Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-05-02

Our industry merits a better record
than they evidently left. While mildly
critieising them for this neglect, are
we not doing the same thingi
We are leaving copy of some news
paper that changed its policy the next
day after we encased the copy in the
cornerstone. Some book that might be
considered a standard of literature of
today, might later be placed under the
ban and we would then wish we had
left it out. Lastly, we changed the
face of the nickel. So we see our rec
ord is quite incomplete in many ways,
We might entOmb for scientific re-
search million years hence, with some
sense, miniature models of the electric
car, the motor ear, gas engine, locOmo-
tive, airship, flying machine, ships, etc,
etc., and add the domestic devices.
Astronomical, geological and mathemat-
ical information in an abridged form
could be sealed for future information.
Carefully detailed descriptions should
be attached, showing use and nature.
These ideas may sound impractical and
too costly for ordinary occasions, which
they are, but our great scientific bodies
might consider some such systematic
plan for leaving with certainty COM
posite miniature of our world of today.
A million years hence, whoever digs
up that collection of wonders, would
have some intelligent idea of what sort
Of animals lived in the Twentieth cen
tury. Our names, our position in So
ciety, public or private, our popularity
and Importance, could be easily sup
piled by an ordinary directory. Fu-
ture discoverers would note that those
names in large-sized letters were the
great men and those in small type the
non.essentials, probably the taxpayers.
For the sake of accuracy, however, we
might state on the fly-leaf that the size
of the letters merely represented the
amount you paid for the advertisement.
From an examination of our records
these people to come might be glad
that they didn't live in so barbarous
ar age that they sentenced a man to
hard labor for seven years for stealing
a slice Of bacon for his starving chill.
dren. Then they note in the next col
umn that the United States exported
millions of bushels Of wheat and other
food-stuffs, and yet had people starf-
ing inside it's own borders, Exporting
food with starving citizens at home.
Wonder will come upon them as to why
we send missionaries to foreign coun-
tries when we need them so badly at
home
An interesting record we could leave
to future epochs of time, if we would
incorporate our history of daily life.
AS the stone age left nothing faithfully
descriptive of that age, so our sealed
emblems in cornerstones can not mean
much of actual life to those of the
Fortieth century, if any there be- Moth
ing we can leave will carry the spirit
of the times; but since human history
is of no use anyway, in the great cy-
cles of aeons, perhaps it will not matter
much after ALL There is no difference
between the stone image and the metal
($) image. One will mean to the fu-
ture as much as the other has, A mo-
mentary confusion between two long
silences is about all we really will ever
be cognizant of. So in the great scheme
it will matter little whether we wore
aprons, chiseled in granite and smote
the reptile for food, or whether we
existed later on, linked our characters
on straw, wore a cravat and smoked
seegars. FRED R. WATERS.