The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-30
EARTH GROWING
MUCH SMALLER
Time and Space Annihilated
by Modern Inventions
and Discoveries.


and steel bridges a spectacle is pre-
scented of practical time and space
annihiiation.
Seas have been dried up, continents
pushed together and islands welded
that this might be. Nations once iso-
lated are now in earshot of one an
other, 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 Amer
lean dinner tables. New York is on
the outskirts of London, and Paris is
not a block away. Deep sea cables
and land wires hem the buyers and
sellers of the world into a vortex of
competition, whose diameter is a min
ute, and within whose circumference
are gathered all the products and all
the purses of mankind.
Into this vortex American energy
has plunged, and the splash has been
called American invasion" Compar-
ed with future possibilities in the
game of international barter the re-
cent activities of American men of
affairs abroad are merely preliminary
and almost experimental. That Amer
lean ingenuity and vigor have contrib
uted much to the dwarfng of the
planet is an earnest that Americans
Will take keen advantage of every
opportunity to produce still smaller
periphery to the globe. Meantime the
shortened circumference has brought
complications which have q bearing of
great Importance on the commercial
prospects of the United States.
Revolution in Century.
A century has been revolution in
time humiliation. And America young
as it is, has caused many sparks to
fly In this greater activity. In 1900 the
world was sluggish. Thousands trav-
eled In saddle bags, and men crawled
at SnaipS pace over land and sea. In
America there was no such thing as
expedition. KentuckianS knew nothing
of the election OF James Madison to
the presidency of the United States I'M
til three months after the last ballot
had been counted. There would have
been no Chesapeake & Ohio canal but
for the argument that by means of 1t
the DEGREES Of congress were to be
speedily transmitted to the cities be-
yond the Blue Ridge and the Allie
ghanies.
The pony express was the acme of
rapidity in the days of George Wash
ington, who required more time to fer
ry a message from New York to Brook
lyn than an American does today to
flash message around the globe. I'm
agine the amazement of Benjamin
Franklin If he could have stood, the
other day, as many modern scientists
did, and seen one of the most remark
able exploits of time humiliation on
record. 1t was test of thought trans
mission halfway around the globe. A
thfrty-Word dispatch sung over the
wires to San Francisco, then to Van-
couver, from there to Nova Scotia, |
whispered under the waters Of the At
lantic Ito London and back to New
York. Every wire had been cleared for
the test, and before the operator had
reached the last word Of this test mes
sage, another operator in the same
room was taking the first word of the
same dispatch, hot from the cable, di-
rect from London.
The whole world has caught the
electrical contagion of America, and
the globe is enmeshed in thought
freighted wires The brine-swept ca
bles tied together end to end, girdle
the globe eight time. The wires that
swing and sway in the wind over every
land, all told, would make eight steel
pathways 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
NSAOE'AAOAAS A1AS06cSSfo
changed every year. Over plains, above
buffalo wallows of fifty years ago. farm
ers telephone along barbed wire circuits.
In Kansas City, every day in the year,
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. London
brokers, eager to deal quickly on the Paris
bourse, finding the channel cables con-
gested with business, cable to Paris via
New York, and win many pound ster-
ling by this long distance but absolutely
prompt action.
Measured in thought transmission this
old planet is no bigger than a dot. Steam
and electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic
inventions have so annihilated space that
there is but a small earth to Chamber over.
According to DR.. Emery R. Johnson, pro-
lessor OF transportation in the University
of Pennsylvania, 1t takes steps only one
fifth as long to get around the world to- !
day as 1T did in 1900. In the sunrise
OF the century it took all but sixty-five
days in the year to get once around the
world. That was when men travelled in
sai1boats, post chaise, on horseback and
on foot. Ocean steamers came in 1888.
and they cut the ancient time table in
two, for then it took only $50 days to en-
brace the girdle of mother earth In 1859
the Suez canal shrunk the world still
able to get around the world in 100 days
Since then Jules Verne has been out
done, 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 vet.
With the completion or the new Pa
cific cable Honolulu, in thought trans
mission, Will be no further away from San
Francisco than Oakland is, across the
Golden Gate. Manila. then, in the trans
action of all business, will be as near to
Wall street the purse of America, as
are the commercial ports of Europe and
South America. Thus the planet is stili
shrinking beneath the onslaught of mod
ern 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 Amer
lean will have to be quick on the trigger
He must stand with his ear to the tele-
phone, his finger on the telegraph KEY
He must be eXtemporaneouS in all bust
ness, and never meditative. The Amer
lean merchant, if he will succeed must
speak quickly. and, above all. speak first
The time for deliberation and waiting for
foreign markets to come to him has gone
The shriveling of the earth has forced
his competitors onto his street and it
behooves him to be original If he would
win
Two things he must have: First. abso-
lutely accurate and timely information
as to the industrial pulse beats and com
mercial temperature of the world: sec
ond, he must have system of distribution
by which he may take advantage Of this
information, and deliver to their destina-
ton, with the least delay, the products
ular community.-Robert B. Armstrong in
the National MarQ zine