The Conservative [[microform].], December 29, 1898, Page 10, Image 10

About The Conservative [[microform].] (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902

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10 'Cbe Conservative. I
with the ( lovclopinent of iutolligoiico is
an imix > rtnut point to understand.
What is it that retarded in the past and
that now retards the coming of the
kingdom the altruistic state ? Why is
it that war has been the history of man
kind and not peace ?
It has been said that "peace is the
tlreum of the wise ; but war is the history
of man. " Nearly 1900 years ago Christ
came to earth with the message , "Peace
on earth and good will to men. "
You cannot name one of these 1900
years in which some part of the earth
has not been upturned by war. Not one
year of the 1900 years that some men
have not been killing other men ; laying
waste their fields , burning their cities
and making desolate their homes , and
thus apparently contradicting the mes
sage , "Peace on earth and good will to
men. "
Let us bee how this comes about. The
condition of primitive man was one of
universal warfare , for the reason that he
was alwnj'B on the verge of starvation.
Food is a prime necessity of physical
life. It was obtainable only by hunting
and fishing , or when these failed by
seizing upon edible objects wherever
found , though the3r belonged to another.
The belonging to another was not
recognized.
The conditions for existence were not
visibly changed from what they had
been from the beginning of the animal
world. The moral sense , which today
makes it seem wicked to steal , rob and
murder , was little more developed in the
primitive man than it was in tigers and
wolves with one I'icpjilitni. The family
supplied motives for peaceful co-opera
tion. Within the family limits , in a
rudimentary way , the feelings of loyalty ,
gratitude , equity , family affection , per
sonal friendship and regard for the
claims of others had room and occasion
to develop.
The family expanded into the tribe or
clan and within this limit these altruis
tic feelings were to some extent un
folded. But outside i these little tribes
the environment was a congeries of hos
tile tribes.
The necessity of each tribe defending
itself against every other tribe involved
continual readiness for warfare and the
continual manifestation of the entire
class of warlike , unsocial passions.
On the other hand the tribe was so
small and homogeneous that the oppor
tunity for the exercise of the sympathetic
and social feelings was confined to the
physical bond of blood relationship , the
only one they could conceive.
Illustrations are abundant. Under
many different names the township has
been the unit of political society among
all civilized peoples. But this place was
originally the stockaded dwelling place
of the clan which traced its lineage to a
common ancestor.
The tribe or clan lived in a state of
armed truce. The rules of morality , so
far as developed , wore exercised mainly
within the clan the brotherhood was
within the clan. All outsiders were
strangers , and all strangers were ene
mies to be cheated , robbed or murdered
as best subserved the purpose of the
victorious tribe. This state of perpetual
warfare was first checked by industrial
civilization or the rise of an industrial
system based upon property and con
tract.
In looking at the genesis of an indus
trial system let us take the standpoint of
the economist. The economics of a
given stage of civilization means the
way in which people get their living ,
i. < - . , how they got those things which
support human life and how they are
distributed. The importance of the in
dustrial system and the part it plays can
be inferred from the opinions of the
masters in this department of social
science.
Alfred Marshall , the last and greatest
of the English economists perhaps
greatest because last talks thus :
' 'Man's character has been moulded by
his every-dajT work and by the material
resources which he thereby procures
more than by any other influence unless
it bo that of his religions ideals ; and the
two great forming agencies of the
world's history have been the religious
and the economic. Here and there the
ardor of the military or artistic spirit
has been for awhile predominant but re
ligious and economic influences have
nowhere been displaced from the front
rank even for a time ; and they have
been nearly always more important than
all others put together. The business
by which a person earns his livelihood
generally fills his thoughts during by
far the greater part of these hours in
which his mind is at its best ; during
then his character is being formed by
the way in which he uses his faculties
in his work ; by the thoughts and feel
ings which it suggests and by his re
lations to his associates in work , his
employer and his employees. "
Marshall is of course speaking from
the standpoint of highly developed
English society , but the principles he
announces ore of universal application ,
and emphatically so at the beginning of
the evolution of industrial civilization.
And now listen to Karl Marx : "The
economic structure of society is the real
basis on which the juridical and politi
cal superstructure is raised , and to which
definite social forms of thought corres
pond ; in short , the mode of production
determines the character of the social
and intellectual life generally. "
Once more ; listen to Lewis H. Mor
gan in his "Study of Ancient Society. "
' 'A critical knowledge of the ovolutism
of the idea of property would embody ,
in some respects , the most remarkable
portion of the mental history of man
kind. "
These men from whom I have quoted
are profound students in their respective
departmeuts. The order of advance in
the industrial sphere was from the hunt
ing and fishing stage , in which men
found things , to the stage in which they
raised and made things. When they
had learned to raise flocks and herds ,
and to till the ground , they had a
method of getting food which was more
certain , and the food was more abun
dant than in the hunting and fishing
stage. The verge of starvation was
farther removed. The way in which
men get their living is the basis of the
classification of social groups into the
savage , the half-civilized and the civil
ized stages.
Man in the hunting and fishing stage
the stage in which , like the animal ,
they find tilings are savages. It has
been estimated that it takes 60,000 acres
to support a savage. Those who have
learned to get a living by raising flocks
and herds are semi-civilized. This is a
vast advance beyond the savage stage.
Food is far more certain and abundant
and the occasion for war is diminished.
When man advanced to the agricultural
stage civilization began. Agriculture
makes possible the support of a vastly
greater population than that of the pas
toral stage on the same area of territory.
It gives rise to fixed habitations , social
compactness and the idea of property in
laud first in the form of communal
ownership.
When iu this process of industrial
evolution men learned to exchange with
one another the products of their labor ,
a series of social changes began which
has never ceased.
It is not to be understood that indus
trial evolution stopped at the stage in
dicated the rise of agriculture. On
the contrary this is only a primitive
stage or an early stage of civilization.
Men not only first found tilings , then
raised things , but simultaneously they
made things tools , clothing , shelter.
Man first made the tool and with the
tool made useful things. Man himself
was the power that drove the tool. Tliis
was the handicraft stage. It still per
sists in many lines and is the industrial
sphere for the blind.
Next ho fitted a tool or several tools
to a machine and the wind or horse or
waterfall was the power which drove the
machine which drove the tools. This
was the manufacturing stage. A whole
series of social changes followed and
wore determined by this advance m the
modes of getting a living. With this
rise of the manufacturing stage came
increased production of economic goods ,
the development of roads and transpor
tation , trade , commerce , concentration
of population in cities , the rise of na
tions.
But wind , animals , and water power
are limited and variable. There seemed
no limit to the power of production by
machinery if man could find a
power of unlimited capacity and
under perfect control. This came with