Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1906-03-14
MAKES NATION RICH.
ELECTRICITY AN IMPORTANT
FACTOR IN PROSPERITY.
Great Growth Of Industries and m
cilitation of Mechanical Prog
ress Through Its
Agency.

and Europe. There is no tulip craze
Of chasing after localities, but pur-
chases are made to an extent which
taxes the productive resources OF
manufacturing establishments, whose
output is generally sold far in ad-
vance.
1t is evident, says the Electrical
Review, that the balance Of the incre'
ment of the productive capacity OF
humanity is increasing, and this aug
mentation of the average potentially
OF the individual is the only measure
of this enlarged difference between
production and consumption which
constitutes the increase of prosperity.
1t must not be overlooked that ma
terial possessions have not been de-
stroyed in these territories by wars or
extensive fires. Both of these ami
hilations of value have been forerun.
ners of financial crises; other losses
are mere transfers of property.
It does not ansyer the proposition
to attribute this fortunate commercial
condition to machinery, for there have
been no radical improvements in meth
DDS of manufacture or transportation
of freights by land or sea during the
last twenty-five years sufficient to in,
troduce materially different economic
conditions.
The term "labor-saving machinery"
is largely a misnomer, for while the
reduction of hours of labor in the
face of the increased number of work
ers among growing populations has
been compassed by the combined ap-
plication Of improved machinery ana
modern methods of organization, yet
the function Of machinery has served
to increase production and to .facih-
tate distribution to an extent
which quickens the luxuries of one
generation into the necessities Of
the next.
If there is now an increased sur
plus without any recent evidence OF
q corresD bonding addition to the rate
Of Individual production, or any dr.
intuition Of consumption Of living ex,
penses, then it is among the wastes
Of recent years that search must be
made TO the cause Of this increment,
The first analysis reveals The solution,
and that is in the service of electricity
applied to mankind, which has cut
down wastes which were hitherto un-
avoidable.
The trolley railway service, particu,
Iorly ia suburban travel, enables peo.
pie to live on cheaper land, in cheaper
houses, or in comparison with the
same sites 81 hahita@cns has dimin-
ished the unproductive time in travel
ing to and from tlolr work. There are
many people employed il New 3orlI
whose travelling time has been reduced
two hours day, by methods of inter-
urban transit, made possible only by
electricity. The use OF the telephone
is still the basis Of wonderful anec-
dotes of how persons save days OF
travel about city by a few local
calls Through The service OF this in
strument on rather the system OF
which it is the nucleus, many Of the
i.yast army of messengers have been
assigned to directly productive en-,
Payments.
The vertical railway, as Otis Tufts
properly entitled his invention OF the
I passenger elevator, suficed to make
commercial buildings exceed three
stories in height, but it is held that
the modern skyscraper could not be
used to house its thousands deyotea
to the intensities OF commercial al!
fairs within its score or more stories,
had it not been for the facilities Oh
communication afforded by the tele-
phone service, because there is not
sufficient room in such buildings for
elevators adequate to transport the
number OF messengers which would
otherwise be necessary for communica-
ton between these offices and their
clients.
The condition of messengers in place
of telephone service in a skyscraper
| represents a hypothetical aspect akin
to that of the substitution of oarsmen
for the propulsion of steamship in
which they would far exceed the ca.
pacity of the vessel, as it would re-
quire 100000 men working in eigh-
hour relays to produce the 10000
horsepower used on the large Atlantic
liners. 1t has been found in the course
of studies by municipal engineers upon
the sidewalk capacity of .cities, that
the facility of communication afford
ed by the telephone has diminished
the relative number of persons walk
ing in the business districts of cities
during office hours. The work of
these specialists has been directed to
providing means for abating the con-
gestion at the beginning and end Of
working hours, and electricity is ap-
piled again to methods Of rapid transit
at these loralities by introducing as
many points of departure as possible
within these congested districts.
For long-distance travel the tele-
phone is substitute which has added
to productiveness in the measure to
which the time that would otherwise
be occupied in travelling may be de-
voted IN nrof1fahla amnlovmant OF