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

ren plain, only sagebrush and cactus grow,
ing out of its parched soil, on the other
side waving fields Of alfalfa, grain, vegeta-
bles and other crops, rich and luxuriant.
The alfalfa produces three crops in year
and is splendid food for sheep and cattle
1t needs no prophetic eye to see this region
all subjected to irrigation and one of the
greatest agricultural countries in the world.
With agriculture and mining manufactur-
ing will follow. The market will constantly
move nearer instead of getting farther away
Vast sections of our country, now in
habited only by coyotes and roaming red
SKINS will become the seat of the empire
of a hundred years hence. | have no fear
that America will grow too big This re-
public is not going to get so large that it
will fall to pieces of its own weight nor
will the people, widely separated by dis
tance, suffer from lack of heterogeneous
hess or common sympathy.
Zone of the most wonderful things at
this day to me in the far west is the like
ness of the people there to the people of the
Atlantic seaboard They are with us in
thought, speech. in feeling, in aspirations,
in patriotism. Indeed they have more
patriotism than we seem to have farther
east. The nearer one gets to the Canadian
border the warmer appears the love of the
United States, the more eager our citizens
to float the stars and stripes Up in Mon
tana near the British line found American
citizens who kept their flags flying day and
night, so anxious were they to advertise
their country and their loyalty to it.
Notwithstanding the vastness of our
area and the immense distances between
our far eastern and our far western posses
sions, every truly national thought appears
to be known in one place as quickly as in
the other. What some one has happily
called thought waves go over this coun-
try with astonishing rapidity. The habits
of the people are substantially the same
the forms of speech, the idioms, even the
slang. We are indeed one.
IF this is true now with our present
methods of communication, how much
truer will 1t be 100 years hence, when to
the mail and the telegraph, the railway
and the stagecoach, are added postal te-
legraphy, electric railways, long distance
and short distance telephoning as cheap
and common as post routes, and heaven
only knows what inventions besides for
facilitating and cheapening communica-
tion and transportation Go into the pat
ent office, which is part of this great bu-
reau, and see what we have done in 100
years. With that before him no man dare
set limit rs to what may be done in the
next 100 years.
"As our country grows in both area and
population the means of communication
will become more and more perfect, and
Lower California and faraway Alaska will
be rs near to Massachusetts, New York and
Ohio in thought and sympathy as people Of
adjoining states or communities are to
/ 9th nj fpr of, ioly
cheap and easy communication, preserving
heterogeneousness among the people and
maintaining sympathy and understanding
between them, the future of this great re
public would not be as bright as it is.
"A hundred years hence these United
States will be an empire such as the world
never before saw, and such as will exist no
where else upon the globe. In my opinion,
the richest part of it, and a section fully as
populous as the east, will be In the region
beyond the Mississippi"
| Vice President Webb on Railway Develop
ment.
1t is not easy to make any positive pre-
dictions about the increase in railway speed,
or at least to put limit upon the possibil-
| ity Of swift travel in the next century, yet
\
gestions based upon judgments that come
from the experience of today
A few years ago an express speed of thir
ty-five miles an hour was regarded as fast
travel Today there are number of trains
which make regular runs of between forty
and fifty miles an hour, and there is one
train running from New York to Buffalo
on the New York Central, distance of 444
miles, at an average speed of about fifty
three miles an hour. This same train has
made the run once ut an average of less
than mile minute, and it frequently at
tains speed of as much as seventy or sew
enty-five miles an hour
This experience, which is comparatively
recent, has convinced me that we are still
much under the limit of what may be ex-
pected by travellers In the Twentieth cen
tury. expect to see even before the Twen-
tieth century trains running regularly at
an average Of sixty miles an hour, and
have no doubt at all that early In the next
century there will be a number Of trains on
some of the greater roads whose schedule
time will call for as much as 100 miles an
hour. have no doubt that a traveller early
In the next century will be able to get his
breakfast in New York and his evening din
ner in Chicago.
We have already learned how to con-
struct locomotives which are capable of
making ninety miles and more an hour and
we have learned how best to utilize their
enormous powers. Given the perfect loco
motive-and we have very nearly secured
the perfect machine of this sort-we need
only two or three other conditions. There
must be a perfectly constructed track and
roadbed. 1t must have inappreciable grades
and very slight curves. 1t must be so made
as to be elastic and yet withstand easily the
strain caused by high speed. Then we must
have perfect signal system That am
sure will be developed
The block system of today is sufficiently
thorough to make the high rates of speed
attained by trains on my own road, for in
stance, possible. There should be no grade
crossings-these eat up time dreadfully
sometimes-and passenger cars must be
light, but very strong, and the number OF
them limited to a high speed train. We
need the best coal and of course highly
trained employees. With these conditions
and they are sure to be obtained early IL
the next century, feel safe in saying thai
regularly scheduled daily trains running
100 miles an hour will be advertised b1