Masterpieces of Science 



other. Were electricity unmastered there could 

 be no democratic government of the United 

 States. To-day the drama of national affairs 

 is more directly in view of every American citizen 

 than, a century ago, the public business of Dela- 

 ware could be to the men of that little State. 

 And when on the broader stage of international 

 politics misunderstandings arise, let us note how 

 the telegraph has modified the hard-and-fast 

 rules of old-time diplomacy. To-day, through 

 the columns of the press, the facts in controversy 

 are instantly published throughout the world, 

 and thus so speedily give rise to authoritative 

 comment that a severe strain is put upon nego- 

 tiators whose tradition it is to be both secret and 

 slow. 



Railroads, with all they mean for civilization, 

 could not have extended themselves without the 

 telegraph to control them. And railroads and 

 telegraphs are the sinews and nerves of national 

 life, the prime agencies in welding the diverse 

 and widely separated States and Territories of 

 the Union. A Boston merchant builds a cotton- 

 mill in Georgia; a New York capitalist opens a 

 copper-mine in Arizona. The telegraph which 

 informs them day by day how their investments 

 prosper tells idle men where they can find work, 

 where work can seek idle men. Chicago is laid 

 in ashes, Charleston topples in earthquake, 

 Johnstown is whelmed in flood, and instantly 

 a continent springs to their relief. And what 

 benefits issue in the strictly commercial uses of 

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