Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-05-01
The STABILITY OF EARTH.
According to The St. Louis Globe
Democrat Fear is Groundless.

told ages and, judging the flu
ture from the past, will continue
on its way unharmed in general
through vast stretches of the tu-
ture. Alarmists are fond of
picturing a final catastrophe for
all mankind, and fake prophets
play upon superstitious fears, but
the earth circles onward in its
orbit with but a little scar here
and there from earthquakes, vol
canic eruption>. floods, storms,
tidal waves, subsidence, avail +nche
and fire. Time and again the
end of the world has been pre-
figured by those claiming To have
special knowledge on the sub
ject, and sets have been formed
to get ready for the event, but
it was the credulous organiza-
tiors. not the earth, that passed
away. Millions drew a breath
of relief when the 1oooth year of
the Christian era quietly added
its notch to the chronology of
the past. Mother Shipton's tore
cast was wrecked by definite
date, rounding out the fact that
there was no such pepson. 1t
seemed in London when the
great fire and the plague came
together that the period had ar
rived for mundane things to stop,
but visitors to day to the mighty
city on the Thames find that the
years of piled-up catastrophes
left no lasting mark on the
worlds greatest center of popula-
ton, nor stayed its progress.
A frequent remark is that
mankind dwell on a thin crust
encircling a molten mass, and
that the journey OF life is prac-
tical!y on fire ball encas>d in
a fragile shell that has cooled,
and that, as it cools further. con-
tracts with earthquake shocks.
Much virtue in rhetoric, if the
purpose is to elevate the hair and
induce cold thrills and goosehesh.
The internal FIRE of the earth is
an interference and, in any large
sense historically harmless il
true. Persons who worry over
cosmic problems might also
keep awake of nights owe,
the palpable truth that the
earth moves through space with.
out any visible means of support.
Ga the planet are the plain
marks of epochs ofideas as we'll a:
of intense heat. Scientists agree
that glacial ages will come
again. but geology teaches that
they are gradual and Of limited
extent geographically. Pos.
sibly it is true that an Atlanti:
was submerged. A new sea is
forming i'll the southwestern
desert region of the United
States. Salt lake, the stranded
remnant of the ocean left in the
Rockies, is gradually drying up.
These changes, like others or
the earth, are slow and scarcely
have a perceptible effect on the
fortunes or prospects OF humanity
Instead of indulging in vas
imaginative fancies about what
may happen to the planet as
whole, the people OF the United
States especially can occupy
their time to better advantage
by building their cities on NOR
rational plans, of more enduring
materials and with space to limi
conhagrations of a sweepi ns
nature. An annual fire loss o
nearly $500, 900, 900 is now or
the average in this country
which is many times more thar
the ratio of destruction from th'
same cause IN Europe. Ou
business blocks are more loft
and architecturally elaborat
than those in the Old world, ant
it NAV be that undue risk i
taken in this respect. Th
almost complete destruction G
San Francisco was due to fire
not to the earthquake. The cit
will now have an opportu
nifty to study thoroughly tn
leading features and opportu
mites of its site and near sur
roundiugs. o. the old sand
level in the midst. of the. bay j
must unquestionably take tn