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 Copy 1 
 
 American Qivilization. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES 
 
 West Virginia University, 
 
 Hon. S. B. ELKINS, of New York. 
 
 June Uth. 1888. 
 

 PRESS OF STYLES & CASH, 77 EIGHTH AVE., N. Y. 
 
 Z'>< 
 
 2fEW YORK PUBL. LIBR, 
 IN EXCHANQfi. 
 
4 
 
 American Civilization. 
 
 A FTER six thousand years of recorded effort, 
 "civilization, in its journey with the sun," has 
 encircled the orlobe. Its metes and bounds are 
 fixed. The future holds for it no more territorial 
 conquests. It cannot find relief, as in times past, 
 from the dangers that grow with its growth and 
 constantly threaten its existence, by the discovery of 
 new worlds. In America, civilization, to insure its 
 own progress and preservation, must meet these 
 dangers and confront the oncoming problems face to 
 face without chance of retreat. 
 
 Fifty centuries ago, the restless Aryan parted 
 company with his Mongolian neighbor under the 
 shadow of the great Himalayas. Leading the course 
 of empire, this heroic blood, conquering all before it, 
 has gradually moved westward, until it has reached 
 the last barrier, the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Over this wide stretch of waters the Occident 
 salutes the Orient, the West clasps hands with the 
 East, the New speaks to the Old. 
 
 Western civilization, in marshalling its assets and 
 recounting its triumphs, points with pride and en- 
 thusiasm to its latest and most promising offspring, 
 the United States, in its early infancy the richest 
 
country on the globe, leading the world in industrial 
 progress, and all the things that make for the material 
 comfort of man ; a nation of free people, happy and 
 prosperous. 
 
 The beautiful Orient, " land of the sun and ro- 
 mance," source of philosophies and religions, the 
 cradle of the race, having resisted alike the assaults 
 of change and the ravages of time, rejoices in a civil- 
 ization that holds over eight hundred million of 
 peaceable, gentle and contented people, constituting 
 more than half the world's population. 
 
 Echoing through cycles of experience in the con- 
 cerns of government and the tasks of humanity, may 
 be heard voices from the far-off conservative East, 
 speaking through her literature, philosophy and 
 religion ; telling us that brute force is not power, 
 materialism is not enduringf, mere knowledofe is not 
 wisdom ; lessons that our newer and more aggres- 
 sive civilization may well heed. 
 
 Voltaire said, " The discovery of America is the 
 greatest event which has ever taken place in this 
 world of ours." It helped to save Western civiliza- 
 tion from a long struggle and perhaps from follow- 
 ing in the wake of the civilizations of Egypt, Greece 
 and Rome. The progress of the best civilization 
 has always been westward. It moved from Assyria, 
 Phoenicia, and from the banks of the Nile to Greece 
 and Rome, thence to Northern and Western Europe, 
 centering in Paris and London. It has crossed the 
 Atlantic, and unless there are changes not now ap- 
 
parent, it is destined to reach its largest development 
 and highest perfection upon the American continent. 
 
 American civilization is the heir of all the ages. 
 It draws its forces from the whole mighty past. 
 Appropriating and absorbing the best elements of 
 Europe, possessing unrivaled physical and indus- 
 trial advantages, it should be distinctive in character, 
 aggressive and vigorous, enabled to understand and 
 solve the problems which thus far have baffled society 
 and overcome the dang-ers that have wrecked all 
 former civilizations. 
 
 Already Western civilization is divided into 
 European and American civilization, between which 
 there is a silent contest going on for supremacy in 
 the affairs of the world. 
 
 The progress of civilization in Europe is hindered 
 by the burdens of military armaments, public debts, 
 interest and taxation, together with the inability of 
 the people in many of the States to produce from 
 the soil what they consume, and the want of popular 
 government. To-day, Europe, professing to be 
 Christian, is a vast military camp. The tramp of 
 soldiers is heard on every hand. Standing armies 
 • on a scale the world has never seen, occupy most 
 of the States ; armed with the most approved 
 machinery for human slaughter, facing each other, 
 and ready at a moment's notice to grapple in a 
 deadly struggle ; all for no higher purpose than to 
 satisfy dynastic ambitions. 
 
 France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Belgium and 
 
Great Britain, furnish to their standing armies 
 2,200,000 able-bodied men, who, instead of contri- 
 buting to the production of wealth, cost each on 
 an average, annually, about $225 to support, or in 
 the aggregate about five hundred million dollars. 
 1,224,000 men, or about one-eighteenth of the whole 
 adult workers of France, Germany and England, are 
 in their armies and taken from industrial pursuits. 
 
 In 1880, the public debts of the leading countries 
 of Europe amounted to about twenty thousand mil- 
 lion dollars; the annual interest charge on which, 
 at 3 per cent., amounts to six hundred million 
 dollars ; much of which, however, bears interest at 4 
 per cent. Eight thousand million of these debts, or 
 about 40 per cent, thereof, was created in the fifteen 
 years between 1865 and 1880. England and France, 
 with an aggregate population only 25 per cent, 
 greater than that of the United States, pay about four 
 hundred million interest per annum on their public 
 debts, and about three hundred and forty million for 
 the support of their armies and navies, besides con- 
 tributing 730,000 men to their standing armies. 
 The States of Europe to-day are hopelessly mort- 
 eaeed to the descendants of their present creditors. 
 England does not produce enough from the soil to 
 feed half her population. 
 
 With this great drain on these countries and with 
 these embarrassments, is there reasonable hope of 
 European civilization making substantial progress } 
 If European civilization is to prosper, large national 
 
debts must disappear ; able-bodied men must be taken 
 from the armies and restored to industrial pursuits 
 and the production of wealth ; classes and distinc- 
 tions in society must pass away; labor must get a 
 larger share of what it produces ; and, sooner or later, 
 the people must have popular government. If, in the 
 march of progress, European civilization shall reach 
 this point, it will then, in many essential things, only 
 be abreast of American civilization to-day. 
 
 Will all this be done through peaceful means or 
 through blood ? Will another French Revolution, 
 as Carlyle predicted, be the dreadful instrumentality 
 employed to accomplish this purpose ? 
 
 Meantime, American civilization cannot standstill. 
 It, too, must go forward on higher lines and nobler 
 planes in the direction of humanity, morality and 
 the brotherhood of man. Unsettled questions and 
 pressing problems are the police of the world, al- 
 ways on duty, giving nations no repose and bidding 
 humanity move ever on. 
 
 The physical position of the United States on 
 the globe is commanding and important. Her terri- 
 tory measures the width of a continent which is 
 washed by two oceans. It lies on the great highway 
 in the march of civilization from the East to the 
 West ; in the charmed elimatic belt ; between those 
 parallels of latitude which have produced the great- 
 est men of all times ; within which the greatest transac- 
 tions in human history have taken place, the greatest 
 triumphs in art, literature and war occurred, and the 
 
8 
 
 greatest peoples come and gone. It contains a 
 population of more than 62,000,000 of free people, 
 increasing at the rate of nearly 2,000,000 per an- 
 num, the sun going down on 5,000 more people each 
 day. It has 150,000 miles of railroad, 230,000 miles 
 of telegraph lines, 25,000 miles of ocean and lake 
 coast, 20,000 miles of navigable rivers, over and along 
 which is carried and transacted trade and commerce 
 which amounts to fifty thousand million dollars 
 per annum. In- aid of industrial progress the people 
 of the United States enjoy 250,000 inventions pro- 
 tected by patents. The value of agricultural and 
 manufactured products amounts annually to more 
 than thirteen thousand million dollars. The an- 
 nual gross receipts of one of their railway systems 
 amount to more than the income of the oldest em- 
 pire of the world, with four hundred million 
 population. Government bonds sell at a preniiuni 
 of 25 percent. The national treasury is overflowing, 
 and Congress and the Executive are embarrassed 
 by the increasing volume of the revenues. The num- 
 ber of its standing army is only about 28,000 men, or 
 one in 2,200 of population. Interest on the public 
 debt amounts to about ninety-five million per an- 
 num ; making the total expenses on account of the 
 public debt, the army and navy only about one 
 hundred and fifty million per annum. It is esti- 
 mated that in another century the wealth of the 
 United States will exceed that of Europe, and that 
 their population will in two centuries reach more 
 
than five hundred million. While wages in Europe 
 are only about one-third of those in the United States, 
 the cost of living is only a trifle less ; some authorities 
 claiming for the same kind of living the cost is about 
 equal. It is estimated that the people of the United 
 States consume three times as much per capita as 
 the people of Europe. In other words, 60 million 
 Americans consume as much as 180 million Europeans. 
 
 The contrast in all these things between the 
 United States and Europe is striking, and strikingly 
 in favor of the United States. 
 
 The social and political condition of the people 
 is already in advance of that of any other people of 
 the world. 
 
 Mr. Matthew Arnold, in his article criticising 
 civilization in the United States, says : " The politi- 
 " cal and social problem does seem to be solved there 
 "with remarkable success. '^'' ■^* * It is undeniable 
 "that their institutions do work well and happily. 
 u^' ^- -x- Y^ jj^ general, as to its own political and 
 "social concerns, sees clear and thinks straight. * 
 "* * For that immense class of people, the great 
 " bulk of the community, the class of people whose in- 
 " come is less than three or four hundred pounds a 
 "year, things in America are favorable. It is easier 
 "for them there than in the Old World to rise and 
 "make their fortune. Things are favorable to them 
 " in America. Society seems organized for their 
 " special benefit." 
 
 These are the words of a keen observer, a orreat 
 
lO 
 
 thinker, and a severe critic. What higher tribute could 
 be paid to American civihzation than to say that 
 society seems organized for the benefit of the bulk of 
 the community. It is the glory of our political 
 system that all power is in the people, that the 
 Government exists for the whole body of the gov- 
 erned, and that it will only fulfill its highest func- 
 tions when it best promotes the welfare of all, and 
 thus makes real a commonwealth. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, however, that other 
 civilizations, in their day and time, with much of the 
 promise of American civilization, have come and gone. 
 
 The salvation of European civilization has been 
 due among other things to emigration and shifting of 
 population. There is no such safety-valve for the 
 United States ; it must face the difficulties and dangers, 
 that beset it, and, if possible, conquer them on Ameri- 
 can soil, amid a constant influx of population from 
 other countries. 
 
 The seeds of life and death seem to be planted in 
 every organism. Civilization is no exception to this 
 general rule ; it holds within itself the germs of its 
 own destruction. 
 
 The ideal civilization, which man hopes to attain, is 
 that in which war will disappear and peace reign 
 supreme, in which poverty, pauperism, crime, pestil- 
 ence and disease will decrease, and human life will 
 be prolonged. 
 
 The nearer this ideal is approached, the faster 
 population will multiply. Wise men tell us that 
 
1 1 
 
 herein lurk the dangers which threaten an advancing' 
 civiHzation ; that, as man multipHes, what is termed 
 the struggle for existence increases and grows fiercer, 
 causing a silent, though constant, cruel and relentless 
 war between individuals in which the strong devours 
 the weak, and the tendency of which is towards the 
 destruction of society itself. Civilization, to insure 
 its safety, must in some way limit and put under 
 restraint the struggle for existence — must somehow 
 modify and soften the forces of competition. 
 
 This seems the end to be sought. Mr. Huxley 
 says : " It is the true riddle of the Sphinx ; and 
 " every nation that does not solve it will, sooner 
 " or later, be devoured by the monster itself has 
 " generated." 
 
 Of the many serious problems before our nation,, 
 two may be singled out for special emphasis : 
 
 American civilization has forced upon it the race 
 problem, always difficult and disturbing to the repose 
 of nations. After much delay Chinese imigration has 
 been stopped, and pauper immigration checked. Such 
 measures are healthful and in the interest of security, 
 they should be encouraged, until only the moral and 
 industrious of other countries should be permitted to 
 become the " guests of the Republic." 
 
 The Negro race in the South numbers about seven 
 million or more than twice our population when the 
 Constitution was adopted. It has multiplied eight 
 times in a century. If the same increase is maintained 
 for another century, it will about equal in number the 
 
12 
 
 present population of the United States. It is encour- 
 aging that the negro is by nature peaceable, kind 
 and religious, respectful towards authority, obedient to 
 law, and purely American. The North has ten million 
 foreigners. Voters born in Europe hold the balance 
 of power between the two great political parties. The 
 Negro race and the foreigners constitute more than 
 one-fourth of our population. These elements must be 
 harmoniously absorbed and assimilated, into the 
 general body of composite American civilization. 
 
 Though the race-question in the South led to the 
 great civil war, it was not fully settled by it. The 
 negro gained freedom, and was elevated from the 
 degradation of being a mere chattel to the dignity 
 of a citizen. This was a great change to be so sud- 
 denly wrought in the history of a race of 4,000,000 
 people. 
 
 The great republic could make the slave free 
 and its citizen, but could not, at the same time, arm 
 him with the necessary intelligence and experience 
 that would enable him to exercise the rights of a free- 
 man and a citizen in a contest with his former mas- 
 ter. This was not the fault of the government, it 
 was the misfortune of the negro. 
 
 The government did all it could to aid its newly- 
 made citizen. in his helpless and almost hopeless condi- 
 tion, The negro, heir to thousands of years of 
 ignorance, savagery, and barbarism, the only civil- 
 ization he ever knew finding him a slave, and his first 
 duty to obey, was not prepared to exercise his political 
 
rights .against his former master, who was accustomed 
 to control and govern, and was entrenched behind 
 power, weakh, and education. The contest was 
 unequal. There could be but one result. Ignorance 
 and poverty had to go down before intelligence and 
 wealth, as it has always done the world over. 
 
 The general condition of affairs in the South, since 
 the war, has been natural and logical. 
 
 The M^ar left the two races in their changed condi- 
 tions on the same soil, under the same skies, and in 
 the same homes and places. Neither race could get 
 relief by retiring. In these new and trying circum- 
 stances, for which neither was prepared, in open an- 
 tagonism, they were forced to begin the work of 
 solving the race problem. History furnishes no par- 
 allel to a situation so difficult for both sides. 
 
 The black man deserved the profoundest sym- 
 pathy — the white man consideration.- In the humilia- 
 tion of defeat, loss of property, and everything he had 
 fought for and held dear, the white man brooded over 
 his losses. He determined that his humiliation 
 should not be deepened by allowing his former slave 
 to be his social and political equal, and aid in making 
 laws for his government. He resisted by force in some 
 cases ; by threats and indirection in others ; and often 
 by State laws passed in his own interest. Federal 
 laws were unavailing. Even where there was a Federal 
 or State law that might favor the black man and was 
 sustained by the courts, there was no public sentiment 
 behind either that could enforce it. There is a whole 
 
14 
 
 empire of questions in our domestic concerns that 
 statute law cannot reach, and where natural laws are 
 supreme and govern. In the fiercest civil war, in the 
 lonor nitrht of battle and blood which hune over the 
 land, when the liberty of the negro was in the 
 balance, his conduct was marked by no act of violence 
 or revenge, and he remained the true, tried, and 
 trusted friend of his master and his family, who 
 were fighting to hold him in slavery. There is 
 nothing in all history equal to this example of affection, 
 forbearance, and charity, on the part of a whole race. 
 This splendid fact should stand out as a bond between 
 the two races, and it is hoped, in time, will be a gentle 
 memory that will draw them closer together. The 
 two races have known each other for two hundred 
 years. The South needs the black man. The white 
 man in the South could not get on well without him. 
 They understand each other, and generally agree on 
 all but social and political questions. Already there 
 is a better feeling between the races. The negro is 
 making substantial progress in education and in the 
 accumulation of property. 
 
 The negro, not equal in intelligence and edu- 
 cation to the white man, being constantly associated 
 with him, looking to him for guidance in local con- 
 cerns, seeing in him the model after which he is to 
 shape his own advancement, generally obliged to rely 
 upon him for employment and the means of gaining 
 a subsistence — is it not natural, as time goes on, that 
 he should be largely influenced by the white man, 
 even in matters of political concern ? 
 
15 
 
 There should be the same law over both South and 
 North. Violation of the rights of citizenship, sup- 
 pression of votes, frauds in elections, are dangerous 
 to liberty and free government, and should be pun- 
 ished everywhere. Any section that countenances 
 and upholds these wrongs is its own worst enemy, and 
 sooner or later retribution in some form will follow. 
 
 In theory and practice, in the interest of the 
 healthful progress and purity of free government, of 
 its safety and preservation, every citizen should be 
 protected in all his rights, should be allowed to vote 
 as he desires, and his vote should be counted as cast. 
 This cannot be denied. But to attempt to change the 
 situation in the South by Federal law has not suc- 
 ceeded ; to try to effect it in the interest of the black 
 man by outside agitation has proven useless. So long 
 as political parties are divided in the South on the 
 lines they are, and the people, both black and white, 
 are made to believe everything depends on the whites 
 being in one party and the blacks in another ; so 
 long as prejudice, passion, hate and revenge shall be 
 encouraged by selfish leaders for their own aggrand- 
 izement, the situation between the races in the South 
 will remain unchanged. 
 
 The true solution of this question will come when 
 both races divide on economic and industrial issues 
 and distribute themselves between the two ereat 
 parties. The black man will then have the sympathy 
 and support of his white neighbor and get all his 
 rights under the law. 
 
i6 
 
 When hostile guns were trained upon the capitol 
 of the republic, with his life threatened and in danger, 
 Lincoln said to the Southern people : 
 
 " We are not enemies, but friends. We must not 
 be enemies," Later on, Grant said : " Let us have 
 peace." At this great distance from the conflict, 
 should not our wise men on both sides heed the 
 voices of these immortals and echo their plea for 
 peace. Prejudice, passion, hate and revenge cannot 
 live forever — and no man should wish to keep them 
 alive. Upon no such foundations can anything good 
 or lasting in society or government be built. 
 
 It is in the order of events in the path of certain 
 destiny that the people of all sections through the 
 whole country shall be friends. Then let us wisely 
 anticipate the work of time, and of oblivion and the 
 reconciliations of our children by a few years and be 
 friends now. When the race question in the South 
 shall be settled, and shall be no longer the foot-ball of 
 poHtics, the Union will in the best sense, be restored. 
 . The people of the whole country will enjoy that 
 peace and repose that friendly feeling and good will 
 for each other which are so necessary to the highest 
 progress and the most permanent safety of the Union, 
 and which they have not known for more than a 
 quarter of a century. The passions born of the war, 
 and often kept alive for selfish purposes will then be 
 buried in the "sea thatgiveth not up its dead." 
 
 Sectional differences and antagonisms — always a 
 menace and danger to the Republic — will disappear, 
 
17 
 
 and the words "Solid South" and "United North" 
 will be known no more forever. 
 
 If the South has a race problem forced upon it, the 
 North Is concerned with the class problem which will 
 press as severely for consideration. After the experi- 
 ence of the past few years, the blindest optimist cannot 
 fail to see that the industrial question is fairly raised. 
 
 In the last dozen years, lessons of wisdom have 
 been learned, in the United States, both by capitalists 
 and wage-earners. The present agitation of the in- 
 dustrial question is healthful. It argues, on the part of 
 the people, a desire to go forward, an aspiration to rise 
 higher. It is the yearning for independence and 
 advancement on the part of the whole people which is 
 yet to be the glory of American civilization. The 
 prospect for our civilization would indeed be dark 
 and forlorn if all energy, courage, and ambition to 
 rise had gone out of the people. American civili- 
 zation, notwitstanding its great promise, would then 
 be on the eve of certain decline. 
 
 Progress in civilization is not made or marked by 
 the rise of only a part of society. The certain sign 
 of progress is when the general level rises, when the 
 condition of the whole body of society is improved, 
 and when the life of the people at large is enobled. 
 
 Of the various aspects of the Industrial Problem 
 one is pre-eminently important. 
 
 Carlyle said : "A man willing to work and unable 
 to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's 
 inequality exhibits under the sun." 
 
i8 
 
 There is always employment for the person that 
 knows how to do useful things and do them well. 
 
 In 1880 there were 300,000 people in Massachu- 
 setts that had no knowledge of any trade, art or pro- 
 fession, by which they could earn a living. They did 
 not know how to do things, and, therefore, even those 
 who desired it, could not find employment. 
 
 Mencius, the Chinese philosopher, who lived three 
 hundred and twenty-five years before Christ, said : 
 " Let the people be employed in a way to secure their 
 happiness ; although wearied, they will not murmur." 
 
 The State should not undertake to find employ- 
 ment for its citizens, but it should afford them an 
 opportunity to win at least manual training or an in- 
 dustrial education, so that they may be aided in finding 
 employment. 
 
 As far back as 1700, the State of Connecticut 
 passed a law requiring parents and guardians to bring 
 up children to some lawful calling or employment, and 
 fixing a penalty for failure to do so. In the "Frame 
 of Government " drawn up by William Penn for his 
 colony, on the Delaware, it was provided that ''all 
 children of the ao^e of twelve were to be taught some 
 useful trade." 
 
 Generally, from the ranks of the unemployed are 
 recruited the restless and vicious — the dangerous ele- 
 ments to society and government. The strength and 
 weakness of a government by the people — a pure de- 
 mocracy — lie close together. Such a government is a 
 delicate arrangement brought into existence by the 
 
19 
 
 people for their convenience, and resting entirely 
 upon their consent. 
 
 This is the first real experiment of a government 
 by universal consent known to history. The people are 
 the source of all power. At any time a majority of the 
 the people, not being satisfied, can recall the power they 
 have conferred, withhold their consent, and then the 
 government must die. The true office and function of 
 popular government is to secure the welfare and con- 
 tentment of the people — something more than the 
 mere administration of law and the protection of the 
 country from invasion. 
 
 The people must be satisfied and contented, in 
 order that society may be peaceful and government 
 may be stable. Permanent discontent or degradation 
 of the people will work the downfall of the Republic. 
 Generally, a majority of the people will be satisfied 
 and contented when they can find employment which 
 brings as a reward the means of subsistence, food, 
 clothing, shelter, and something for education. It is 
 plain that whatever proper methods will enable the 
 people to find employment should be adopted. The 
 chief means to this end — the one nearest at hand — is 
 the true education of the people. The people of the 
 United States enjoy a great public system of education. 
 It is yielding good results. It should, however, be 
 broadened, so as to embrace manual training and 
 industrial education, such as the States of Europe, 
 particularly England, France, Germany, Austria, and 
 Italy, are encouraging, to a degree never before known. 
 
!0 
 
 Schools for teaching nearly all the trades, among them 
 weaving, designing, dyeing, and dairy farming are being 
 established and endowed by the government. 
 
 In Berlin a central technical institution, costing 
 about two million dollars, was recently built. 
 
 Basle, in Switzerland, has established, at great cost,, 
 schools for dyeing and designing, to aid the silk 
 industry. The result is that silk is exported to Eng- 
 land to such an extent that the silk Industry, in three 
 important manufacturing centres of England, is de- 
 creased to about one quarter. 
 
 The town of Crefeld, Germany, in aid of educa- 
 tion suited to Its industries, spent recently about one 
 million dollars on Its lower schools, and on a spe- 
 cial weaving school about two hundred thousand 
 dollars. The result is, it has doubled Its population 
 and quadrupled Its trade. 
 
 In one of the great color works at Basle, the man- 
 agement is under the direction of a highly-educated 
 chemist. Under him there are three assistant chem- 
 ists, each at the head of a department, and each 
 having several other assistants. In these works there 
 are ten well-equipped laboratories. In which are 
 carried on daily investigations. In the same kind of 
 works at Hochst, near Frankfort, there are employed 
 fifty-one scientific chemists. New discoveries are 
 being constantly made in all these laboratories. These 
 are but a few of the many examples of the move- 
 ment towards industrial and technical education in 
 Europe. 
 
21 
 
 Mr. Swire Smith estimates that Enofland loses 
 trade worth, annually, from forty to fifty million 
 pounds, for want of technical education ; because her 
 people generally have not been taught how to design, 
 to model, and to draw. One firm alone in Paris ex- 
 pends $50,000 per annum on designing. England 
 pays seventy-five million dollars per annum for for- 
 eign butter and cheese, when it is claimed by one of her 
 writers that she ought to be the paradise of farmers. 
 In 1882 Germany sent England 400,000 tons of beet 
 sugar, valued at fifty million dollars. The whole pro- 
 cess of manufacturing beet sugar, from planting to the 
 manufactured product itself, is under the supervision 
 of scientists who have made the question in all its 
 bearings a technical study. All this great effort in 
 the direction of technical education and largre scientific 
 research in the interest of industry, and which has 
 already produced such good results, has had for its 
 object the stimulation of trade and commerce. 
 
 In the United States, encouragement should be given 
 to establish industrial schools, foster technical educa- 
 tion, and enlist the best scientific ability in behalf of 
 industry for something better than the mere develop- 
 ment of trade — that the people may find employment 
 at remunerative wages and be contented. The age 
 is industrial, commercial, and productive, and men 
 and women should be prepared to live in it by being 
 educated in a way that would fit them for such pursuits. 
 M. Jules Ferry, late French Minister of Public Instruc- 
 tion, recently said: "We desire to enoble manual 
 
22 
 
 labor. * * * Social peace will find a place upon 
 the seats of the elementary schools." 
 
 Mental training alone is one sided. The brain, 
 heart, and hand should be educated together to make 
 a round, finished, and symmetrical character, a useful 
 citizen of the great republic, and the future true 
 American. 
 
 The union of the education of the head, heart 
 and hand will not only aid in settling vexed questions 
 and bringing social repose ; it will develop better 
 taste, culture, refinement, creating a larger demand 
 for the things that make man comfortable and minister 
 to his tastes and pleasures. It will enlarge the neces- 
 sities of life, and stimulate consumption, which, in its 
 turn, will create a demand for the use of more pro- 
 ducts ; a demand for further employment on the part 
 of the people. Thus education in its broadest and 
 best sense not only elevates man, but aids in securing 
 employment for the people. 
 
 Sydney Smith said : " Humanity is a modern 
 invention." It is modern, because, as civilization ad- 
 vances, human life is held in higher regard and 
 cherished as more sacred, man is elevated and mater- 
 ial things dwarfed. 
 
 As education increases and civilization advances, 
 the luxuries of the present become the necessities of 
 the succeeding age. The wage-earners of to-day enjoy 
 conveniences and comforts in their daily life, such as 
 princes and kings, with all their wealth, could not have 
 purchased a century ago. 
 
 LdFC. 
 
23 
 
 The kindergarten, though imperfectly adopted in 
 this country, is a new revelation. Such teachers and 
 educators as Arnold, Pestalozzi and Froebel do not 
 appear often, and their influence on mankind and 
 civilization is greater, better, and more far-reaching 
 than that of generals and statesmen. 
 
 As a model for true and full education for 
 Americans, Congress should establish and endow a 
 National University. On this point Washington 
 said : 
 
 " That a National University in this country is a 
 ■" thing to be desired, has always been my decided 
 " opinion, and the appropriation of grounds and funds 
 " for it in the Federal City has long been contem- 
 " plated." 
 
 In it should be combined all the departments of 
 the best universities of this country and Europe, and 
 added to these there should be departments to teach 
 everything bearing upon art and industry. This 
 great institution should be made the source and well- 
 spring of Americanism, a constant living and potent 
 protest against the increasing Anglo-mania in the 
 country, and the servile imitation of European man- 
 ners and European thought. 
 
 Other sciences are needed in American civilization, 
 than the science of getting wealth — sciences affecting 
 the industrial and social progress of American man- 
 hood. 
 
 Political economy rests on nothing higher than self- 
 ishness in individuals and in nations. It takes no 
 
24 
 
 account of humanity. In the getting of wealth, within 
 certain restrictions, one may cause unhappiness, misery, 
 and distress, and there is no remedy. It sanctions be- 
 tween men and nations unrestricted competition, 
 which is only refined barbarism, the enemy to the 
 highest progress. It suggests no hint that the struggle 
 for existence should be limited. 
 
 Could there not also be the science of living 
 correctly and attaining human happiness, which should 
 teach thrift, care, economy, gentleness, forbearance, 
 good manners, charity, and humanity, and, above all, 
 the building of individual and national characters. 
 Parents and teachers should be character-builders. 
 Wealth and materialism pass away, character abides. 
 All one can take hence is character. 
 
 Enormous sums of money are paid out b)' the 
 States and the general government to repress crime 
 and to take care of criminals and paupers. If half 
 this money should be spent In promoting a true and 
 complete education of the people, crime and vice 
 would largely disappear, society and the government 
 would be more secure. 
 
 In the United States there are i6 million church 
 members, and 310,000 churches and Sunday-schools. 
 If, in towns, cities and thickly populated portions of 
 the country, each church should establish and maintain 
 a kindergarten, or some other school for the free 
 education and manual training of poor children, 
 the churches would at once become the centres of a 
 great educational movement throughout the land. 
 
25 
 
 Christianity is the basis of American civilization 
 and of our free p;overnment. The churches should 
 have the largest share in preserving both. A 
 Hindoo writer says : " The religion of Christ 
 represents all that is noble in Western civilization, 
 Western morality, science, or faith." If there is 
 one place where people should meet as equals, where 
 the dividing line between the rich and poor, the in- 
 telligent and ignorant, the powerful and humble 
 should entirely disappear, it is in a Christian church. 
 In the United States, the church can largely aid in the 
 direction of preventing classes and class distinction, so 
 dangerous to the Republic. The church can be the 
 strong fort, the great citadel, where equality can be 
 best preserved. 
 
 In American civilization, all hope depends upon 
 lifting men higher, to broader and better planes of 
 thought and action. Every endeavor should be put 
 forth to train and elevate the individual. As the 
 atoms are so will the whole be. 
 
 Beyond the Race and Industrial problems, there 
 are many serious questions for solution which can 
 only be mentioned here. 
 
 One of the hindrances to the progress of American 
 civilization is intemperance, the spreading evils and 
 demoralizing influences of which can hardly be ex- 
 aggerated. 
 
 There is spent annually in the United States nine 
 hundred million dollars on intoxicating drinks — 
 more than half the national debt — and more than is 
 
26 
 
 spent for the meat and bread consumed by the people 
 of the whole country. There are 250,000 drinking- 
 saloons, 8,000 of which are in New York City alone. 
 These are the nurseries of pauperism, vice, shame, 
 misery and crime — the darkest spots on the sun of 
 American civilization. 
 
 In the interest of finding employment for home 
 labor, each country, if it can, should produce what it 
 consumes. 
 
 The machine-usinor countries of the world number 
 about three hundred million people, the hand-labor 
 countries about one thousand million. 
 
 The increasing use of machinery is rapidly chang- 
 ing this relation. In time, through its general 
 introduction, every country will largely produce what 
 it consumes. 
 
 This will shift power and population to those 
 countries richest in natural resources. All countries 
 are looking to home markets for the consumption 
 of home products. Nearly two thousand years ago 
 a Roman poet and farmer sang : 
 
 "No keel shall cut the waves for foreign ware, 
 For every soil shall every product bear." 
 
 The tendency of ' overcrowded population is to- 
 wards unrest and disorder, against peace and social 
 repose. 
 
 In New York there are one million people living 
 in tenement houses. 
 
 " Great cities are the. graves of the physique of 
 
 » 
 
27 
 
 our race ;" tombs that mark wasted nervous energy 
 in the mad rush for wealth and social preferment. 
 Children born and reared in lar^e cities are under a 
 permanent disadvantage in the battle of life. Agri- 
 culture furnishes the conservative force in American 
 civilization, and largely the basis of stability in 
 government. 
 
 In the great city of New York the leaders in the 
 professions, trade and commerce, for the most part, 
 were country-bred boys. 
 
 If American civilization is to insure its own pro- 
 gress and preservation, it must rest upon moral and 
 spiritual forces, and be molded and shaped by them. 
 They constitute the surest foundations upon which 
 to build an enduring civilization. 
 
 Great cities, railroads, large trade and commerce 
 accumulated wealth, huge machinery, vast industries, 
 millionaires, all of which we have in generous abund- 
 ance, though important in a way, are not inspiring ; 
 they will all pass away, unless they rest upon something 
 more enduring than their own materialism. 
 
 In material affairs the progress of science teaches 
 us that " to-day's knowledge may be to-morrow's 
 ignorance," but moral truths, spiritual facts, are parts 
 of eternity, fixed, unchangeable, and live on forever. 
 
 In the parable of old there is taught, for all the 
 ages, a beautiful and sublime lesson : 
 
 " And behold the Lord passed by and a great and 
 " strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces 
 " the rocks, before the Lord : but the Lord was not in 
 
28 
 
 " the wind. And after the wind an earthquake : but 
 " the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the 
 " earthquake a fire : but the Lord was not in the fire. 
 " And after the fire a still, small voice." 
 
 In the dawn of civilization, man relied upon 
 physical forces and trusted in material advantages. 
 He saw God in the powers of nature. We have 
 advanced far enough, however, to know that moral 
 and spiritual forces are the most powerful. Emerson 
 says: "'Tis a sentence of ancient wisdom, that God 
 hangs the greatest weights on the smallest wires." 
 
 There are reasons to believe that Western Civil- 
 ization is nearing some great social change, pointing 
 in the direction of the elevation of the people through 
 education, the practice of virtue, a broader humanity, 
 and a recognition of the doctrine of the brotherhood 
 of man. 
 
 " The old order changeth giving place to new 
 And God fulfills himself in many ways." 
 
 This change must and will come. It should come. 
 The eternal principles of justice and equity fight for 
 it. Civilization will have no repose, governments no 
 certain security until it does come. All who love their 
 fellow-men will welcome it ; all who want justice done 
 between man and man will aid in bringing it about. 
 
 Everything points to America as the land where 
 this great change is to take place. American civiliza- 
 tion is the hope of the world. It stands, to-day, the 
 best equipped to take this important step and lead the 
 world in this critical change, and let us hope it will 
 
29 
 
 prove a peaceful and bloodless revolution. It would 
 seem on our shores the final battle predicted by the 
 ancient prophets is to occur, the last long strife be- 
 tween the powers of Light and Darkness, which have 
 been wrestling together throughout human history. 
 When night falls upon that mystic battle-field heard 
 will be the voices which through the lips of seers and 
 sages have been so long vainly searching for the 
 heart of man. 
 
 The people will then know that truth, love, virtue, 
 and the things that make for peace abide ; that wis- 
 dom, gentleness, charity, and humanity are the fruits 
 of the best culture, that matter is but the shadow of 
 the spirit; "that the good is the absolute;" the 
 unseen is the real ; the invisible, the substantial, that 
 passeth not away. 
 
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