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Show 7 1 The Present Unrest "N tne last day oE last year tlie New York J Times published the replies of many emi- ' . nent men to its question of what Ave great I events of the year just closing, were most import- ant in their estimation. There were many answer in common, others f were doubtless influenced by the different temper-1 temper-1 aments of the people questioned. , The one which seems first to us was not no- l ticed in any of the replies. That is the unrest of t the world. It was a miracle that a great war was I not precipitated between England and France on I tho one hand and Germany on the other, and all f three powers accepted a recall or the dogs of I war with seeming reluctance. Just when paeons were being sung to peace and peace appeals were ringing round -the world, all at once both Italy and Russia starred out on ' wars of conquest. All at once China shook off the lethergy of ages, and inaugurated a civil war -.gigantic in scope and cruel past description in its execution. 1 It has required a mighty work to keep down in- ! surrection in India. 1 1' ' See what an upheaval the mere proposition of a commercial treaty awakened in Canada. In- deed tho animosities awakened there over it still ' remain, and while it seems grotesque to us on this side of the lino it was a very savage reality there. That the feeling still lingers is seen in tho Dominion's efforts to stop further Immigra- i tion into her waste territory from this side. Mexico has gone through two revolutions and there are political tremblors trere still seen as i j. after a great earthquake In tho Mexican moun- k i tains, the earth is unsteady for months afterward. f Cuba has had a hard time to keep her unstable ,' olemonts quiet. A real revolution has been running its course ? in Paraguay, and there have been mutterings of ) war all the way from Colombia down the west coast to Chile. The last papers declare that nearly all Europe is right now in fear of a universal uprisin of tho Moslem hordes from western Africa to India A and north to old Chaldea. We have had no armed uprisings in the United States, but we have had Roosevelt, La Follette, Clapp, Cum'mins, Plnchot, Wilson and Bryan. Look at the suffrage riots and strikes in England! Eng-land! What is the matter wiyi the world? Never before was there so much wealth, never before so many rich people, never so many comforts and luxuries within inch of the masses; never so ) many schools nor so many books. Never did so many people live in comfortable homes; never were charities to compare with those of the past year. What is the cause of the unrest? Is it not a feeling that as yet no society is founded on a fair basis? That the world's gifts are unequally distributed; that the great mass of the people ought to have more and live easier lives? Then is it not true that there is less and less respect re-spect for law every year, and a growing belief that it is not the poor man's duty to revere law in a country which brings him so few comforts And what will this unrest culminate in by and by? Is society to be well nigh destroyed and reconstructed on a new basis? Or is religion under a new form to come and subdue mankind? Who can explain the present unrest? |
