The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-11-22


the last representative of the race
standing alone, looking out upon a
dead world, and viewing the desola-
tion. True he might move to tropi-
cal climate, and find nature producing
trees at most marvellously rapid rate.
But certainly the coal for industries
would have to go. He could get plenty
of bark for quinine, certainly, but he
would find it no easy task to keep the
wheels of civilization turning. AS I
say, these thoughts had a way of
coming up and troubling me. Under
such stress man may say: "why
should I worry. I'll not be here; it
is of no moment to me-" But that you
cannot do, unless you are dominated
by the meanest kind of Selfishness. A
spirit like that would damn the world
before the trees and the coal pass. I
have found comfort and hope in an
other direction. Human ingenuity
under the providential leading, will
devise way. Already much has been
done. Substitutes for trees have been
found for building houses. Brick,
stone, steel, concrete, these have large
ly supplanted woaeas building mater
ial. Electricity has come to pull
trains, street cars and the wheels of
great manufacturing plants. By
products have come to be of more i'm
portance than the original products;
waste that was, has, and is being turn
ed into wealth, skill is supplanting the
bungling and prodigal methods of the
past. One has not the need to
stretch the imagination very far to
see the day in which human skill will
devise way to harness the sun and
during certain period store up heat
to be used when needed. We use ice
when nature is out of the ice business,
and the ice is clean, easier to get and
as abundant as is necessary. We will
use heat caught from the sun when the
heat strikes the earth and is stored up
to be used when cold weather comes {;
or, we will build great heat gathering
plants in the tropical belt, send It by
wire to the cold north or store up and
ship it into the cold region from the
warm regions. Or, else, we will har-
ness the waves, the waterfalls, the
winds and in harnessing them we will
produce motion, motion will produce
neat, and behold a world warm and
snug and secure.
| 1t now transpires that when a man
tells me of the sad day ahead for the
human race, 1 laugh at his fears.
do not see very far into the future,
but / can see far enough to get by
his lonesome outlook. I can see a
world so bright at night that one will
have to hunt dark corner in which
to sleep. Light, warmth, comfort
everywhere. Hot and cold water,
electric lights, artificial heat, but
none the less having the power to
keep old Jack Frost out, why the hu-
man race is just beginning to find its
way in this wonderful old world. Wor-
ry? Not me, l have found better
way, and not by selfishly closing my
eyes and refusing to care about the
future. Not that, by no means that;
but better way that sees the intens-
ffied skill, the inventive genius of men
creating the needed thing when the
necessity arrives.
True, just now, the mad world is
about the business of killing, destroy
ing, wasting, and has no time to give
to the worthy questions. But, even
his thought is not without recompense.
The very madness that prevails will
create, invent, discover much that
will be turned to heal, restore, bless
and comfort mankind when the mad
ness passes and the new idea finds
itself living in a peaceful world. Men
will fly, but not to battle; they will
i I..;ll o..xlau;..a. l..L -.~L E.. H. l.