SELFISHNESS.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 6, 11 September 1906, Page 8

SELFISHNESS.

1 FRF. greatest evil of to-day By Max Xordau, in “The N. Y. American.’* I 1 Hie human race is to-day more discontented. more irritated and more I restl"ss then ever before. The world! of .civilization is an immense hospital : ward, the air is filled with groans and lamentations urnl every form of ; suffering is to be seen twisting and turning on the beds. do through the world and ask each country you come to : “Does contentment dwell hero ? Have you- peace and happiness ?’ ’ From each you will hear the same reply : “Pass on, wc have not what you are seeking.” I Pause and listen at the borders, and the breeze will bring to your ears from each one the suine confused echoes of contention and tumult, of revolt and of oppression. In Germany Socialism# with ! myriads of tiny teeth, is stealthily . gnawing at the columns that uphold j the structure of State and society, ! and nothing, uot even the allure- j ments of State and Christian so- • cialism, nor the countless traps set I for it by the laws and police, can ' , disturb for a single instant the I secret, noiseless, untiring work of j this insatiable subterranean des- I troyer. The anti-Semitic movement has \ merely been a pretext for the grati- I fixation of passions which do not | venture to show themselves under j, their true names—among the poor and ignorant it cloaked their hatred i of property owners, among those who enjoy privileges inherited from the j mediaeval times it disguised their 1 Jealous fear of gifted rivals in the | race of influence and power, and the , ‘ 'romantic idealizing youth saw In it !, a means of satisfying a certain extravagant and false ideal of patriot- j ism that longs not only for the poli- ~ tical unity of Germany, but also for : an ethnological unity of the German people. In Austria we see ten nationalities

arrayed against each other, each seeking to injure the others by ( all the means at its command. In Russia there is now, after the war, such a condition that it may almost be described as primitive barbarism. In England and America the ground ap{)ears solid and the structure of State firm, but only to the superficial observer. If he lay his ear to the ground and listen to the muffled strokes of the subterranean giants as they hammer away at the weak points in their dungeons, and if he examine the walls closer, he will see that underneath the varnish and gold plating dangerous cracks extend from top to bottom. The Church and the aristocracy of rank and wealth are well organized and firmly allied to uphold each other, with a true appreciation of the identity of their interests. The middle classes bow submissively to the written and unwritten laws of the dominant caste, are outwardly eminently respectful, show reverence to titles and swear that those things only are seemly which the upper ten thousand approve, everything else being low and vulgar. But the working man and the small tenant stand outside the bonds of this conspiracy ; they demand their share of capital and land ; they form clubs of freethinkers and republicans ; they shake their fists at royalty and arioWe seek in vain among the rich a feeling of security with regard to their wealth and of the simple enjoyment of it ; neither do we find the poor that simple atqui-

==gg— tbs man of wealth, he sees a menace in the present condition of men and all airs, indistinct but none the less real, so that he has come to look upon his possessions as a mere loan, that might be demauded from him roughly from one moment to another The poor man is ednsumed by envyj and greed for the Wealth of the privileged few, neither in himself nor in the existing arrangement of world and society, as he has learned to understand, does he discover any .convincing reasons for the fact that he is poor and hence excluded from the table of life’s pleasures. He listens with fierce impatience to a voice within him, which whispeirs that his rights to the blessings of life are as good as any man’s. The rich man is dreading, the poor man is hoping and working to bring about a change in the present condition of property ownership. The faith in a continuance of its present state has been rudely shaken in the minds of all, even in those who will not acknowledge their secret doubts and * anxieties. At the root of all these evils lie the one great vice—selfishness. Selfishness arouses the desire to govern others, it leads to despotism, it produces kings, conquerors, ambitious ministers and party leaders. On the other side the love of our kind arouses the desire to serve the race, it leads to self-government, universal sufierage, it produces a legislation inspired alone by the desire to further the welfare of the commonwealth.

Selfishness is the cause of the most heinous injustices in the distribution of poverty ; a solidarity would equalize these injustices to such a degree that an education and daily broad would be assured to every one capable of cultivation and willing to work.

The struggle for existence will last as long as life Itself and be always the cause of all development and perfection, but it will assume milder phases and be in the same proportion to its fierce warfare of to-day as a war carried on between civilized nations is to a. slaughter among cannibals.