Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-04-12


 the neld for one nation or another, ana fortunes at every hand amoun,- Ing to multimillions, il is no longer sear'llns to hear people speak of bil- llohs or this or that, says the Literary plsest: the two-billion congress startled no one but the Republican party. To the rest of the public t was hardly extraordinary. But writer in the Los Angeles Times, wondering whether people really con celVed how great number they were handling, has been at some pains to set together few illustrations If what billion really means.
 we understand readily that bil- ilon IS thousand millions, and that a million is in turn a thousand thon- sands. But if it is applied to ob- 1ects, it seems to pass almost be- yond imagination. It is easy to think of billion dollars as belonging to MT. Rockefeller but suppose it IS a matter of time, remarks the writer If we look into the question carefully, we snail sec that since the birth ,)f Christ, there have been but few more than a billion of minutes! And along the same train of thought he continues:
 A minute is such trifling measure Of time and dollar is such a small sum. Yet since the beginning of the Christian era there have been but d few more than a billion minutes, and the silver dollars would plate the sides of every warship in our navy. l If Rockefeller, assuming that he possest billion dollars, had his pile in silver dollars they would make stack, piled as coins are ordinarily piled, 24S miles high. Set edge to edge these dollars would form a gilt tering ribbon from New York to Salt Lake City. To coin the dollars would require the use of 3125O tons of silver and to haul them to the mint would call for 2,0S3 freight cars, drawn by 104 locomotives. The combined length of the trains carrying this for- tune would be in excess of 14 miles At an ordinary valuation of agri. cultural lands in the best farming sec- tions of the country, a billionaire could buy farm as large as the con- bined area of the state of New YorK, i Massachusetts and New Hampshire i If he could purchase land at $1 an acre, he could buy all the territory of the United States east of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Pictures have often been drawn Of the wealthiest man counting his hoard; but he never counted it dollar by dollar If he had the entire sum before him and could handle it as | h; -;al> oI to the second-it would take him, working night and day, six years and four months to complete this tass. If, of course. he worked on union- labor scale, he would be just 19 years on the job. In order to have it coined 1 for this pastime the mint would have to work making dollars for 32 years without pause, day or night.
 The speediest element with which the mind is acquainted Is light, for we are not, it is claimed, yet certain of the speed of electricity. Light travels approximately at the rate of 1S6,O00 miles a second, which, so far | as earthly distances are concerned, 1 is practically instantaneous. Yet, if a searc:llight sufficiently powerful to cast its rays a billion miles into space were turned on from the earth it would not light up its objective point for more than two months afterward. If our sole illumination were a sun billion miles away and the fire were suddenly extinguished we would see l that sun for 62 days afterward, that length of time being required for the rush to the earth of the days that were sent forth before it's death. A striking point is made by the statistician when he observes that we all comprehend the speed of the ordi- nary rifle bullet, that is, about half mile a second. Now, he supposes, 1 if rifle billion miles away were shot at a man (granting that the bullet would carry the distance), the intended victim and all his descend ants for 24 generations would have plenty of time to pack up their house. hold goods and move to the other side of the world to dodge the bullet, for it would not arrive for eight hundred years. x |, @
 Assuming the question of railway train on straight track, we are told:
 l Il O 1dI1 W dJ -tl dlII, plOCCCulAS dC CAV rate of mile minute, had been, et the dawn of the Christian era, started around the earth on straight track. it's object being to run 1,000000,00 miles without stop, it would ha 7e been necessary for that train to circle the earth 10000 times and it would not have come to the end of it's jour- ney until nearly New Years Eve, 162S-16 centuries after Christ was born. During it's frantic flight it would have seen the Savior live and die; Rome rise,' flourish, and decay; Britain discovered and vanguished by the Roman legions, and London and Paris built. It would have proceeded on its journey throughout the dark ages. It would have witnessed the birth of Columbus, the discovery oi