CHEMISTRY AND CIVILIZATION 159 



Dismissing, as incidental to a mere plaything, the reckless 

 disregard of public safety, as well as the bad manners of the 

 "speeder," ought we not to realize that the undoubted en- 

 joyment and practical convenience of automobiling requires 

 for the locomotion of the single individual an utterly dispro- 

 portionate amount of energy, whether we measure it in the 

 conventional horse power, or in the stored-up solar energy 

 represented by the petroleum burnt up for the propulsion, 

 and the ores, coal, and gums utilized for the construction of 

 this modern conveyance? 



Perhaps the motion-picture, as an instrument for enter- 

 tainment and instruction, is too novel to justify an estimate 

 of its good and evil effects; some hail it as a potent aid to edu- 

 cation, while others invoke the police to curb its power to 

 promote immorality and vice. It is thought a dangerous com- 

 petitor to the theatre; though we may well doubt whether 

 its rivalry will be felt by the higher drama so much as by the 

 vaudeville and melodrama, whose decay can hardly be de- 

 plored. But the economic influence of these cheap and all- 

 pervasive picture-shows has yet to be estimated, both in the 

 amount of money extracted from that portion of the popu- 

 lation which can least afford it, and in the hours diverted 

 from more healthful recreation, as well as from gainful occu- 

 pation. 



Coming to a far more serious problem of world-wide im- 

 port, we have the installation of those modern means of trans- 

 portation which have so vastly extended the distance from 

 which we can derive food and commodities. It would, of 

 course, require years of study by a trained economist to evalu- 

 ate all the effects upon commerce, as well as upon the sub- 

 sistence of urban and rural population, which have resulted 

 from the gradual removal of the grain-farmer and stock-raiser 

 from the neighborhood of the consumer. The sociologist, on 



