The New York herald., 1922-05-07
WhatheWorld WltbeLike n . Hundred Years

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phones, canals, docks. water supply. gas
0f any and electricity. other industries
will exist much as they do to-day, but it
is likely that the State will be inclined to
control them, to limit their profits, and to
arbitrate between them and the workers
We find a hint of this in America in the
antitrust acts; a hundred years hence
the tendency will be much stronger. 1t is
worth noting as an international factor
that by that time purely national industries
will almost have disappeared, and that the
work of the world will be in the hands of
controlled combines governing the supply
of commodity from China to Peru.
Unfortunately these international rela-
tions through trade are not likely to have
affected political conditions. There will
still be war. The wars of that period may
be little less frequent than they are to-
day, and be limited by arrangements such
as the Pacific agreement, the agreement
between Canada and the United States of
America to leave their frontier unfortifed
that those wars to come will be made hor-
rible beyond my conception by new poison
gases, inextinguishable flames and light
proof smoke clouds. In those wars the air.
plane bomb will seem as out of date as is
to-day the hatchet War may ultimately
disappear, but this lies beyond the limits
of this article and even beyond those of
my mind.
AS regards the United States in particu-
lar, 1t is likely that the country will have
come to a complete settlement with pop
ulation OF about 24O,OOO,OOO The idea of
North and South, East and West, will have
almost disappeared; by that time the Amer
ican race will have taken so definite form
that immigration will not affect it, The
American from Key West and the Ameri-
can from Seattle will be much the same
kind OF mar
That is to say as regards race, but feel
that mentally the American of 2022 will
have enormously changed He is to-day
the most enterprising creature in the
world, and is driven by a continual urge to
rise, to make money. That is because the
modern American lives in a country that
is only partly developed, and where i'm
mense wealth still lies ready for him to
take. In 2022 that will be as finished as
1t is to-day in England. American wealth
will then be eithe.' developed or known,
and all of il will belong to somebody
There will be no more opportunity in
America than there is in England to-day
Those Americans will know that it is
practically certain that they will die much
in the same position as the one i'm which
they were born Those Americans will
therefore be less enterprising and much
more pleasure loving. They will have
rebelled against long hours; the chances
are that in 2022 few people will work
more than seven hours day, IL as much
The effect of this, which | am sure
sounds regrettable to many of my readers,
will, in my opinion, be good. 1t was essen
tial that the American race should be ca
pable of intense labor and intense ambi-
tion If it was to develop its vast country.
but one result has been haste, overwork,
noise, all of which is bad for the nerves.
In 2o22 America will have made her for
tune and will be enjoying it as well as she
can.
think that she will be a happier coun-
try than she is to-day. The appeal OF
wealth will be less because wealth
will be difficult to attain, so those
Americans to come will be producing in
art and literature infinitely more than they
are producing to-day. To-day, in fiction.
America leads the world by sincerity
faith and fearlessness, abut the American
novel of significance is novel of revolt
against the thralls of money, of conven-
tion and of puritanism. In 2O22 American
literature will be literature of culture
The battle will be over and the muzzle
Off There will be no more things one
can't say, and things one can't think. No
doubt there will be i'm 2022 people who
think as they would have thought in 1922
or even little earlier, but a great LIBERAL
ism of mind will prevail
II is not my business to congratulate
the future, and / have no desire to do So
as II is impossible to say a thing is good
or bad; all one can say is that IL exists.
But in case some Of my readers feel re-
pulsion when they contemplate my lunch
pills or my nationalized railroads. to those
! would say that they are perhaps unduly
anxious The world takes care of itself:
Il has been doing so for hundreds OF CEN
turtles and is still spinning; the world will
take care of itself in 2022 that is its chief
occupation. More than that. I feel con-
vinced that though the world may lose
graces. 1t will develop other graces, that
on the whole and as time goes on man