The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-12-09

Financiers in these days of progress
and enormous money dealings are
wont to speak glibly Of a billion dol
lars. 1t is the capitalization of the
United States steel corporation. It
is probably not far beyond the tremen-
dous fortune of the wealthiest of all
the worlds wealthy men-John d.
Rockefeller. 1t is merely a thousand
million, and in this era of immense
fortune is it not far cry from mil
lions to billions.
Yet where is the human brain that
can adequately grasp its vastness?
How many of these financiers, in
speaking casually of a billion-dollar
corporation, realize that they are nam
ing a set of figures that, when care
fully considered, appals by its very
vastness?
How many of them know that since
the birth of Christ there have been
but few more than billion minutes
passed into history A minute is
such a trifing space of time and a
dollar is such small sum, yet since
the beginning of the Christian era
there have been but few more than a
billion minutes, and the silver dollars
would plate the sides of every warship
in the United States navy.
If John d. Rockefeller, assuming
that he owns a billion dollars, pos
sessed his fortune in silver dollars,
they would make pile, stacked as
coins are ordinarily stacked, PAS miles
high. Set edge to edge these glitter
ing dollars would form glittering
ribbon stretching from New York to
Salt Lake City. The coin the dollars
would require the use Of 81 .250 tons
of silver. and to haul it to the mint
.2.0N3 freight cars. drawn by 1O4 loco
motives would be necessary, while
yhn combined length OF the train car
rying it would be more than II miles
As the ordinary valuation of agri
cultural lands in the best farming sec
tons of the country, Millionaire cOulC
buy a farm as large as the combined
area of the states of New York, New
Hampshire and Massachusetts. If h
could buy land at 81 an acre he coult
purchase all the territory Of the Uni
= ted States east of Montana. Wye
ming. Colorado and New Mexico
=, Numerous pictures have bee
drawn counting his hoard. But h
never counted it dollar by dollar, 70
if he had the entire sum before hir
and could handle it as rapidly as tn
J. ticks of watch-about S. to the SCI
II ond-it would take him, working da
t and night, six years and four month
u to finish his pleasant task. OF cours
e if he worked on a union labor seal
s. he would be just 10 years on the joI
D. In order to have coined it for tn
l. pastime the mint would have had
u work making dollars for 80 years wit
e out pause day or night.
The speediest element with whiC
l. the mind is acquainted is light, fl
]. we are not yet certain of the speed
i electricity. Light travels, appro
III imately, at the rate of 10000 mil
% second, which, as far as earthly d
n. tances are concerned, is practical
N instantaneous. Yet if a searchlig
}? sufficiently powerful to cast its rays
:: billion miles into space were turn
1t on from the earth it would not Zig
up its objective point for more th'
70 two months afterward. If our sole
10 Elimination were a sun of a Dill
1t miles away and the fire were sudden
IN extinguished we would see that s.
for 81 days afterward, that length