Our Country; Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ...modern times, a tremendous enginery of destruction, which offers itself to every man. Since the French Revolution nitro-glycerine, illuminating gas, petroleum, dynamite, the revolver, the repeating rifle and the Gatling gun have all come into use. Science has placed in man's hand superhuman powers. Society, also, is become more highly organized, much more complex, and is therefore much more susceptible of injury. There never was a time in the history of the world when an enemy of society could work such mighty mischief as to-day. The more highly developed a civilization is, the more vulnerable does it become. This is pre-eminently true of a material civilization. Learning, statesmanship, character, respect for law, love of justice, cannot be blown up with dynamite; palaces, factories, railways, Brooklyn bridges, Hoosac tunnels, and all the long inventory of our material wonders are destructible by material means. " The explosion of a little nitro-glycerine under a few water mains would make a great city uninhabitable; the blowing up of a few railroad bridges and tunnels would bring famine quicker than the wall of circumvallation that Titus drew around Jerusalem; the pumping of atmospheric air into the gas-mains, and the application of a match would tear up every street and level every house." We are preparing conditions which make possible a Reign of Terror that would beggar the scenes of the French Revolution. Conditions at the West are peculiarly favorable to-the growth of socialism. The much larger proportion of foreigners there, and the strong tendency of immigration thither, will have great influence. There is a stronger individuality in the West. The people are less conservative; there is less regard for established usage and...