Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



^5o 



"THE MASTER FORCE OF THE 

 WORLD." 



Mr. T. H. Manners Howe puts in a very vivid and 

 >triking manner in the June number of London the 

 ominous facts connected" with the continual rise in 

 prices. He says the master force in this world of ours 

 is not to be found among principalities and powers, but 

 in the pantrv. " To fill the pantry in his rock cave the 

 primeval savage framed his axe of stone. Social man 

 of the twentieth century, impelled by the same stern 

 law, trains great armies and builds fleets of giant 

 warships." 



\V.\CE-E.\RNERS EIGHT PER CENT. POORKR. 



The fact that, according to the official returns of the 

 Board of Trade, our food prices have gone up 8-4 per 

 cent., and our wages have increased less than i per 

 cent., is put by Mr. Howe in very striking light and 

 colour. He shows to what straits the wile of the well- 

 paid artisan, and still more of the ill-paid labourer, are 

 put. It is these straits that are at the l)ack of our 

 labour unrest. Mr. Howe says that in the case of 

 Germany the cost of living has risen about 25 per cent, 

 in the last seventeen years, but in the same period 

 there has been a rise in average wages of from 37 to 

 38 per cent. 



THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR WHEAT. 



He then goes on to refer to the increasing demand 

 for wheat, the staple of the world's food supply. The 

 world's old growing grounds are becoming inadequate 

 to supply the total of the needs of the world's popula- 

 tion. " The d\ namic force radiating from the pantry 

 power-houses of the world's nations is big with the 

 foreboding of a huge reshuffle of time-honoured terri- 

 tories and frontiers." Great world-movements such as 

 this produce grc.il world-struggles ; and in the struggle 

 those alone will survive who are best fitted. 



I'KRIL TO ClUR EMPIRE. 



The British lOmpire holds nearly a quarter of the 

 world's total .icrc.ige of 52,000,000 square miles, and a 

 large proportion of its great virgin area. On the British 

 Kmpire, therefore, the bulk of the movement will be 

 directed. .\ sui < essful attack upon the home islands 

 would break uj) the Empire into more easily disposable 

 fragments. Hence it is the people of Great Britain who 

 will experience the first brunt of the pressure. It is 

 upon the virgin lands of our planet that the movement 

 i . setting. 



TWO DISTINCT FACTORS. 



Mr. Howe mixes in this menacing forecast of his 

 two factors that arc only too frequently confused, but 

 are distinct- the political and the economic. The 

 increasing demand for wheat, lor example, would be 

 satisfied ii\ wheat grown anywhere, under any Govern- 

 ment. Wheat grown in the British Km|)ire would just 

 OS efleclually satisfy the hunger of the German work- 

 man as wheat grown binder the red, white, and black 

 flatt. The most efTicacious answer to the cry of the 



hungry millions is the development of the virgin soil 

 as rapidlv as possible by an accelerated system of 

 emigration, and on the spot a vastly augmented 

 increase in the birthrate. 



"SUN, WIND, AND WAVE" 



As Sources of Motive Power. 

 In the Strand Mr. Arthur Dolling, under the title 

 given above, discusses the possible .sources of the power 

 of the future. 



THE END OF COAL-MINING. 



He quotes Sir William Ramsay's declaration that 

 there is no necessity to mine coal at all. Sir William 

 would run a bore-hole down to the coal stratum, and 

 bv means of tubes set fire to the coal by electricity, 

 and blow air down to enable the coal to burn. Then 

 gas would be produced to work gas-engines at the 

 mouth of the bore-hole and produce power there, which 

 might be diffused by electricity over an area of a 

 hundred miles or more radius : — 



By this plan 30 per cent, of the coal eneryy can be converted 

 into useful work, instead of a meagre 15 per cent., which, by 

 present methods of coal consumption, is the best efficiency 

 obtain.able. Thus we may double the life of our coal mines, and, 

 in addition, the smoke problem will have become a thing of the 

 past. 



SOLAR HEAT. 



The sun has also been harnessed to supply man with 

 requisite motive power. -V boiler is put at the focus ot 

 a reflector, and the steam obtained by the heat of the 

 sun is utilised by a small vertical motor, which can 

 actuate a printing-press. The Funke apparatus is used 

 to create a current of air by which a rcciprocatinc 

 engine or turbine is driven. The .\dams apparatus 

 now in use in India and in Egypt, consists of a cbnica! 

 reflector made ot wood and lined with common silvered 

 sheet glass. Inside of this is placed a cooking vessel 

 which is heated by the reflected rays of the sun. Mr 

 Frank Shuman's sun-engine is to be used in Egypt foi 

 pumping water, and is said to lift 3,000 gallons o 

 water every minute to a height of 33ft. at Philadelphia 

 In Egypt the hotter weather will produce iiettc: 

 results 



TIDAI. POWER. 



The tides of the sea are used by various means. Mr 

 Laird's patent is a huge walled basin on the seashore 

 into which the tide flows o\er a long mill-wheel, th 

 power being conducted by belts to a dynamo. Whei 

 the tide ebbs, the basin being full, the motion of th 

 wheel is reversed. It is estimated that this methoi 

 would produce enough electricity to run all the train 

 on a railwav having its terminus on the coast. Th 

 windmill might be developed so as to supply ever 

 house with electric light and force. 



As tl.e portrait-painter of the horse. Mr. Austi 

 Chester introduces to the readers of Wimisor Mr. J. I 

 Herring. 'I'here arc a large nmnhcr ot rci)roduclions ( 

 Herring's work. 



