PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE
The close of the last century found humanity under a different aspect
than ever before. Westward and ever westward had swept the course of
empire until the early years of this decade found the Mongolian again
demonstrating his superiority over the Slavonic people of Eastern
Europe. For centuries the battles for individual freedom of body
and mind had been fought in torture chambers, at heresy trials, at
the stake of every auto-da-fé, as well as in the legislative halls
of insular and continental Europe, and finally this struggle has
culminated in the greatest, fiercest and most devastating war of
modern times, which was America's tribute to the cause of democracy
and freedom. The nations of Europe have looked with wonder upon the
growth and sudden rise into importance of the American Confederacy of
States, and crowned and titled tyrants, ruling by the "divine right,"
have long dreaded the absorption of American ideas by their subjects
or American interference with the course of governmental procedure.
With the advancement and dissemination of learning, democratic
government has got to come, and woe to those who oppose it when the
time is ripe. Poor, bleeding, ignorant Russia is at this minute in
the throes of internecine strife, and no one realizes better than
those of the autocracy who by their selfishness and sloth have brought
upon themselves the engulfing tide of revolution, what was meant by
the dissolute associates of the French Court directly before the
horrors of the Commune when they used to say "After us the deluge."
And little as they expected it, this deluge did not wait for them to
leave, but in many instances helped to usher them from the field of
human activity, upon the block, before the guillotine. It is not at
this time even improbable that the great Siberian prisons may soon
be filled with the bluest blood of royalty, and perhaps the Kara
mines will yet be worked in by their owners, for the benefit of the
revolutionists. But whether this comes to pass or not, we know that
we have seen absolutism gradually give way to constitutional forms of
government, and these in turn become metamorphosed into republics. And
in these democracies we see a tendency to return to a centralized form
of government, particularly when the chief executive is an individual
whose judgment, although it is in error, has been actuated by motives
which no one can impugn. What then is the meaning of this--is humanity
traveling in cycles? Politically, we can answer emphatically, NO. The
ease with which knowledge is communicated among people to-day and the
unimpeachable integrity of the great middle classes are the surest
guarantee that never will we return to the degrading darkness and
servility of the past, while the trenchant manner in which our press
uses the weapons of ridicule and cartoon insures for our posterity
an even better and more active public conscience, which will demand
duty performed commensurate with privileges granted. Municipalities
and commonwealths may be full of political rottenness and corruption,
senates may be filled by the paid agents of capital, representative
halls may be packed by demagogues elected by the most radical element
of organized labor, but regardless of temporary mistakes, just as long
as we maintain an efficient public school system and make education
compulsory and leave the press unshackled, we cannot under a democratic
form of government, where tenure of office is for a short period only,
ever permanently retrograde.
Students of contemporaneous American history who have followed closely
the exposure of municipal officials guilty of the worst forms of
malfeasance, will probably be led to believe that we are going from
bad to worse politically in our larger cities. Owing to the publicity,
however, which such matters get, and the fact that our citizen body in
the aggregate respect honesty and integrity, we have nothing to fear.
The reform wave which oftentimes sweeps with violence over our cities,
to be checked only when persons of much influence have their liberty
jeopardized, will inevitably bring about an understanding on the part
of the majority of the citizens that politics must not be corrupted by
people who make a business of seducing the electorate of our cities.
The commission form of government has already done much to lead the way
to a better state of affairs, and even if it had not, it would be only
a question of but a short time until publicity itself would bring about
a better, purer, and more economic administration of government.
As a nation, we are more seriously menaced by the accumulation of
gigantic individual fortunes than from any other one and perhaps from
all other sources combined, as in but very few cases does a competency
mean the use of time for a leisure of culture and ennoblement, but
rather for the development of selfishness, avarice, cruelty, and
immorality. Christ certainly did not overrate the awful disadvantage
of riches, particularly if considered in relation to the recent
developments of our criminal trials in our great cities, when He said
that "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter Heaven." Wealth in the hands of the young
is the worst condition with which they can be surrounded--it almost
forces them into the company of irresponsible and immoral persons who
lead them into vice, thus sapping their vitality, as well as engrossing
them in habits of infamy, which their weakened mentality can usually
never shake off. The direst poverty, on the other hand, pinches and
confines both the body and mind through lack of proper nutrition and
time for rest and recreation, so that it is of double importance to
the State to see that enormous private accumulations of wealth do not
exist, and more especially that they cannot be inherited. A reasonable
sum should be fixed upon by our lawmakers as the maximum amount which
could be inherited by any one individual, and any part of an estate
which was not legally disposed of under this act, by will or otherwise,
should pass into the undisputed possession of the State and should
be spent, not for the ordinary administration of the law, but for the
building of schools, hospitals, parks, museums, and the purchase of
public utilities, such as water, lighting, power and transportation
companies. Should the means above suggested prove too slow in operation
or inadequate to meet present emergencies, an income-tax might, for
a decade or two, be a necessity--the returns from which should be
expended as suggested above. Unless something of this character is done
within the next century, it would seem that our country cannot continue
to advance in civilization, although she might in political prestige
and commercial importance, but would follow in the steps of so many
other great states, and sooner or later arrive at a time where her
present would be but a meagre shadow of her majestic past.
If we would have the most that is to be got out of life, we should see
to it that more time and attention is paid to the development of the
æsthetic side of our natures. Our public buildings are to-day usually
designed upon grand and majestic lines; some of our public parks are
laid out with the idea of showing the beauty of simplicity and harmony;
a few of our private mansions are architecturally works of art; we
have in our large cities a few museums which are kept open a few hours
to the public upon days when it has leisure, but, further than this,
how little are we taught, or do we see, the beautiful aside from its
arrangement in nature in the ordinary routine of life? With all but the
wealthier class, the getting of a livelihood and the attention to other
material things, consumes all the time and energy available under the
present régime so that no leisure is left to cultivate an appreciation
or desire for the beautiful. It is the amount of development of the
æsthetic nature of the masses which is the surest and most certain
index of any civilization. Schlegel has most justly observed that
"when men are left to the sole guidance of artificial law, they become
reduced to mere empty shadows and soulless forms; while the undivided
sway of nature leaves them savage and loveless." It is therefore in
this middle ground that we should provide stimuli for the growth of
this cult of the beautiful, and to do this we must begin with the
children. It should be the care of the state to see that our streets
are kept clean, that grass plots and flower beds are harmoniously
and tastily arranged at the intersection of the highways, wherever
possible, and that all houses intended for tenement purposes be so
built that plenty of light and air can be always available. Powerful
and elevating music should be performed in public parks at frequent
intervals, whenever the weather will permit of general gatherings
in the open air. The best talent should be secured to address the
people upon subjects of a general nature, such as topics of the day,
political economy, popular science, etc. Our school rooms should not
only be clean and well ventilated, but their walls should be hung
with interesting and beautiful pictures, and our school libraries,
as well as our public libraries, should be numerous, and filled with
the best literature that money can buy. In our homes, we should see
that every refining influence possible is thrown around the children,
and, above all, they should be taught the beauty of self-sacrifice and
heroism. Particularly should they be taught the value and beauty of
affection, and they should be both told and shown that the pleasure
derived therefrom, and its value to the human species, depends almost
wholly upon the self-restraint and self-sacrifice which is exercised
in connection with the intimate relations arising from it. Schlegel
again speaks right to the point, "Every inordinate indulgence involves
a corresponding amount of suffering.... Others, on the contrary, who
devote themselves to glorious deeds and seek enjoyment only in the
intervals of more serious exertion, will have their best reward in the
pure, unchanging happiness purchased by such self-denial. Pleasure,
indeed, has a higher zest when spontaneous and self-created; and it
rises in value in proportion to its affinity with that perfection of
beauty in which moral excellence is allied to external charms."
Our attention as a nation to the acquisition of material wealth to
the utter disregard of our æsthetic natures may very largely account
for the fact that America has produced but few of those literary and
artistic stars which are almost always coincident with commercial
prosperity. We seem to have neither passed the Elizabethan nor the
Victorian age in literature upon this side of the water--not because we
have not produced talent along these lines, but because the quantity
has been so small and seems to be growing less every year. Since the
opening of the present century, there has practically been nothing
produced which will demand recognition among literary and artistic
people after our own generation.
There seems to be only one other great problem before humanity to-day.
Next to the distribution of wealth, it, however, is undoubtedly the
most perplexing question with which every democratic country will
sooner or later have to deal. In its two forms--as prostitution and the
restriction of birth--it constitutes what for a better name is commonly
called "the social evil." Under our civilization and in our system of
social caste we have no class of serfs; but as low, if not lower, than
these we have those women who sell their favors for money to anyone
who will pay the price. Unfortunately, we have not yet reached the
place where the majority of our male population decry moral looseness
on the part of women with whom they are not connected by blood or
matrimony; although this may or may not have been done for profit, as
the case may be. It is still largely a matter as to how general the
knowledge is, as to how great is the crime. Nevertheless, with those
unfortunates whose character is generally known, our modern society
has no place--they are outcasts in the true sense of the word. Worse
than all, is the fact that society refuses to proscribe immorality of
this nature in man as it does in woman--consequently, she alone before
the world is made to suffer for what he is as much to blame for as
she is, and very frequently more so. The incongruity of this, under
a democratic form of government, is readily apparent to anyone and
that such a condition of affairs may not exist permanently under our
civilization cannot be doubted. It would therefore seem that either
one of two things will have to come to pass in the future; either we
shall have to regard our prostitutes as a class, as they were probably
esteemed in ancient Greece, or we shall have to attach an equal calumny
to man as we now attach to woman in these relations. In the first
instance, we tacitly admit that the nature of man differs from that
of woman, in that continence and monogamy are not fitted for him but
are for her, which every fair-minded person knows to be a falsehood;
or else in the other alternative we have the entire sentiment of this
country upon this whole matter to make over and that against those who
are in power. Mrs. Parsons, in her carefully prepared and comprehensive
study, entitled "The Family," does not, it would seem, speak other than
satirically when she proposes that the same license be allowed woman
before she bears children as society now allows man. This would seem
to be a step backward, inasmuch as there is to-day, with no small
percentage of the people in this country, a decided stigma attached
to promiscuity on the part of man, and this should be fostered and
encouraged, at any expense. Her recommendation of early trial marriage
also smacks of the satirical, while her propositions "to make the
transmission of venereal diseases in marriage a penal offense, to
render identical the age of consent with the legal age of marriage,
and to abolish all laws requiring parental consent to marriage, to
consider parental duties the same in the case of an illegitimate as in
that of a legitimate child, and to abolish legal separation and divorce
law provisions prohibiting the defendant to remarry," must appeal to
all fair-minded persons as exactly what is needed. With sentiment once
well started in this direction, we can hope that the next two or three
decades will accomplish much--more particularly if we lose our money
madness and return from "the flesh-pots" to things that are of real
value. The happiness and virtue of our children will never be secure
until society is founded upon a basis of real monogamy, and male as
well as female continence before marriage, and the sooner this fact
is admitted and enforced the better will it be for the human race. In
this molding of sentiment, woman can be and is an important factor,
and her position becomes the more commanding as she becomes more
independent financially. If she demands purity on the part of her male
friends--sooner or later it will be accorded to her--if she insists
upon it in her lover, her Prince Charming will come forth with the
quality.
Concerning that part of this question which deals with the restriction
of birth, it has always seemed that outside of voluntary childless
marriages the importance of "race suicide" was over-estimated. Where
there is no pathological reason why children should not be born, there
can be no question but that voluntary childless marriage is what has
been well termed "a progressive substitute for prostitution." But
where not used to consummate this end, but to keep within the limits
of the proper education and the bringing up of the progeny of a human
pair, such practice as does not involve infanticide cannot be against
the best interests of the race. Consequently, it would seem that,
before marriage, young men and women should become acquainted with
the fundamental phenomena of conception, with the purpose in view of
regulating the number of children which they bring into the world to
such a number as they can properly educate and equip for the struggle
of existence. Such biological knowledge as is necessary to attain this
should become the common property of humanity, and the state should
not restrict the sale of such articles as would further this end. On
the other hand, young men and women should be taught that it is their
duty to have what children they can care for, and at such times and
under such conditions during wedlock as will insure their descendants
the best physical and mental equipment. Infanticide in any form and at
any time, except when performed under the jurisdiction of a reputable
physician, should be made a crime and proper punishment provided
therefor. In this phase of the question, there is also a place for the
fostering of proper sentiment. Parents should show their children that
they constitute a very large proportion of their happiness, and that
child-bearing, within the limits above set forth, is a privilege and
not a burden. Under these conditions, voluntary childless marriage will
become less frequent and the family will occupy the position of primary
importance in the state to which it is entitled.
It is impossible to estimate the far-reaching influence of the Woman's
Rights movement. The agitation to-day extends completely around the
world, and even such Oriental countries as Turkey, Japan, and China
are being forced to realize that they have it to face in the near
future. Politically, there can be no question but that the movement
will tend more towards the purity of the administration of justice
and the elimination of corruption in politics than any movement which
has been started within the history of man; and, as examples of this,
we have only to look for ample proof in countries where women have
been given full rights of citizenship, such as New Zealand, and in
Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada States in this country. Socially,
we have already noticed the effect which this movement will have as
tending towards the purity of masculine morals. Economically, however,
it presents a far different aspect, since every woman who enters
commercial life, whether in the office or factory, diminishes the
child-bearing population of the earth, and with the greater sense of
justice and equity which comes from the higher education, the demands
of woman will not only become more and more exacting, but she will be
becoming constantly more potent in their enforcement. The economic
phase of this problem is so great that it is impossible to state at
this time what the outcome will be, but a still further tremendous
decrease in the birth rate is absolutely sure to come about; and it
would seem that possibly those evils which will, in the long run,
be most largely rectified by this movement will be augmented in the
immediate future, as a result of this agitation, until such a time as
the majority of our citizens may be given such education as will enable
them to reason more logically about the fundamental propositions of
life.
We have looked at a few of the phases of human existence; what shall
be said of the value of life? Modern science has forever taken from us
the comforting delusions of a personal Deity, an immortality for the
soul in a personal sense, and the idea of our possessing a will, free
to force our direction whithersoever we elect. It has left, in place of
these, the idea of duty--individual and personal responsibility--which
cannot be shirked. George Eliot, in the epilogue of Romola, preaches
as strong a sermon as she ever could to Mr. Meyers, when she talked to
him upon that now famous evening in May at Cambridge. Carlyle, no less
than his countrywoman, realized, not only the importance of living up
to individual responsibility, but also understood how hard it often
was to know just what should be done. His rule, which is most worthy
of emulation, was: "Do the nearest duty that lies to your hand, and
already the next duty will have become plainer." In order that we may
be the better prepared to fulfill our responsibilities, we should
obtain all the knowledge possible, even although it may cause us lack
of insight temporarily, and much mental agony. Faith is not comparable
to knowledge, any more than wishing is equal to the obtaining of
results. We should therefore be aggressive in the discharge of our
duty--liberal and tolerant, pure and upright, loving and unselfish,
virtuous and truly religious, so that it may be said of us, when we
have finished, that the world is a little better, and life has been,
for as many as possible, a little happier for our having lived.
THE END
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Transcriber's note
Text in italics has been surrounded with _underscores_, underlined
words with ~signs~, bold with =signs= and small capitals changed to all
capitals.
The first two columns of the Geological Table at the end of Chapter II
have been combined to keep the width within limits.
The following corrections were made, on page
91 "posession" changed to "possession" (after they had secured
possession of their)
127 "formluæ" changed to "formulæ" (had recited certain magical
formulæ which had)
175 ' changed to " (never to have loved at all.")
200 " added ("The information given is clear).
Otherwise the original has been preserved, including archaic and
unusual words, as well as unusual or inconsistent spelling and
hyphenation. For instance: Phoedrus is usually spelled as Phædrus,
this has not been changed.