Gerrit L. Lansing

“ Year after year the flower of the Roman youth were marched to her distant colonies and died upon foreign fields; and in return the Gauls and Thracians> Syrians and Egyptians, were brought to Italy and Rome. The art, learning, and civilization of Rome, which had thrived upon their native soil, and had each year grown more deeply rooted, were like plants pulled up and strewed broadcast over the earth, to take root where they could, or to be crowded out by the more vigorous but rank native growth. ”

“ In the popular mind, the solution of the railroad problem is based upon the fundamental misconception that the so-called railroad "monopolies" raise the tariffs at their pleasure, are controlled only by their own wills, and so, influenced alone by selfish interests, they maintain unreasonably high or extortionate rates. Yet, it will always be found that, in seeking to advance their own interests, they are absolutely controlled by those general economic laws through the operation of which every one is seeking his own good, under terms as nearly equal as is allowed by nature itself ”

“ That the evolution of societies is governed by the same general laws which govern the evolution of organisms might be assumed, a priori, from the fact that societies are but aggregates of organisms. So, a society itself may be considered as an organism, for its existence as an aggregate necessitates the homogeneity of the parts composing it. The people must be of the same race and civilization, and in their institutions, laws, and customs, represent those instincts and temperaments which are characteristic of their race. ”

“ The fact that the conquering race or nation generally prevails by virtue of superior numbers—the most important element, perhaps, in the conquest of a civilization—gives further color to this interpretation. But the numerous instances in which the civilization of the conquered nation is that which has prevailed show that the conquest by armed forces has been followed by a conflict of civilization, in which the dominant form has been determined, not by success in arms, but by persistence of characters, and by the relative number and fitness of the contending societies. ”

“ The so-called "monopoly" is thus shown to be exactly the opposite of those privileged corporations which, in the past centuries, have given the word its evil significance: for, without any special or exclusive privilege, the railroad is in itself an institution which naturally secures whatever monopoly it has of the business of transportation by the superior advantages and cheapness which it affords. With the reduction of rates, therefore, the "monopoly" must increase; for the reduction of rates means an increase of traffic. ”

“ TO any one who has thought about the Chinese, the contrast presented by a comparison of their civilization with the civilization of the Western nations must have given rise to frequent speculation as to the cause of so great a difference. Should we be brought into communication with another planet, we could hardly expect to find a people more unlike us than the inhabitants of China. They have existed substantially as at present from, a time long before a single language existed which is spoken to-day in Europe, and even before our classic dead languages were born. ”

“ The difference in the characters of the Chinese and European peoples is older than their histories, as it is the same when their histories commence. It is fundamental, and as immutable as are the physical characteristics of the races—subject to but slight change in long periods of time. The Chinese are constant in their adherence to old established customs and ideas. The genius of the Western nations is that of change and progress. ”

“ Again, in one of those canonical works which form the basis of Chinese education, religion, and government, the opinions of Confucius are recorded upon the same subject. Being asked "whether in the virtue of the sages there was not something greater than filial piety," he replied: "Of all (creatures with their different) natures produced by heaven and earth, man is the noblest. Of all of the actions of man there is none greater than filial piety. In filial piety there is nothing greater than the reverential awe of one's father. ”

“ A nation may, like the United States, be composed of parts of various other nations, but they must be of a common race and civilization. The history of the Indians and the negroes in America too plainly demonstrates the truth that, where the races are different and the societies have different civilizations, rapid assimilation is impossible. As long as such a difference exists there will be a conflict, which can be ended only by the slow process of assimilation by variation of race, or by the extermination of the weaker. ”

“ As nations are the necessary product of their parts—as the government is as it is because the people are as they are—it follows that a certain degree of homogeneity is necessary to secure peace and permanence. A majority of the people must have sentiments, instincts, and temperaments, as nearly similar as possible, where a difference in circumstances, occupations, and position is necessary. It is a constant strain upon the coherence of a nation, where the parts are of different civilizations. ”

“ All newer forms have yielded to those ancient institutions and beliefs which originated before their civilization, and, aided by unchanged surroundings, have been developed in a nation composed of a homogeneous people and transmitted by inheritance to the present time.
The practical arts of the Chinese, which have added to the comforts and luxuries of the Western nations, from the time of the Greeks to the present day, will appear, upon consideration, to be unchanged in their effects upon our society, either in the event of an entire exclusion or an unlimited immigration of the people. ”

“ The nations of the West, on the other hand, have developed, with ever-varying surroundings, and under the influence of various nations and races. We have our language from India, our alphabet from Phœnicia, and our religion from Israel. Our civilization bears the impress of the various peoples who have spread around the Mediterranean Sea, from the builders of the pyramids of Egypt to the Moorish philosophers of Cordova.
In government, the Chinese have always been well content with a monarchy; with the Aryan nations there has been an ever-increasing tendency to democracy. ”

“ And so dangerous, it is believed, has this arbitrary exercise of power become, that the people of the whole country are invited to bind them-selves together into an "anti-monopoly" league, to be able to strike for their liberties, and punish the destroying avarice of these giant corporations. ”

“ We have received from the Chinese silk, tea, and paper; and by the invention of gunpowder and printing they have added to those great agents of civilization, the sword and the pen, a thousand-fold. We have been told that the dream of the Western political reformer was long since realized among this people whom we teach our children to call semi-civilized; that government offices, from the highest to the lowest, the most prized honors and social position, are all based upon an educational qualification. ”

“ Yet, all railroads are monopolies in a certain sense and to a certain extent; that is to say, they are without practical competition between certain points. The use of the word monopoly, however, as applied to railroads, should be qualified by the word natural. Natural monopolies are such because, under the free and equal operation of the laws of nature and of the nation, they monopolize the business by doing it more satisfactorily, more economically, and more expeditiously, than it can be done by any other means. ”

“ The most complete account of the customs and institutions of the Chinese would but add to the testimony here presented of the wonderfully conservative character of their civilization. The development of a society from a single race, under one government, with constantly similar surroundings and but little subject to the influence of foreign races or nations, has produced a homogeneous society, which is constant in the repetition, for generation after generation, of the characters which marked it at its commencement. ”

“ The testimony thus afforded by these languages proves, beyond a doubt, that the Aryan race could have had no union with the ancestors of the Chinese later than that remote past when our language was in a like state of monosyllabic simplicity. From that remote time, when the savage ancestors of our race shaped their rude weapons of stone, the Chinese have been developing upon one small portion of the earth—we have spread over much of the rest. They have been comparatively isolated, and their growth has been therefore more homogeneous, constant, and persistent in one type. ”

“ The early union of the neighboring tribes into the Roman state was a union of similar elements, which became strengthened by numbers, without being weakened by conflicting natures. Their subsequent conquest of the Greek colonies gave them an element which encouraged the development of art and learning, and was still of the same race as themselves, with a civilization of a like genius. Thus the Roman state grew in strength as it increased in size. ”

“ If the Chinese are a different race from the nations of the West, we may expect to find among them a different civilization, based upon different mental characters and temperament. If their customs, laws, and government have remained the same from a remote antiquity, we may expect to find them so persistent as to resist all effort at change; and we may find forms, which were anciently of great benefit, still transmitted by inheritance, though they may now have become injurious by interfering with the introduction of new forms of greater utility. ”

“ These are the essential requirements of the public good, and these the public constantly receive from the great corporations. By the consolidation of several branch lines under a central management, an economy is effected in all those expenses of general supervision, and of junction and terminal stations, which, under the individual operation of the roads, each has to stand by itself. This is, in fact, a reduction of the ratio of expenses to the amount of business done, as it reduces to a minimum those fixed expenses which have little relation to the increase or decrease of traffic ”

“ Why, it may be asked, is not the civilization of the Chinese one which would affect ours for the better? With an antiquity which fades away in the prehistoric past, it still exists with the apparent vigor of youth, and controls under one government a larger population than has existed in any nation which history mentions. ”

“ The genius of the Chinese civilization, which is characterized by the greatest persistence in primitive or early forms, is illustrated equally in their religion as in their government. The two are, indeed, to a great degree united. The duties which are paid by all to their parents and sovereign while living, are continued in their worship after death. ”

“ This would be still more difficult to understand of a people like the Chinese, whose instincts have always directed them in the paths of peace. So we find that, in the course of centuries, they have made no mean progress in the useful arts, however slow that progress may have been. The Western nations seem to have derived their early knowledge of many useful inventions from the Chinese; among these, not the least important are those mighty engines of civilization—gunpowder, paper, and printing. ”

“ So we find, for many generations after the union, that the new society is lower in the scale of civilization than were either of the parts which composed it.
Now, after three and a half centuries, the conflicting elements have been so far eliminated, and the remaining parts have become so far assimilated, that the society consists of a people who are of an increasing homogeneity, and which represents a civilization that has been reared upon an Aztec foundation, with a Spanish superstructure. ”

“ With a small road, on the other hand, depending upon the present traffic of a limited area, its rates must be immediately remunerative, and to meet the current expenses there is frequently required the practice of every temporary economy, even at the expense of the future value of the property. The small roads, unless the circumstances are exceptional, maintain the highest rates, and afford the poorest service. The interest of the great companies in the development of the districts from which they derive their revenue is in proportion to their size ”

“ The government still maintains its ancient simple paternal form, with only those changes which have been necessary in adapting the family code to so vast a nation. Descending from the imperial throne, the whole government is found to be formed upon the same plan, repeated over and over. ”

“ The Western nations present a different picture. Our Aryan ancestors, wandering with their herds over the plains of Central Asia, encouraged, by the habits and necessities of their lives, that liberty of action and individual freedom which have characterized those of their descendants who by their emigrations have peopled Europe and America. ”