The Washington times., 1920-02-06


Why Talk to This Earth2
You Live on a Dynamo.
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE
tcepyrisAt. issel
Whiskey - . remedy will not
hereafter be mentioned In the
American Phsrmacopssia. . book
OF remedies. prepared every ten
years, This 10 based on common
sense, not on prohibition.
DIR. OrIer long ago demonstrated
In bis admirable work on medical
practice that alcoholic stimulants
are useful TO undertakers only. A
tired heart needs rest, not lashing
with whiskey. In case OF tempo
rary stoppage OF the heart, as Osler
points out, alcohol might be used
as an injection into the blood, not
as q drink. Other drugs would
answer the purpose better than
alcohol.
As an alleged remedy. whiskey
10 dead. The big question is. can
1t be killed as a poison secretly
manufactured and widely distrib-
uted? -E
Slavery for debt ID to be wiped
out In the Malay States by order
OF England. II a Malay man owed
money, the mans children were
taken in pledge" and worked as
slaves until the debt was paid.
nothing deducted from abe debt for
work done by the slave pledges
The debt was. hereditary, and the
slave childrsn's children might be
kept working for the debtor. This
horrified the British authorities. =
Yet when Dickens lived prisons
for debtors wers scattered all over
England. men rotted and died in
them. There we're even little
private debtors jails in which the
prosperous might support relations
In debt, as we have private insane
asyluuns for the well-to-do.
We have mo debtors jails in this
country. But II q woman with half
. dozen children is unable to pay
her rent, law permits the landlord
to put her out on the sidewalk
with children and furniture in
winter, which Is good imitation
Of a debtors prison turned inside
out. > o.
Strange signals, apparently
from the outside universe, are In
terfering with our wifsless mes
sages. These interferences puz-
zle Marconi and other scientists.
One of our neighbors, perhaps
Marx perhaps Ven4s, they say,
may be trying to communicate
with us through the ether just
why a planet millions Of years
older than ourselves should try to
talk to us Is not clear. You snap
your fingers, making friendly
faces at month.old baby; you
do not try TO, talk to it, for it has
nothing To ssy. One of the older
planets may be, electrically speak
ing, Swapping it's fingers to at
tract tM attention of our baby
world. but they must know we
have nothing worth while to say
to thea.
When we read about electric in
references through the ether we
are reminded that what We call
matter is really electricity. The
earth under you is a gigantic bat
terry negatively charged to a po-
tential Of billion volts"
Elevate the number ten to Nits
eighteenth power, which would
mean a string of tiny zeroes all
across this page, and you would
get the number of electro static
units in the earth's charge.
According to Fournier D'Albe,
author of most interesting book,
''The Electron Theory" for every
square centimeter of the earth's
surface (about one-hundredth part
of a square yard) there are 1880
millions of fres>efectrons or units
of electric force. Your hand hold
ing this newspaper is made up Of
molecules. These are divided into
atoms, particles Of matter incon-
ceivably dense, around which the
electrons revolve as the planets
reyolve around the sun.
Man is indeed "fearfully and
wonderfully made" Well may he
praise the Lord for keeping him
safe on a planet charged with
billion volts of electricity, when 1t
takes only thousand volts or so
to kill him in the electric chair.
Thus far Senate talk on the
League Of Nations, printed in the
Record at public expense. amounts
to 100000 words. They could
have condensed 1t into Americans