The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-12-18
HARD To CONCEIVE
WHAT A BILLION IS
High Finance Juggling With
Figures Inspires Comment
Upon Figures.

Financiers in these days OF progress
and enormous money dealings are wont
10 speak sltblY OF billion dollars. II is
The capitalization OF the United States
Steel corporation. IL is probably not lar
beyond the tremendous fortune OF the
wealthiesL of the world wealthy man
John ID. Rockefeller. IT is merely q
thousand millions. and III this era OF i'm
mensc fortunes IL is not a far cry from
millions to billions, says National finance
Yet where is the human brain that can
adequately grasp its vastnesS? How many
OF these iiuanclers i'm speaking casually
of a billion dollar corporation. realize
that they arc naming a set OF figures
that. when carefully considered, appalls
by its very vaStDcss2
How many OF them know that since the
birth of Christ there have only a lew
more than billion minutes passed into
history? y minute is such trilling
small sum. yet since the beginning OF
the Christian cara there have been but
a few billion minutes. and the silver
dollars would plate the sides Of every
Humorous pictures have been drawn
depicting the worlds wealthiest man
counting his hoard But lie never
counted 1t dollar by dollar. for IL he had
the entire sum before him and could
handle II as rapidly as the ticks OF a
watch--about s. 10 the second-it would
take him, working day and night. SIX
years and four months TO finish his pleas
ant job. In order 10 have coined 1t Tor
this pastime the mint would have had
10 work making dollars for thirty-two
years without pause day or night,
The spcedicst element with which the
mind is acquainted is light for we arc
not yet certain OF the speed Of electricity.
Light travels, approximately, at the rate
of 1860 miles second, which, as far
as earthly distances arc concerned. Is
practically instantaneous. Yet II
searchight sufficiently powerful to cast
its rays a billion miles into space were
turned on from the earth, it would not
light up its objective point for more than
two months aftcrward. II our sole illumi-
nation were a sun billion miles away
and the fire were suddenly cXtinGuished.
We would sec that sun for siXty-two days
afterward that length Of time being re-
quired for The rush TO the earth of lhe
death.
Men can easily comprehend the speed
of a modern rifle bullet, which is about
half a mile a second. Were hypothet-
ical rifle fired at a man a billion miles
distant he and his descendants for TWEEN
ty-four genera tions would have time TO
dodge the bullet for the missile would
be 500 years on It's journey.
II railway train running at the rate
or mile minute had been at the
dawn OF the Christian era started around
the Garth on a straight ira ck. its object
being TO run ono billion miles without
stop. it would have been necessary for
that train TO circle the earth 10000 times
and il would not have come to the end
eve, l82S-SiXtccn centuries after Christ
was born and eight years after the May
flower landed at Plymouth Rock. Dur
Ing lis frantic flight It Will have seen
the Savior llvc and die: Rome and its
marvellous grandeur will have risen,
flourished and decaycd: Britain will have
been discovered and Vanpuished by the
hosts Of Caesar. and London and Paris
will have been built; kings and cmper
ors VIII have rcicned and great wars
viii have been fought: throughout the
middle ages, unon which history sheds
but a faint candle light, the rushing
train Will have sped on its seemingly
intermlnable journey; Christopher Column
discovered and not until nearly two cen
turtles after that great western world
has been added To the map will tho en-
zine driver have closed tho throttle and
brought his machine TO a fun stop at
his destination.
In the ordinary box OF safety matches
there are fifty sticks II a consignment
~ one billion matches were ordered from
the manufacturer. The boxes IN which
they were packed would make 4 rilc 15s
miles in height. Packed In freight cars
they would fi1l twelve To The roofs To
box tl7em alone. not to take into con
sderatiou the labor Of making and label
ins the boxes. 1000 girls would be kept
busy Il month working in ciEht-hour
shifts.
On the entire surface OF the earth there
are hut n comparatively few more than
one billion human beings. yet science
tells us tina, for untold ages they have
been increasing with steady regularity
And vet financicTs speak clibly OF one
billion dollars.