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Show AMERICA NOT TO DECAY SAYS STEINMETZ. Electrical Wizard at Bab son Institute Tells Why We Will Not Follow Greece and Rome Wellesly Hills, Mass., August Au-gust 31, 1923. "Whether the country is going to the dogs or not depends upon two things your age and your digestion." According to Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, electrical wizard and authority extraordinary on social developments. Speaking before the leading business men of the country at the Babson Institute, Dr. Steinmetz Stein-metz discussed the future ot 'American civilization. "The old civilization of Greece and Rome," he says, "were founded upon a system of slavery. The citizens of Athens enjoyed their leisure, produced works of art, attend ed the theatre, and pondered on philosophical problems, onlv at the expense of a much larger class of slaves who labored long hours that the Athenians might live in luxury. The Roman Ro-man citizen in his time enjoyed the freedom of the world but Some prospered at the expense ex-pense of a hundred subject states and because of the labor of a hundred subject peoples. In both of these older civilizations civiliza-tions a very small proportion of the people enjoyed their advantages advan-tages at the expense of a large majority. "The idle rich degenerated, as the idle rich will, and the great mass of the common peo pie finally reacted to the impositions impo-sitions put upon them as the mass of humanity always does eventually react. To be sure our histories tell us that Rome was sacked by the vandals, but only because the great mass of, the common people who madej up the real Roman Empire, were willing that It should bej sacked. Theatres meant noth- j ing to them but years of toil j under the slave drivers' lash. Gieat works of art meant tri bute and taxes. The culture of Rome spelled nothing to them but oppression and extortion. extor-tion. The vandals were welcome. wel-come. "Today we have slaves of steam and electricity. Tasks that used to spell weeks of drudgery and the hardest kind of work for human hands ar flow done in a few moments by the electric motor. Goods and merchandise once transported slowly at the expenditure of great effort are now carried swiftly and easily by the steam locomotive. Our present civilization civili-zation is enjoyed and shared in by every member of society. There is no great slave class to rise in revolt against it. "The other weakness in the old civilization." continued Dr. Steinmetz, "was the difficulty of communication. As long as these old city states remained within their own walls they got along very well, but the moment mo-ment they extended their borders bor-ders beyond these walls decay began to set in. The Roman Empire for instance was necessarily neces-sarily ruled from Rome, but since there was no easy method of communication between Rome and its subject countries scattered all over central Europe Eu-rope and Africa, the governing I was done entirely by the peo Iple living at the capital. The ! situation was very much as tho the United States of America today, was governed entirely iby the citizens of Washington, ! D. C. or of any other one city. !In such a case there is no guarantee guar-antee that this relatively small ! group of people represents tho 'best brains and highest minds in the country at large. In fact, exactly the opposite was I the case in Rome. The citi-zens citi-zens of this great city became 'degenerate, luxury loving, and ! lustful. The government fell I into the hands of the greedy, ( selfish, and short sighted, who ;were called upon to shape tho destiny of a great empire. The inevitable downfall of Rome resulted. re-sulted. "Our modern newspapers, !our telegraph systems, our tele-j tele-j phone and our wireless, which make it possible for all the people peo-ple of the United States, all the people of the world for that matter, to keep in touch with what is going on in any part of :it, furnish ample insurance |