“When the mariner has beentossed for many days inthick weather and on anunknown sea he naturallyavails himself of the firstpause in the storm, the earliestglance of the sun, totake his latitude and ascertainhow far the elementshave driven him from histrue course.”
“Have you lately observedany encroachment upon thejust liberties of the people?”
VANISHING LANDMARKS
The Trend Toward Bolshevism
There are several types of intellect, with innumerablevariations and combinations. Somesee but do not observe. They note effects butlook upon them as facts and never seek a cause.Tides lift and rock their boats but they ask notwhy. They stand at Niagara and view with someoutward evidence of delight a stream of waterand an awful abyss, but they lift neither theirthoughts nor their eyes towards the invisible currentof equal volume passing from Nature’sgreat evaporator, over Nature’s incomprehensibletransportation system, back to the mountains,that the rivers may continue to flow to thesea and yet the sea be not full. That class willfind little in this volume to commend, and muchto criticise.
A man is not a pessimist who, when he hearsthe roar and sees the funnel-shaped cloud, directshis children to the pathway leading to the cyclonecellar. He is not a pessimist who, after notingforty years of boastful planning, realizes thatwar is inevitable, and urges preparedness. Butvithe man is worse than a pessimist—he is a fool—whostands in front of a cyclone, rejoicing inthe manifestation of the forces of nature, orfaces a world war, expatiating on the greatnessof his country and the patriotism and prowessof his countrymen.
It is commonly believed that Nero fiddledwhile Rome burned. Conceding that he did, itwas relatively innocent folly compared to theway many Americans fiddled, and fiddled, andfiddled, and fiddled, until Germany was well onthe way to world domination. Coming in atfabulous cost and incalculable waste, and savingthe situation at the sixtieth minute of the eleventhhour, we not only claim a full day’s paybut seem to resent that those who toiled longer,with no more at stake, are asking that honorsbe divided.
We are now facing a far worse danger thanthe armed hosts of the Central Powers—a frenziedmob each da