The New York herald., 1922-01-29


II with his wife, Thomas Grant, the
wealthy banfer, hurried to Chicago
to keep an early luncheon engagement
with railroad president who wanted a
heavy loan. After rather protracted
luncheon the banker hurried to Washing
ton to dine with the Secretary of the
Treasury. He left Washington at 8 o'clock,
having promised his wife to meet her at
the Metropolitan Opera House in New
York during the last act of Carmen"
Thus Banker Grant had busy day.
Sounds rather ridiculous, doesn't it?
Breakfast in New York, lunch in Chi
cago, dinner in Washington and then the
opera back in New York-all in one day!
But is it so ridiculous after all?
What of Gov. Henry T. Allen of Kansas,
who while he was lunching in Philadelphia
suddenly remembered an early afternoon
engagement in New York and, excusing
himself, appeared in New York on time,
an hour or so later?
And what of the picture star who at a
dance in San Francisco suddenly remem-
hcred some time after midnight, when any
dance attended by picture star just be-
gins to be lively, that she was expected to
be in her studio outside Los Angeles at
o'clock the next morning to take part
in an elaborate scene on location?
Having ram ON, hornd tho an evo ooy,, che
was there on time, stopping to change
completely from her ball gown to a sport
outfit, and again from the sport outfit to
q movie costume.
Real Collapse of Space
Triumph of the Century
For Gov. Allen here the space between
Philadelphia and New York had virtually
collapsed. To the picture star Los Angeles
was not away at the other end of the long
State at all, but just beyond the San Fran
cisco ballroom. To her, too, space had COL
lapsed
The busy day" of Banker Grant Is not
so much an impossibility as 1t would at first
seem. Perhaps, to be precise and matter
of fact, he would have to disappoint his
wife should he make such a list of engage
ments for one day, but he could be on hand
to breakfast with her the next morning
and by bringing present from either
Washington or Chicago pacify her.
For far places are beginning to be so
close together In the matter of means of
getting from one to the other that 1t will
not be long before busy bankers will reg
lister stern complaints with the Post Office
Department II their mail from China does
not arrive over night.
This lessening Of space-all due to the
3rplane-follows, strangely enough, an
expanding of the world equally remarkable
to rhe one who watches its progress through
history.
Alexander the Great, the Macedonian
conqueror, had no dificulty in conquering
practically the whole world, despite his
primitive methods, for the world was very
conveniently small bit OF land around the
Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.
But 1t grew larger and larger until. un-
der the scrutiny of Ferdinand Magellan, It
reached its greatest proportions. Magellan
sailed for seventeen months in a gallant
effort to at least realize the size OF the
globe, but was killed in the Philippines.
One of the ships of his expedition sue
ceeded in carrying on and went around
the then spacious world in three years.
From that time on the earth steadily has
contracted. Space is folding itself up like
a telescope. Jules verne's stolid but myth
ical Phineas Fogg found II required only
eighty days to circle the sphere: Nellie
BLY,. an American newspaper woman. did
IL in eight days less i'm 1SS9-90, and John
Henry Mears. an American newspaper man.
in 1918 made Il I'm little less than thirty
six days.
To-day man with a great deal of money
enough to establish airplane stations and
reserve machines-could come close TO
cutting that record in half Why not?
Capt. John Alcock few across the Allan
tic Ocean in sixteen hours.
To-morrow-to-morrow It will be poor
aerial express that cannot make It pos
sible for n man TO breakfast in New York,
lunch In Chicago and attend theater In
San Francisco for example
Those who believe this are not theorists.
hut men who have done some of the fast
est travelling or space contracting that has
ever been accomplished There is, for ex-
ample Major Rudolph W. Schroeder. per-
haps the only man in the world who has
ever been. blown backward more than a
hundred miles an hour while actually
roaring through the air at hundred miles
an hour. He happened at the time to be
"bucking" not a wind Of 200 miles an hour,