The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-01-13
MANUAL LABOR WILL NOT
FIGURE IN THE FUTURE
Edison Says Machinery Will Do the
Work, Men Watching 1t.

the future, THINKS the prospect Oh
the laboring man is particularly
, bright one.
n "In 200 years, by the cheaper
ing of com modities, the ordinary
laborer will live as we'll as a man
does now with $500, 900 annual in
come. Automatic machinery and
scientific agriculture will bring
about this result" Mr.. Edison
says, in the current issue of the
Independent. mot individual
ism but social labor will dominate
the future; you can't have individ-
ual machines and every man work
ing by himself. Industry will
constantly become more social and
ihterdependent. There will be no
manual labor in the factories of
the future. The men in them will
be merely superintendent watch
ing the machinery to see that it
works right.
The work day, l believe, will
be eight hours. Every man needs
that much work to keep him out
of mischief and to keep him hap
Ply. But it will be work with the
brain, something that men will be
interested in, ana done il whole
some pleasant surroundings. Less
and less man will be used as an
engine, or as a horse, and his brain
will be employed to benefit himself
and his fellows.
The clothes of the future will
be so cheap that every Young
woman will be able to follow the
fashions prom pity, and there will
be plenty Of fashions.
Communication with other
worlds has been suggested. l
think we had better stick%,to this
world and find out something
about it before we call up our
neighbors. They might make us
ashame OF ourselves.
The monorail does not appeal
to me. 1t was fundamental mis-
take that our railroads were built
on a 4 foot 9 inch gauge instead of
6-foot gauge, which we will prob
ably have to come to vet
The aeroplane of the future
will, I think, have to be on the
helicopter principle. A successful
air machine must be able to defy
the winds. If Wright's aeroplane
had one twentieth of its surface,
the wind would not effect it. The
helicopter principle is the only
way to rise above the atmospheric
conditions. BY increasing the We
locity of propeller revolutions the
size of the machine can be dimin-
ished and thereby be vanquish the
wind A heliCopter could have
foot-size planes distributed on a
100 to $50 foot circle and control
led from the center by wires.
Chemical food has been work
ed out pretty well by Emil Fischer
and his students. but it won't be
a commercial proposition. You
can't beat the farm as a labora-
tory, commercially speaking. If
J. we should dry up like Mars and
: couldn't raise vegetables on this
J earth, we might turn to a chemi-
Z cal diet.
y Society will have to stop this
Swhiskey business, which is like
Ethrowing sand into the bearings
of a steam engine.
Among the many problems
which await solution in the fulare
one of the most important is to
get the full value out Of fuel. The
wastefulness Of our present meth
DDS of combustion is tremendous.
There is not as much power in
ton Of 40 per cent dynamite as
there is in ton Of coal.
Everything in nature would
burn up if it were not for the fact
that nearly everything except coal
is already burned up. Iron would
/ burn and make a good tuel-lf in
IA very fine powder-but it has
Lalready been consumed in natures
Furnace.
u 1--WE may discover the germ of
Ggetting all the power from fuel
Tomorrow. and then again it may