Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-18

not be forgotten We are passengers
on a huge ship driving through space
as one of Zeppelins airships drive
through air, save that We know not
what guides US, and that We spin
like a curved baseball, and whirl
round and round the sun, from
which. by wireless transmission over
the ninety-fve millions of miles of
space which separates us from our
planetary control we get our light,
heat and power.
We are all in the same boat. We
did not make the boat-we ourselves
are made from the dust on the plank
| ing of her decks. We are divided up
into nations, clans, tribes, classes
and races; but We are all tenants of
the decks of the ship Earth. Looked
at as an original question, what are
our rights and what our duties to our
fellow passengers and the great prop
erty-for the ship is really our prop
erty-which our children must be
made of and live upon.
We have learned that as animals
we must live either on plants, or on
other animals which have been made
of plants-plants which break out in
a green rash all over the decks of
the old boat. And that there are ten
things which must be found in any
soil before that soil can nourish
nlants-every one of the ten. carbon,
hydrogen. oxygen. phosphorus, potas-
stun, nitrogen, sulphur calcium, iron
and magnesium. OF these there are
erix
any uneasiness-nitro phosphorus
and potassium-and probably sulphur
Not that these are any more neces-
sary than the other six or seven, but
that they are the ones that are
scarce, and the using UP of which
would put an end to the human race
by putting an end to vegetation.
We have seen that there was once
scare for fear that the nitrogen
would soon be exhausted, and that
we discovered that the bacteria on
the roots of certain plants of the
clover tribe are taking it from the
air all the time when given a chance
and storing it in the soil, So that
scare ended.
Let us now look into the hold Of
the Ship and see how we are sup.
piled with potassium.
But, first, what is potassium? 1t is
the element which gives its name to
potash-which anyone can make from
the I've of wood ashes. 1t is found
in the ashes of any field crop, when
the plant is burned. 1t is plain,
then. if it is a part Of every one of
these plants, that it must exist where
the plant can reach it, or no crop
can grow. Potassium is not found
in the air. as is nitrogens-so 1t must
be obtained from the soil.
In the grain of a hundred-bushel
crop of corn there are 10 pounds OF
potassium. An average soil contains
enough at this rate to make 2,50O
crops. No need to worry then? Well,
is it any less serious for the race TO
end for lack of food in 1000 years,
than in 1902 Or be sent crusading and
Staying after new lands in the year
A. d. 10000 rather than a. D. 20OO2
If we are wasting what the passen-
gers must some day need, does it
make any real difference that we shall
not be present to witness their suffer-
ings? 1t does not seem so to me. l
think we should be as alive to suffer-
ing in Europe or Asia today as if it
were in the next room, and as So
lieitous for the happiness of the
worlds passengers a thousand years
hence, as next week. Especially as