The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-30
What Has Caused These Changes?

Some years ago. in an address delivered
 to the students at Columbia university
 and later to the students of Harvard,
 George ". Perkins spoke of the world
 changes. not merely in business but in in tellectual life, which the age of electricity has produced. Supplementing electrical service is the marvellous work of the men Of science and of the engineers who made
 it possible to bring Europe and the
 United States within five days of each
 other and the general adoption of fast service upon American railroads. partic-
 ularly fast mail service. Then, too. the opening of the Panama canal to naviga- tion would, 1t was said speedily change the center of commercial gravity O. lae
 world. thereby. inevitably causing new is sues and new questions heretofore un- thought of to arise.
 This was a thought sometimes expressed by the late George Westinghouse when at leisure moments he found opportunity to talk informally with his friends. MT. Westinghouse was convinced that the de- velopment of electric energy throughout the south by the utilization of the great water power resources of the south would alter the relation of that section of the | country to the rest of the United States and was likely to make the south pre- | eminent as the industrial section of this country.
 l So also has Edison referred occasionally not merely to what electricity has already accomplished, principally since the inean- ! descent light was perfected and the dem | onstraton of the availability of electric energy for highway travel by means of | trolley ears, but also to what in the fu- | ture the general command and utilization | of electrical energy are to accomplish wonders, Edison has said, not yet dreamed | of
 These changes due principally to cleo trlnlfV 20 hali raA fr how .&f
 the indirect causes of the industrial com | petition which to some extent explains the European war.
 The other day President Vail of the teie- l phone company demonstrated to friends
 that it was possible to talk directly with Denver and with an distinct denunciation
 as 1t Is now possible to talk between New
 York and Philadelphia In the spring of
 l9i' It will also be possible to talk dis | tinctly between New York and San Fran | CISCO This means. of course, annihila- | ttoD of time The banker or manufac- l turer fn New York or in Cincinnati or any other city of the south, can be in instant communication with Minneapolis | St Louis, Des Moines or Seattle. | The ocean cable transfers millions from London to the United States or in the | reverse direction The utilization of cleo | tricity is one of the agencies which have | brought about the signal changes which | i'oW CudfdcteflZe RuSSla. It Will be a long l time before the world adjusts itself to 1 new economic conditions which the use of electrincity has made possible This | thought in another form. expressed in l another way, was undoubtedly in the
 minds of the distinguished men who ad-
 dressed the New England society 1 Business undoubtedly will speedily feel | the stimulating effect which our enor- ] mcus sales to Europe are occasioning. | But even if there should be such a re- | vlVal of domestic industry and merehan- 1 disc business as many of the leaders be- | lieve is sure to be witnessed carly fin
 1915, no one can tell how long that will
 last. We may have business activity a year or two after the close of the Flu
 foiean war, but the future which is be- yond the day when peace is signed is l full of complicated problems of which. as | they are original and as all the factors | are not known, it Is impossible even to l suggest the solution. The striking feat l ure, therefore, of these addresses at the | dinner of the New England society is the l hint they contain of new issues new l questions, and the fact that all the world | Is now in neighborly relations, dut in | great measure to the modern utilization | of the great and mystic force of nature | electricity.