Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-02

means of communication with Mars
might be established with a billion dol
lars. Marconi is fumblng about in inter-
planetary space to start conversations
with Venus. An even more difficult task
engages Sir Oliver Lodge, who has been
trying desperately for years to rend the
veil that hangs between US and that West
where soldiers of all lands found peace
after the matchlcss torment of modern
battleficlds
Dctu cen them they may get Us into
meuding trouble. If there is intelligence
on Mars it is very old intelligence-som
millions of years older than our own.
Venus is younger than the earth and,
perhaps, less Sophisticated. We might
get by, as they say, with Venus. But what
appalling embarrassments might fall as
eliminating punishment upon this
planet if it had suddenly to reveal its
follies and frailties and the vast accumu-
lation of its mistakes to eyes not hard
ened by the habit of acceptance? What
could Doctor Steinmetz say if he were
asked why his brothers in wisdom still
kill each other elaborately by machinery
for no cause that any one can clearly
understand?
If the realistic PHILOSOPHERS of the time
were condemned for the sake of economy
to a sentence or TWO, the result would not
be such as to impress adjacent worlds. 1t
would be necessary to cry out, first of all,
for dry Venus. We might teach Mars
the game of empire, which. after all, is
the one to which the majority Of nations
, have given the longest study and the
most sincere devotion.
To Doctor Steinmetz would fall the un-
happy task of explaining tn. age that
produced the German kaiser and the un-
happier task of explaining the foreign
diplomatists who still seem to believe
furtively in the theories of Wilhelm and
his group. Bryan and jazz, strikes and
trusts would have to follow in the dismal
line of lamcntablc things. until stellar
space echoed with the last bitter truth
about musical comedy and the cult that
can be happy only by wearing diamonds
at breakfast.
| A billion dollars is not a great deal of
money as money goes. But it might be
! used in better and far simpler ways than
: Doctor SteinmetZ suggests,- Properly
expended. it might bridge other dark
/ spaces and establish means of communi-
/ cation between the White House and
| Congress. between the plain people of
! Europe and their governments, between
capital and labor. between the folk who
| produce more food than they can sell and
! the other people who cannot find, at any
tolerable price, enough food to put on
! their tables.
Men who devote themselves to pure
| science arc a marvellous group, marvellous
in their patience. in ability and in their
| inconsistencies. They save life with one
! hand and with the other they destroy it.
! If they were better able to read their
! times they would know that problems
moro pressing and difficult than any
shrouded in the eternal ether await them
lust around the corner.
II begins to appear that somebody Will
have to find a substitute for work--an
old-fashioned means to happiness that is
poinp swiftly out Of style. A pundit with
his ear to the ground and desire to meet
the immediate and practical needs OF his
age wouldn't lose time in any effort to
chat with planets. He would work
nfouslv to pave. let us say, the way to the
sclf-boiling egg and the self-frying po-
tato. Multitudes would call him bene'
factor. If he could discover self-mining
coal and if he could make bread grow or
trees he would do the thing which most
amateur thinkers believe to be the sole
requirement for perfect world.
Sir Oliver Lodge is another man who
has forgotten the rules of caution anc
prudence in his thirst for strange knoWl
edge. Like Marconi and Steinmetz, he Is
doing his utmost to open way for crltl
cism that might disturb our complacencl
and our confidence beyond all repair.
In the region that Sir Oliver is trying
10 penetrate if it exists at all, there aY
some odd millions of young men wht
recently were sent out of this life wlthou
a chance for happiness, or peace, o.
understanding. They were condemned b!
gentlemen who sat in leather chairs Ia
from the danger and tumult, engrosset
with purposes that have no relation witt
the hopes or the happiness OF men. 1t i
risking much to get within touch OF thel
minds and voices now. They might haV
things to say that would blast the soul
and wither the very ears Of men who sui
sit in the seats of the mighty in the ol
world and hide greed and cruelty an
newer schemes of devastation with sound
inc familiar platitudes
No. There is only one thing to be sal
n the men who are trying to work neI
miracles Of revelation. 1t is sentenc
| handed down from antiquity. 1t is, LA
Off" -.
: The earth. after all its opportunities
needs more time to compose itself befor
4 4 can start an agitation for league G
= planets.
4 This world moves in what might b
4 called the most desirable suburb of stella
1 snace. 1t is incomparably rich in tn
= means to sustain and develop the thin
/ which science knows as life. 1t coul
a nourish three times as many people g
4 now live on it. Yet in places it is hungr,
1 and in places it is cold, and it cannot fin
80, a, ;tu heaTt