The New York herald., 1922-05-07
By w. L. George
= HERE is a good old rule which bids
us never prophesy unless we know,

us never prophesy unless we know,
but, all the same, when one cam
not prophesy one may guess, especially
If one is sure of being out of the way
when the reckoning comes. Therefore it
is without anxiety that suggest pic
ture OF this world hundred years hence,
and venture as my first guess thst the
world at that time would be remarkable
to one of our ghosts, not so much because
it was so different as because it was so
similar
In the main the changes which we may
expect must be brought about by science.
It is easier to bring about revolutionary
scientific discovery such as that Of the
X-ray than to alter in the least degree
the quality of emotion that arises between
man and a maid. There will probably
be many new rays in 2O22, but the people
whom they illumine will be much the same
From which the reader may conclude
that do not expect anything startling in
the way of scientific discovery That is
not the case; am convinced that in 2O22
the advancement of science will be amaz-
ing, but it will be nothing like so amazing
as Is the present day in relation to hun
dred years ago. A sight of the world to-
day would surprise President Jefferson
much more, / suspect, than the world Of
2022 would surprise the little girl who
sells candies at Grand Central Station.
Of roiIr do
telegraphs, telephones, automobiles, aero
planes, gramophones, movies, radium, &C.;
he did not even know hot and cold bath
rooms. The. little girl at Grand Central is
blase child; to her these things are COM
monplace; the year 2O22 would have to-
produce something very startling to in
terest her ghost. The sad thing about dis
covery is that it works toward, it's own
extinction. and that the more. we discover
the less there is left
1t does not follow that, scientifically the
year 2022 should fail to be amazing.
suspect that commercial flying will have
become entirely commonplace. The pas
senger steamer will survive on the coasts,
but it will have disappeared on the main
routes, and will have been replaced by
flying conveys, which should cover the
distance between London and New York
in about twelve hours. AS l am anxious
that the reader should not look upon me
as a visionary, I would point out that in
ar airplane collision which happened re-
Gently a British passenger plane was
travelling at 1S0 miles an hour which speed
would have brought it across the Atlantic
in eighteen hours. 1t is therefore quite
conceivable that America may become sep
arated from Europe by only eight hours.
The problem is mainly one Of artificial
heating and ventilation to enable the
aeronauts to survive.
The same cause will affect the railroads,
which at that time will probably have
ceased to carry passengers except for sub
urban traffic. Railroads may continue to
handle freight, but 1t may be that even
this will be taken from them by road traf-
fic, because the automobile does not have
to carry the enormous overhead charges
of tracks. Certainly food, mails and all
light goods will be taken over from the
railroads by road trucks. AS for the
horse, il will probably no longer be bred
in white countries
The people of the year 2022 will probably
never see wire outlined against the sky;
It is practically certain that wireless teleg-
raphy and wireless telephones will have
crushed the cable system long before
the century is done. Possibly, too, power
may travel through the air when means
are found to prevent enormous voltages
being suddenly discharged in the wrong
place.
Coal will not be exhausted but our re-
serves will be seriously depleted, and so
will those of oil. One Of the world dan
gers century hence will be shortage of
fuel. but 1t is likely that by that time a
great deal of power will be obtained from
tides, from the sun, probably from radium
and other forms of radial energy, while IL
may also be that atomic energy will be
harnessed. II 1t rs true that matter Is kept
together by forces known as electrons, It
Is possible that we shall know how to dis
,perse matter so as to release the electron