Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-08-31
EDISON HOPES to-
SOLVE SECRET or
DEFEATING DEATH
Wizard Hints That Scientific
Experiments May Reveal
Way to Restore Life.

Way to Restore Life.
Paris. Special: That the human be-
ing is only a higher kin of a phono-
graph was one of the Views expressed
by Thoinas 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. Tho
conversation jumped from Shake
speare to musical glasses and later
to DR.. Carrots 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 an animal so that the grated leg
became normal again. said MIR. E.di-
son. Such a successful experiment
inspires the ~imagination: it prompts
one to ask il the great question OF con-
seriousness after death may not event
ually be solved in some such manner"
May Solve Death Secrets.
Mr.. Edison. as Is well known, is a
materialfst. He is an agnostic. but his
mind is always kept open to convic-
tion.
"lf some day tie scientists arrive at
q point where the hurlail body. after
life is extinct. can he TINS preserved
NA'A ~ La INV
the TRANSMISSION OF lffe-givins blood OF
fluid be brought bach to resume its
normal functions, who can say that
we may not earn definitely IL there is
consciousness after death" he asked.
AT present, however. man must he
regarded as an intricate mechanism,
susceptible as a wax record to his spe-
Cial environments. Each individual
does the best he can in the circum-
stances surrounding him. The degree
of moral responsibility M may pos
sess depends ON accidents of nature. IL
a man Is born with a face tina lacks
proportion. he cannot be blamed for
picking pockets or indulging in other
ingenuitfes 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 to the degree of per-
lection with which we are turned out
of natures workshop.
Asyiums Are S~torehouses.
Our prisons n asylums are con-
sequently only s~torehouses. where a
deficient uma machine or phono-
graph is locked up out OF harms way.
Civilization must have machines that
work properly to achieve the grand
results of development, which I be-
iievc are the fruits of the future mind"
Mr.. Edison went on to compare the
mental development of savages n
l Aaucd:ldIlS. Out he was soon TALKING
of Paris as the paradise of women's
tinery. 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 avages.
streets of Paris which Edison avoids.
Its innuinerable 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
to HottentOt standards. where the fe-
male attains Importance in proportion
to the pounds of she can
carry about her body. Edison believes
not only III 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 supertiuities.
Some Places Avoided.
AS a consequence OF Edison's mater
ialfstic views. many of Paris most ia
| nous monuments receive from him
only cursory attention.
When l see a great cathedral like
Notre Dame" he said, II think of what
the enormous expenditure Of one 1T
represents would have meant to- the
people OF that day If 1T had been de-
voted to the needs of education. Edu-
cation is year by year making the false
distinctions of class in Europeia thing
OF the effete past. / welcome the re-
volt against traditional opinion in Eng
land which threaten, its old tirne So
cia structure. the house Of lords. Mere
hereditary institutions must go. but
reforms are nearer accomplished by
wholesale measures, sucn 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
Mauretan.a. Everything takes time.
and the fact that the americans do not
realize this is one OF cur defects. one
OF our laDses from common sense