The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-31
ENGLAND.s DEPENDENCIES.

II Pessimists have never been lacking
when 1t came to prophesying Eng
lands speedy destruction. We remein-
Der hearing a very wise old gentleman
say that his earliest recollcctlons--
about 1S2O--were the gloomy predic-
tons that England had seen her best
days. At that time England had a
population OF less than 12.o0oOo was
oppressed by protection. and the
political plaything of the oligarchy
of aristocrats. To-day England's
population. is s2.525s4s: her for
eign trade annually amounts 10
f9oo.000,000, and. SO far as the Will
of the people Is concerned. 1t Is one
of the most perfect democracics the
world has ever seen.
Could the prophets OF evil things IN
1870 be alive to-day, they would be
COMPOUNDED at the errors OF their judy
ment-that is. II false prophets arc
ever put to confusion. But it is quite
possible that those who said that evil
days were imminent a century ago
would prove 1t now by unanswerable
statistics. and such are not lacking.
if Cardinal Logue's forebodings are
correct. 1t will be recalled that when
he was in New York Cardinal Logue
joined the ranks OF those who saw
the passing OF Englands glory, and
gave as his reasons the loosening bonds
between England and her great white
colonies and the marked signs Of ma
tlonal unrest in India.
We attribute no significance to these
conditions. for Canada has no desire
to Join the United States. and neither
she nor Australia nor New Zealand
are prepared to enter the hazardous
experiment of autonomy or war For
reasons which we have already ex-
planned in this paper, the Indian prob
lem also does not vitality affect the ex-
istence OF Great Britain. but the birth.
rate in the British Isles does. II the
figures of the London Daily Mall
are correct, the present birth and
death rate Of England means tina. by
1850 the tight little Isle" will have
sunk to very small place among the
powers of the world. for at that date
her population will only be about one
half that of Germany's and one-third
of that of the United States.
In 1876 the birth-rate in England
and Wales was 36.4 per thousand. the
highest 1t has ever reached. Last year
the rate was only 1858. which is further
in that it marked the great
est decline of any one single year. 1t
has been pointed out by the New York
Sun that the decline In birth-rate is
somewhat made UP by the longer
chance of life. but this is obviously
homeless fight, and at the end it can
only mean tina. a country once hlled
with youth AMI strength has become
the refuge Of senility and decrepitude.
The battles Of trade and of war are
not fought by old and timid men. ana
with the rapidly approaching eXtinc-
ton of her coal fields and the steadily
declining brth-rate of her popula''oh'
ENGLAND faces a more serious condition
than when, though less than one-thifd
her present size, she fought LOT e"'
istence against Napoleon Bonaparte.
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ANOTHER AUTOMOBILE TRAGEDY.
The shocking death of Cedrino, the
great Italian chauffeur, is another PEN
atty paid to the speed mania. Every
boav knows that automobiles can run
with terrific speed under some conan
tons Recently, on the Brooklaho
track, in Great Britain, which track
by the way, Is built OF concrete, espe-
cially for automobile races, with raised
turns and long stretches, an automo-
bile ran at the rate OF ninety-three
miles an hour for some miles. AT the
Briar Cliff races and at the Long lslano
races, automobiles have run In America
for 800 miles at the rate, approximate
", of sixty miles an hour, and on some
stretches must have far exceeded TINS
limit.
The capacity Of an automobile for
great bursts OF speed, therefore, Is
thoroughly determined. What concerns
the people now is the cost Of main
tanning an automobile, and the assur-
ance that it will not break down.
Horse racing has the excuse that 1t
develops stamina, while automobile rae
ing, such as that in which Cedrino was
killed has no excuse except the morbid
qualification of desire to see fearful
risks incurred.
! The first train that ran twelve miles
an hour continuously established the
value of locomotives. Efforts of loco
| motive builders since that time have
been chiefly towards reducing tho cost
of operation and the perfection OF con-
structon. The American Locomotive
Company, for example, does not build
engines and race them against the
! Baldwin locomotives, but tries to show
| by repeated tests that 1t can produce
an absolutely trustworthy machine,
with smaller fuel consumption and
j equal traction power. Likewise the