180 



SCIENCE. 



[^. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 579. 



and movements of population, the occupa- 

 tions and pui'suits in which the masses of 

 men are engaged, the division of labor, the 

 conditions, under which wealth is accumu- 

 lated, the social and industrial habits of the 

 world, all the surroundings and character- 

 istics of the associated life of to-day. The 

 world has seen no change so sudden and so 

 amazing. 



The next fact to be noted is hardly less 

 remarkable. Not only are the new methods 

 of transportation incomparably superior in 

 speed, cheapness and capacity, but, unlike 

 those which have been supplanted, these 

 new methods are themselves capable of in- 

 definite increase and expansion. The maxi- 

 mum efficiency of an animal is so well 

 known as to amount to a constant quantity, 

 and this unit of power is virtually un- 

 changeable. Substantially the same thing 

 is true of a vessel of given dimensions and 

 given spread of canvas. For this reason 

 distribution remained, as I have said, the 

 one fixed and inflexible element to which 

 all other activities, however elastic and 

 progressive, were necessarily adjusted and 

 by which they were limited. 



Now, a special and most suggestive fea- 

 ture of transportation by steam, electricity 

 and other kinds of mechanical force is that 

 its capacity is not only unmeasured and 

 unknown, but will doubtless prove to be 

 practically inexhaustible. That is to say, 

 no certain limits can be assigned to the 

 operation or effect of these new agencies as 

 compared with those which have been 

 superseded. Therefore, speed may reach 

 many times the rate now attained, the size, 

 of vehicles may be greatly increased and 

 the cost of carriage for the longest dis- 

 tances reduced to an astonishing minimum ; 

 so that as progress goes on in developing 

 the means and methods of distribution, the 

 habits and needs of men will be more and 

 more modified, with consequences to social 

 order and the general conditions of life 



which may be far greater than have yet 

 been imagined. 



But this is not all. Another fact is 

 still more woijderful. Coincident with this 

 sudden transfer from animal power to 

 steam have come the new and amazing 

 means of transmitting intelligence. In a 

 brief generation the barriers of time and 

 distance, hitherto so formidable, have been 

 swept away by telegraph and telephone. 

 No longer limited to the agencies by which 

 material things are transported, we send 

 our thought and speech with lightning 

 swiftness to the four quarters of the globe, 

 and hold all lands and peoples within the 

 sphere of instant intercourse. So recent is 

 this miracle that we are still dazzled by its 

 marvels without realizing its tremendous 

 import. 



That this substitution of steam and elec- 

 tricity as the instruments of commerce and 

 communication has been an immeasurable 

 gain is witnessed here and evei-j'where by 

 half a century of unparalleled progress. 

 Along these wondrous pathways the world 

 has literally leaped. Released from de- 

 pendence on beasts of burden, the entire 

 realm of industry has been quickened and 

 enlarged; productive energy has been vivi- 

 fied by new and limitless means of distribu- 

 tion; the products of the whole earth are 

 embraced in wide circles of exchange ; all 

 the luxuries of all lands are brought to 

 every household; wealth has multiplied 

 until we are almost surfeited with its 

 abundance, when other people possess it; 

 the genius of invention has been stimulated 

 to larger exercise, the sphere of thought 

 grandly extended, the impulses of charity 

 awake:aed to nobler activity, while keener 

 sympathy through closer contact is point- 

 ing the road to real brotherhood. 



But these manifold benefits have not been 

 secured without many and serious evils. 

 The potent energy which produced such 

 prodigies of utility and convenience has 



