The Daily News SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1905. LATENT POSSIBILITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 781, 25 March 1905, Page 2

The Daily News SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1905. LATENT POSSIBILITIES.

No truer words wcic ever penned than those in lvhicli the Chelsea sage deduced the fact that the chiet characteristic in man, as compare,l witli all oilier living creatures, is that ' he is u tool-using being. lul " Iher back research is can-led into the relics of prehistoric . limos, the more surely is I ,l '° of forthcoming that wherever human remains are discovered primitive tools- are also found. Nor is this remarkable, for ,1 is the keynote, as it were, of main's destiny—lordship over all 4 breathing things, including his lellows, wheresoever he can prevail. The history of the universe, especially in modern times, aiuplv hears out the fact that the perfection ol' , tools is man's chief object in life To thisl end have tho energies of civilised nations been directed in tile I past, and more than ever do they lend thitherwards now, bbth in ma tiers pertaining to peace and .• win', The old law of the survival of the fittest is still in force, but nitie » iy side is to be found the outcome ol* modern civilisation —the -fostering of the weakest that they may attain .'Ui'ength. Again, intermixed with the 6' i-asl-mcntioned doctrine is the law ! of self-preservation applicable alike to all living creatures. The complex , machinery of modern life may h <re modified and improved many details of our existeiK;.-, but -below the sur-

face the old order of things exist-'!, and will continue so to do for all time. It is all part of the process of evolution, sometimes* apparenl'.y sluiijbering, yet occasionally breaking forth into such action thai ruleis and nations alike an- whirled inio the vortex of strife, tind chaotic horrois mipeivui.'. Koubtlesv these upheaveals ate just as necessary as thunderstorms', anil let. us cli-.iritablx assume that though both bring damage and death in their trafni, they each pave the wi;.v for better days. Meunu'h-ile, century by century, and year by year, the. intellectual faculties of the -human race in ci.A'ilised communities have been larg'ely engaged in two directions (J) I lei) vising and perfecting implements of war and transport ; (2) producing implements of commerce wherewith to obtain the money for equipping and lmaiptasni'jiig our alrnlies/ and navies—our human lighting machines and targets, the embodiment of that slaying instirifcl which permeates man throughout the world. Later on this phase of the ijuestioii will bo touched on in another aspect, but before doing so it may -be well to glance at what is the crux of the whole matter in its elTect on national life. It may be taken for granted that the first essential of every CJovernmcnt is an armed force. To obtain this either by conscription or enlistment the younger men are drawn upon,, and arc taugM, more or less skilfully, to use tho tools of warfare, guided by such brain power as is availalble. Most of what are known as the leading. Powers- have for many years past drawn heavily oil the agricultural population for their soldiery, with the result that the lighting instinct, if not patent, is assuredly latent in the slowmoving and slow-thinking peasants. When, as in IhisSi, we fiir.l an enormous army and a preponderating peasantry, the border-Sine between the two is not so broad as at first sight might appear to Ibe the case. True, the ltuswian pea.sunt has for generations lived practically under martial law,, ofid has ton whipped like a dog into submission, until ho is set down as- thoroughly cowed and devoid oil all spirit except) that of veneration for his " Little leather," and for the eternal fitness of rubers, in fact, he is considered as

a worm to be trodden under foot and only to be made* use of when wanted <to shed his miserable but peaceful life at the command of the Czar. Ho js, however, composed of the same material that has made the Kusf-iiafi army famous in the past, and ho may develop his latent ab}nui<.f» i.£> use the tools of war to some purpose, If he has lkv skill in handling a rifle ihi euji thj*ow a death-dealing 1 bomb with direful results. Once the fighting instinct is aroused in such people, who can say where and when it will die out. France knows this only too well, a/ul KuSfeia bids fail' to prove that history repeats itself. Lei it be remembeivfl tijal the amount of latent energy \\Jijeh is awaiting the opport 'in l r for beinff tiuUs<>ti bv the Hus i;:«, and labourers is alnju.-.i calculable. Once let them teel their power and possess the needful tools, flu; Kmpire will b • cons»mc<:l, while out or the ashes" i.mv rifca new power that will proliaihl'v te«J towards jx,a«o. Thu eyes of Hi",; world ari> (x-ntml on the crisis, and Oil the imbecile despot who nominally J s the via tiler" «cf hip people.