The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-13

chief economic questions of the day may address not only their immediate hearers. but the entire country. Many of the ad-
 dresses have been widely circulated. From one point of view, it is fine debat- ing club, since the members listen cor dially to those who have anything of consequence to say upon any aspect of our present economic situations.
 Recently the evidences have been many that business men throughout the United States are at last realizing that they have responsibilities. and one of these is the duty of furnishing the public with facts so that there can be opportunity for good understanding by the public of what the relation between business and the people and, on the other hand, the people and business should be. President Will sons attitude when he spoke before the members of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States a few days ago al Washington was especially gratifying be- cause there was clear intimation in what he said. and especially in the way he said it that he is anxious that there be established reasonable cooperation be- tween DuDl1C servants anu ttoSS ''-'~ - rec. the business life of the nation. Many of the leading men of business nave re- gently ventured to say that what IS now
 needed Is less legislation, except that there is necessity for repeal of some leg islation which has been found detrlmentas to business. Q
 The chief address before the Economic c,ub was made by George w. Perkins.
 There was great desire on the part u the members of the association 10 heai MT. Perkins for several reasons. One oi these reasons is that he Is now pracu
 cally in retirement so far as actiNe pus
 mess life is concerned. Another reason is that he had unusual opportunity Wh'ie III business life to study the problems ol 'ne day. almost all of which began to De prominent about the time of MT. Fer
 kins' venture into the broad held or American business. Another reason can be traced to the fact that 1our UT hFe years ago MT. Perkins delivered addresses at Harvard, Columbia and at the very important school of technology Of north- ern Michigan. and other places, Wneie he yentured to show that the wonderful advance in invention, and in the mastery of the secrets of nature which have been made since 1880 or a little earlier have m evitably created many new economic con ditions and that it would be the duty not only of business men, but or those WHO are in public life fully to recognize these conditions and the causes or ,heil' so that there might be, relatively easier ad-
 iustment of business and political life to the new era.
 These were some of the reasons which induced the officers of the Eco homie club to ask MT. Perkins to ad- dress the organization. He had an un- expected example for the Illustration of the points he intended to make through the recent completion of the highly perfected transcontinental tele- phone service. So also another example was furnished him by the recent great triumphs of the wireless system These and other inventions and discoveries which have followed research have practically, in MT. Perkins view elimi- mated time and space so far as busi- ness and to a considerable extent the political life of the country are con- oerned. It is only 40 years since Pro lessor Bell and MT. Watson discovered that the somewhat crude Bell apparatus was able to convey the human voice through wire electrically charged to any one who stood at the other end Of the wire That was in 1875. Since then wireless telegraphy, the perfecting of railroad equipment, the dpphcatoh oi the turbine engine to ocean navigation and many other factors have practi- cally eliminated time and space. Should there be a highly important negotiation pending upon which immediate decision was necessary one of the negotiators could sit in a New York office and con- | municate With San Francisco instantly, receiving Instant reply so that, as if were in almost a lightning flash, the negotiation could be completed' In that | way, there is annihilation of time and space. In the desperate days of Iasr
 summer. when the situation, financial, industrial and commercial, was com pletely befogged, it was the telephone,