Evening star., 1939-01-01

engineer see? 1t would be pleasant to
- state with conviction that all Of the
-miseries of a drifting world would be corrected.
Such prediction would be foolish on the face
of it. Yet the new year presents no problems
that are incapable of intelligent solution
At the moment our vision is obscured by
headline-making news = by conflicting ma
tonal ideologies, and by the political ambi-
tons of nations. We should do we'll to absorb
the wisdom of the great Pasteur. What
really leads US forward" he said. is few
scientific discoveries and their application.
This statement is no less true today than it
was in Pasteur' S time Our problem and our
worry - is this will we continue to use the
brains and the energy of youthful nation to
increase the tempo of science and invention
Will we push on into new fields which will
mean jobs for the jobless. and more bounti
full life for all of US:
The engineer, essentially an optimist, an
swers Yes" Almost alone among men, he
is anxious to move rapidly along into
new world. Others are calling for retreat
into a more leisurely and comfortable day.
Let us see something Of this old world that
looks so inviting in retrospect.
In 1900 barely million homes had electric
ity. Today more than 2O,0OO.OOO have it
and all the labor saving machinery that goes
with it. Only few years ago. an infant was
lust twice as likely to die at birth as he is to-
.>day and the toll of disease was shocking in
light OF present day figures. Diphthera took
forty times as many lives. and typhoid thirty
times as many. A man was four times as likely
to die of tuberculosis and child was nearly
seven times as likely to die of measles as he is
TODAY. An infant that survived the hazards
of birth could expect to live 80 years, where
todav's newborn baby looks forward to 81
wears of life National wealth was less than a
third of that today.
Not very pleasant place, that world ~-
that comfortable world of the period we
vaguely refer to as the good old days Very
well. you may say but how about Jobs What
are we to do with the surplus labor that the
world is apparently burdened with? Fifty
wears ago the United States Commissioner Of
Labor was concerned with the same problem.
The rapid development of machinery. he
said. has brought overproduction. The
nations of the world have overstocked them
selves The day of large profits is prob
ably past Shades of 1929!
Railroads led the country out of the de-
preston Of 1870; utilities marched US out OF
the slump of 1896: and the automobile indus
trv lifted us from the bad times OF 1907.
Invention. at quickened pace. will do more
to solve our problems today than any other
single factor What else is there to be in
- vented That question is repeatedly heard.
1t is foolish and meaningless. There are
thousand things crying for the attention of
opportunities later in this article.
There is a widespread disposition to regard
the United States as static. settled country.
But this is far from the truth. Droves OF
immigrants came here, expecting to return to
their native lands to spend their earnings.
Pioneers pushed into the Ohio Territory, in
tending to tarry awhile and then 60 farther
West. The result of this impermanence was
that we built temporary country. Poor and
shabby buildings were thrown up and land
and natural resources were despoled. The
lob TODAY is to make the United States a
permanent country.
Millions of acres of barren land need trees
and grass At least 2.OOO0O new homes are
necessary. A recent survey indicated that
miserable housing conditions exist A COM