Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-09-01
EDISON HOPES TOT
SOLVE SECRET OF
DEFEATING DEATH
Wizard Hints That Scientific
Experiments May Reveal
Way to Restore Life.

Paris. Special: That tie human be-
ing lis only q higher kind Of a phouo-
graph was one Of the views expressed
by Thomas A.. Edison in a talk at the
Hotel Majestic, while he waited FOR
his friend, Mr.. Monnat, Of the Clax-
ton company. who is acting as the
inventors guide about Europe. The
conversation jumped from Shake
spcare 10 musical glasses and later
TO Or. CarrePs recent surgical marvels
performed at the Rockefeller institute.
DIR. Carrcl has succeeded in graft
Ing the leg OF a dog, which had been
cut off and kept in cold storage back
onto IN animal SO that the grated leg
became normal again said Mr.. Edi-
son, such a successful experiment
inspires the imagination il prompts
one to ask il the great question Of con-
-sciousness after death may not event.
uaily be solved in some such manner"
May Solve Death Secrets.
Mr.. Edison. as is well known, is a
materialist. He IS an agnostic, but his
mind is always kept open TO convic-
tion.
If some day the SO Sntists arrive at
a point where the human body, after
life is extinct, can be thus preserved
and after an indefinite time through
the TRANSMISSION Of Iife-giying blood or
fluid be brought back to resume it's
normal functions, who can say that
we may not learn defiEitely If there is
consciousness after death2" he asked.
AT present, however, man must be
regarded as an intricate mechanism,
susceptible as a wax record to his spe-
clal environments. Each individual
does the best he can in the circum-
stances surrounding him. The degree
of moral responsibility n may pos
sess depends on accidents of nature. IL
a man is bOrn wit-t a face that lacks
proportion, he cannot be blamed for
picking pockets or INDUCING In other
~.ingenuities Of crime, since nature has
unkindly deprived him OF the normal
balance he Is entitled to. In other
words, we work we'll or i'll as a ma
chine, according 10 the degree of per-
lection with which we are turned out
OF natures workshop.
AsyIums Are S~torehouses.
"Our prisons ana asylums are con-
Bequeptly only sfo~rehouses, where a
deficient human machine or phono-
graph Is locked up out of harms way.
Civilization must have machines that
work properly 10 achieve the grand
results of development, which | be-
lieve are the fruits Of the future mind"
Mr.. Edison went on to compare the
mental development of savages and
11UNdS4dllct bbL III a rVbh NdlhttlE
Of Paris as the paradise Of women's
nnery. which led him to express doubt
as to civilizations entire freedom from
the fetch worship of geegaws char
acteristic Of the Fiji islanders and
other savages.
The Rue de Ia Paix is one Of the
streets Of Paris which Edison avoids.
Its innumerable vanity shops" dis
please him with their displays. He
objects to members Of his family wear
ing Jewels, having persuaded them
that every jewel Is a link binding them
10 Hottentot standards, where the fe-
male attains Importance in proportion
to the pounds Of ornaments she can
carry about her body. Edison believes
not only in the simple life but in the
simple wife, and is convinced that if
pearls remained in their oyster shells
society would not only be happier but
there would be fewer suicides among
desperate heads OF families who live
beyond their income to supply their
families with expensive superfluities.
sonne place h2eiaea
AS q consequence of Edison's mater
ialistic views, many of Paris most ia
nous monuments receive from him
only cursory attention.
when / see n great cathedral like
Notre Dame" he said, Il think of what
the enormous expenditure OF money 1T
represents would have meant to the
people OF that day If it had been de-
voted to the needs of education. Edu-
cation Is year by year making the false
distinctions of class in Europe a thing
OF the effete past. / welcome the re-
volt against traditional opinion in Eng
land which threatens it's old time so
cial structure. the house of lords. Mere
hereditary institutions must go, but
reforms are nearer accomplished by
wholesale measures, such as shown by
the present turn OF English politics.
Il compare all such reforms to the
slow turn of a heavy bulk, such as the
Mauretania. Everything takes time,
and the fact that the Americans do not
realize this is one of our defects. one
of our lapses from common sense"