The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-04-18
In A. u. 2OnO.

daring prophecies of radica'
changes to come. We recall two OF
these. one was al anticipation OF
wireless biography whereby ews
papers identical in form and contents
were issued simultaneously in all the
large cities. Another was n form of
travel through great tubular tunnels.
with in front and the motive
power supplied by air rushing in from
the rear. The journey from New York
10 San Francisco by this method vas
to be a matter of about six hours.
Now comes another prophet to the
bar, II. G.. Wells. Long celebrated as
the successor of Jules Verne in the
writing of novels which ~foretell if they
do not direct the achievements of sci
ence. Mr.. Wells in his latest book un-
dertakes by logical deduction to mark
out the pathway Of the scientific evolu-
ton of civilization. A summary of his
predictions. adapted from a long re-
view in q recent issue = the New
FORK Times, makes interesting reading.
The nineteenth century having been
the age OF the iron horse, Mr.. Wells
believes that the twentieth will be that
Of the locomobile. He thinks that the
turbine-Wheel system of applied ener-
sy will probably supersede what he
describes as the pumping-nlachine sys-
TEN, the locomotive of today being
merely an evolution of the primitive
engine tina was first used in freeing the
coal mines in Lancashire of water.
There are to be special roads for motor
carriages and motor olnnibuses, where
on they may travel three hundred miles
or more a day. The present railway
system will gradually become extinct.
The faculty of using private vehicles
OF such great speed will restore to trav-
Ell something of the old individualism.
Mr.. Wells foresees a diffusion of the
much augmented population of the
greater cities over vastly increased
areas. The territorial dimensions and
distribution of cities are governed by
the means of transportation and circu-
lation. The immense growth of towns
in the nineteenth century he ascribes to
the development of railways. But the
ltcN tiLiCS, IS tiiiilhS. Will Iiol ne. III
the old sense, cities ut all: they will
present q new and entirely different
phase of human distribution" In This
the ease of improved telephone COM
munication will. be an important fac
tor. for. people will no longer be forced
to be personally in the place where
their business is transacted. In the
age. when pedestrianism was the rule
OF travel for the %populace the city was
limited TO q radius of four miles; later,
when horses were used, to eight miles.
The cheap railway journey has extend
ed that radius to thirty miles. AS one
hundred miles an hour will be an or
binary speed in the future, the writer
predicts that in A. d. 1000, London and
New Observation-Disclosures. the latter two
considered as one. will each have at
least twice that radius in extent. But
the average density of population in
most Of the large cities will not be so
gates of population, he says: so far
as London. st. Petersburg and Berlin
so, it seems fairly safe to assume that
they will go well over twenty millions
(each); and that New York, Philadel-
phia and Chicago will probably, and
Hunkow almost certainly reach forty
millions. Yet forty millions over 81 1000
square miles of territory is, in COM
parison with four millions over fifty
square miles, IA highly diffused p
%lation."
So much for Il partial hin of the gem
eral material conditions that may de-
termine the character of the great
cities Il hundred years hence. The
changed social status will be due as
much to the development or deteriora-
ton of the Irresponsible, independent,
idle income-draWing class as to ma
terial advances. This class, Mr.. Wells
thinkS| will be segregated in Il meas
ure ffom the useful, scientifically prac-
teal members of the community. who
Will receive the greater honor and will
be the real builders of the future So
ciety. There will be no longer the
"helpless superseded poor, thai broad
base of mere tollers now no longer es-
sential." There will be "a great in
choate mass of more or less capable
ly in applying the growing body of Sci
entitic knowledge to the general needs,
Il great mass that will inevitably teud
To organize itself in Il system of inter-
educated classes with Il COM
mon consciousness and aim, but which
may or may not succeed in doing So.
and a possibly equally great number
of non-productive persons living in and
by the social confusion"
The new society will tend to arrange
itself in groups, according to aims and
moral, mental and physical abilities.
There VIII be a new sort of democracy
that of capacity. THE man who will
be boss says Mr.. Wells, twill be the
man who wants 10 be boss, who finds
m being boss 4 complete ana final sat
n not the man who COM
things by wanting to be boss
N order to be. or do, something else"
rhe demagogue is to be gradually elm
mated. 1T is impossible" in Mr.. Wells'
that ever again will any
u%ndignifed man with a vast
voice, n muscular face in incessant OPP
collar crumpled. hair disordered
ng, talking copiously out of the vim
of railway carriages. talking on
platforms, talking from hotel
balconies, talking on tubs, barrels, scat
oldings, pulpits, ~tireless and undam-