Amador ledger., 1905-11-24
What One Century Has Done.

In loOo the world had not single
steamship ON the ocean, single mile
of railway on land, single span OF
telegraph upon the continents or u
single foot of cable beneath the ocean.
In this blessed year of 1905, 1t has
IL, 900 steam vessels, 500,0 900 miles of
railway and more than 1000, 600 miles
OF land telegraph, while the very
continents are bound together in
instantaneous communication by more
than 200, 900 miles of ocean cables and
the number of telephone messages
sent aggregates 5000. 900, 600 annually,
one-halt of them being in the United
States. That great region called the
"corn belt," was as yet unsettled
and practically unknown in 1905. A
little OF Ohio, less of Indiana and
nothing of Illinois was then known
to the population which as yet was
gclinging to the Atlantic coast afraid
OF the terrors supposed to lurk in
the western wilderness. But few
white men had crossed the Mississippi,
and all that vast region stretching
to the western ocean was a terra
lncognita. At present it is filed
with great and populous states, enjoy
ing wealth, luxurles and conveniences
of all kinds which we're beyond the
reach of kings one hundred years ago.
Every prosperous farmer of the west
sleeps in bed which King George
could not have afforded in 1905, and
when he comes east to visit his
relatives he rides in palace car
compared to which the best convey
ances of royalty seem crude and bar
barous. The richest men of England
and France IN those days we're poor
in all the copveniences of life COM
pared to hundreds of thousands of
tar ners scattered over the thousands
of miles of territory which hundred
years ago was howling wilderness.
Pessimists, while admitting the
marvellous development along material
lines, insist that there has been no
moral imp ovement, that people are
more wicked, less honest, far more
corrupt and grasping than in the
olden days. This is great mistake.
There has been as wondrous an ad-
vance in genuine intellectual civiliz
alton as in material things. Man has
shed many of his worst superstitions.
He no longer kills hundreds and
thousands of innocent women and
girls for committing the impossible
crime of witchcratf. Torture, as a
punishment for crime or as means
of wringing confessions, is prohibited
by the laws OF every civilized govern
ment. ''No cruel or unusual punish
ment shall be Inflicted says the
constitution of the United States.
Freedom of the press, freedom of
speech, religious liberty, things
wholly unknown one hundred years
ago across the water, are now the
possession of nearly all
European peoples. There is not a
king on the American continent,
from the st. Lawrence to the utter
most reach of Terra Del Fuego, while
in 1905 every foot of land south of
the Gulf of Mexico was governed by
European despots. Individual men,
OF course, remain much the same in
passions and appetites and these lead
to greed, to dishonesty IN all its
forms, to licentiousness and to the
graver crimes. Civilization itself
breeds its own peculiar vices and
diseases and our very progress and
prosperity engender vicious element
Just as the richest soils are most
prolific in weed and noxious insects.
On the whole, however, there has
been great progress all along the line
and the millions of happy farmers,
now resting after the most perfect
and fruitful of all agricultural sea-
sons, may look back with complac-
ency upon what has been done in this
country in the space covered by a
single lifetime. Farmer.
Has Stood the Test 25 Years.