The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1906-04-28
ship as when she won her Respondent
| victories"

Nothing of human origin in the world
Is so old and so permanent In Its inf1u-
ence on human life as a road worn by
nothing was the world SO slow to
change as liz the means of passing from
place to place. Senator Lodge can find
nothing short of the discovery of fire
or of wheels to which to compare the
utilization of steam and electricity in
place Of earlier forms of motive power.
He said In the Senate recently: From
the dawn Of history to the beginning Of
the nineteenth century there was no
change in these methods Of transporta-
ton. There was slow improvement In
seagolng vessels, but it seems probable,
If not certain, that the roads Of the Ro-
man empire furnished a better and
more complete system Of transportation
and communication than was to be
found In Europe In the middle ages, or
even as late as the eighteenth century.
In means and modes of communication
and transportation, which not only In
ffuence profoundly human society, but
upon which that society largely rests,
the men who fought at Waterloo were
nearer to those who fought at Their
mopyle than they were to those who
engaged in battle at Gettysburg, at Sc
dan, or at Mukden." Napoleon's armies
marched along the same highways
which had once felt the tread Of Cae-
sar's legions. To-day steam cars and
trolley cars, bicycles, automobiles, and
military plans, but the horse, the mule,
and even the slow OK, are not entirely
superseded and soldiers legs are not
atrophied by disuse. The world, in
spite Of all the wonderful changes Of
the century Of wonders, the nineteenth
century, clings to the old roads, the
dusty, winding, laborious roads. The
roads of thought are still harder for
the world to abandon. To measure the
power Of steam engines or electricity
comparison is made with the strength
of horse. One "horse power" or two,
or any number gives an idea more dis
tinct for purposes Of comparison than
the exact number of pounds that could
be moved a given distance In a given
mile. So, to measure the brilliancy Of
the newest improved electric light, the
humble candle Is recalled from the past,
and we speak Of candle power" The
men who have never driven horses or
read by candle light have grown up,
following their fathers along the old
paths Of thought. A stones throw is a
definite distance, bee line Is the stand
ard of straightness to men who never
threw a stone or saw a bee rise and
start for the hive; and horse power and
candle power survive as measures Of
strength. The English system of cur
rency seems cumbrous and Anticipated
to Americans; the American system of
weights and measures seems behind the
times to Frenchmen, but here again the
old Travelled road bears the multitude.
Admitting that the new way is swifter
and easier, an immense improvement on
| the old way, the mind clings to the old
standards. Though the American school
| boy has studied the metric system In
| school, a hectoliter means nothing until
put into gallons, a hectare must be
translated into acres, and kilometers
must be reduced to miles. When can
die light ceases to be the standard OF
Illumination, and horse power to be the
measure of the force of turbines and
dynamos- inch, the ounce, and the
| u1farf with all their awkwa rdnoss NAV
be expected to vanish, but not SO long
as the mind travels the old road. The
men of Waterloo would still find some
things familiar II they returned.