Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-09
EARTH GROWS SMALL
TIME AND SPACE ANNIHILATED
BY MODERN METHODS.
The Planet Has Been Shriveled by De-
velopment Of Steam, Electric
ity and Steel.


day Is as great as in the days OF the Pha-
raohs. A hundred years ago it still re-
tained that formidable girth. Today, meas
ured by the hour glass, the planet has
shriveled into mere miniature of its for
mer self. Under the compressure of cleo
tricity, steam and steel bridges a spectacle
is presented of practical time and space an
initiation.
Seas have been dried up continents pushed
together and islands welded that this
might be. Nations once isolated are now In
earshot Of one another, and the markets
Of all peoples line single street. American
wheat fields are days, not months. away
from British bake shops. French wines are
hours, not weeks, removed from American
dinner tables. New York is on the out
skirts Of London, and Paris is not a block
away. Deep sea cables and land wires hem
the buyers and sellers of the world into
vortex Of competition whose diameter Is
minute, and within whose circumference
are gathered all the products AID all the
purses of mankind.
Into this vortex American energy has
plunged, and the splash has been called
American INVASION Compared with fu-
ture possibilities in the game of interna-
tional barter the recent activities of Amer
lean men of affairs abroad are merely pre-
liminary and almost experimental. Inat
American ingenuity and vigor have con-
tributed much to the dwarfing Of the planet
is an earnest that Americans will take a
keen advantage of every opportunity to
produce a still smaller periphery to the
globe. Meantime the shortened circumfer-
ence has brought complications which have
a bearing Of great importance on the COM
mercial prospects of the United States.
Revolution in a Century.
A century has been a revolution in time
humiliation. And America, young as it is,
has caused many sparks to fly in this
greater activity. In 1890 the world was
sluggish. Thousands travelled In saddle bags
and men crawled at a snal's pace over land
and sea. In America there was no sucl.
thing as expedition. Kentuckians knew
nothing Of the election Of James Madison to
the presidency of the United States until
three months after the last ballot had been
counted. There would have been no Chesa-
peake and Ohio canal but for the argument
that by means of it the DEGREES OF Congress
were to be speedily transmitted to the cities
beyond the Blue Ridge and the AlieghanleS.
The pony express was the acme of rapid
ity in the days of George Washington, who
required more time to ferry message from
New York. to Brooklyn than an American
does today to flash a message around the
globe. Imagine the amazement of Benjamin
Franklin If he could have stood the other
day, as many modern scientists did, and
seen enc of the most remarkable exploits
of time humiliation on record. 1t was
test Of thought Transmission halfway
around the globe A thirty word dispatch
sung over the wires to San Francisco, then
to Vancouver. from there to Nova Scotia,
whispered under the waters Of the Atlantic
to London and back to New York. Livery
wire had been cleared for the test, and be-
fore the operator had reached the last
word of this test message another operator
in the same room was taking the first word
Of the same dispatch, hot from the cable,
direct from London.
The whole world has caught the electrical
L ~ doh, t.
meshed in thought freghted wires. The
brine swept cables tied together. end TO
end, girdle the globe eight times. The wires
that swing and sway in the wind over every
land, all told, would make eight steel path
ways to the moon.
The Telephone.
The telephone has withered the space that
separated cities and towns, counties and
states Trillions Of steps have been saved
by this voice conductor, for two billions q
telephone messages are exchanged every
year. Over plains. above buffalo wallows
of fifty years ago. farmers telephone along
tarbed wire circuits. In Kansas City. every
day in the year, a business firm talks for
five minutes with its branch in Boston,
Chicago stock traders do business on the
New York stock exchange and complete an
entire transaction in thirty seconds. Lon
don brokers, eager to deal quickly on the
Paris bourse, finding the channel cables
congested with business, cable to Paris via
New York, and win many pound sterHns
by this long distance put apsoiuleiy pioihp'
action.
Measured in thought TRANSMISSION TINS olu
nIanet is no bigger than a dot. Steam and
electrical pneumatic and hydraulic lnven-
tfons have SO annihilateo space .inas 'n AZ
is but a small earth to Chamber over. Ac-
cording to Dr. Emery r. Johnson, pro1es-
sor of transportation in the University or
PENNSYLVANIA, 1t takes steps only one-fftn
ado q c
it did in 1900. In the sunrise Of the cen
fury it took all but sixty-five days IN the
year to get once around the world. Ihat
was when men Travelled in saiboats. post
chaise, on horseback and on foot. Ocean
steamers came in 1888, and they cut the an
cient time table in two, for then 1t TOOK
only one hundred and sixty days to EN-
brace the girdle Of mother earth. In 1869
the Suez canal shrunk the world still small
er, and an enterprising man was able to
get around the world in one hundred days.
Since then Jules Verne has been outdone,
for by the development Of the speed OF
steam vessels and railroad trains one can
box the compass and get home in sixty
days And the end is not yet. With the
completion Of the new Pacific cable Homo
lulu. in thought transmission, will be no
further away from San Francisco than
Oakland is, across the Golden Gate. Ma
Mia, then, in the transaction Of all busi-
ness, will be as near to Wall street, the
purse Of America, as are the commercial
the planet is still shrinking beneath the
onslaught of modern methods.
The American Merchant.
All these things mean new conditions for
the American merchant of today and the
American merchant of the future. Every
facility at his hand is at the hand of his
competitor. The successful American will
have to be quick on the trigger. He must
stand with his ear to the telephone, his fin
ger on the telegraph key. He must be
temporaneous in all business, and never
meditative. The American merchant, If he
will succeed, must speak quickly, and,
above ALL speak first. The time for DELHI
Grafton and waiting for foreign markets
to come to him has gone. The shriveling
Of the earth has forced his competitors
onto his street, and 1t behooves him to be
original II he would win.
Two things he must have: First, abso-
lutely accurate and timely information as
to the Industrial pulse beats and CONNER
cial temperature Of the world: second, he
must have system of distribution by
which he may take advantage of this nfor-
nation, and deliver to their destination,
with the least delay, the products most
suitable for the needs Of that particular
community.