The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1890-12-17
GROWING BETTER.
A CENTURY OF lNvEN.
= TIONS.
The Marvellous Strides
Made Within the Past
Hundred Years.

In no other century of the world
has the inventive genius of man
been so alert or its efforts been
so signally rewarded as in this
In 1901 steam was successfully
applied i'll navigation in Scot.
land, in 1907 Robert Fulton made
his trial trip up the Hudson in
the Clermont, and, eleven years
after, the Savannah reached
England from America after a
voyage of twenty-six days.
From that day to this the time
between England and America
has been steadily decreasing,
until now it is less than a week.
Proportional advance has also
been made in other directions.
What the Savannah of 1916
would be to an ocean grey
hound" of to-day, the scythe
and pruning hook of 1918 would
be to the reaper and mower
with which the farmer in 1890
rode around his fields and har-
vested his crops with ease. The
streets of Birmingham, England
were first lighted with gas in
1902, and those of London in
1914. The first cable railway
was patented in 1908, and cleo
trio and elevated steam railway
have since been added in large
cities to secure rapid transit.
Lithographic and steel engrav-
ing, printing by electricity,
stereotying and machines for
making paper, and other inven-
tions have made the press one
of the greatest-if not the great
est-agents of civilization.
In 1926 the first railroad in
the United States was built, and
to-day Europe and America are
traversed in every direction with
railroads lines. In 1885 Profess
sor Morse transmitted messages
by telegraph, and now Europe
and America are door neigh.
bors and exchange gossip and
news every day. Telephones,
monographs sewing. knitting
and weaving machine and thous.
ands of other devices for short.
ening distance, making work
easier, and life more comfor.
table, are to-day in operation,
and still invention goes on. In.
stead of the Oriental habit of
accepting things as they are,
and living as his father did,
every American and every Euro
pean seems to ask whether he
cannot improve upon old meth
ods and old appliances. This
restless spirit of improvement
has not stopped with mere ma.
terial success, whose chief value
seems to lie in making the con.
ditions of physical life better.
The material advance and the
conquests of science and inven.
ton have reacted upon the
moral, intellectual and spiritual
environment, and despite the
assertion of pressimists, the
world is growing better. Serf.
dom in Russia, slavery in the
United States and in the British
possessions have been abolished
Conservatism has been es.
tablished on the continent OF
Europe. and the last monarchy
of the New World has given
place to q government Of the
people, for people and by the
Ipeople. Ia matters moral anL
religious the advance has beer
scarcely less marked. BigotrN
and fanaticism have given way
to broader conceptions of hui
man duties and relations. Pow
erty and crime have not beer
abolished. but a clearer concep
ton of their causes has led {,
more intelligent means of re
lieving the one and preventin,
the other. In the labor worlt
the advance has been 50 grea
as almost to constitute q revolu
ton. In all the thousands o
wears of recorded history labo
scarcely made the advance
has achived in the present cen
tury. Not only in hours work
but also in remuneration. socia
position and political power tn
; iaborer of to-day is on a plan
immeasurably above that ot
. cupied by the masses in til
: past. For this great result An
= erica and Australia are entitle
, to the greatest credit. Respol
i, sibility and power educate. an
: with this enlightenment of I'll
4 masses the reign of the heret,
I fore privileged classes III
n ceasd.
n Ignorance can be misled to i
: detriment under the influcn,
Q of catch-words and false issue
!, but the voters Of America. I'm
Y land, France and Australia ha'
4 now passed that stage. E
= lightenment means freedoT
r and by means of the p:ess. fir,
}. schools, the telegraph and rap