Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-02-20

| to St LOUIS. AS understand 1t, they are
going ahead in II businesslike way, making
contracts for construction, having passed
through the heexperimental stage and reached
the plane Of reality and commercial GER
tainty. Their expectation is to make the
| journey from Chicago to St. Louis in two
hours and half, or at the rate of a hun
dred miles an hour
ut occurred to me then that these men
must know what they are about, and that
| If hundred miles an hour can be realized
with safety and economy in this century it
is not too much to say that so per cent
| greater speed, or possibly 100 per cent, will
be reached hundred years hence. Still, to
be conservative and within the limits of the
| probable, will estimate that in the year
1892 it will be common thing to travel
from New York to Chicago in seven or
eight hours.
II remember also reading a short time
ago in one of Walter Wellman's letters
that Thomas A. Edison, the greatest genius
of this century, says electricity is terrestrial
magnetism, and that the universe is full of
it. According to Edison, the present sys-
TEN of producing electricity by friction is
very expensive compared with what may
be done by simpler processes. Edison be-
lieves electricity may be pumped out of the
earth, or the sea, or the air, just as water is
pumped out of stream, the only thing
necessary being to find the form of pump
that will do the trick.
This, understand, Edison is now look
ing for and experimenting on, and if we
may estimate his future accomplishment
by what he has already done he will sue
ceed in finding the pump that will extract
electricity or terrestrial magnetism, or
whatever it is, from the earth at a cost so
low as to make electricity the universal
power. Imagine the revolution that will
come in all civilization if Edison or some
one else succeeds in doing this. Given
electricity at one-tenth the present cost,
and electrical power will become universal.
Steam and all other sorts of power will be
displaced, and with invention stimulated,
as it will be, by the extraordinary cheap
ness of the new power, what may we not
expect in the way of rapid transit, house
hold conveniences, electrical carriages to
take the place of horses, elevators in bust
ness and private houses, and all sorts of
machinery?
IF this theory of Edison proves to be cor
rect, and the electrical experts are not mis-
taken in their plans for rapid travel, the
next hundred years will develop changes
more stupendous than have been shown by
the last hundred, in which pretty nearly
every useful thing there is in the world has
been invented. / cannot rid myself of the
belief that we are on the eve of an indus
trial revolution as a result of electrical re-
search and experiment, and ! take much
comfort from the reflection that the people
of the United States are likely to be the
first to feel the good effect of the new dis
! pensation-are, in fact, rs is their wont, to
lead the nations on to a more perfect and
/ perhaps as yet undreamed of civilization"
Elijah W. Halford on the White House Of
the Future.
[From Our Washington Correspondent
SIN the executive mansion of hundred
years hence" said President Harrisons
private secretary, Elijah w. Halford, II
think can see the present building as the
central part. There is no doubt that this
building will soon have to be enlarged.
! There is not room enough in it for the fam
lily and the Office of the president and for
the social entertainments or public levees
which tradition requires the president to
give. But do not think the people will
ever consent to the destruction of this
| house. Too many memories cling about it.;
too many of the great men and great events
/ VA VIC SOdiipiJ n hiotoiy nave Deell dSSOCl-
ated with it,
"Since have been here have often won.
dered at the skill with which our forefa-
thers built this mansion. A hundred years
have passed since it's foundations were
started the cornerstone of the White
House was laid n century ago the l4th day
of October-and it is u good, serviceable
and comfortable house still. It's only def
cheney is in the matter of room. 1t is state
ly, elegant, impressive, In its enlargement
] think some such plan as that suggested
by the late Mrs. Harrison will be followed
preservation of the present structure and
throwing out of wings on either side That
would give room for the living apartments
of the presidents family, for the public
offices and for the ceremonial or social func-
tions which must take place In the presi-
dents house.
THE White House Of the future will,
therefore, In my opinion, be simply the
White House of the present enlarged. do
not believe 1t will ever be found desirable
| to separate the presidents residence from
his Office. My four years experience here
mas convinced me, moreover, that in the
future the private secretary to the presi-
dent and his family should also be provided
with living apartments In the executive
mansion. The president of the United
States finds it necessary to work nearly all
the time, and when he works he wants his
private secretary close at hand. This means
the night as well rs the day.
Probably more than half the evenings
| of the last four years have spent in my
Office, busy either with my own work or
standing ready to assist the president. To
do this have had to leave my own home
night after night, often at much inconven-
ience. The private secretary should have
his home in part of the executive man
sion set apart for his use, and this necessity
should be recognized in the enlargement of
the house and should be made part of the
law under which the mansion Is re-created.
"A hundred years hence / think the presi-
dent Of the United States will have much
less work upon his hands than he has now,
though the country will be twice as great
and the government tcorrespondingly larger,
for long before that time presidents will
cease to give personal consideration to a
myriad of matters which now consume
Their time and their energies The presi-
dent OF the future will not, in my opinion,