The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-07-12
TALKING TO MARS

Now comes a scientist proposing to communicate with the
planet Mars. A daring experiment, but one that has been long
talked Of In order to lessen the distance he is going to 90 up in
a dirigible balloon higher than anyone has ever yet assembled.
lie may do this and then not accomplish anything. If a man were
to attempt to send his voice across the Atlantic ocean. and in order
to lessen the distance he should wade out into the sea until the
water reached his armpits, he might wade farther than anyone else
has done without measurably lessening the distance, and the ocean
is hundreds OF miles wide while Mars is millions of miles away.
Should he reach the outer rim of the earthis atmosphere he would
be as far away as ever, and he may be going away from instead
of toward Mars. What. we see as Mars TODAY NAV be light that
left Mars 500 or 1000 years ago. If Mars really occupies its ap-
parent point in the heavens, a balloon ascending can not escape
from the earths atmosphere. The substitute of the atmosphere
S OF sufficient density to carry the balloon around with the revo-
utions OF the earth on its axis. In y hours the direction of the
balloon would be directly opposite to that which it took when it
started. 1t would be going down instead of up. If the original
course could be followed, what is 50 miles Topped off of millions?
The feat does not seem possible, and we can say to our am
}itious scientist as was said to Paul, Much learning hath made
he mad"
There may be sentient, intelligent human beings on Mars,
tut they may have among them no Marconi to rig up a wireless
telegraph. They may have no equipment to receive Our message
md none with which to transmit a reply. There's no harm in
ryng and no heresy in skephcany calculating on success or
failure.
-four chemists could discover a way to resolve a human being,
body and intellect, into a thought, the trip could be made in an
instant, because thought can travel beyond the ultimate reach Of
infinity. How to restore the solution to its original concrete and
sentent objectivty would be another question which may be pre-
termitted until the first is discovered.
Our ~neighbors in Mars may have many ways Of doing things
that are impossible to us and Of which we wot not.
No pent-up Utica confines the human mind. 1t has meas
urably triumphcd over time and distance, and communicating
with Mars is no more difficult than was communication
with points on the earth's surface by telegraph or telephone rs
years ago. However, the attempt might as we'll be made from
the ground. Success can not be assured, but safety will be en-
HANGED.
If we can establish social relations with our ~neighbors in
Mars it will be OF great advantage in many ways. We will be
given to see things from new and different viewpoints. Much
that we now see through a glass darkly will come into the full
bright light of our unclouded consciousness.
The present attempt may fail, but others, in other ways, may
be made. We believe that our whispered or unspoken prayers
reach the throne of grace in the highest heaven, far above the
moon and Mars, and beyond distant Arcturus, May we not pro-
gress far enough toward perfection some day so that even Our
physical and mechanical efforts will be sublimatcd into PRAYERS
and in this way traverse space and time as if they were finite and
of small compass?