94 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



How striking is it to compare some of our newspaper editorials of to- 

 day with those of two years ago in the same papers, and to see how 

 their writers have been dragged, step by step, into line with those 

 whom they formerly opposed ! They have not changed their faith ; 

 they have deserted it. For them there is the defense of business 

 necessity; but if you will to-day talk to many men who gave you 

 their opinions a few months ago, you will find that they have broken 

 down and given up — surrendered to superior numbers. In our 

 bulletin crowds we have all seen the spirit of the mob, which meets 

 the newcomer indifferent or doubtful, thrills him with the mys- 

 terious influence of the men packed around and against him, and 

 sends him away an irresponsible monomaniac. 



"With such forces at work, it is inevitable that we should act, 

 or be ready to act, quickly. Why not? Reflection takes time. 

 To learn the facts fully and certainly takes time. To feel — how 

 long? To take another man's word — how long? To give way to 

 a thousand other men — how long? We have all seen men cheer- 

 ing our war with Spain only yesterday. To-day Austria seems 

 friendly to the queen regent. We'll whip Austria, too. To- 

 morrow Germany is impudent to Dewey. We shall be ready by 

 night to whip Germany. If Europe combines against us, how long 

 shall we consider the cost of such a war as that? Write it on the 

 bulletin board — the crowd will be ready before the writing is done. 



Near to this is the spirit of fickleness, of inconstancy, which 

 has been frequently manifested. We have not only made up our 

 minds on insufficient evidence, but we have unmade them in a 

 hurry on no evidence at all, showing a startling lack of confidence 

 in our own judgments and of respect for them. Attention might 

 well have been called, in a former paragraph, to the small amount 

 of our real knowledge of the character of Aguinaldo. On what 

 petty and inconsequential evidence have we first called him a great 

 liberator, and now a scheming politician! Men who could hardly 

 read his most remarkable appeal to this country do not hesitate to 

 call him an unprincipled, conceited, ignorant barbarian: what 

 reliable information have they received with reference to his mo- 

 tives? They have found no trouble in changing their opinions. 

 In the past few months we have been mercurial almost beyond 

 mercurial Frenchmen. Think of the revulsion of feeling that fol- 

 lowed Hobson across the continent; and, more recently, of our 

 sad lack of self-restraint shown by the vicious and ungrounded 

 attack upon Admiral Dewey, only a few days after he had been the 

 object of the greatest display of hero worship America has ever 

 seen. And how many important changes may we count, if we 

 carry back our comparison to the time before the war? 



