The Monte Vista journal. (Monte Vista, Rio Grande County, Colo.) 1888-1921, 1911-01-21
NEW WORLD AHEAD OF US

1
or. Mr.. Edison in prophecy, de-
scribes some startling advance
ments for the future.
The following are the closing
paragraphs OF the interview:
"There will be no poverty in the
world hundred years from now"
said Edison.
"There is no limit to the cheap
ness with which things can be made.
The world will soon be flooded with
the cheap products of machinery
not the poor products; The cheap
products
The world flooded with food,
clothing, shelter and Injuries! No
half-starved children, no over
worked mothers, no poverty-wor-
ried fathers, no disease-breeding
| cheerless tenements or houses
The world flooded with food, cloth
ing, shelter and luxuries!
Impossible? Read on:
| "Why should we expect povery
to continue?n asked Edison
"Poverty was for a wol Id thai us d
only its hands. When men used
nothing but Their hands, poverty
was most intense. Now that men
| have begun to use their brains,
| poverty is decreasing. Poverty
is decreas ng though we have been
using our brains only little
while. Think how long the world
has stood, and then recall that
| practically everything we know
today that is worth while we have
learned within a hundred years.
Look about you and see how
many things that We're worth while
And we have only just begun to
use our brains. What we know is
but an atom OF what there is to
know. But we are learning how to
control the forces of nature. AS
we learn, we shall transform the
world. The most wonderful cham
ges are coming-changes about
which no one can today do more
than dream"
The world flooded with food,
clothing, shelter and Injuries!
| What good would it do the people
OF the world if few men should
own all these things? Edison had
thought OF that. He realizes the
size OF the problem. But he says
it is a problem in the solving of
which neither he nor his kind can
| help. Inventors can make the
world rich-only the people can
provide the governmental means.
He believes there are stormy days
ahead for the man who would
take what another makes. He be-
lieves there VIII be cracks in the
walls OF governments and rips in
constitutions; that the working
man-the man who will some day
say TO England, "Stand stilln-wll
/ compel government to serve him.
and destroy any government that
will not serve him. Moreover, he
believes things ought to be chang
ed. Civilization, he says, is not on
| the right basis. A few are getting
too much and the rest no. getting
enough.
There will be some btg expert
ments tried in government within
the next fifty years. he sad.
This, then, is the day before Sum-
ter. Not the day before civil war,
/ but the day before the age-old
ideas OF government are To go
/ down, even As the agc-old and
once honorcd institution OF chat,el
slavery went down-thc day before
/ the burial of the worlds poverty
in the pottcr's field, for II is "A
worlds Sumter that Edison be-
/ holds.
What a flashlight OF the future!
What a future in the flashl ght.
What privilege TO live in such u
worldl What privilege could be
/ greater? Only one. The priv legc
OF laying the foundat ons OF such
n world. Therein is our mighty
opportunity. We live in time
when building operations worth
while are going on. All OF us may
not be here to see the spectcir OF
/ poverty laid away, but, according
to Edison, "a few of the youngest
will hear the rattle OF muskctry