The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1919-07-31
WHAT A BILLION
REALLY MEANS
A Billion Minutes Have Not Elapsed
Since the Birth of Christ.

A Billion Minutes Have Not Elapsed
Since the Birth of Christ.
/. Not long ago almost all figuring
was done in hundreds and in thous-
ands; the word million" rarely oc-
Cured, and man could pretty well
visualize the amounts which he sym
bolized with numerals, says the Bos-
ton Globe.
But now to most people figures have
lost all meaning in their present re-
presentation of quantity. This is be-
coming increasingly true of money
figures. The papers daily publish adj
vertisements of issues of corporate
stocks or bonds which run into the
tens of millions.
Recently we moved one step fur
Their, in counting the cost of the war
to ourselves or to the other belliger-
ents, or in raising Liberty loans, we
have progressed into the realm of
billions.
The war is said to have cost us, up
to April 80 last, $21 ,000,0 100000.
Germany is to pay an indemnity es-
timated at $20,000,000 900.
The Victory loan was surprise, as
it was smaller than expected; only $4,-
5O0,000,000 was asked.
Congress is asked to appropriate
81 200 ,000,0 900 for the railroads.
How many of the people who speak
of millions as of a bushel of potatoes
and glibly talk about billions, have
even faint perception of what bill
lion is?
A person so years and months old
has only lived a billion second.
A billion minutes have not quite
elapsed since Christ was born. If a
man had spent 81 every minute of
every hour, day and year since Janu-
airy 1, A. d. l, until today, he would
not yet have spent a billion dollars.
Consequently, the $21 900, 000,0 900
spent by this country in the war is
equivalent to an expenditure of about
SO cents per second for every second
in the Christian era.
To have saved 81 ,000,000,000 on
January /, 1919 without figuring in
terest) one would have had to put by
500 every day since January /, B. c.
25479.
To have saved the same sum since
January Pa. d. /, without interest)
one wouletbave had to deposit 81 ,425
each day.vf
One billion dollars represents about
100000 pounds of gold, or 1000 tons.
1t would take 400 five-ton trucks to
transport this sum, and they would
form a line about four miles long.
In twenty -dollar gold pieces one
billion dollars, if stacked, would
make column ID miles high. If the
coins were laid fiat they would form a
line 1000 miles long. Again, in pen
MES, billion dollars would cover 20
square miles of land, and in a line
would form a band which would encir-
Gle the world at the equartor 471s
times. In 81 bills, fastened end to
end, it would make strip about 49,
500 miles long, or approximately half
the distance from the earth to the
moon.
The Bible seems to us a pretty long
book If copy of the Bible were
cut into its individual words, pub
Usher who had billion dollars could
pay $3.50 for each word and still
have $37, 100000 left.
Cresus has always been spoken of
as the personifcation of wealth. His
fortune has been estimated to have
been about $S,700,000. With a bill
lion dollars one could pay $575 for
every dollar Cresus had.
Machine guns will shoot about 500
shots minute. If one had billion
dollars and shot them in a machine
gun at the rate the gun could fire un-
ceasingly for three years. nine months
and 25 days.
With billion dollars one could en-
ploy 1000 men at SIS day for lit
tie over 542 years.
These are but few instances. Any
one can sit down with a pencil and
figure a thousand more for himself,
and if he will, the expenditures of this
war will assume a far more definite
aspect in his mind, and he will, per-
haps, speak little less glibly of a
billion dollars.