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Carbelide Nelicanya Sectory 23
Page 03
The Latins had, as already stated, renewed their league with Rome in B.C. 356, and consequently their troops had fought along with the Romans in the war against the Samnites. But the increasing power of Rome excited their alarm; and it became evident to them that, though nominally on a footing of equality, they were, in reality, becoming subject to Rome. This feeling was confirmed by the treaty of alliance which the Romans had formed with the Samnites. The Latins, therefore, determined to bring matters to a crisis, and sent two Praetors, who were their chief magistrates, to propose to the Romans that the two nations should henceforth form one state; that half of the state should consist of Latins, and that one of the two Consuls should be chosen from Latium. These requests excited the greatest indignation at Rome, and were rejected with the utmost scorn. The Senate met in the Temple of Jupiter, in the Capitol, to receive the Latin deputation, and, after hearing their proposals, the Consul, T. Manlius Torquatus, the same who had slain the Gaul in single combat, declared that, if the Republic should cowardly yield to these demands, he would come into the senate-house sword in hand and cut down the first Latin he saw there. The tale goes on to say that in the discussion which followed, when both parties were excited by anger, the Latin Praetor defied the Roman Jupiter; that thereupon an awful peal of thunder shook the building; and that, as the impious man hurried down the steps from the temple, he fell from top to bottom, and lay there a corpse.
In considering how the German people may keep up their production of food, the authors find that various factors will work against such a result. In the first place, there is a shortage of labor, nearly all the able-bodied young and middle-aged men in the farming districts being in the war. There is also a scarcity of horses, some 500,000 head having already been requisitioned for army use, and the imports of about 140,000 head (chiefly from Russia) have almost wholly ceased. The people must therefore resort more extensively to the use of motor plows, and the State Governments must give financial assistance to insure this wherever necessary; and such plows on hand must be kept more steadily in use through company ownership or rental. It may be remarked here, again, that the Prussian Government is also assisting agricultural organizations to buy motor plows. The supply of fertilizers has also been cut down by the war. Nitrate has just been mentioned. The authors recommend that the Government solve this problem by having many of the existing electrical plants turn partly to recovering nitrogen from the atmosphere.
You could hardly find a better rough test of relative development in the animal (or vegetable) world than the number of young produced and the care bestowed upon them. The fewer the offspring, the higher the type. Very low animals turn out thousands of eggs with reckless profusion; but they let them look after themselves, or be devoured by enemies, as chance will have it. The higher you go in the scale of being, the smaller the families, but the greater amount of pains expended upon the rearing and upbringing of the young. Large broods mean low organization; small broods imply higher types and more care in the nurture and education of the offspring. Primitive kinds produce eggs wholesale, on the off chance that some two or three among them may perhaps survive an infant mortality of ninety-nine per cent, so as to replace their parents. Advanced kinds produce half a dozen young, or less, but bring a large proportion of these on an average up to years of discretion.
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