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Editorial
August 9, 1937
The Daily Independent
Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, North Carolina
What is this article about?
Joseph Fort Newton's 1937 editorial satirizes alarmists who fear societal change and predict decay, citing historical examples from 1691 to 1863, including opposition to Lincoln's emancipation and the Constitution, to argue that progress persists despite panic.
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Everyday Living
THE ALARMISTS
By JOSEPH FORT NEWTON
(Copyright, 1937, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
"The administration borrows its ideas and policies, so far as it has any, from these crazy radicals. By surrendering itself to their wild and reckless guidance it is ruining the country."
No, those words were not written yesterday, although they might have been. They appeared in the New York World, in 1863, in a bitter attack on the emancipation policy of Abraham Lincoln.
"A wrong step now and our republic may be lost. I look upon that paper as the most fatal plan that could possibly be conceived to enslave a free people." It was Patrick Henry speaking, in 1787, and the dangerous document was the Constitution!
"It is a solemn moment. Of our troubles no man can see the end. The very haste to be rich, which is the occasion of this widespread calamity, has destroyed the moral forces which can resist it."
It reads like a recent survey, but it was written in Harper's Weekly in October, 1857, which the writer described as the gloomiest hour in history, when the race was rushing to destruction.
"The Causes of the Decay of Piety, and the Downfall of Morality, or An Impartial Survey of the Ruins of the Christian Religion"—the title of a book dated in the year 1691!
The free public school, railroads, legal equality, pure food laws, the abolition of slavery, surgery and sanitation—all were feared and opposed as so many paths leading to chaos.
Man is not unlike the auk, the famous imaginary bird in the Traprock story, that always flew backwards, because it feared where it was going, but loved to see where it had been.
The alarmist type of mind is always with us, afraid of any change, crying out in panic, making fantastic signals to stop the human advance; and so it will be until the end.
"All my days," said Lord Macaulay, "I have seen nothing but progress, and heard nothing but decay."
THE ALARMISTS
By JOSEPH FORT NEWTON
(Copyright, 1937, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
"The administration borrows its ideas and policies, so far as it has any, from these crazy radicals. By surrendering itself to their wild and reckless guidance it is ruining the country."
No, those words were not written yesterday, although they might have been. They appeared in the New York World, in 1863, in a bitter attack on the emancipation policy of Abraham Lincoln.
"A wrong step now and our republic may be lost. I look upon that paper as the most fatal plan that could possibly be conceived to enslave a free people." It was Patrick Henry speaking, in 1787, and the dangerous document was the Constitution!
"It is a solemn moment. Of our troubles no man can see the end. The very haste to be rich, which is the occasion of this widespread calamity, has destroyed the moral forces which can resist it."
It reads like a recent survey, but it was written in Harper's Weekly in October, 1857, which the writer described as the gloomiest hour in history, when the race was rushing to destruction.
"The Causes of the Decay of Piety, and the Downfall of Morality, or An Impartial Survey of the Ruins of the Christian Religion"—the title of a book dated in the year 1691!
The free public school, railroads, legal equality, pure food laws, the abolition of slavery, surgery and sanitation—all were feared and opposed as so many paths leading to chaos.
Man is not unlike the auk, the famous imaginary bird in the Traprock story, that always flew backwards, because it feared where it was going, but loved to see where it had been.
The alarmist type of mind is always with us, afraid of any change, crying out in panic, making fantastic signals to stop the human advance; and so it will be until the end.
"All my days," said Lord Macaulay, "I have seen nothing but progress, and heard nothing but decay."
What sub-type of article is it?
Satire
Social Reform
What keywords are associated?
Alarmists
Progress
Historical Fears
Social Change
Pessimism
What entities or persons were involved?
Abraham Lincoln
Patrick Henry
Lord Macaulay
Joseph Fort Newton
Editorial Details
Primary Topic
Critique Of Alarmists Fearing Progress
Stance / Tone
Optimistic And Mocking Of Pessimism
Key Figures
Abraham Lincoln
Patrick Henry
Lord Macaulay
Joseph Fort Newton
Key Arguments
Alarmists Have Historically Predicted Ruin From Reforms Like Emancipation And The Constitution
Past Fears Of Decay, From 1691 To 1857, Proved Unfounded
Innovations Such As Public Schools And Railroads Were Opposed As Chaotic
Human Progress Continues Despite Alarmist Panic