
Rome at this time. A series of the
three Pumic Wars lasted off and on
for a period from 264 to 149 B. c.
During this period, Rome derived a
new coinage law which lasted for
500 years. In the meantime the
shallow soil of Italy had become i'm
poverished from continuous grain
cropping and falling into the hands
of a small number of landlords. The
wooded hills around the metropolis
had been denuded of their trees,
much soil erosion resulted with the
double evil of bare hillsides and the
creation of the Pontine swamps at
their base.
This corresponds to a period here
in the early pioneer days when we
cropped the New England states
until crops failed to pay for cultiva-
ton and later continuing the same
policy of unscientific farming farther
west we created the dust bowl of a
hundred million acres, the Roman
experiment IN a much larger scale.
During the Punic Wars, the Senate
assumed legislative and administra-
tive powers not granted by the o n
stitution; with the destruction of
Carthage, its most powerful CONNER
cial rival, Rome had now definitely
entered an imperialistic policy,
evolved into a world power-ruler
Of the world enslaving her own peo-
pie. AS her greatness expanded
abroad, corruption set in at home en-
Shaving her own people. At the
pinnacle of her outside fame, internal
corruption set in at home; public
office wa openly bought and sold,
and though many officials were
nailed to the cross for misconduct
in office, gladitorial contests held
to amuse the public, free baths and
rations of grain given the hungry,
a dry rot had set in similar to the
experience of previous civilizations.
D~ictatorships were set up, madmen
assumed control and the time ar
rived when imperial Rome was
sacked by barbarians; another time
saved from the Huns by the pesky
mosquitoes of the Pontine swamps,
driving the Huns home in disgust.
In GA A. D. in Nero's reign when
Rome was burned, Christians were
accused and executed for the crime
making Christianity a capital ~offense,
an episode which had its counter
part in the burning of the Reichstag
in Germany.
The latter part Of the Roman En-
pire should be the most instructive
to present and future governments
showing the inevitable sequence of
cause and effect, always ending in
results. We have experienced
the early Romans un~scientific farm
ing ventures on a much larger scale,
even gone them one better by de-
stroying superfluous crops; while the
money lenders were instrumental in
breaking up the Roman Empire, the
bankers here can give them cards
and spades and beat them at the
game-witness the bank act of 1864
and 1895; the concentration of wealth
which generally precedes an eruption
and readjustment is about as far
advanced here as it was in Rome
previous to its fall. Will history re-
peat itself or does history really
teach?
In monetary science we have
reached a point where we think it
good business to ruin perfectly good
farms for the gold they cover in
order to rebury it in the hills of
Kentucky and, in addition, main
tanning an expensive guard of honor
as a twentieth century crown of
glory.