HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
(CONCLUDED)
A subdued applause greeted the Professor the next day when he
entered the lecture room to conclude his review of events of the
20th Century. Many floral bouquets were tossed to him by his fair
admirers, who were augmented from the other classes, on account of
the full detail of his encounter with Don Seville having been spread
throughout the Seminary.
The Professor, despite some discoloration on his benign visage,
flushed crimson like a bashful child and bowed his acknowledgements,
as he began his discourse thus:
1927
Colonization of Central Africa
A system of general colonization on a large scale was, during this
year, undertaken by the British Government. By a new homestead law,
embodying liberal inducements, a vast army of colonists from all over
the British dominions were transported to Central Africa. Thousands
upon thousands of persons from the congested districts of London,
Glasgow, Liverpool and other large cities, were persuaded to leave
their limited surroundings and uncongenial atmosphere, and go to the
promising new land, teeming with boundless opportunities.
Almost the entire inhabitants of the isolated islands of the Shetlands
and Orkneys, who led an indolent life and eked a meagre existence by
fisheries, joined this grand trek to Central Africa. Many thousands
from the Canadian provinces and from the United States of America
joined this exodus, as did also thousands from the East Indies. The
thorough and admirable manner in which this laudable movement was
handled mitigated the hardships of transportation, and thus within
a few years more than five million, poor, homeless and indolent
people were given homesteads of their own, awakening them into energy
and thrift.
Within a decade the population of Central Africa reached the grand
total of 25,000,000 industrious, loyal citizens, forming a flourishing
dependency, enjoying home rule and liberty, under the protection of
British laws and arms.
1928
The Conflagration of the Atlantic Ocean
One of the most wonderful and at the same time awful conflagrations
of its kind on record in the history of the world, was that of the
apparent burning of the Atlantic Ocean, covering an area one hundred
and fifty miles wide. It started in the Gulf of Mexico and, like
a prairie fire, only a thousand times more furious, this floating
furnace consumed scores of vessels that came into its fiery path.
A few weeks previous to this awful holocaust, the petroleum wells in
Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana had run dry, on account of a severe
earthquake. It was argued by scientists that, by some subterranean
convulsions the oil well fissures had shifted their course, into the
waters of the gulf, and the vast accumulation of the inflammable fluid,
floating on the ocean, had been ignited, either by an electric spark
during a thunderstorm, or by some combustible being thrown from a
sailing craft.
1929
The Court of Labor
In this year was completed and dedicated the Court of Labor at
Washington. This was an imposing building, in which all the momentous
labor problems were discussed before a tribunal of disinterested
justices, through the able representatives of each faction, without
resorting to disastrous strikes, lockouts and disturbances of public
comfort.
One of the most remarkable features of this Court of Arbitration was,
the colossal group erected between the two grand entrances to the
building. This was not a semi-nude female figure with bandaged eyes,
holding in her hand the conventional pair of scales, but a Herculean
figure of Uncle Sam with his starry hat and glorious chin whiskers,
having three faces, three eyes and three arms. Before him were a group
of three figures which represented respectively Capital, Consumer and
Labor. In each figure were his eyes wide open and alert, bent with
searching scrutiny upon the person in front, to whom he dispensed
the just share of each, from a huge cornucopia at his feet.
1930
Landlordism In America
One of the most scandalous evils which had crept gradually in the
United States, and eventually became a source of grave anxiety to the
government, was a system of Landlordism amongst the very rich. While
the general public were slumbering in blissful ignorance, this coterie
of avaricious syndicates and multi-millionaires had mysteriously
become possessors of vast tracts of lands, in every state of the
Union. Some of these holdings comprised hundreds and thousands of
square miles in extent.
Miles and miles of shore-fronts, immense areas of forests, whole
mountains and lakes, through the conniving, corrupt state and county
officials, had passed into the hands of private individuals who,
in return had become extremely arrogant in their treatment of the
public, by unreasonable restriction.
There seemed to be a mocking sarcasm in the fact when common people
sang the National Anthem "America," celebrating its hills and rills,
while at every turn of the road, at every shore-front, lake, hill and
valley, mountain and forests, the forbidding sign, "No Trespassing
Under Penalty," met their eyes, or the repulsive muzzle of the
Winchester was thrust into their faces by private watchmen.
This state of affairs had reached such desperate straits, that the
public suddenly awakened on the subject. It started first by the
protest of the rougher element in the mountain districts, who defied
the hired authorities with an organized force. The people committed
acts of violence and incendiarism it is true, but by their overt
acts they awakened the dormant public to realize the enormity of
this scandalous condition of deeding away to millionaires, without
the consent of the commonwealth, the common and inalienable heritage
of its citizens.
By a unanimous uprising and public mandate the Federal and State
authorities were compelled to condemn and confiscate these stolen
public lands. New laws were then enacted by which the acquiring of
extensive lands was limited, except for agricultural purposes.
1931
The Discovery of the North Pole
The North Pole, that mysterious geographical locality which for
centuries had baffled scientists and explorers, was located
and verified by the combined efforts of American and British
Governments. The expedition was on a gigantic scale, the force of the
explorers being in round numbers two thousand five hundred persons
who by a system of depots and rendez-vous for supplies, formed almost
a continuous chain.
All the latest devices in the form of dynamo-vans and motor-sleds,
with balloon attachments were employed in the undertaking. Strange
to say the casualties did not exceed more than ten per cent of
the expeditionary force. It was discovered, to the great surprise
of scientists, that the locality was nothing more than a plateau,
studded with cones of ice!
1932
Cure for Laziness
The discovery, by an American, of a germicide for indolence was
announced during this year, by which lethargic persons were regenerated
into acute activity. It was a concentrated double extract of
pitch-blend, containing the radio active element, and when applied to
certain parts of the body, it instantaneously transformed the feeling
of laziness and ennui, into one of hustling energy and alertness.
The negroes of the Southern States, the natives of tropical countries
and also officials in the police departments of large cities, were
the ones benefitted by this "golden medical discovery!"
1933
Capital Punishment
The abolishment of capital punishment in many States of the Union,
through the impulsive sentimentality of a minority, had given birth
to an old time evil, that of feudalism. It was well for people
preaching mercy for murderers, when somebody else was the victim,
but when the crime was perpetrated against one of their homes, their
feelings were entirely changed. The increase of vendetta was the
result, and it occurred with such a lamentable degree of frequency,
that the old uncontrovertible Mosaic law, blood for blood, and life
for life was re-established.
1934
Abolition of Hereditary Titles In England
The agitation for the abolition of hereditary titles in England caused
a crisis in the political and social world of Great Britain. The
degeneracy of hereditary nobles, their utter incapacity adequately
to fill the positions left by their illustrious ancestors, to the
detriment and retrogression of the British government, was the main
cause of bringing about this bloodless internecine revolution.
Despite the most strenuous opposition by the friends of the nobles,
a new law was added to the revised Magna Charta, by an overwhelming
public demand. With few exceptions, it nullified the existing titles,
and elevated to peerage only worthy citizens for life, on condition of
the good behavior of the incumbent. This excellent law brought fresh
and saving blood into the political and civic life of England. The
movement precipitated the abandonment of the House of Lords and created
in its stead a body called Senatorium, whose members were elected by
the tax-paying citizens.
1935
Blowing the Earth Into Fragments
The most remarkable sensation of this year was that of a German
scientist and statistician who, after a thorough investigation and
mathematical calculation, announced his conclusions, that it was in
the range of collective human power, that is, by the combined aid of
labor, time, money and high explosives, to rend the earth in twain,
or into fragments, and thus create new planets in space, producing new
climatic conditions, fauna and life, adaptable to their new positions
in the solar system.
1937
An American Penal Colony
The census of this year revealed an unprecedented number of evil-doers,
causing great anxiety to the Government. There were recorded ninety-two
thousand criminals in prisons and seventy-six thousand paupers in the
poor houses. This army of public charges cost the State authorities
more than thirty million dollars for their maintenance.
At last by the stress of popular agitation the government adopted
a policy of penal colonization. Selecting a desirable island in the
Philippines, the Federal authorities succeeded in transporting to the
island, within three years, and with half the cost of their maintenance
at home, one hundred thousand of these unfortunate malefactors.
Here, they were given every facility and aid, for acquiring and
building of homes, farms and factories, and within ten years, under
a wise military administration more than half of that number were
reclaimed, forming a prosperous and loyal community in the Eastern
Hemisphere.
1938
The Great Telescope
With the munificent contributions to a general fund, amounting to
two million dollars, by the English, American and French Governments,
the greatest telescope which the world has ever known was constructed
in Paris. Its lenses measured more than two meters in diameter which,
combined with a mammoth revolving camera obscura, brought the moon and
some of the planets within the range of visual observation, revealing
on Venus and Mars the existence of vegetation and moving objects.
1939
The Earth An Electric Motor
Emil Flammarion, the worthy grandson of the eminent French astronomer,
demonstrated by an extremely clever mechanical contrivance in Vacuo,
that the Earth was merely an electric Motor in space!
1940
The Trend of Religious Thought
Religious thought or spiritual belief is not an invention of
mortals. It is an inborn attribute of the human mind. While man was
in his savage or semi-barbarous stage, the ethical and spiritual
conceptions were correspondingly crude and religious warfare
predominated. With the advance of civilization its development
kept pace with it until at the dawn of the twentieth century it had
undergone, by natural evolution, a marked metamorphosis.
It gradually divested itself of its legendary mysticism, fantastic
dogmas and spectacular schisms, and all intelligent thinkers
promulgated a propaganda, not of external forms of worship, but those
uncontrovertible basic truths, which always will hold.
It is true that in an era of commercial materialism great masses
of people embraced agnosticism and ethical culture, rejecting that
supernatural conception of a first cause of which they claimed
their limited intellect had a vague idea and was deeper than the
hazy human comprehension, yet, the shallow Ingersolian philosophy of
attacking a force--which filled millions with hope and goaded them
to self-sacrifice, mercy and charity--without substituting something
better, was repudiated by the intelligent, and appealed only to the
abnormal and the foolish.
This tendency of materialism in religion continued unabated, until
the startling announcement of a German scientist--who claimed it was
within human power to rend the world in twain--also the marvelous
revelation through the mammoth telescope--by which was discovered
moving objects and vegetation in other planets--brought on an acute
crisis. A tremendous religious revival swept all over the world. It
expanded the mental horizon of human conceptions. The existence of
living organism in other spheres came within rational deductions. The
possible existence of beings far superior in intellect to ourselves,
came within the limit of legitimate theorizations, and the more men
began to grasp with the co-operation of science, the infinite vastness
of the universe, with its numberless millions of habitable worlds,
the probability of an intelligent force of vast creative power came
within the scope of human understanding.
The forceful passage in the Holy Writ "that God created man in his
own image" became more and more lucid. Consequently the pantheism of
the old Greeks were revived with more clearness, and the existence
of a personal God somewhere in this boundless universe appealed to
multitudes with new zest.
"Pray, Professor, what is your opinion of a first cause?" ventured
one of the students.
"There are so many mysterious forces," answered the Professor, "that
although we cannot see, yet we feel their power and are conscious of
their results. And as our mortal organism cannot conceive a thought
which is beyond its own limitations, the very idea of our thought of
a first cause falls within the range of human conceptions.
"When we gaze at an automobile, which is the creation of a creature,
we see a wonderful parallelism; its requirements to make it an active
energy, bears a strong analogy of its inventor, yet, an automobile
with all its requirements for power supplied, is a worthless mass,
unless operated and guided by its creator. Does not this vast universe
with all its wonderful manifestations suggest a creative force,
which governs it?"
"Albeit, it is not within my province nor in my power to penetrate the
veil" continued the Professor, looking up in pensive mood. "But as the
coral protoplasm begins its edifice from the calcerous mire in the dark
recesses of the ocean, upwards through the murky and semi-transparent
liquid, finally reaches the pelucid surface, kisses the wave and sees
the light, me-thinks likewise, the spiritual perceptions of mankind
which has grown from the depths of savagery and through the maze of
intolerance, dogmas and schisms, will go onward in its evolution and
perhaps our posterity will at last penetrate the mystic veil and see
the light,--God."
1941
The Birthday Anniversary of Noted Centenarians
"Lithia Bingham," "Young Dr. Bray" and "Sister Eddy" received the
homage and congratulations of millions of their admirers, on their
hundred and fiftieth birthday anniversary.
The remarkable longevity of this trio of Methuselahs was attributed,
in the case of the two first mentioned, to their own "cure all"
concoctions, and the last, to her scientific revelation of thinking
that, there is no such thing as pain or death!
"In closing this review of historical events," said the Professor
looking around the auditorium, "there are a few other important
happenings that bring us to the present decade.
"The remarkable decadence of Germany under a Socialistic regime,
a doctrine, that although theoretically seems to be so desirably
altruistic, convincing, and in poetry sounds so well, but in practise
has proved to be detrimental to a life of strenuous efforts, and
suicidal to individual ambitions--conditions which are eminently
essential to growing and prosperous communities.
"The consequent exodus of Teutons to other parts of the world that
promised freedom to independent action.
"The political union of Spain and Portugal.
"The re-conquest by France of Alsace Lorain.
"The puerile uprising by a section of Irish people against England
are still fresh in our memory--and to which most of you have been
eye-witnesses--are some of the events worthy of record."
Here the Professor, after a pause, changed his subject to future
possibilities and, presenting to the class in eloquent words a glowing,
optimistic picture of conditions for future generations, brought his
discussion to a close. When he stepped down from the rostrum he was
at once surrounded by the entire class and was tendered an impromptu
but agreeable reception.