Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-03-25

Young comes from Scotland TO Boston
transferring the center Of activity in oil
investigation 20 the country which IL to be
for decades the worlds sole source Of Oil
The first petroleum is refined IN Pittsburg.
where Kier is able 70 avail himself Of It.
/ His lamp again, is displayed In tho heart
Of The OIL field 20 that the demand II Gre
stes is certain to be heard and met.
Wherever demand is not wide enough.
but intense enough. supply is inevitable.
Statues have been erected to =. l. Drake.
who in 1889 drilled the first productive oil
well Drake was an accident. He was
promoter who had been drilling wells for
brine and turned to drill them for oil when
the demand changed. Greater credit be-
longs to the man who initiated not the
supply but the demand
A Critical Moment.
In few years thousands OF wells had
been bored. and the use Of petroleum was
spreading i'm wider and wider circles over
the continent. Then came the critical mo-
ment I'm the history of the bright light.
In the oil field oil was the popular illumi-
nant within every ones reach, but as II
went further from Pittsburg the increased
I cost of transportation made it a luxury
! for the privileged few. Yet its value to
/ the world depended on its universally Of
use. its cheapness.
Enter the third figure of our history,
John d. Rockefeller Of Cleveland. Rookie
Teller and his great organization made use
OF the great characteristic OF petroleum, is
tendency to go through. Its use in the
lamp depends on its ability TO go through
a wick. Polish a glass or metal lamp, hll
II, and in half an hour 1t will be coated
| with a thin film of oil, which has come
through the wick and crept over Popular
| superstition declares that it has come
| through the glass Put your oil in a
barrel II will come through; put it in a
pipe. it will come through. That is what
Rockefeller did He no more built the first
pipe line than Kier built the first chimney.
But he utilized the idea Of making the ma
tural propensity of the oil the basis of a
new system Of transportation, vaster and
more daring than has ever been devised
for another commodity. He stretched a
wick from the Aleghenies to the sea; he
looked through piece of pipe in Pittsburg
and saw New York. Kier built the demand
Rockefeller helped build and finally con
trolled the supply. once on the seaboard
transportation by water was cheap. 1t be-
came possible to sell oil cheaply all over
the world; the bright light was within
| reach Of every one.
1t was not Fulton, Stephenson, Morse
| Lister, Virchow, It was not Mann, Bright,
Theirs, Kossuth, Garibaldi, that revolution
ICED the welfare of the race. It was neither
more nor less than this, bright light
within the reach Of every one. A light
young; bright light-Kier and Ferris
within the reach of every one-the pipe line
transporters. For with the advent of a
bright light. for the first time in history
people began to read at night.
Reading Msde UnIversaI!
Up to 1850, virtually up to 1875, society
was divided into two great classes, clergy
and lalty, read and unread. The clergy read
by day; it was part of their work. The
layman had other work by day; at night,
with body and brain tired by the day $
work and eyes tired by weak, pickering
light, he could read nothing which required
concentration; practically, he did not read
at all. Reading at night was a feat Of
phenomenal effort, handed down as the
achievement of a few men like Franklin
and Lincoln, and doubtless responsible for
much of their success. The bright light
made reading a universal habit.
Following the abolition of the great class
distinction came Industrial and commercial
revolution. Before the bright light, all
trades had been learned by apprenticeship.
Theory and practice had been kept sepa-
rate; the artisan a mere human machine,
had the practice, the professional expert
had the theory and often nothing else.
There were no technical magazines and
almost no technical text books except for
the expert Now there are text books by
thousands and periodicals by hundreds for
the workers Of every trade Even the hat
ter and the barber have their trade jour
mails. In a quarter-century learning by
book had become a world movement The
artisan studies practice by day and theory
by night, learns his trade, often, before
he enters the shop and makes himself an
expert before he leaves 1t. The consequent
remarkable development in the quantity
and quality of skilled labor has resulted
; on the one hand In the wonderful industrial
progress of the world and on the other n
: the rise of the artisan into an independent
intelligent prosperous class. The mer-
chant especially the small dealer, has beer
enabled to keep his books at night, tc
check up his results, to analyze and order
: his business, and oorrespondlngly 10 en-
large and improve it. Commerce. like in
dustry, has become scientific, and there
! upon has mastered the world.
Intellectual and social growth is more
: elusive than industrial and commercial
prosperity, II in the last half-century 4
has been no less evident. Thought may
; have gained little In intensity; 1t has gained
' marvelously in distribution. Fifty years
ago II a commodity as rare as cham
payne; now II Is as common as coffee
Along with the bathtub and the sewing
machine, it has become one OF the things
. with which no family can dispense Tha
abstraction, the average mind, has
leaped into activity and Independence. A
the same time certain once potent mean
OF education have lost their strength. Wit
Webster and Beecher, oratory was
weapon; it has become an accomplishment
With Keane and Macready the drama wa
a school; II has become an amusement
J There Is no doubt as TO what has replace
them. Independent OF political democracy
intellectual democracy is becoming a worl
force and dragging social democracy re
luctsntly after 1t. Russia in revolt. Franc
shaking on the ecclesiastic yoke, Germany
America, the British Empire peacefully re
modelled In communities still political (;
form, but Industrial, agricultural. com
mereial in essence, AL speak the book il
the hand % the toiler-the work of tn,
bright light Fifty years ago public poinIo
4 was a figure Of speech. Today II holds IN