UNCIVILIZED 
 CIVILIZATION 
 
 BY 
 
 SCHWARTZRERG 
 
f.lass CTB 4£5 
 
 Bonk .ft 4- 
 
 GqppgM 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
UNCIVILIZED 
 CIVILIZATION 
 
 By 
 
 Morris and Benjamin Schzvartzberg 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE NEW ERA PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 1920 
 

 MV 29 1920 
 
 ©CI.A604553 
 
Copyright 1920 
 
 By 
 
 The New Era Publishing Co. 
 
 469 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The reason for selecting "Uncivilized Civilization' ' 
 as the title of this little volume is to show that the kind 
 of civilization that certain people think is in existence, 
 is simply uncivilized. Numerous books have been writ- 
 ten in regard to the civilization of the present era. 
 Some authors are trying to prove that civilization goes 
 forward, others of the common and scientific circles be- 
 lieve that it always goes forward and backward. The 
 writers here endeavor to prove that not only is the 
 present civilization uncivilized, but it is absolutely non- 
 contemporary in comparison with that of the ancient 
 epochs. 
 
 It is true that the present world events are of great 
 supernatural significance and mental phenomena, and 
 that everything which was considered as a Utopian 
 dream has become at the present an actual fact. It is 
 also true that these world happenings may be con- 
 sidered and admired, as great miracles out of ordi- 
 nary events, of which some are not only superior than 
 the problem of the occult of mankind, but from certain 
 particular standpoints are beyond the comprehension 
 of the intellectual mind. Nevertheless, and regardless 
 
 iii 
 
iv Preface 
 
 of all these world occurrences, it^ will be seen that 
 civilization of the present century has from certain 
 aspects been more underrated than overrated. In- 
 stead civilization should be in existence, and dominate 
 the world; it will here be shown to be entirely antag- 
 onistic. 
 
 The democracies and various political changes that 
 seem to have been established in various countries, due 
 entirely to the world war, are not the slightest proof 
 that humanity of the present century is higher 
 civilized, and as a result ordained to a certain extent 
 more rights and human freedom; because if this 
 should be the chief reason, then no liberty and other 
 reforms pertaining to social welfare and human prog- 
 ress could be acquired, unless wars, especially as the 
 recent world war, which excelled many others of the 
 barbaric and other inhuman struggles of previous cen- 
 turies were continued. It is, therefore, obvious that 
 the people of the present time are incapable of acquir- 
 ing differently political and industrial democracy and 
 social progress, which some are assumptions in theory, 
 but not quite accomplished in practice. 
 
 A great deal of time has been spent by the writers 
 of this treatise in research, and in accumulating neces- 
 sary justifications for the purpose of illustrating this 
 
Preface v 
 
 work in the most correct and concise manner. In fact, 
 several revisions were necessary in order to put the 
 original manuscript in accordance with the situations 
 and standard modern world metamorphosis, owing 
 to the fact that events of the present of almost any 
 nature are changing quicker than the velocity of any 
 moving substance of which the human mind can only 
 conceive. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Upon the compilation of this work, and being ready 
 for its publication, the writers were anxious to submit 
 the original manuscript to certain individuals for the 
 purpose of hearing their opinions and suggestions con- 
 cerning its literary merit and so on. 
 
 Owing to this fact, a radical change has been made, 
 and were it not for this reason, the said work would 
 have been composed of more reading matter, i.e., with 
 topics dealing with interesting affairs, but not closely 
 related to the main title. 
 
 Among the suggestions which were offered, one was 
 considered by the writers as essential, and that is as 
 the work is being practically made up, and devoted to 
 a limited topic which shows that Progress and Civili- 
 zation of the present time are to a considerable degree 
 below par, and in a state of retrogression, and as a 
 result entitled it " Uncivilized Civilization. ' ' While 
 dealing with a subject of this nature, and in order to 
 apprehend the work to an appreciable result, it is there- 
 fore of utmost importance to define the words being 
 termed Progress and Civilization. This is beiiig done 
 
Foreword vii 
 
 by the writers in a separate part, which considers as 
 the Foreword to this work. 
 
 The word being termed Progress has as usual differ- 
 ent meanings that can be applied, mostly signifiying to 
 the extent of embodying things of any material nature 
 to go onward or forward, referring as a rule to the 
 phenomena of natural social evolutions that suppose to 
 exist, and things that are expected to be in existence 
 in time to come. And the word termed Civilization is 
 an obvious derivation of the Latin civis, or civilis, 
 both meaning and pertaining to a citizen, which to- 
 gether embodies a comprehensive term, Civilization. 
 
 An adequate proof of Civilization, as it is known 
 to us, is the result of a long, slow process of evolution, 
 which was put forward shortly after the middle of the 
 19th century by students of Palaeontology and of pre- 
 historic Archaeology. 
 
 Progress of Civilization, in the language of familiar 
 form of expression, is expected to denote something 
 that the human element aims to achieve which should 
 be for the betterment in every respect for the common 
 and all the classes of mankind. It further aims to 
 attain a stage by which the struggle for human exist- 
 ence should be virtually curtailed. It also anticipates 
 to achieve an epoch to be of real and true democracy, 
 
viii Foreword 
 
 in the field of social reconstruction, industrial and 
 political equality, not only on paper, but underlying 
 the principles to the extent of actual subsistence, so 
 that life should really be worth living. 
 
 The world war, for example, has aroused in the 
 heart and mind of every individual, especially of 
 those who took an actual part, new hopes and higher 
 idealism to everything that only exists in this material 
 world, and which can be elaborated into its real utiliza- 
 tion. But what have we seen so far since the world 
 conflict has ceased, and the cause for which so many 
 millions of lives have been sacrificed, besides the enor- 
 mous appropriations of pecuniary means and the waste 
 of destructive property, that were necessary in order 
 to accomplish it all successfully? While this has duly 
 been attained, what do we see ? We are at present con- 
 fronted with situations which are of appalling natures. 
 Chaos industrial and political unrests are found to be 
 of a superlative degree throughout the world. We 
 have achieved an epoch that can easily be commensu- 
 rated in its equality to the time of the destruction and 
 overthrow of the Western Civilization of the Roman 
 Empire by the barbarian elements, which were as a 
 result of long periods of conflicts that occurred in the 
 fifth century and ended at the close of the fifteenth 
 
Foreword ix 
 
 century, and which further resulted in the middle ages, 
 and finally reached the periods of Feudalism. 
 
 So it is the exact situation today. The world 
 struggle has successfully ended. The German auto- 
 cratic empire has entirely been destroyed, including 
 its system of militarism, which was a menace to the 
 world at large, but to what result did all these accom- 
 plishments lead to? Had it really brought to all the 
 nations who were actually involved what it sought — 
 which was Universal Peace and Democracy? It seems 
 not, for we still see that more than a score of European 
 and Balkan nations are warring one with another. 
 Wars are still in actual progress, just as they were in 
 the year of 1914. Plundering and destruction of prop- 
 erties by one nation against the other are also yet in 
 regular progress. The League of Nations has not yet 
 proved, and is not expected to prove to be of a prac- 
 tical preventable means of ceasing and declaring wars. 
 General chaos and serious discontents among the Pub- 
 lic are constantly on the increase in the United States 
 as well as in the European countries. Enactments of 
 drastic laws are being vigorously advocated and often 
 adopted. Abridging of human freedom and persecu- 
 tions of people are still being encouraged and fully 
 executed ever since the war started and ended. Race 
 
x Foreword 
 
 riots are in frequent occurrence in considerable num- 
 ber of cities in the United States, which also results 
 in hundreds of human deaths, destruction of property 
 which amounts to enormous wealth. Monopolizing and 
 profiteering of huge wealth by private industries are 
 still in actual progress. When we happen to suffer 
 misfortunate deeds others are found to be hilarious. 
 Fraud and murderous acts are being carried out 
 on a high ratio. Hypocrisy, hatred, prostitution and 
 various other vices are also to be found in great pro- 
 portions at present. Tens of millions of human beings 
 are totally starving to death in Europe and other conti- 
 nents of the earth. (Due mostly as a direct result of 
 the world war.) Mercy and human benevolence seem 
 to be entirely vanished. Conditions of the present lead 
 that the hearts of the human race of our times should 
 be granited, and anything that is not for the divine 
 cause — which is money— cannot actually be accom- 
 plished, and neither is it expected to be any better 
 in the future; it is regretful to predict that it may 
 rather lead to worse. And all these horrors are as a 
 direct result of the so-called Democracy, Progress and 
 Civilization which the present century should have 
 attained. 
 
Foreword xi 
 
 The writers have tried during the completion of 
 the work to make it simple and smooth reading, re- 
 fraining itself from the employing of technical terms 
 and literary expressions as much as possible. They 
 also aimed to take no advocating side with reference 
 of pointing out chief causes of the present chaotic 
 conditions, or refer as to where the embryo of the 
 exact hope of humanity should be located. Neither 
 have they endeavored to suggest remedies. They have 
 rather assumed an impartial stand in this subject, and 
 therefore tried to describe things as they really are. 
 They have tried to discuss this brief subject, not only 
 from local or national, but also from different interna- 
 tional standpoints. And as a result the writers hope 
 and expect that not only will this little volume be 
 proved to coincide in accordance with the present pre- 
 vailing circumstances, but duly believe that it will 
 also serve as a practical guide and useful reference 
 to any person for the present and future times, no 
 matter whether he will be consistent to the material 
 and ideas of the writers or not. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 It is well known and has often been said that the 
 people of the present century are living at a time when 
 the human race should have achieved progress and 
 civilization, though many of the scientific and literary 
 world have been, and are still, discussing whether 
 progress and civilization have really been achieved. 
 To solve this is a difficult problem. 
 
 Our present wonderful inventions have often been 
 pointed out ; it is said that they were not to be found in 
 previous centuries. We are referred, for instance, to 
 the various late inventions, such as the aircrafts, 
 dreadnaughts, superdreadnaughts, submarines and 
 deadly gases that are being used and developed at 
 present. But, regardless of all these scientific and 
 mechanical inventions and discoveries, it can and will 
 be ascertained that we are not living in, and have not 
 yet achieved, the age of progress and the state of 
 civilization. It may seem to some people peculiar, 
 but it is here aimed to prove this fact with corrobo- 
 rative evidences up to an appreciable extent. If prog- 
 ress of civilization in these modern times goes forward, 
 
 then it goes backward as well, and also to a greater 
 
 12 
 
Uncivilized Civilisation 13 
 
 extent. Not backward to certain degrees of ancient 
 science and intelligence, but backward to the time of 
 the dark ages, inquisition of Spain, savagery and 
 barbarism. Those who consider this century an era 
 of civilization do so merely because of the inventions 
 that are produced annually. ("The new inventions 
 are humanity's destructors to annihilate civilization's 
 destroyers," as Dr. Stanton Coit says in his lecture, 
 ".Is Civilization a Disease?" page 101.) 
 
 While the author does not state this idea more 
 definitely, the questions therefore arise: What is the 
 principal purpose of all these modern mechanical in- 
 ventions which are being utilized at the present time ? 
 Are they for the purpose of prolonging the existence 
 of mankind ? Has the average person derived, or will 
 he derive, any benefit from all these new technical 
 devices which are being manufactured and brought 
 into use in different countries ? Time has proven that 
 these new inventions and discoveries have brought, 
 and will henceforth bring, more deaths upon the human 
 race. Experience has shown, and will further show, 
 that the more wonderful and greater the future inven- 
 tions will be, the greater will be the number of deaths 
 they will bring upon humanity. 
 
 The yearly death toll from preventable accidents is 
 
14 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 appalling. Brief statistics, gathered from the report 
 of the Roosevelt conservation commission on national 
 vitality, show that the mortality in the United States 
 only, is over 10,000 people killed every year from acci- 
 dental falls and about 8,000 are perishing in railroad 
 accidents. Out of over 3,000,000 beds kept constantly 
 filled in the United States hospitals, 600,000 deaths 
 are the yearly toll which could be prevented if actual 
 civilization and the real knowledge would be applied. 
 It is estimated that the cut off in earning capacities 
 that could be prevented by the premature deaths 
 amounts to over $1,500,000,000 annually.* 
 
 Take, for example, the number of deaths which 
 the various inventions are causing, in war and in 
 peace times, such as aeroplanes, motor cars, motor 
 cycles, submarines, automobiles, steam engines, elec- 
 tric cars, farming and industrial machinery, etc. 
 From the above statistics it is easy to see that the 
 number of deaths throughout the world, caused by 
 the inventions of modern times, through accidents or 
 catastrophes would undoubtedly run into hundreds of 
 
 * A general information on this subject can also be seen, by securing 
 the nineteenth annual IT. S. Government Eeport, entitled " Mortality 
 Statistics of 1918.' ' 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 15 
 
 thousands each year and the losses would amount to 
 billions of dollars. 
 
 It is possible, and also probable, that a time will 
 come when an invention will be produced to make the 
 submarine useless. There are no anti-super dread- 
 naughts now, but there will probably come an inven- 
 tion known as a super-supernatural dreadnaught. 
 There are at present air and anti-air crafts. In time 
 to come there will, no doubt, be invented supernatural 
 anti-aeroplanes — and still a day may come when supe- 
 rior inventions will be produced that will make these 
 devices useless — probably known as extraordinary 
 supernatural super-anti-dreadnaughts, aeroplanes, 
 submarines, etc. It would require a great deal of 
 time to search in different dictionaries and ency- 
 clopedias to find proper names for the future inven- 
 tions. However, assuming that such inventions and 
 discoveries are made, it will not necessarily mean that, 
 because of them, the world will reach a higher degree 
 of civilization than in the present and the previous 
 epochs.* Unless the world comes to a greater com- 
 prehension of the real significance of Justice and the 
 
 * American Nervousness, by George M. Beard, page 113. 
 
16 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 attainment of Universal Democracy by Mankind,* 
 otherwise no real progress of civilization will be 
 achieved. 
 
 King Solomon wrote, in his famous book of Ec- 
 clesiastes (Koheleth), about one thousand years 
 before Christ: "there is no new thing under the sun."f 
 This probably means that all the inventions and 
 discoveries then existed, as well as all brought out 
 since, and to be invented and discovered in the future, 
 are not, and will not be, considered as new — that all 
 future happenings were already in the past. If the 
 present generation is proud of its various technical 
 inventions and discoveries, and if this should be the 
 chief reason for calling this an age of progress and 
 civilization, then the world of centuries ago was more 
 highly civilized scientifically than the world of today 4 
 As a matter of fact, great philosophers, astronomers, 
 authors, inventors, explorers, and other men of 
 genius, were more numerous and of superior men- 
 tality, centuries, and even with millenniums, previous 
 to the time of Christ than are men of similar types to- 
 day.§ Take, for instance, the best known authors, 
 
 * Ancient Civilization, by Eoscoe Lewis Ashley, page 3. 
 
 t The Book of Ecclesiastes, by Samuel Cox, page 70, v. 9. 
 
 X What Is Civilization — in the Past, in the Present? page 221, by 
 Arthur Mitchell. 
 
 § The Historians' History of the World, by Henry Smith Williams, 
 page 42, below. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 17 
 
 here vivified, backward from century to century down 
 to the centuries before Christ. The best known 
 authors of the Twentieth Century are Tolstoi and 
 Ruskin; from the Twentieth to the Nineteenth were 
 Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Goethe, and 
 Schiller; from the Nineteenth to the Eighteenth were 
 Burns, Goldsmith and Johnson; from the Eighteenth 
 to the middle of the Eighteenth were Edison and 
 Pope ; from the middle of the Eighteenth to the Seven- 
 teenth were Dryden and Spinoza; from the Seven- 
 teenth to the Civil War period (1625-1660), Milton; 
 from that time to the first creative period (1558-1625), 
 the Sixteenth Century, were Spencer, Bacon and 
 Shakespeare; from that time down to the formative 
 period (1066-1400), the Fourteenth Century, was 
 Chaucer; and from those epochs down to the time of 
 about 400 B. C. was the highly gifted and renowned 
 Aristotle, and so on.* 
 
 It will also be worth while to mention some of the 
 well known scientific men, such as inventors, explorers, 
 and authors of present and ancient times. 
 
 In the years of 1642-1727 lived Sir Isaac Newton, 
 
 * See Greece in the Four Civilizations of the World, by Henry Wikoff, 
 pages 17, 18 and 19. 
 
18 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 known as the keenest of all mathematical thinkers. 
 His important scientific achievement was the dis- 
 covery and verification of the laws of motion. In the 
 year 400 B. C. an aerometer was invented in Alex- 
 andria. In 55* B. C. the manufacture of silk was in- 
 troduced in China. In the years of 1115 B. C. the 
 mariners' compass was first known. Also the print- 
 ing press, which is still considered as the greatest 
 mechanical invention, was also first known at that 
 period. In the year of 400 B. C. Archytos of Taren- 
 tum invented an hydraulic machine. In 160-125 B. C. 
 Hipparchus of Nicea in Bithynia, first and greatest 
 Grecian Astronomer, founded scientific astronomy, 
 catalogued the stars, invented the plane-sphere, calcu- 
 lated eclipses, discovered the eccentricity of the Solar 
 Orbit and some of the inequalities of the moon's mo- 
 tions, and noted the procession of the equinoxes.* 
 
 Do such great authors, inventors, explorers and 
 other great geniuses exist today? It is here noted that 
 the farther back one goes, the greater in talent and 
 the more numerous were such men. Numerous books 
 have been written by present-day authors concerning 
 
 *For further details and information concerning the various impor- 
 tant inventions and discoveries of ancient and modern times, see Calendar 
 of Inventions and Discoveries, by John Cassin Wait. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 19 
 
 the profound intellects of those great thinkers of an- 
 cient times. In many universities, colleges and other 
 prominent educational institutions are professors 
 teaching and lecturing, to students of various faculties, 
 on the theories and hypothesis which the man of intui- 
 tive and mental superiority of centuries ago possessed; 
 and still a great deal of their work is so profoundly 
 written that it requires much explanation and keen 
 understanding.* 
 
 What particular reason has this century for being 
 called an era of progress and civilization, as apart 
 from other centuries? In the engineering and tech- 
 nical institutions of today the fundamental theories 
 of Sir Isaac Newton and other geniuses of previous 
 times are being taught. Also, in every prominent 
 school of higher learning are being taught and studied 
 the doctrines of various sciences, arts and ancient 
 literature left to us by departed men of genius. t It 
 is not difficult to understand, and many undoubtedly 
 will concede, that a superior degree of civilization ex- 
 isted in the time of Shakespeare, Newton and Bacon, 
 and in earlier epochs, than exists today 4 
 
 * Beacon Lights of History, Part VII, under Solomon, page 259, by 
 John Lord. 
 
 t In What Arts Have the Modern Excelled the Ancients? in the 
 Oxford English Prize Essay, by D. A. Tolbays, Vol. I, page 98. 
 
 t Ibid, on the Characteristic Differences between Ancient and Modern 
 Poetry, page 110. 
 
20 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 We consider and greatly admire the different 
 authors of ancient epochs who left literature and art 
 to posterity of the present and future centuries — gifts 
 of great intellectual, intuitive and philosophical value 
 — but all the literature of those supernatural beings is 
 not to be compared with the literature of Solomon. It 
 is more or less known by the literary world, and it is 
 a fact that King Solomon's literature, especially the 
 " Songs of Songs' ' and "Ecclesiastes" (Kohelet or the 
 Theosophy — the Bible of the New and from the New 
 to the Old Testaments) are of more value to the lit- 
 erary and scientific world* of the present time than 
 Shakespeare's most noted works, such as the "Trag- 
 edy of Macbeth," "Hamlet" or the "Merchant of 
 Venice" — or the best works of other highly noted 
 authors of past centuries of similar elements, already 
 mentioned.! Again it is shown that the further in 
 retrogression generations go, or the further back past 
 generations are traced, the more genius of super- 
 natural wisdom and mental phenomena existed, and 
 naturally been gifted and versed in omniscience. § Not 
 
 * Vid. Sup., page 456. Philosophy and History of Civilization, by 
 Alexander Alison. 
 
 t Preface VII to Solomon and Solomonic Literature, by M. D. Conway. 
 § See footnote 1 to page 25. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 21 
 
 only is it here tried to bring forth that the human 
 race of the present time is far more underrated, from 
 the standpoint of modern science, arts and other lines, 
 but it can also be proved to a large extent that the 
 human race is also steadily decreasing physically and 
 statury from generation to generation.* 
 
 It might be true that there are people who believe 
 that books written in modern times should be of more 
 literary and intellectual merit than the works of an- 
 cient authors. Nevertheless the people of the present 
 literary and scientific circles, especially those who are 
 constantly engaged in research work, believe that only 
 from books which were compiled in the earliest epochs, 
 and which are preserved in modern libraries, can they 
 expect to derive valuable theories, experiments in nat- 
 ural arts and sciences and other helps, which can be 
 obtained by scrutinizing these books, can be utilized 
 for the benefit of the present and future centuries. 
 This is a more or less proof that the ancient works, 
 which are so to say of artistic ability are more valuable 
 than those of today. f 
 
 * For a complete corroborative statement regarding this subject, see 
 an excellent illustrated article on second page of American Weekly sec- 
 tion of the Chicago Herald and Examiner of Sunday, August 31, 1919, 
 entitled "Why Science Believes We Are on Our Way Back to the 
 Pygmies, ' ' by Dr. W. H. Ballon. 
 
 t See What Is Civilization — in the Past, in the Present? by Arthur 
 Mitchell, page 234. 
 
22 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 In a recent article that has been published by the 
 San Francisco Chronicle, and reprinted in one of the 
 Chicago daily newspapers, the following is worth while 
 to cite: 
 
 With our resources we cannot match some achievement 
 of antiquity. Moderns are in the habit of assuming that 
 their accomplishments transcend in importance those of the 
 ancient, but there are fields of activity in which, with all the 
 appliances furnished by the ingenious mechanics of our time, 
 we have not succeeded in remotely approaching the achieve- 
 ments of peoples who flourished milleniums ago and who, 
 from all accounts, worked with tools of the most primitive 
 character. 
 
 We have made our boasts about cutting through the 
 Isthmus of Panama and pride ourselves on the construction 
 of the Roosevelt dam in Arizona, but the British engineers, 
 operating in the regions between Tigris and Euphrates rivers, 
 in central Asia, have made discoveries which indicate that 
 the irrigation system constructed to utilize the waters of those 
 great streams was a more daring conception and accomplished 
 more for the good of man than any project conceived or car- 
 ried out by modern man. 
 
 At a recent meeting of the British Royal Geographical 
 Society one of these engineers read a paper describing the 
 observations made by the aviators of the corps to which he 
 was attached, in which he expressed the belief that by the 
 aid of this irrigation system a population of perhaps 90,000 
 people was subsisted. His descriptions were accompanied by 
 photographs obtained while hovering over the country which 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 23 
 
 revealed wonders of construction only casually referred by 
 archaeologists, who were more bent on securing portable 
 articles illustrating the life of ancient peoples than in study- 
 ing the evidence and causes that contributed to their great- 
 ness. 
 
 Unquestionably the foundation of these flourishing civili- 
 zations was the utilization of water, which they practiced on 
 a scale almost inconceivable to moderns, who have given at- 
 tention to the subject of irrigation. Apparently they con- 
 ceived and carried out projects which in this country shrink 
 from considering. The aerial photographs taken by the engi- 
 neers disclose that the plain was covered with network of 
 canals whose dimensions make the irrigation ditches we have 
 produced in California seem like insignificant gutters by 
 comparison. 
 
 These canals led the water to every part of the country, 
 and they appear to have been paralleled by roads which made 
 communication with the cities and producing region easy. 
 By their means the Tigris and the Euphrates were controlled 
 and kept in their proper channels. Many clay tablets have 
 been found which describe the care taken to restrain these 
 great rivers, and which give some idea of the expense in- 
 curred in keeping the relieving canals free from accumula- 
 tions of silt, so that their usefulness for purposes of irriga- 
 tion would not be impaired. 
 
 These canals were provided with regulators substantially 
 constructed, the purpose of which was to control the water 
 fed from them to subterranean channels. These latter must 
 have carried a large volume of water, otherwise the expense 
 involved in their construction would not have been justified, 
 
24 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 the remains of weirs and regulating sluices of masonry near 
 Samarra may still be seen, although the Arabs have been 
 drawing on them for building material during many cen- 
 turies. When these mighty works are spoken of usually there 
 is prompt reference to the undoubted fact that they were 
 carried out by slave labor, the assumption being that auto- 
 cratically driven humans can accomplish more than can be 
 effected by the use of most ingenious and powerful modern 
 machinery. But that cannot be true. The explanation of 
 our failure to match these useful works of antiquity more 
 than likely is due to the fact that the modern mechanical 
 development has until recently been confined to regions in 
 which the paramount use of water has been for purposes of 
 navigation and not of production. 
 
 It is a potential fact that, had the men of the pre- 
 vious scientific world lived a half century or a century, 
 for an example, longer than the natural time allotted 
 them, or did ancient geniuses exist in the present cen- 
 tury, not only would they have produced greater in- 
 ventions than those which are now being made, but 
 they also would have been more or less of supernatural 
 types — which would probably made the people of the 
 earth come in contact long ago with the living beings 
 of inhabited planets thousands of miles away. Inas- 
 much as the world of intelligence and progress of 
 antiquity is concerned, the authors and others of an- 
 cient ingenuity were not only successful in under- 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 25 
 
 standing the principles of arts and science of various 
 times* but were also capable of comprehending the 
 phenomena of the human occult in a superior degree 
 than the men of the scientific world of modern times. t 
 " There are millions of men in Europe and America 
 today whose whole mental equipment — despite the fact 
 that they have been taught to read and write — is far 
 more closely akin to the average of the upper period 
 of barbarism than to the highest standards of their 
 own time.":): 
 
 There is no doubt that the ancient and world of 
 antiquity had more reasons of being proud of their 
 state of progress and civilization than the world of 
 today. Eegardless of not having produced mechan- 
 ical devices similar to those of the present time, though 
 they had more rights of being called an age of intel- 
 ligence and civilization than the present. The funda- 
 mental theories, the ancient inventions, explorations 
 and other devices of mental technicology, were not 
 only of great value and high importance to the genera- 
 tions of centuries ago, but are also of great value and 
 
 * See The Human Mind, Vol. 1, page 78, by S. W. Fullom, and also 
 American Nervousness, page 93, below, by George M. Beard. 
 
 t See What Is Civilization — in the Past, in the Present, second para- 
 graph, page 194, by Arthur Mitchell. 
 
 X Vid. Sup., page 409, Vol. 6, Encylopedia Britannica. 
 
26 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 utmost importance in utilization, development and cul- 
 tivation to the prsent scientific, literary and intel- 
 lectual achievements. Note also the fact of the recent 
 discovery of the so-called "Einstein Theory," of time 
 and space — or the fourth dimension. Pertaining to 
 the science of physics and astronomy, it is said that 
 there are about a dozen men only throughout the scien- 
 tific world who are so far capable of apprehending this 
 theory, and even this new discovery is to a large ex- 
 tent due to the Darwinian and Newtonian fundamental 
 laws and theories of gravitation. 
 
 Consider and compare also, for example, the various 
 arts and crafts being exhibited in the famous national 
 museums of great cities of the world, besides the do- 
 mestic ones, such as of London, Paris, Washington, 
 Berlin, Vienna and many other museums of large cities. 
 Visitors who inspect those historical collections de- 
 signed and produced by men of previous centuries are 
 always conceding that not only are they in most cases 
 proficient, as compared to those of the present, but 
 also are magnificent and of great inspiration. In many 
 instances they are incomprehensible as to how such 
 great skilful, scientific art crafts, engravings and 
 sculptural technique were in those epochs able to orig- 
 inate, design and produce. 
 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 27 
 
 The various inventions and discoveries of the an- 
 cient times were in most cases essential and utilized 
 for the welfare of humanity. The thousands of modern 
 inventions, approximately 90% of which are abso- 
 lute failures and the remainder, if productive, are in 
 most cases for the mere purpose of increasing the mor- 
 tality of the human race. Take, for example, the latest 
 inventions, such as the machine guns, the British famous 
 twenty-centimeter guns, the Austrian-German gigantic 
 howitzers, which shell is said to cost $4,000, and when a 
 shell of those guns is fired, thousands of soldiers on 
 the battlefields are killed; or the very latest so-called 
 monster-mystery gun, whose shell was said to reach 
 seventy-six miles, a distance which was used against 
 the Franco-English front by the Germans in the spring 
 of 1918; the deadly gases, and many other industrial 
 and military equipments of like sort commonly used 
 in modern warfare. In the battles of ancient times it 
 would probably take months or years to kill as many 
 men with bows and arrows as were annihilated now- 
 adays in an hour's time. As a matter of fact, the an- 
 cient psychological inventors were devoting practically 
 all of their time exclusively — not to the inventions of 
 deadly weapons and equipment for ruthless warfare — 
 but to produce certain discoveries and improvements 
 
28 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 of scientific endeavor for the benefit of the human race 
 and the prolongment of the life of mankind. And yet, 
 after all, not the world of ancient intelligence but the 
 century of the present, with its inhuman deadly inven- 
 tions, is called by some people the achievement of 
 progress and civilization. 
 
 By order of war and ordnance departments, with 
 the co-operation of the National Council of Defense, on 
 anvils and by hammers actually been in use during 
 the ancient and middle ages, helmets, shields, breast- 
 plates, etc., had been wrought during the latest period 
 of America's participation in the world war at the 
 New York Metropolitan Art Museum for American 
 soldiers overseas. They had found that so completely 
 were armor defenses studied in the past that nearly 
 all the technical suggestions of General Pershing or 
 the ordnance department experts were embodied in 
 elaborate detail in the pieces in the museum collections 
 which ranked to a high degree among the famous armor 
 collections. This is especially brought to prove that 
 the American government made extraordinary surveys 
 into the different countries' museums for the purpose 
 of creating adequate means and ample protection with 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 29 
 
 ancient armor to modern soldiers, especially to the 
 Americans overseas in modern warfare.* 
 
 Centuries ago, when a ship was sunk accidentally, a 
 rumor ran throughout the world regarding the great 
 catastrophe. In the present times, when the greatest 
 and most expensive vessels of modern type are sunk 
 every day in war time, because of a torpedo, and very 
 frequently in times of peace, on account of different 
 catastrophes — and in most cases the entire crew being 
 drowned — the world is not set agog as in previous 
 centuries. Simply because it is taken for granted by 
 a certain class of people that it is as a result of Civili- 
 zation. The peoples of today are so accustomed to 
 such news that it does not much more affect the news 
 readers than the ordinary little items found in the 
 various daily newspapers. 
 
 Every time when a certain invention comes out, 
 which is in most cases nothing new or of extraordinary 
 nature, but simply modified from those inventions 
 which already existed in previous centuries, so the 
 various newspapers and magazines of the country are 
 devoting all kinds of articles, trying to convince the 
 
 * For further details or corroboration of this fact, see the Chicago 
 Tribune of August 5, page 5, column 5, and the September issue of the 
 Scientific Monthly of 1918. 
 
30 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 general public that these inventions certainly prove 
 that we have approached or are living in an epoch- 
 making era, etc. They as a rule forget that some of 
 the inventions may prove more harmful than good 
 to present humanity. In other words, for every man 
 that is being killed through capital punishment, en- 
 acted by present society, or for every man who is 
 put to death by mob rule, at least ten inventions of use- 
 ful and productive character ought to be made in 
 order to place the presumed Civilization on the equi- 
 librium. As a rule, the people of the present time 
 are inclined to take into consideration only one side of 
 the fact, with reference to the ultimate existence of 
 Civilization. It naturally seems obvious that they do 
 not find it necessary to look into the other side of the 
 case also, in conjunction to the antagonism of our 
 present existing order of Progress and Civilization, 
 which, if they would really look into the matter seri- 
 ously and closely, they would find that it is, so to speak, 
 nothing but corrupt, falls and prostituted judging from 
 any particular world standpoint. 
 
 The great European war has proved that civiliza- 
 tion of humanity of this century is far from being in 
 existence. Where progress and civilization should 
 prevail we have barbarism and despotism to occupy its 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 31 
 
 place. Never before in the history of the human race 
 have millions of people annihilated millions of other 
 people, wounded them, crippled a great number for 
 the remainder of their lives and made millions of 
 widows and orphans, leaving them in conditions of 
 misery and poverty, as it has been done in the world 
 war. History does not record since the creation of 
 the earth, or the deluge of the time of Noah, the de- 
 struction and ruin, the warring upon one another of 
 the peoples of the entire globe, the misery that results 
 today because of ignorant and lunatic imperialistic 
 rulers. Countries that were founded centuries ago, 
 and have dwelled since their beginning in peace and 
 honor, were completely destroyed. 
 
 Neither does history show that at any previous 
 time billions of dollars were appropriated by govern- 
 ments as they have been appropriated in the world 
 war, simply for the purpose of buying materials for 
 the manufacture of ammunition for modern warfare, 
 for the wholesale slaughter of innocent men on the 
 battlefields — meantime placing the cities and towns 
 in a greater degree of misery and ruin. It will require 
 a greater amount of billions of dollars than the usual 
 amount which has been appropriated for war pur- 
 poses, and many, many years, decades of years, to 
 
32 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 rebuild the beautiful Europe which has long been 
 known as the Western Civilization. Statistics indi- 
 cate, according to the report of the Carnegie Endow- 
 ment for International Peace, which has recently been 
 issued and made public, that the direct cost of the 
 world war was about ($186,000,000,000) one hundred 
 and eighty-six billions. The indirect cost is being esti- 
 mated to be of the same amount. The capitalized value 
 of soldiers' lives, as given in the indirect costs, the 
 property losses, losses of production also in the indi- 
 rect cost, including war relief, the entire gross amounts 
 of all direct and indirect war expenditures, is believed 
 to amount approximately four hundred billion ($400,- 
 000,000,000). The number of known dead is also given 
 by the said report to be nine million nine hundred 
 ninety-eighty thousand seven hundred seventy-one 
 (9,998,771) and the presumed dead at two million nine 
 hundred ninety-one and eight hundred (2,991,800). 
 
 According a report of a correspondent of the Daily 
 Telegraph shows that the entire cost of the world war, 
 of all nations involved, being estimated to amount to 
 four hundred and fifty billion ($450,000,000,000). The 
 direct cost is given as two hundred billion dollars 
 ($200,000,000,000). The indirect costs in diminishing 
 and loss to industries amount to two hundred and fifty 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 33 
 
 billion dollars ($250,000,000,000). Total, four hundred 
 and fifty billion dollars ($450,000,000,000). From an- 
 other source as is given in a report a year later the 
 direct and indirect costs of the world war are esti- 
 mated to be about three hundred and thirty-eight 
 billion dollars ($338,000,000,000), and human casual- 
 ties total to be nearly thirty-four million (34,000,000). 
 
 According to a statistical research having just made 
 public, conducted by the Society for Studying the 
 Social Consequences of the late world war, which had 
 its headquarters at Copenhagen, shows a potential loss 
 of population of thirty-five million three hundred and 
 twenty thousand (35,320,000) persons since the year 
 of 1914 of ten (10) European nations having been 
 actually engaged. 
 
 The society also reports that these nations had also 
 a population of four hundred million eight hundred 
 and fifty thousand (400,850,000) at the end of 1913, 
 and under normal conditions this population should 
 have increased by the middle of the year 1919 to four 
 hundred and twenty-four million two hundred and ten 
 thousand (424,210,000). However, it had fallen back 
 by that time to approximately three hundred and 
 eighty-nine million and thirty thousand (389,030,000), 
 which led to the conclusion by the Danish statisticians 
 
34 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 that the loss in actual and potential human deaths of 
 these nations aggregates forty million (40,000,000) 
 people. 
 
 The chief causes of the abnormal falling off in 
 population were attributed in the society's report as 
 follows : 
 
 Killed in all the battlefields, nine million eight hun- 
 dred and nineteen thousand (9,819,000) ; deaths being 
 due to augmentation of mortality and economic block- 
 ades, including war epidemics, five million three hun- 
 dred and one thousand (5,301,000) ; fall in birth rate, 
 due to mobilization of fifty-six million (56,000,000) 
 men ranging between the ages of 20 and 45 years, 
 twenty million two hundred thousand (20,200,000). The 
 above figures do no include the victims caused by the 
 latest war between Soviet Russia and Poland.* 
 
 Judging from this point, for example, it easily 
 shows that if civilization had existed in some parts 
 of the world it became under present circumstances 
 a dead letter. No civilized people would sacrifice tens 
 of millions of victims and inflict severe cruelties and 
 commit barbarous deeds which the warring nations 
 have daily sacrificed and committed upon and against 
 
 * It is noteworthy that none of these statistical data above given 
 seems to correspond and be the final, and the writers therefore assume 
 no responsibility. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 35 
 
 the non-combatant population, while conquering or 
 evacuating cities and towns of their enemies — espe- 
 cially the plundering of peaceful inhabitants and 
 immoral outraging of tens of thousands of women — 
 acts which are more atrocious, cruel and savage than 
 were perpetrated in the dark and middle ages. 
 
 The millions of soldiers who have spent years in the 
 trenches, ready to annihilate each other, have lost 
 their spirit of humanity and have declined from human 
 refinement and the progress of men culture to a state 
 of murderous savagery and primitive barbarism. They 
 have revived and are in possession of, the inheritance 
 of wild animals,! a period from which the human race 
 has been separated for an interval of thousands of 
 years. Approximately over thirty millions of soldiers 
 returned to their homes from the arena of the Euro- 
 pean war, at its cessation, will be nervous wrecks, 
 physically and mentally jeopardized. Those who were 
 single and wed in the future will have children who 
 must inherit the nature and characters of their fathers, 
 speaking from a social scientific standpoint. So it is 
 to be expected that the generations of the future times 
 
 t Criminality and Economic Conditions, by Wm. Adria Bonger, pages 
 394-395. 
 
36 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 will be savages and barbarians, and that civilization 
 and human progress will further decay. 
 
 And, leaving the world war out of consideration, we 
 are reminded that civilization seems obviously to have 
 failed. 
 
 Take, for example, the different inhuman laws en- 
 acted by the various governments, such as the so- 
 called third degree method. Fancy the pity and sor- 
 row of an alleged suspicious criminal as he endures, 
 or breaks under the cruel and barbarous treatment 
 given such person. He is tortured, without pity or 
 mercy, for the purpose of extorting a confession, 
 whether he is innocent or guilty. Many of these un- 
 fortunate victims are as a rule innocent, but losing 
 their self-control as a result of extreme torture in- 
 vented by the unscrupulous modern police system, 
 they plead many times guilty, and are convicted of 
 crimes in which they never took part.f Many innocent 
 individuals have been given life sentences, some have 
 met death by the way of the electric chair, and many 
 others have been hanged on the gallows, because of the 
 inefficient barbarous police system, and as a direct 
 
 t Sec The Mob Spirit of America, Chautauqua Press, page 56. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 37 
 
 result of the twentieth century justice as it exists in 
 the United States and other countries.* 
 
 There are two kinds of spirits for which the United 
 States is historically noted. The first is a well-known 
 Spirit of 1776, and the other is the spirit of mobs of 
 the present time. On the first the freedom of the 
 American people, of which they are very proud, is 
 based, while of the other, the better class of the people 
 of the United States are ashamed. History does not 
 record as many brutal and tyrannical deeds in previous 
 centuries as are performed under the so-called " Lynch 
 Law" in the United States. 
 
 It often occurs that a crowd of bloodthirsty wild 
 beasts, in the form of human creatures, break into a 
 jail, grab the prisoner out, regardless of being without 
 "due process of law," and whether he is guilty or not, 
 hang him to a telegraph pole in a public street or burn 
 him alive. And the law does not interfere, in most 
 cases, to punish the lynchers, who are a disgrace and 
 a shame to this country. Such a cruelty as the "Lynch 
 Law" does not exist in any other country other than 
 the United States. 
 
 * See Philosophy of Civilisation, second paragraph, pages 166-67-68, 
 by Jan. Helnus Ferguson. 
 
38 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 According to the report issued by the National As- 
 sociation for the Advancement of Colored People, 
 the following statistics were made public: For the 
 last thirty years, from 1889 to 1918, three thousand two 
 hundred and twenty-four (3,224) people were put to 
 death by mobs in the below given parts of the country. 
 Among them were also sixty-one (61) women, fifty 
 (50) of whom were colored and eleven (11) white. The 
 victims are as follows: 
 
 Victims Percent 
 
 The North 219 6.9 
 
 The South 2,834 87.8 
 
 The West 156 4.8 
 
 Alaska and other localities 15 
 
 Total 3,224 
 
 Among the principal states where the hideous lynch- 
 ing mostly prevails the following figures are also given 
 out by the said association, including its percentages. 
 They are: 
 
 Victims Percent 
 
 In the Mississippi region 337 11.6 
 
 Texas 335 10.5 
 
 Louisiana 313 9.6 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 39 
 
 Victims Percent 
 
 Alabama 276 8.9 
 
 Arkansas 214 6.9 
 
 Tennessee 196 5.9 
 
 Florida 178 5.5 
 
 Kentucky 169 5.2 
 
 Georgia exceeds all of them with 386 12.1 
 
 The remaining States of the Union whose percent- 
 age is not included in the report are as follows : 
 
 South Carolina 120 
 
 Oklahoma 96 
 
 Missouri 81 
 
 Virginia 87 
 
 North Carolina 53 
 
 Wyoming 34 
 
 West Virginia 29 
 
 California 26 
 
 Illinois 24 
 
 Kansas 22 
 
 Montana 22 
 
 Indiana 19 
 
 Colorado 18 
 
 Maryland 17 
 
 Nebraska 17 
 
40 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 Washington ; 16 
 
 New Mexico 13 
 
 South Dakota 13 
 
 Ohio 12 
 
 Idaho 11 
 
 Unknown localities 11 
 
 Arizona 8 
 
 Iowa 8 
 
 Alaska 4 
 
 Michigan ... 4 
 
 Minnesota 4 
 
 Nevada 4 
 
 Oregon 4 
 
 Pennsylvania 4 
 
 Wisconsin 4 
 
 New York 3 
 
 North Dakota 2 
 
 Delaware 1 
 
 Maine 1 
 
 New Jersey 1 
 
 The records of lynching that occurred during the 
 year of 1919 are as follows : 
 
 Alabama 8 
 
 Arkansas 10 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 41 
 
 Colorado 2 
 
 Florida 5 
 
 Georgia 22 
 
 Louisiana 8 
 
 Mississippi 12 
 
 Missouri 2 
 
 Nebraska 1 
 
 North Carolina 4 
 
 South Carolina 2 
 
 Tennessee , 1 
 
 Texas 3 
 
 Washington 1 
 
 Kansas 1 
 
 West Virginia 2 
 
 Total 84 
 
 The manners of lynching which occurred are as 
 follows : 
 
 Burned to death 13 
 
 Shot to death 26 
 
 Hanged 23 
 
 Beaten to death 2 
 
 Cut to pieces 1 
 
42 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 Drowned 1 
 
 Manner unrecorded * 10 
 
 The following is an excerpt from a brief editorial 
 of a leading newspaper, in connection to the lynching 
 of three negroes at Duluth, Minnesota, which occurred 
 June 15, 1920, and which one of them was proved to 
 be absolutely innocent : 
 
 Passion, race hatred and spirit of vengeance that actuates 
 mobs in Duluth, or elsewhere, are ruinous substitutes for law 
 and fact and reason. Prejudice can never take the place of 
 justice. Lynch law is an abomination that turns civilized 
 society back to savagery, t 
 
 At the present time people of the so-called social 
 progress love to see different sporting games of typical 
 nature, races by automobiles, motorcycles and motor 
 boats, boxing, wrestling matches for championships, 
 etc. Hundreds, and probably thousands, of the par- 
 ticipants are wounded and made cripples for life every 
 
 * For more information concerning this particular report, and com- 
 plete statistical data, write for a copy on Thirty Years of Lynching in 
 the United States (1896-1918) to the National Association for the 
 Advancement of Colored People, New York, N. Y. See also The Survey 
 of May 17, 1919, page 292, and The Literary Digest of January 17, 
 1920, page 20. Note, however, that the number of lynchings as given 
 briefly in the Literary Digest does not exactly correspond to the num- 
 ber and figures covering the year 1919 as submitted separately to the 
 writers by the said association. 
 
 t The Chicago Daily News of July 21, 1920. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 43 
 
 year, and when these accidents occur the hundreds of 
 thousands of spectators, have their greatest pleasure, 
 considering it their best enjoyment in life, especially 
 in the wrestling matches.* 
 
 This is the kind of social progress mankind of the 
 Twentieth Century has achieved. If humanity of the 
 present era has really and practically achieved the 
 Age of Progress and Civilization, then modern society 
 should realize that the different inhuman ordinances 
 and barbarous customs in existence at the present time 
 make it impossible for mankind to approach the level 
 of civilization, and is, therefore, in a state of being 
 decayed. 
 
 Regardless of whether civilization and human 
 progress exist or not, if humanity of today were in 
 a superior degree intelligent, and the right spirit 
 dominated the present century, human benevolence 
 would understand that the prevailing cruel and in- 
 human deeds are an outrage, a shame to the present 
 generation, and should have been abolished long ago. 
 "Qui non proficit, deficit." As long as all these ter- 
 rible practices, such as world wars, capital punishment, 
 
 * See The Philosophy and History of Civilization, by Alexander 
 Alison, pages 148-49, seq. 
 
44 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 the " third degree" method of extorting confessions, 
 the " Lynch Law" massacres and the various sporting 
 games, races, etc., which are causing deaths, are in 
 existence, and no way is found to abolish them, we are 
 not civilized, and, further, the world has reversed from 
 a state of ancient human refinement to a submerged 
 barbarism, despotism and uncivilization.* 
 
 The Balkanian war of 1913, the second Balkan war 
 of the same year and the European w T ar of 1914-1918 
 will teach future generations a lesson that will live 
 long in reminiscence. We despise and condemn the 
 tyranny and despotism of the middle ages; we also 
 denounce the brutal and barbarous deeds of the Span- 
 ish Inquisition and of the different crusades of cen- 
 turies ago; but the cruel deeds of these epochs will 
 sink out of sight when trying to compare them with 
 the situations prevailing today. Future generations 
 will be amazed when history will present to them the 
 first and second Balkan wars, and especially the great 
 European struggle, in which millions of human lives 
 were wantonly destroyed; countless women and chil- 
 dren were made widows and orphans. Twelve million 
 children in Europe lost one or both parents during the 
 
 * The Spirit of Social Worlc, by Edward T. Devine, page 102. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 45 
 
 war, it is shown by compilations gathered by repre- 
 sentatives of the American Red Cross in eighteen 
 countries. Russia leads with four million; Germany, 
 three million, and France, one million. Albania is 
 last with seventeen thousand. Billions of dollars were 
 appropriated for the carrying on of the war, and deeds 
 of brutality and cruelty perpetrated. Even after the 
 war, while various representatives of the warring 
 powers were assembled at the peace conference for the 
 purpose of establishing permanent universal peace 
 and democracy, great pogroms have been, and are still 
 being performed by the new Polish, Ukrainian, Rou- 
 manian and Hungarian governments upon the Jewish 
 population of various cities in which they traditionally 
 and largely dwell, which resulted, and still results be- 
 sides plundering, in murdering hundreds of thou- 
 sands of innocent men, women and children. Similar 
 atrocities were also instituted by the Turkish govern- 
 ment upon the Armenian people. And in addition to 
 that, over ten millions (10,000,000) of people deceased 
 throughout the world of the influenza epidemic, whose 
 chief cause was directly due to the world war, which 
 lasted over four years. All these will be considered 
 and denounced as worse than the persecutions and 
 barbarous events of medieval and ancient times. 
 
46 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 If the human race would have achieved the Age 
 of Progress and Civilization, the European war would 
 never have broken out, or would have been settled by 
 diplomatic negotiations, as is suitable to the standard 
 of duty of the civilized world, or when such steps were 
 inevitable, if it came to fighting, between Austria-Hun- 
 gary and Servia, without the interference of other 
 nations. These two nations could have settled their 
 controversy by means of diplomatic mediation and 
 millions of innocent victims would have been saved 
 from human subversion, while the wealth, property 
 and national integrity of the world would have been 
 preserved. However, instead of maintaining a world 
 of neutrality, the warring nations sought, and found, 
 reasons that could be used as a subterfuge for partici- 
 pating in the gigantic world conflict, regardless of the 
 wishes of the people of the different nations.* 
 
 * Great statesmen of the United States declared and expressed their 
 views why the United States entered the war. Clarence Darrow, for 
 instance, declared that the reason the United States entered this war 
 was not for democracy, though it is one of the products, but solely 
 because our ships were sunk by German submarines without warnings. 
 Elihu Eoot expressed his views in an opposite way. In an address which 
 he delivered in New York, he also quoted statements of Abraham Lin- 
 coln that the entering into this world war by the United States is not 
 because our neutral rights were violated by the Imperial German Gov- 
 ernment, or because of the sinking of the Lusitania and other American 
 ships by German submarines, but simply for a world democracy. Many 
 other statesmen expressed their views still differently. In fact, nobody 
 knows definitely why the United States entered the great world conflict. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 47 
 
 Notwithstanding the reciprocal slaughter on the 
 battlefields of Europe, we can learn that civilization 
 and material progress are far from being in existence 
 at the present century. There were adequate proofs 
 of this before the beginning of the European war. 
 Men of the scientific world pointed out, prior to that 
 time, that human conditions and completions of the 
 present century are many degrees worse than existed 
 among the peoples of previous epochs.* 
 
 If thinking men of the scientific world, expressing 
 their views, long ago, as given in the previous citations 
 and footnotes, and in those yet to be authenticated, 
 prove that civilization and human progress have not 
 yet been achieved — especially when noting the present 
 world events and situations — why could it not be pos- 
 sible that their supernatural phenomena of psycho- 
 logical opinions prove as a true fact that, if progress 
 and civilization have existed in some parts of the 
 world, and however the world war should have ended, 
 one thing is certain, that human progress and civili- 
 zation become and will remain a disease and a failure 
 under the present universal circumstances.! 
 
 * The Questions of Progress, in the Meaning of History, by Max 
 Nordau, page 288. Translated by M. A. Hamilton from the German. 
 
 t See What Is Civilization — in the Past, in the Present? by Arthur 
 Mitchell, page 222. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EVENTS, SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES IN GENERAL 
 
 There have been events of certain importance, such 
 as the establishment of a republican form of govern- 
 ment in Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, etc. The 
 abdication of the King of Greece, the restoration from 
 a republican to a monarchial form of government in 
 China, and, in a short while, from that government 
 back to a republican form of government, and the 
 resignation and frequent changes in the cabinets of 
 the various world powers, and other political happen- 
 ings — which may be judged by some people as a 
 sign of approaching human progress, but these and 
 future world events of like nature will but slightly 
 change the conditions of the present dominated peo- 
 ples, and will have little effect on the diseased progress 
 and imperiled civilization.* 
 
 It is true that the war has brought many important 
 changes in regard to humanity. It is true that the war 
 brought Russia an opportunity to acquire freedom; 
 
 * See Justice in War Time, by Bertrand Russell, page 119. 
 
 48 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 49 
 
 and also a free new commonwealth of Hebrew tradi- 
 tion is likely to be established in Palestine, and many 
 other minor nations are in line to acquire independ- 
 ence. It is also more or less certain that political 
 rights and universal woman's suffrage will be estab- 
 lished in different countries of the world as a result of 
 the world war. However, such things, if they will 
 really occur, would not show that they would have 
 occurred in ordinary times of peace, and cannot as a 
 result be considered as a step forward to progress and 
 civilization. 
 
 The great European war has not only caused future 
 generations to go financially bankrupt, but also has 
 made it almost impossible for family life to exist. 
 Great riots have occurred in the different countries of 
 the world as a result of the intolerable high robbery 
 of war speculators, and not a thing has been done by 
 the governments to relieve the economic question. Bil- 
 lions of dollars have been appropriated by the warring 
 nations for war expenditures, but not the slightest 
 amount of money have they considered it necessary to 
 appropriate for the relief of the economic unrest. 
 Eiots and starvations are of appallingly frequent oc- 
 currence in our wealthy metropolises as a result of the 
 big business profiteers and professional speculators of 
 
50 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 food stuffs. "Millions for defense, but not one cent 
 for tribute," was the slogan of an American admiral 
 of over a century ago, and that of today, also in a time 
 of struggle, Billions for waste, but not one cent for 
 relief, — similar in sound but quite different in mean- 
 ing. 
 
 At a close estimation, Eepresentative Hall of Ten- 
 nessee figures that the war cost the world, up to the 
 anniversary of the United States entering it, about 
 one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000). Not- 
 withstanding the fact that in 1915 (five years ago) 
 financial experts expressed their views and ascertained 
 that the warring nations will not be able to continue 
 the war a long period of time on account of enormous 
 requirements of expenditures, the cost of the great 
 world war aggregates already over four hundred and 
 fifty billions ($450,000,000,000), which makes about 
 $250 on every man, woman and child existing in the 
 world at present.* One thing is. certain, if the peoples 
 of the world were in a higher degree progressed and 
 
 * A vivid and interesting article available with adequate financial 
 war statistics of each warring nation compared and shown the national 
 wealth and population per capita of each country can be found in the 
 Industrial Economist of October-December, 1917, by W. H. Williams. 
 And also The World War's Debt, issued by The Mechanics & Metals 
 National Bank of the City of New York of 1919. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 51 
 
 civilized, not only would they be able to find adequate 
 ways of preventing wholesale human slaughter, but 
 instead of wasting the great of the greatest world 
 expenditures, they could use those appropriations for 
 the cause and welfare of humanity so that there should 
 exist no longer any misery, poverty, pauperism, char- 
 ity institutions, industrial crises or human sufferings. 
 There is no wonder why there are so many suicides 
 in the families of today of those who dwell in poverty 
 and misery as a result of the present prevailing eco- 
 nomic conditions. 
 
 The vital question arising is: Where do the im- 
 mense war budgets, amounting to billions, tens of 
 billions, of dollars, go to? Not speaking of other 
 nations, but of the United States, we know these facts, 
 the national treasury has great gold holdings, banking 
 resources, investment capacities or accumulated cap- 
 ital wealth. Much money has been raised by the taxes 
 levied on various manufacturing articles and raw 
 materials. The people have subscribed to immense 
 war loans, aggregating twenty billion dollars ($20,- 
 000,000,000), including war and thrift savings stamps. 
 This is comparatively almost greater than double the 
 total actual permanent savings of the American popu- 
 lation in any year of the history of the country. Vast 
 
52 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 sums of money were loaned to the allies before and 
 after the United States entered the world war, by 
 private American financiers and also through the 
 United States government treasury which amounted 
 to approximately eleven billion dollars ($11,000,000,- 
 000). Material figures of the financial world show 
 that the United States capital resources were actually 
 increased with about thirty billion dollars ($30,000,- 
 000,000) during the war. But what became of all these 
 great extraordinary amounts of pecuniary means? 
 The proper answer to the question is: that all these 
 billions of dollars, obtained through loans and finan- 
 cial war measures, have been swallowed up by certain 
 individuals, i. e., by corrupt corporations and trusts 
 of various industries. It is a fact that those who were 
 considered rich men in ordinary times before the war 
 became millionaires, and those who were millionaires 
 became billionaires after the war by taking advantage 
 of the war situations. As a matter of fact, the records 
 of the Bureau of the United States Internal Revenue 
 show that out of thirteen millionaires that existed in 
 the United States before the great world war broke 
 out, it has at present increased to approximately over 
 fifty thousand (50,000) millionaires, which easily indi- 
 cates that the above stated wealth accumulation is 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 53 
 
 actually in the hands of the increased number of mil- 
 lionaires. They simply accumulated great predatory 
 wealth by deceiving and exploiting the government and 
 the entire working class of the people. Professional 
 speculators and highway robbers are in the same 
 class.* The only difference is that by the first method 
 erroneous wealth is accumulated under the guise of 
 the law — which is worse than highway robbery, for a 
 highway robber deprives only certain individuals of 
 their property, and if captured, he is brought to justice 
 and convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for a 
 given number of years, while the professional specu- 
 lator is allowed to continue his business on unscru- 
 pulous manners.! 
 
 The masses of the working class are suffering in 
 two ways: First, the Wall Street speculators, who 
 are accumulating wealth at the expense of the sub- 
 ordinate proletarians, who are forced to spend their 
 last pennies for food stuffs, the price of which is made 
 by the speculators and capitalists, and $ second, the 
 
 * J. Helenus Ferguson 's The Philosophy of Civilisation, third para- 
 graph, page 155. 
 
 t See an article in the International Socialist Eeview of December, 
 1916, entitled "Who Owns the United States ?" pages 357, 358 and 359, 
 by E. F. Pettigrew. 
 
 $ Criminality and Economic Conditions, by William Adria Bonger, 
 page 405. 
 
54 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 poorer classes are suffering on account of industrial 
 oppression and starvation wages, which enable the big 
 corporations to make swollen fortunes and often lead 
 to crimes — homicide and suicide being frequent results. 
 As a rule, the more loyal the workers are to their 
 employers the less human treatment they receive; 
 the harder the work, the less the pay; the poorer the 
 employe, the wealthier the employer. It is said that 
 in no country of the world are the laborers as inde- 
 pendent as in the United States. This is an unjustified 
 statement. In fact, it is the reverse of conditions. 
 The laboring people are considered as slaves by their 
 employers. To illustrate this briefly: When a concern 
 builds or annexes additional factory buildings to care 
 for an enlarged business, its first consideration is for 
 the prompt installation of the necessary industrial ma- 
 chinery. It does not worry about securing sufficient 
 men of experience and technical ability to run the 
 machinery until after the equipment for the entire 
 addition to the factory is secured. In other words, 
 human labor is considered as of less value than factory 
 machinery. They know very well that, when all is 
 completed, an advertisement placed in the newspapers 
 will bring great numbers of experienced and efficient 
 applicants, from which they can select the number 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 55 
 
 they require, and many more applicants are turned 
 away than are taken on as employes. Does this show 
 that American workers are independent and consid- 
 ered as more valuable than machinery to the industrial 
 world? 
 
 It is a fact that in no country on earth is the dis- 
 cipline of the working classes as severe as in the 
 United States, and in no other country can be found 
 the industrial unrest and the adequate necessity for 
 the establishment of an industrial democracy, as well 
 as political democracy, as in America in general. 
 
 It would be needless to relate, much less to prove, 
 the depressing and terrible conditions under which 
 the laborers of Eockef eller and various coal mine own- 
 ers are working. Their very lives are in danger every 
 minute. How many times during the year we read of 
 great numbers of miners being burned, or buried alive, 
 as a result of explosions and other catastrophes in 
 mines, and of the sad labor conditions in other great 
 industries. There are, for instance, certain periods 
 when the American worker does not see the light of 
 day for over three continuous months, except on Sun- 
 days. It would be no worse in Siberia, at the North 
 Pole, or in other places on the globe where the sun 
 does not shine for long stretches of time. From the 
 
56 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 last part of autumn until the beginning of spring the 
 workers get up when it is dark in order to reach the 
 factories before the whistles blow, and they do not 
 leave these factories until it is dark. 
 
 It is the working classes who bear on their shoul- 
 ders the greatest suffering, struggling for a human ex- 
 istence. "When the trade seasons change large numbers 
 of employes are laid off for certain periods of time. 
 When a strike breaks out, for the purpose of bettering 
 the conditions of the laboring classes and securing 
 higher wages for them, employes and their families 
 are the first to suffer untold misery and privations 
 until such ends are accomplished. Winter brings star- 
 vation and pauperism to the laboring classes because 
 of the high price of fuel and food stuffs and lack of 
 work, especially in times of a national industrial crisis. 
 
 The average working man receives such a low wage, 
 even during the busiest seasons, that he has slight 
 chances to save up for the time when he is certain to 
 be laid off and out of work. In many cases he is 
 hardly able to make a living for his family on his 
 small weekly wages. Some few employes are able to 
 save a mere pittance from their earnings, but vast 
 numbers are not only unable to save some part of 
 their pay roll, but spend their wages before receiving 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 57 
 
 them — not because their families are living in comfort 
 and luxury, but simply because they are unable to 
 make a normal living on the low wages they receive, 
 especially at the present high cost of living. 
 
 It is not necessary to explain why discontents and 
 grievances against capital are on the increase among 
 the laboring classes. It is not to be wondered that 
 capitalists are denouncing certain leaders and labor 
 agitators because they are advocating the cause of the 
 laboring classes and making them understand how 
 their employers are ruining them morally, financially 
 and physically. One cannot blame the laboring classes 
 for being their employers' opponents — chaos con- 
 stantly exists between the two classes. After working 
 an entire year for their employers they are financially 
 in the same condition as when they started to work, 
 while their employers at the end of the year show on 
 their financial reports tens of millions of dollars in 
 net profits — produced through the efforts and sole 
 agency of their employes ' working power. 
 
 It is a fact that the present capital and labor con- 
 troversies are a disgrace, an outrage from a social eco- 
 nomic standpoint and a retardment to the present and 
 future progress of civilization, because certain indi- 
 vidual capitalists are in possession of almost the 
 
58 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 entire wealth of this country. In other words, one has 
 what rightfully belongs to millions, and millions have 
 nothing. The accumulation of millions by a few in 
 such a way that it is of no use to the many, and the 
 fact that the many are unable to remedy the preju- 
 diced conditions, is beyond a doubt a shame to the 
 humanity of the present century, and an additional 
 proof of the uncivilized state of this era. It is also an 
 obstacle to the progress of civilization in the future.* 
 The United States has the reputation of being the 
 wealthiest country on earth. In a certain sense this 
 is probably true, but what is meant when you mention 
 the "country of the United States' '? Does it mean 
 that the great mass of people living in the United 
 States possess its wealth? No. While it is true that 
 the United States ranks higher than any other country 
 financially, i. e., great gold and other wealthy pro- 
 ductive mines can be found in the United States, it 
 is also true that almost the entire wealth of this coun- 
 try is in the hands of certain individuals, and when 
 we speak of the wealth of the United States, we do 
 not mean the "country of the United States," but 
 certain individual multimillionaires and billionaires of 
 
 * See Ancient Civilization, by Roscoe Lewis Ashley, page 6. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 59 
 
 this country. According to the definition as given in 
 the dictionaries, a country means "the entire inhabi- 
 tants of a certain region," therefore the statement 
 that the United States is the richest country on earth 
 is untrue. 
 
 According to statistics the rich of this country com- 
 pose about 2 per cent of the entire population and 
 possess over 60 per cent of the country's wealth; the 
 middle class composes about 33 per cent of the popu- 
 lation and possesses but 35 per cent of the wealth, and 
 the poor make up 65 per cent of the total number of 
 inhabitants and have only 5 per cent of the wealth of 
 the entire country.* From these figures it is easy to 
 see that the country of the United States is not the 
 wealthiest in the world. When discussing the wealth 
 of nations it would be better to name Rockefeller, 
 Morgan, Carnegie and other billionaires of the United 
 States than to say that the United States is the wealth- 
 iest. These men represent and regulate the money of 
 this country.! 
 
 * This statistical data has been secured from the U. S. Industrial 
 Kelations Commission, made during the investigation carried on before 
 the beginning of the war. It should not be forgotten that the war has 
 lowered the financial conditions of the poor and raised the financial con- 
 ditions of the rich. 
 
 t See footnote 2 to page 53. 
 
60 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 The great bulk of money and real and personal 
 estate in every great city of the United States is prac- 
 tically owned by a few men. When passing through 
 the boulevards of Greater New York one is amazed 
 by the number of people passing to and fro in auto- 
 mobiles, bound for wonderful performances, the parks, 
 hotels, clubs, etc. For a little while one may think 
 that in this country all have money and can own an 
 automobile. After reviewing the boulevards, should 
 one pass through the neighborhoods of the East Side 
 and the districts of Liberty and Washington Streets, 
 in this same wonderful city of New York, and see the 
 unsanitary conditions, he would receive a different im- 
 pression. He would think of the boulevards as a 
 dream and believe the whole United States to be un- 
 sanitary and poverty stricken. On Michigan Boule- 
 vard in Chicago the automobiles of the wealthy pass 
 in droves all day long, but it does not take long to for- 
 get this picture when one visits the famous packing 
 town district ; and these scenes are repeated in all the 
 large cities of this "rich country." 
 
 There is a pitiful contrast between the conditions 
 of the rich and poor, the employer and employee. Both 
 are born equal in the sight of God, but one is fortunate 
 and enjoys good environments while the other's herit- 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 61 
 
 age is poverty and suffering. In the great hotels and 
 clubs of Chicago the opulent elements lounge in com- 
 fort and luxury, while hundreds of thousands are ap- 
 plying for financial aid at the different charitable in- 
 stitutions. And when the environments and living 
 conditions of the families who are employed at the 
 packing houses would be reviewed, it would be found 
 that those men are treated as slaves. And even at the 
 Southern States of the Union, there can still be found 
 at those historical places where the colored people, 
 except the fact that they are receiving about $1.00 per 
 day, are also still working under the old slavery whip 
 system similar, and in many instances worse than the 
 conditions which existed before the famous Lincoln 
 Proclamation of Emancipation period. 
 
 We all wonder why multi-millionaires are in 
 possession of such great fortunes, it is not because 
 they possess greater wisdom, mental power, or 
 business experience — which should be the chief reason 
 for possessing such huge wealth. It is, rather the 
 result of a corrupt and depraved business system and 
 universal industrial exploitation. 
 
 Numbers of great statesmen, scientists, philoso- 
 phers, college professors, and others of remarkable 
 genius of modern technique are not only unable to 
 
62 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 accumulate anything in the form of savings during the 
 year, but in most cases are also unable to make a living 
 for their families on the salaries they receive. They 
 naturally depend upon what they can make from the 
 tuitions paid by the students usually poor themselves, 
 and upon the philanthropy being subsidized by ignor- 
 ant multi-millionaires, who, having less knowledge and 
 working less with their mental faculties, and not at all 
 with their hands, have a surplus at the end of each 
 year tens of millions of dollars. 
 
 The enormous wealth accumulation system by in- 
 dividuals, long in operation, proved unsuccessful and 
 inefficient to the general welfare of humanity as a 
 whole. If wealth accumulations in modern times 
 should be continued, it should at least be modified 
 or substituted, to the extent for the benefit of the 
 many and not for the few men, who possess less wis- 
 dom and more fortune. The latter should be deprived 
 of their inherited wealth and left a certain amount 
 according to their mental efficiency, and those who are 
 in possession of more brains and practical knowledge 
 should be placed in certain degrees of capital accord- 
 ingly. This system of course, could be established 
 through a certain institution consisting of great psy- 
 chologists and specialists whose duties would be as- 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 63 
 
 signed to scrutinize the mental efficiencies of the 
 human mind. Men such as Rockefeller, Armour, 
 Swift, or the two young butchers who are the heads of 
 Morris' packing plants, should be left riches accord- 
 ing to the ability of butchers, and the rest of the 
 millions should be distributed to others who deserve 
 and can make more use of them, for the general utili- 
 zation of the masses. This system, if established, 
 would prove much better than the present. It also 
 would be a great relief for human sufferings. 
 
 The large sums of money which philanthropists 
 (so called) donate to various public welfare institu- 
 tions are seldom given because they wish to be kind to 
 the human race. They are giving to show the world 
 that those who give do not only mind their own 
 business interests, but are also interested in civic wel- 
 fare and institutions of charity for the common needy 
 — a showy gift from the fortunate to the unfortunate. 
 The public in general knows very well that the welfare 
 work of the rich is just a palliative and also one of 
 their business tricks. 
 
 If Mr. Rockefeller, Judge Gary, etc., were really 
 socially and humanly benevolent, they would cease 
 starvation wages and ill-treatment among their em- 
 ployes and do everything in their power to better their 
 
64 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 conditions. Instead, they are doing all they can to 
 prevent their employes from organizing into unions 
 for the purpose of securing higher wages and better 
 working conditions, and when they make philanthropic 
 donations, they raise the price on oil or steel, etc., 
 enough to cover the amount given, and, moreover, the 
 head of Sears, Roebuck & Company and all other phi- 
 lanthropists work in a similar way. When they de- 
 crease one per cent of their employes' wages, they have 
 vast sums of money for philanthropic purposes. Those 
 who give direct from their treasures do so merely to 
 promote and gain their present honor and post human 
 fame in prominent circles of society. 
 
 When you visit the plants at West Pullman, Illinois, 
 and the Chicago Stock Yards, and see the pay en- 
 velopes of the unskilled laborers, and knowing the 
 amount of work they actually turn over, it would then 
 not be of any wonder why the heads of different in- 
 dustries are usually giving certain sums of money 
 to charity activities at certain intervals. At a recent 
 hearing before Judge Alschuler, Federal Arbitrator 
 for the Chicago Stock Yards, settling controversies 
 arising between the employes and employers, it was 
 proved that weekly charity contributions are greater 
 than the weekly salaries some employes of the Chicago 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 65 
 
 and other packing industries are actually receiving. 
 Note also the tens of millions of dollars in net profits 
 shown in the fiscal year's records of Sears, Roebuck 
 & Company, the great mail order house, and consider 
 the great number of girls who are employed at the low- 
 est possible weekly wages. When the head of this firm 
 donates half a million dollars or so, at certain inter- 
 vals, to philanthropy, it causes a clamor among social 
 workers, but it is at the expense of the employes of 
 the firm. This concern, and many others of like 
 nature, are all the year round advertising in the "Help 
 Wanted" columns of the newspapers of their cities 
 for help, no matter whether they really need new em- 
 ployes or not. This is generally known in the com- 
 mercial world as a business boosting trick. They 
 advertise their business in this manner, at the expense 
 of poor unemployed people. Those who are unem- 
 ployed and seeking jobs, and who are little acquainted 
 with such advertisements, are the victims — morally 
 and financially. In the first place, they are reduced to 
 a lower stage of despondency when they find they can- 
 not secure the positions listed, and, in the second place, 
 they are induced by such advertisements to spend their 
 last dimes for carfare. These fake advertisements 
 are another outrage to present society, and boosting 
 
66 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 business at the expense of the unemployed should 
 cease. Any government investigation, if undertaken, 
 could easily prove that the concerns that run such 
 advertisements pay the newspapers in advance for 
 printing them continually, the year round, whether 
 necessary or not. Everyone knows that these con- 
 cerns would not need to advertise at all. Men who 
 are idle would apply at their employment offices in 
 sufficient numbers to fill all vacancies. 
 
 Great numbers of people, especially in the winter 
 time, are forced to conditions of vagrancy and crime 
 as a result of inability to secure permanent, or even 
 temporary, work at any salary. When a man applies 
 at one place after another for work, and is refused, 
 the only thing left for him to do is to apply to pro- 
 fessional charity for aid or commit crimes. The suf- 
 fering, distress and miserable surroundings of the 
 poor today are entirely due to the ordinances of the 
 present society. These ordinances put thousands of 
 people in the ranks of the unemployed, which results 
 in poverty and crime. 
 
 Why do we find so many prisons overcrowded with 
 prisoners? So many insane asylums, hospitals and 
 like institutions overflowing with suffering people? 
 Why do such great numbers of people die an early 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 67 
 
 death who would no doubt live a normal lifetime under 
 different circumstances ? Thousands of people of both 
 sexes are committing suicides as a result of being un- 
 able to make a decent living and not wanting to 
 humiliate themselves by appearing before unscrupu- 
 lous professional charity institutions. 
 
 As a matter of fact, according to The Save a Life 
 League, the rate of suicides in one hundred principal 
 cities of the United States before the war was 20.7. In 
 1918, when the war was at its height, the rate was 
 only 14.5. 
 
 Since the signing of the armistice there has been 
 a constant increasing number of suicides everywhere. 
 From foreign countries reports show a serious situa- 
 tion. Vienna, for example, states that twice as many 
 men as women ended their lives last year (in 1919). 
 The total number was one thousand one hundred and 
 thirty-eight (1,138). In Germany, Russia, Syria and 
 other countries of the world where the numbers have 
 been very large, the cause is attributed to many who 
 have been driven to despair because of miserable liv- 
 ing conditions which were brought on as a direct result 
 of the world war. Suicides of the present time have 
 been quite common, especially by soldiers and their 
 lovers. China, it is reported, leads in numbers as 
 many as 500,000 in one year. 
 
68 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 In the United States, during the year of 1919, over 
 five thousand (5,000) were brought to the attention of 
 The Save a Life League ; three thousand two hundred 
 and twelve (3,212) of those unfortunates were men 
 and one thousand nine hundred and nine (1,909) were 
 women. If accurate reports were obtainable, it is pre- 
 sumed that approximately twenty thousand (20,000) 
 would be the correct annual figure, but a considerable 
 number of suicides that are in frequent occurrence are 
 as a rule not reported. The suicides of women are 
 particularly very sorrowful. In all statistical data 
 this sex used to number about one among every four, 
 now it numbers one to every three. 
 
 Among five thousand (5,000) cases of suicides hav- 
 ing been reported to The Save a Life League, in 1919, 
 editors of newspapers are generally considered to be 
 immune. Other professions show, nevertheless, an un- 
 happy record. For example, there were in the said 
 year thirty-six physicians, thirty-eight instructors 
 (among them nine were college professors) and eleven 
 clergymen. There were also twenty presidents of large 
 business concerns who ended their lives, and almost as 
 many merchants, and also more than fifty club men, 
 millionaires and wealthy society ladies. 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 69 
 
 According to the latest report made public August 
 1, 1920, by The Save a Life League, as a semi-annual 
 issue, the report shows that suicides in general are on 
 the increase in the United States. During the first six 
 months of 1919 the League received reports of two 
 thousand and sixty-three (2,063) suicides in the United 
 States; this year the number is two thousand seven 
 hundred and seventy-one (2,771). Male suicides were 
 one thousand eight hundred and ten (1,810), and 
 female nine hundred and sixty-one (961). In 1919 
 there were three hundred and eighty-five (385) sui- 
 cides in New York alone during the first six months. 
 This year the total is 343 — 234 men and 109 women. 
 From January to July of the year 1920 one hundred 
 and sixty-two (162) demobilized soldiers unfortu- 
 nately ended their lives. 
 
 Society of modern times is guilty of all the inhuman 
 casualties occurring frequently in this world. When 
 a man is in great distress, having tried all kinds of 
 honorable ways with reference to make a living, and 
 failing, and being homeless, suffering mentally, physi- 
 cally, morally starving, and unable to see any hope 
 ahead, he is as a direct result most of the time forced to 
 steal or commit other crimes in order to live. If caught 
 and convicted, he is in such cases better satisfied than 
 
70 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 when trying to make a living against such odds. In 
 the penitentiary, or jail, he receives more food and 
 better care than, as a rule, in the open under present 
 existing conditions. 
 
 If such situations and sad circumstances were in- 
 vestigated, for the purpose of ascertaining as to 
 whether a certain crime was committed as a result of 
 too much pleasure or luxury, or because of the grave 
 environments and severe distress of the wrongdoer 
 and his family, it would be proved to society that these 
 convicts are no worse than the richer class. If, for 
 example, all the people who are tempted to commit 
 crimes, felonies, etc., because of a stricken financial 
 condition, should be given the wealth of such men as 
 Rockefeller, Morgan, Armour and Swift, and all those 
 men should be placed in the positions of the poor, don't 
 you think the former millionaires would commit just 
 as many crimes as are being committed by the poor, 
 financially stricken class? They are already suffi- 
 ciently evil to commit misdemeanors, by conducting 
 their business in a corrupt manner, and are often ac- 
 cused by the government. In order to amass huge 
 fortunes, for the wealth they can accumulate in an 
 honest way is not enough for their unfathomed treas- 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 71 
 
 uries,* they use depraved schemes to accumulate 
 money under rich and comfortable conditions. It is 
 possible that these same millionaires, or billionaires, 
 if made to live in the distressing environments of those 
 who now commit crimes as a result of such environ- 
 ments, would commit like crimes. 
 
 Any person of clear vision will concede that there 
 is very little blame due the individual who is forced 
 to commit a crime, if he will take the trouble to make 
 an investigation and learn the causes which led the 
 criminal to such an act. "Necessitas non hdbet legem 97 
 (Necessity has no law). If such investigations were 
 made it would be ascertained that any man in great 
 misery, poverty and distress will commit any crime 
 in order that his family may be kept from starvation. 
 
 For example, in Chicago it recently occurred that 
 a widow, being physically and financially stricken, ad- 
 vertised in a newspaper that she was willing to give 
 away her six children to anybody who would care for 
 them, as she could neither support them nor herself. 
 "Magnas inter opes inopos" (poor in the midst of 
 great wealth). Millionaires are making enormous 
 
 * Criminality and Economic Conditions, by William Adria Bonger, 
 page 263, chapter 11. 
 
72 Uncivilized Civilization 
 
 profits. As another example, some time ago a hospital 
 in New York — the richest and second largest city in 
 the world — advertised that a certain measure of blood 
 transfusion was necessary for a patient, and many 
 answered the advertisement — willing to sell their life 's 
 blood for a few dollars in order to aid their families, 
 who w T ere in great distress. These instances are given 
 to show that people who are living under the present 
 miserable conditions of the poor are willing not only 
 to commit crimes and felonies, but also to sacrifice 
 their own bodies in order to keep off starvation. 
 
 It is true that there are professional criminals in 
 the various prisons serving terms therein for crimes 
 they have committed, but that does not necessarily 
 indicate that there are not convicts in these same jails 
 who would never have committed a crime if they had 
 not been forced to it by severe necessity. Had it not 
 been for the conditions under which they lived they 
 would be like all other honest, well-to-do citizens. 
 
 In conclusion, the writers desire to add this : The 
 world as a whole has always in its possession and com- 
 prises in its universe enormous quantities of good, in 
 every material capacity, more than it has evil, i. e., 
 wealthy natural resources, which can at any time be 
 made productive and of great use to the cause and wel- 
 
Uncivilized Civilization 73 
 
 fare of humanity in general, and benevolence in par- 
 ticular, but nevertheless history indicates and experi- 
 ence proves, from centuries of human existence, that 
 instead of grasping and utilizing the opportunities of 
 the good, humanity has always rather preferred, and 
 still prefers, the evil. 
 
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