The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914) | Page 7

has taken several
impressive strides in recent years, but none more suggestive of future
possibilities of prolonging human life than the recent work done in
preserving man's internal organs and tissues to a life of their own
outside the body.[2] Already it is possible to transfer healthy tissues
thus preserved, or even some of the simpler organs, from one body to
another. Men begin to talk of the probability of rejuvenating the entire
physical form. Thus science may yet bring us to encounter as actual
fact the deep philosophic thought of old, the thought that regards man
as merely a will and a brain, and the body as but the outward clothing
of these, mere drapery, capable of being changed as the spirit wills.
There is no visible limit to this wondrous drama in which man's patient
mastering of his immediate environment is gradually teaching him to
mold to his purpose all the potent forces of the universe.
[Footnote 2: See Our Progressing Knowledge of Life Surgery, page
273.]
In this assurance of ultimate success, let us find such consolation as we
may. Though world-war may continue its devastation, though its
increasing horrors may shake our civilization to the deepest depths,
though its wanton destruction may rob us of the hoarded wealth of
generations and the art treasures of all the past, though its beastlike

massacres may reduce the number of men fitted to bear onward the
torch of progress until of their millions only a mere pitiable handful
survive, yet the steps which science has already won cannot be lost.
Knowledge survives; and a happier generation than ours standing some
day secure against the monster of militarism shall continue to uplift
man's understanding till he dwells habitually on heights as yet
undreamed.

THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF GOVERNORS
A NEW MACHINERY ADDED TO THE FEDERAL FORM OF
GOVERNMENT
A.D. 1910
WILLIAM G. JORDAN
THE GOVERNORS
The formal establishment of the "House of Governors," which took
place in January of 1910, marked the climax of a definite movement
which has swept onward through the entire history of the United States.
When in 1775 the thirteen American colonies made their first effort
toward united action, they were in truth thirteen different nations, each
possessed of differing traditions and a separate history, and each
suspicious and jealous of all the others. Their widely diverging interests
made concerted action almost impossible during the Revolutionary War.
And when necessity ultimately drove them to join in the close bond of
the present United States, their constitution was planned less for union
than for the protection of each suspicious State against the aggressions
of the others.
Gradually the spread of intercourse among the States has worn away
their more marked differential points of character and purpose. Step by
step the course of history has forced our people into closer harmony
and union. To-day the forty-eight States look to one another in true
brotherhood. And as the final bond of that brotherhood they have
established a new organization, the House of Governors. This
constitutes the only definite change made in the United States
machinery of government since the beginning.
The House of Governors sprang first from the suggestion of William
George Jordan, who was afterward appropriately selected as its
permanent secretary. Hence we give here Mr. Jordan's own account of

the movement, as being its clearest possible elucidation. Then we give
a series of brief estimates of the importance of the new step from the
pens of those Governors who themselves took part in the gathering. In
their ringing utterances you hear the voice of North and South, Illinois
and Florida, of East and West, Massachusetts and Oregon, and of the
great central Mississippi Valley, all announcing the fraternizing
influence of the new step.
Governor Willson, of Kentucky, chairman of the committee which
arranged the gathering, in an earnest speech to its members declared
that, "If this conference of Governors had been in existence as an
institution in 1860, there would never have been a war between the
States. The issues of the day would have been settled by argument,
adjustment, and compromise." It would be hard to find stronger words
for measuring the possible importance of the new institution.
WILLIAM G. JORDAN
The conference of the Governors at Washington this month marks the
beginning of a new epoch in the political history of the nation. It is the
first meeting ever held of the State Executives as a body seeking, by
their united influence, to secure uniform laws on vital subjects for the
welfare of the entire country. It should not be confused with the
Roosevelt conferences of May and December, 1908. It is in no sense a
continuation of them. It is essentially different in aim, method, and
basis, and is larger, broader, and more far-reaching