The turn of the century

[Excerpt from The Seeds of European Decline, Preface, by Prof. Azra Cohen-Smith, Harvard Press, 2013.]

Near the turn of the twentieth century, the world was possessed with a certain eschatological fervor, characterized by feelings of a certain perfection of the species by some groups of people, and by feelings of impending Biblical doom among other groups. A sense of exceptionalism abounded in most western nations, which led, perhaps inevitably, to continent-spanning conquest and war. Here is an article fragment found in the desk of Percy J. LaKwit by his great-grandson Jerome in 1982. It is believed to have been intended for publication in the New York Morning Journal ca. June 1900, during LaKwit's employment as assistant editor.

THE APOTHEOSIS OF HISTORY AWAITS

The Maine remembered
Nearly two years after the events which brought royal Spain to its knees, and freed the Nations of Cuba and the Filipines from its swarthy grip, we can now report on the legacy of President McKinley's splendid little war. Indeed, that legacy is progress, both moral and technological. Unassailable Scientific and mechanical discoveries on these shores will usher in a century like no other. Our railroads will tie our coasts together forever, and even now horseless carriages roam the city streets, freed from the volatile dangers of coal and steam. The plantations of the South rest quiet and free, and unlike any other White country, the United States thrives under the banner of unity and pluralism. Northern and southern man together defended the oppressed people of our rightful territories from the savage depredations of the Spaniard.

A look across the oceans
A new era of world significance awaits us. Asia with her rich resources lies ripe across the pacific. With the president reasonably restricting the Chinese influx to these shores, we can rightly pursue these ancient empires through trade and diplomacy. As Secretary Hay suggests, we can invest in the East like gentlemen, leaving the backwards African nations to the Europeans and their vile colonial ambitions. We will surely keep the Chinese from settling our protected territories of Hawaii and the newly acquired Filipines too.

Across the Atlantic, a new balance of power has emerged among the European states, which have, according to their inclinaitons, forged their own ethnic unions, as these United States fought to preserve a Union of law and spirit. These balanced forces will assure against any action by the nation-states. Perhaps the Europeans can one day consolidate their ethnic divisions with the success we have in this country.

In the Italian penninsula, the northern states and Rome have newly united their southern neighbors the rule of King Hubert, and will surely form a stable nation for years under his hand, likewise containing the Sicilians in their native lands and out of our fair city. The Prussians are united, and have grown a fleet to quell any British temptation to expand into western Europe. In the near east, the Ottoman Turk is comfortable enough having released the Christian segments of his empire, and the Moors look across the east to European peoples and north to the might of the Tsar, weary of battle, each content to mind their own affairs. Even the French have clamped down--

It is likely that the section after the tear referred to the conclusion of the Dreyfus affair, one of many starting points from which LaKwit frequently launched into anti-Semitic rants. No record of publication for this article can be found.

In any case, LaKwit, blinded by his own present, and hampered by certain centennarian beliefs, could not have been more wrong. The states of Europe were by no means stable in 1900, but were already maneuvering toward a violent clash of theretofore unknown scope...

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