Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-13
WHENCE THESE RICHES.
Great Part That Electricity Plays in
National Prosperity.
From the Electrical Review.

From the Electrical Review.
When people buy. business is good. and
people are now buying and business Is
good throughout this country and Europe
There is no tulip craze of chasing after
localities, but purchases ere made to an
extent which taxes the productive resources
OF manufacturing establishments. whose
output is generally sold far in advance
1t Is evident that the balance of the in
c1enent of the productive capacity of hui
mainly is increasing, and this augmentation
of the average potentiality of the individ-
uai Is the only measure of this enlarged
difference between production and consumn-
ton which constitutes the increase of pros
perity. 1t must not be overlooked that ma
terial possessions have not been DESTROYED
in these territories by wars or extensive
| fires. Both Of these annihilations of value
nave been forerunners of financial crises !:
other losses are mere transfers of property
1t does MT answer the proposition to at
| tribute this fortunate commercial condition
TO machinery, for there have been no radi-
cal improvements in methods of manufac-
ture or transportation of freights by land
or sea during the last twenty-five wears
sufficient to introduce materially different
economic conditions.
The term "labor-savfng machinery" is
largely a mfSnOmer, for while the redirctiop
OF hours of labor in the face of the in
creased numbers of workers among growing
populations has been compassed bv the
cCnlplhed application of improved machin-
cry and modern methods of organize ton
yet the function of machinery has served
TO increase production and to facilitate dis
tribution to an extent which auickens the
sites of the next.
II there is now an increased surplus with
out any recent evidence of a corresponding
ADDITION to the rate of individual produc.
III. pp .
nVlng expenses, then it is among the
wastes of recent years that search must
be made for 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 unavoidable
Inc tr0lley railway service, particularly
IN suburban travel, enables people to live
on cheaper land, in cheaper houses or in
comparison with the same sites of habfta-
tons has diminished the unproductive time
In travelling to and from their work. There
are many people employed in New York
whose travelling time has been reduced two
hours a day, by methods of interurban
transit, made possible only by electricity
| l he use OF the telephone is still the basis
OF wonderful anecdotes of how persons
save days OF travel about a city by a few
local calls. Through the service of this
instrument, Or rather the system of which
it is the nucleus. many of the vast army
of messengers have been assigned to direct
ly productive employments.
ne vertical as OtfS Tufts prop
erly entitled his invention of the passenger
elevator. sufficed to make commercial build
ings exceed three stories in height but 1t
Is held that the modern skyscraper could
not be used to house its thousands devoted
to the intersities OF commercial affairs
within its score or more stories had II not
! been for the facilities of communication af-
forded by the telephone services. because
| there Is not sufficient room in such build
| lngs for elevators adequate to transport the
number OF messengers which would other
| wise be necessary for communication be-
| tween these offices and their clients
The condition of messengers in place of
| telephone service in a skscraper presents g.
| hypothetical aspect akin to that of the sub
| stitutton of oarsmen for the propulsion Of
| steamship in which they would far ex-
| coed the capacity of the vessel as 1t would
| require 10000 men working in eight 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 ca
pacity of cities, that the facility of COM
munication afforded by the telephone has
diminished the relative number of persons
| walking in the business districts of cities
| during office hours. The work of these spe-
| cialists has been directed to providing
| means for abating the congestion at the
! beginning and end of working hours. and
| electricity Is applied again to methods of
| rapid transit at these localities by intro
ducing as many points of departure as pos
| sible within these congested districts.
! For long-diStance travel the teephone Is
| substitute which has added to productive
! ness in the measure to which the time
/ that would otherwise be occupied in travel
| ing may be devoted to profitable employ
| ment. OF electric Illumination in its espe-
| cial application. wherever the difference be-
| tween daylight and other methods of light
/ ing impaired or even stopped accurate lines
| OF work we are without apology always
/ descanting and shall continue to do so
/ until these wonders shall cease to be of
| service to mankind.