Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-12-16
FIFTY YEARS HENCE.
4 Glimpse at the Future OF
ocean Navigation.
The shifting of Populations.

The London Spectator, in some specu-
lations on the changes that may possibly
occur in tn next half century in cOnse-
| qgeDce Of new discoveries, regards emil
! grafton as one of tine things which is
| quite as likely to be affected ss any
other. Should g new impetus be given
/ to this, the consequence to Europe would
be very serious. The writer says:
| Suppose, il true, as so many men Of
mark in science believe, that the next
| great step may be in sea going vessels,
/ that International communication may
| be accelerated, as internal eOmmunica-
tion has been, that we may yet see New
! York brought within two days journey
OF Liverpool, the probability is that in
ten years every social condition now ex
istiug IN Europe would have ceased to
exist; that the millioas who toll for
others and on whose toll modern society
is built, would choose to toll for them
selves-wenld preciPitate themselves in
rush, to which ali the movements of
mankind have been trifies, upon the
/ New World. Suppose the population of
Britain and Germany reduced TO 0,000,-
090-a change less in magnitude than
that which has occurred in many cOun-
tries-aDd thsse l0. 600 600 only retained
by advantages IS great as the New
World can offer, what would all the
changes Of the past half century be to
that?
This may happen, even without any
application OF Stephenson's great idea
the one idea he never worked out-that
If engineers, instead OftryiDg to increase
the power applicable to driving ships,
were to reduce the friction which retards
ships, the world would speedily be one
great parish. This writer, who has seen
many countries and lived among many
races, seriously believes that, of all the
dangers to which Europe and European
society are exposed, nOue is so fOrmida-
bic as the passion for emigration; seri-
ously doubts whether, if education
spreads IN Europe, it will be possible to
retain its population cooped up in their
narrow and halfexhausted corner of the
world. We think, we English, that we
know what emigration Is but we know
nothing about IL; have no idea Of the
changes il would involve il aided by the
whole force Of the masses then IN possess
sion of the supreme political power.
Suppose five.sixths of those Englishmen
who now work for others choose to 90
elsewhere aud work for themselves.
The change between Waterloo and
Sadows would be very slight compared
with the change between 1858 and 1918,
and there Is not q sensible man in Eng.
land who will declare that alteration be-
yond the reseh of thought. Why should
not emigration in England and Germany
attain the height it has reached in Ire
land, and the masses insist Oh aiding it
through the national fleets? The Irish
would, il they had the power, and the
British have this year the power con-
ferred on them. We say nothing OF
discovery which, If it is ever made, will
remould Rll human society, slowly pull
verze all differences among natiocs,
fusing the world into one people, snd
Immediately destroy all existing political
Arrangements-the discovery OF means
Of maintaining and guiding raft ten feet
or so in the air, for we cannot resist 8
totally unreasonable impression that the
discovery will not be made, that pre-
gress will not in our time make that as
founding leap. Apart altogether from
that, there are physical forces now at
work strong enough to change the whole
face of the world, by shifting its populs-
ton,