Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-01-14

NOTE-Ths publication is NOT COPYRIGHTED and the privt
eqe of repriuting the sOhoe or any part hereof by any newspaper, indi-
eiduoI or corporation is cheerfnAy accorded by the Anthor, in the hope
hot it may assist in the industrial Development of the County Of Cape
The distribution of this address in its printed form is N act of eor-
Hsv o. the bart of the newspapers of CAPE Nov County, uMo haze ever
Loyalty and devotedly exerted their Influence for the Announcement of the
prosperity of the Connty-REEsE F. RIsLEY, Stone Harbor, J.
In submitting to the people OF Cape May County a viewpoint of
the County's opportunities which has impressed itself upon me, after
a careful study of its extraordinary location and topography, do
SC with the greatest sense OF diidence. 1 realize that the suggestions
which have forced themselves upon my mind with such insstency
are 81 unusual in themselves, and, if accepted, will result in such a
complete revolution in the economic development of our county that
I have hestated to express them, except to one or two intimate IS
sociates during the period of incubation of this idea.
A calm and dispassionate Investigation of the subject, however,
has finally resulted in a settled conviction of its importance, and
actuated wholly by a sense of public duty | have, after consultation
with those, who, like myself, place the material growth OF Cape
May County above every other consideration, determined to make
public the conclusions which I have reached, in order that a free and
full discussion of the idea may be had and the merit Gf any be pos
sessed by the thought) may inure to the benefit of the greatest number
of our citizens.
THE AGE OF STEEL
The evolution of mankind from savagery to civilization, as we
know il, has been marked by those historical epochs, in which the
primitive creature, who was our common ancestor, succeeded through
the employment of implements Or tools in diferentating himself from
the brute creation by which he va surrounded. Hence, W e have the
Stone Age, in which the tools and weapons used were fashioned from
the material most easily obtainab1e-that is to say, the rock, which
formed the walls and floors of the caves in which the race dwelt
Came also the Age of Copper, when this eas1y-mined metal was found
to be workable and possessed of qualities superior to those OF flint
and jade. And SO, gradually and laboriousy, the problems were
SOIVeQ mC1QeW q le SHIPOymCHl Vi OliCl OiC' ANioohiS, HHy'
iron itself. Up to that time, it might be said that the evolution OF
mankind was in anthmetcal stages Thereafter, it was geometrical
So tremendous was the influence which the discovery of the use of
iron exerted upon the human race, that it has been considered worthy
by the great German composer Wagner OF perpetuating gin words and
music which shall endure so long a the world shall last; TOR the
dominant theme in many of the Teutonc and Scandinavian folk songs
which Wagner used in his wonderful compositions lis no more nor less
than the eu1ogy of triumph which the primitive peoples of the great
Aryan race expressed, when they had finally mastered the art which
put them in possession of a toolmaking material superior to anything
that had been before known.
From the smelling of iron ore in the forest glade by the skin-clad
barbarians of the North to the production of hardened steel was a
long step. There is no romance more tasc1nat1ng-no epic more
thrilling. Enwrapped and entwined with 1T are the myriad threads,
Spiritual as we'll as Material, which ar woven into the whole fabric
of human history, the warp and wool of which ire dyed with the
blood and bathed with the tears of the peoples of every age, of every
race and of every cline. With it goes the Story of the Sword that
Destroys, of the Ploughshare that Sustains, and OF the Cross that
Redeems Mankind. Out of it springs all Art, all Science, all Ltera-
ture, all Music, all Painting, all Sculpture, all Riches, all Poverty
in fine, it runs the entire gamut of human endeavor and achievement
and in the awful accusation of its thunderous climax proves Man to
be at once the Master and the Slave of Creation in this, the Age Of
Steel!
STEEL, THE HANDMADE OF CIVILIZATION
In this Twentieth Century of ours the chief commodity of
commerce is. steel
Not only are its uses varied and universal and its services to man
kind inca1cuab1e but IFS manufacture is conducted on such a gigantic