Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-01-12
THE ERA OF BIG THINGS.
In These Progressive Times Size fs
an Important Factor Ia Ackiev-
ing Success.

The multitudinous. changes of far
reaching Importance which are now oc-
curing in the industrial and CONNER
cial worlds demonstrate that we are en-
tering on an era of big things"
Whether we look al the merchant, the
manufacturer or the discoVerer of new
processes and new inventions. we per
ceive that success comes to the man
of large ideas. Indeed, some of the most
remarkable achievements of recent
times have been due entirely to enlarged
methods of transacting business.
In the last week of October for eX-
ample, there were recorded the largest
orders for steel rails, locomotives and
cars ever known in n similar period
One million and half tons of steel rails.
Sc, 900 cars ard 500 locomotives were ac-
tually ordered within six days. In the
same week there was published a de-
scription of the most powerful lOcomo-
tive ever constructed, built by the
Brooks locomotive works for the Hi
nois Central Railroad company. The
total weight of this engine, without the
tender, is 232, 200 pounds, and the
weight of the engine and tender, load
ed, is 364,000 pounds. The locomotive
is designed to haul trains carrying :, OO0
tons.
A few weeks ago the largest steam
ship in the world arrived in New York
after successful maiden voyage, and
it is now stated that the Great Northern
railway has already contracted in Eng
land for two steel steamships which
will be 16 feet longer than the new
Oceanic of the White Star line. 1t is
furthermore reported that these two
are but the forerunners of a large fleet
of equally gigantic steel steamships for
the trans-Pacifc trade between Seattle
and Japan.
When the Baldwin locomotive works
installed two giant electric travelling
cranes, having lifting capacity of 100
tons each, in their erecting shops a few
years ago these labor-saving appliances
were the cause of much wondering
| comment among engineers and others,
but more recently the Carnegie Steel
company caused to be built (for its
Homestead plant) an electric travelling
| crane having a lifting capacity of $50
tons, and it is said that no more diff-
Guilty is experienced in the operation of
this monstrous mechanism than in the
case of the smaller cranes. The Rail
way World November ~ mentions
casually in its notes of the work the fol-
lowing:
''That was a remarkable demonstra-
| ton of what a mogu1 can do which oc-
CURED On the New York Central the
other day, when engine No. 94S, one of
| the new moguls, hauled out train No.
| IL, the Southwestern. limited. made up
| of two mail cars, five passenger coaches
and nine Wagner cars, 16 in all. The
| total weight of the train was 1893, GOO
| pounds, OF GIG tons, and the length of
| the train, including the engine, was
| 1912 feet, or nearly quarter of a mile.
| This engine, it is said, made the run
ming time of the train between New
York and Albany, 143 miles, i'll three
| hours and Is minutes"
Whether we consider the actual ac-
| complishments of the present day or
| those under contemplation for the near
| future, we cannot fail to be impressed
| by the fact that 'bigness" is the key
note of every important undertaking.
| Indeed, many of the great trade combi-
| nations which have-been formed within
| the last year or so are merely necessary
| preliminaries toward the reorganiza-
ton of manufacturing industries in &C
| cordance with the enlarged methods of
| conducting business which are demand
| ed in these times of industrial expan-
| sion. There is a wide difference be-
| tween the utilization of modern meth
DDS for economizing the mighty forces
brought into play, whether of nature
or of human effort, for the purpose of
| charging production and the forma-
| ton of illegal combinations of power
! full interests for the purpose of enhanc-
| ing prices. The one is the natural evo-
| luton of the science of industrial eco
Monies; the other is simply species
of wholesale robbery, for the punish
ment of which both federal and state
| laws have been enacted.
The special genius for organization
is coming to be regarded as an Ameri-
can. trait, to which much of the success
| of modern industry is indebted. In
| stances could be named where the sin
| gle touch of this genius of organization
has converted improbable, because dis
| jointed or disunited, efforts into highly
| successful achievements, without re-
| sort to the nefarious methods of the
promoters Of so-called trusts. Large
| ideals may not always be capable of
| full and complete realization, but the
practical man soon learns to segregate
or separate the attainable from the
unattainable, and it is this power to
seize that which is valuable and appro-
guishes the man of affairs from the