Evening star., 1951-01-01
New Year, 1851

Fifty years ago today men and women OF
good intention stood at the door of the twentieth
century with hope and confidence in their hearts.
They knew from experience the progress
achieved during the hundred years just finished,
and they earnestly wanted a continuance of
advancement in terms of peace and prosperity.
Victor Hugo was one of the company who looked
forward, never doubling, to the unifcation of
the world after the model of the United States
of America. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the laureate
of England, saw in his minds eye the Parliament
of Man with all the battle flags furled and all
the battle drums silenced. These views were
shared by multitudeS contradicted by few, If
any, skeptics. Optimism seemed natural and
reasonable. Had any prophet ventured to foretell
the horrors Of the next fve decades, he would
have been jeered as fool The Star expressed
majority opinion surely when, on January /, 1901,
It said editorially: "The world is growing better"
But the signs of the times in education,
religion and science to which it referred proved
deceptive The record Of the fifty years closed
yesterday is a diary of disasters chronicle of
cataclysnls. Never before in history has there
been such sequence of sorrows Every life that
has been lived thus far in this century has been
shadowed by a universal ordeal of conflict frus-
tration, bitter disappointment. Again and again
the whole global community has been disturbed
by strife which has proved futile, compelled to
make sacrifice which has proved useless. Now, at
the halfway point of this centennial era, people
are facing a worldwide spectacle of trouble
Every value worth toiling for, every endeavor
worth attempting, appears a mere waste OF effort
Humanity seems bent on self-destruction.
Yet the case is not hopeless The world actually
has grown better in many different respects.
Millions of men and women sincerely are trying
TO live decent honorable, constructive lives; and
foi1i bo foot hot Eoo
disaster threatens all mankind but it also is true
that the source of the danger lies in a single
center-one place, one small faction of tyrants
who employ the lofty language of idealism to
hide shameful selfish purposes. Mouthing free
DOM fellowship and peace, they send their agents
TO spread degenerative revolution. Their spokes-
men stand in the United Nations and mock the
objectives for which the United Nations was
organized However it is evident that they have
little popular following. The masses Of the
Soviet Union and its satellites may obey the
masters Of the Kremlin, but they yield only to
their adversely. Their hearts are not in their
conformity to Stain.
Here then may be light in the prevailing
darkness So long as militant communism makes
no conquest of the human spirit, there still will
be hope for hope. Each of us who yet is free
possesses some power to aid in solving the great
problem of the world. We can work we can
practice the homely virtues of honesty and
charity among ourselves, we can refuse to waste
our time and our strength, we can accept the
leadership of the heroic teachers of the past and
fnd inspiration in the philosophy which inspired
them in other crises, we can rejoice in the hero
ism Of our own courageous youth, we can keep
our trust where it always has benin a Just
and merciful God
The alternatives to such choice are indeed
sfa oho T OBJ fher
the task of preserving our civilization, rededcat
ing ourselves this New Years Day, 1851, to
the duty of surviving on terms worthy of the
price we pay.