The Indianapolis times. [volume], October 17, 1929, Home Edition, Page PAGE 4, Image 4

About The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965

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PAGE 4
/C*/P tt S - HOW AMD
E. E. Slosson
In the death of Edward Emery Slosson, America
has sustained a great loss.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of our life to
day is the rapidity and variety of our scientific dis
coveries and mechanical inventions. Quite as aston
ishing, however, as the progress of science and inven
tion is the Ignorance of even the literate populace
regarding these matters.
A host of scientists and engineers continually are
at work to carry on discovery and to make its ap
plication to Industry. Few Indeed are engaged in
clarifying and humanizing this knowledge, so that
the man on the street may know the why and where
fore of the marvelous and changing world about him.
Moreover, the second task requires more rare and
diversified gifts than straight research.
Dr. Slosson was our foremost popularizer of sci
entific achievement. It will be hard to replace him.
We ill can afford to dispense with his useful services.
A research scientist of repute, he was possessed
of rare powers of lucid and concise statements. His
“creative chemistry” marked an epoch in interpreting
science to the laymen. It became one of the best
sellers during literary seasons.
He next proceeded to organize Science Service,
founded by E. W. Scripps, the first systematic effort
to keep the public up to date on t.he progress of
science.
Dr. Slosson was not only an indefatigable worker
in behalf of scientific education. He was an ever alert
battler for intellectual freedom. Among other things,
he took an active part in the Scopes defense. It was
he who raised the fund whereby Scopes was able to
cor* nue his scientific studies at the University of
Chicago.
In all ways Dr. Slosson was one of our most
creditable and helpful citizens. His passing will be
deplored by all friends of enlightenment and toler
ance.
The A. F. of L. Acts
"Amidst an outpouring of enthusiasm seldom
equaled at similar conventions, the delegates to the
annual convention of the American Federation of
bor today responded to the call of the southern tex
tile workers and voted to help finance the movement
in the south and to form plans for organizing the
southern workers, regardless of craft or calling,” ac
cording to a dispatch from Toronto.
This is good news.
Explaining this new enthusiasm, one delegate said
the federation had needed prodding.
Criticism by the Scripps-Howard newspapers and
others, calling upon the federation for more action
in the south— resented by some A. F. of L. members
—was gentle prodding compared with the pitiful ap
peals for help from the southern workers themselves.
Reports on conditions of industrial slavery and
violence suffered by the southern mill workers, and
the slaying of strikers by sheriffs were so terrible
that the convention had no further hesitancy in
voting for a "million dollar’ drive.
The average textile waw in the south was rep'*. ted
as $9.58 for a 54-hour week.
"We need salt pork, flour, clothes and protection
for evicted families; also need competent lawyers to
give us all possible protection.” was the plea of the
local union in Marion, N. C., six of whose members
have been murdered.
It is tragic that such a plea from those isolated
A. F. of L. members, fighting alone, should have to
be made at this late day.
But it is a fine thing that the federation is
aroused. It obviously is the logical organization to
do the job. The mere passing of resolutions, how
ever. is only the start. Money must be raised. Ac
tion must follow words.
And In Its action the A. F. of L. will have the
support of all Americans believing in the constitu
tional rights of labor and in a prosperous, fair and
peaceful American industry.
President Greer, of the federation, after describing
the proposed drive, said:
"Then we will have answered those who say that
for years we have neglected the south.
President Green is right. That indeed Is the only
answer to critics —action will dispel charges of Inac
tion.
But. vastly more important, action by the A. F.
of L. will answer the demand of the workers them
selves. That Is what counts. The A. F. of L. need
not worry much about tire opinions of outsiders, even
of Its friends. It will stand or fall by the judgment
of the workers who arc calling to it for help.
Flexing Both Ways
One good point was made by Mr. Hoover In his
appeal for retention of the flexible tariff provision
under which the President may change rates up to
50 per cent. It permits adjustment of single schedules
without reopening congresisonal debate and log-roll
ing for general tarifT revision.
Senator Norris and others opposing the existing
provision have met the President’s argument. They
have proposed an amendment which would limit con
gressional debate, on a recommended change of rate
by the tariff commisison, to the specific schedule under
consideration.
With this safeguard, the senate should accept the
rroposal to return to congress the sole authority to
fix tariff rates—that is. the sole authority to legislate
and tax. That certainly is the spirit of the Constitu
t.on, despite the supreme court ruling that congress
was within the letter of its rights in 1922 in trans
ferring some leglsaltive power to the President through
the flexible provision.
But the issue is not one of theory, or appeal to
tradition. The test should be one of Democratic
efficiency. And the test should be determined by ex
perience.
When enacted the flexible provision looked like a
major reform, helping to tAke politics out and put
science into tariff revision. Asa matter of record,
it simply has not worked that way. President Coolidge
used it for a rather general raise in rates, and through
it destroyed much of the non-partisan character of
the tarifT commission. It has been one of the chief
instruments by which the executive has encroached
on the functions of the legislative branch of govern
ment.
The art of government, no less than of business or
of life, is to learn from experience. Therefore, we be
s lieve that the President and the majority group of
his party in the senate are unwise in ignoring the bad
record of the present flexible provision.
Under the Democratic-Progressive coalition's pro
posed amendment, the importance of a non-partisan
The Indianapolis Times
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PHONE—Riley MAI . THURSDAY. OCT. 17. 1929.
Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Asso
elation Newapijx'r Inrormtflon Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations.
"Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way”
and scientific tariff commission would be enhanced.
The commission's recommendation for changes in in
dividual rates, either upward or downward, would not
the;*, be so subject to advance influence or later sup
pression as under the present system.
The fact that President Hoover is not apt to mis
use the flexible machinery for partisan purposes in
Coolidge fashion should not prevent the senate from
readjusting that machinery on the basis of hard ex
perience.
Pay Dirt Already
The senate lobby investigation committee has
struck pay dirt already. It is showing up attempts
made by the pottery industry to bully and browbeat
tariff commission experts whose figures did not sup
port the industry’s demand for higher tariffs.
Letters were written to President Hoover and Sec
retary Mellon demanding removal of Frederick L.
Koch, the commission’s pottery expert. Both manu
facturers and representatives of the organized pot
tery workers called on the commission to subdue
Koch.
"I thought the commission should call Koch in and
instruct him to remain neutral and unbiased,” testi
fied William Burgess, who has represented the pot
tery people in every tariff fight since 1894, save for
the four years he was a member of the tariff commis
sion by appointment of President Harding.
“Neutral and unbiased,” apparently meant that
Koch should confine his activities to giving informa
tion to senators interested in getting higher rates.
Such lobby activities are reprehensible. If every
government employe who takes an action disliked by
special interests is to be subjected to threats of los
ing his job, the inevitable result will be loss of morale
in the government service.
The tariff commission should have resented the
demands of the lobbyists. Instead, the testimony
shows, about the only thing it did was to inform
Koch of the charges against him. The effect on his
state of mind as a government expert might have
been disastrous.
Too much of the tariff commission’s record for
the last seven years is one of inefficiency and com
pliance with demands for higher tariffs. Almost all
this is due to pressure from the lobby. The senate
committee has aided in showing how this lobby
works.
Make Public the Report
Agents of the department of commerce have In
vestigated the wreck of the Transcontinental Air
Transport Company’s plane, the City of San Fran
cisco, which caused eight deaths, and have submitted
a report to Secretary Lamont.
Lamont refuses to make the report public. He
says his department has the protection in reporting
accidents that is given the interstate commerce com
mission, which determines the causes of all railroad
wrecks. Lamont further indicates a disinclination to
make such reports public even though given such pro
tection.
Why this secrecy in an accident to a common
carrier?
Whatever the reason, Secretary Lamont is adopting
an unwise course. Aviation can succeed only by being
carried on in the open, with the public keeping step
with its accidents as well as its improvements and
regulation.
The secretary will do well to reconsider and make
the report public.
REASON
DE PAUW university at Greencastle refused to put
a horned toad in the comer stone of anew reci
tation hall.
If De Pauw has any teachers like some of those
at other universities, she should put a professor in
the corner stone and put the toad in the faculty.
a o a
Great Britain has selected the warships she will
scrap if this proposed five-power conference declares
for naval reduction.
It’s an even bet that some of them were in the
fleet Nelson commanded at the battle of Trafalgar.
a a
The senate voted down Filipino independence, but
if we didn’t have them, it’s not likely that one senator
would vote to acquire them.
McKinley anticipated their acquisition when urged
to make war on Spain, saying: "We can defeat Spain,
but nobody knows where war will end.”
a a a
THAT war was not handed to the people by the pol
iticians, but by the people to the politicians.
McKinley did all he could to avoid it, as did Speak
er Reed of the house of representatives and the lead
ers of the senate, but the popular demand was over
whelming.
tt o tt
Youth is wonderful, but when it comes to celebrat
ing Halloween every night in October, it’s the least
bit overdone. We should return to the old custom and
pour all the devilment into two nights.
tt tt tt
Since she has lost out in Rumania. Queen Marie
should return to the United States and complete that
tour she was forced to abandon.
She owes It to the fellows who bought plug hats
in which to receive her, for they never will have an
other opportunity to wear them.
tt a
- the world series over, there should be a
game between the fellows who wrote the baseball ar
ticles that were signed by the Athletics and the fel
lows who wrote the stories that were signed by the
Cubs.
tt tt tt
DR. JAMES BREASTED, celebrated Egyptologist,
states that the inscriptions on the tombs along
the Nile indicate that man’s conscience was bom
about 4,000 years ago.
However that may be. quite a few of the human
race got the thing under perfect control soon after it
arrived.
Last year Marion Talley, the grand opera war
bler, told ajl of us that she was going to give Broad
way the air and spend the rest of her life on a Kansas
farm, but she now is discovered, living in New York.
Possibly she gave agriculture the once over and
decided that when it came to notes, she would rather
sing them than renew them.
a a
And now Mrs. John Coolidge is going to write for
the magazines.
How in the world can anybody expect John to re
main an honest, hard-working railroad man when
his father, mother and his wife actually are market
ing their produce for so much a word!.
FREDERICK
By LANDIS
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
M. E. Tracy
SAYS:
; There Are Too Many Laws
in This Country That Block
Justice More Often Than
They Serve It.
RELIEF not only in God, but in
hell, is required to give testi
mony a first-class rating in North
Carolina.
This is not a matter of judicial
opinion, but of statute.
The statute was passed 152 years
ago
It has not been enforced very
eften, which may be due to the prev
alence of orthodoxy, or to the fact
that lawyers neglected to bring it up.
The statute is just as effective,
however, as though it had been
adopted last week and represented
twentieth century intelligence, in
stead of fourteenth century super
stition.
I1 B tt
There are too many laws like that
in this country—laws that fail to
represent modem ideas; laws that
block justice more often than they
serve it, and that cause ordinary
folks to wonder whether common
sense has fled the courtroom.
It is bad enough to make truth
a matter of legal quibbling, but the
situation becomes hopeless when it
is made a matter of religious con
victions based on fear.
tt a a
Truth Fails to Count
MRS. EDITH MILLER, 20-year
old wife of one of seven de
fendants now on trial at Gastonia,
frankly admitted that she was a
Communist and did not believe in
God.
Realizing what such admissions
meant, as she must, would she have
made them if she were a liar?
Her obvious courage in favor of
the truth, however, made little im
pression.
What weighed with the court was
her opposition to certain forms of
government and faith. Because she
was unafraid not only to speak her
mind in the face of an antagonistic
majority, but also of punishment
after death, she was stamped as
probably untruthful, when her very
act proved that she would rather
take chances fdr the sake of truth
than spare herself by white lying,
as she easily could have (lone.
a u a
In replying to one of the defense
lawyers, who contended that Mrs.
Miller’s anti-religious belief had no
competent bearing on her testimony,
Judge Barnhill said, "if I believed
that life ends with death, and that
there is no punishment after death,
I would be less apt to tell the truth.”
Maybe he would, but if truth
hangs by such a slender thread, if
fear is its soundest guarantee, and
intelligence plays no part, we might
as well expurgate the word from
the dictionary.
tt
Fear Befogs the Soul
IT is only necessary to consult the
records of the torture chamber
to appreciate how definitely fear
leads to lying.
Not hundreds, but thousands, of
perfectly innocent human beings
have confessed themselves witches,
and told in detail how they bar
gained with the devil, sold their
souls and sealed the contract in
blood, in the hopes of escaping
punishment.
So, too, thousands of innocent
human beings have confessed
heresy.
Nothing befogs the human soul
like fear, and nothing makes in
telligence seem so unimportant. The
human being who bases his con
ception of the truth on fear, who is
guided by the dread of fire and
brimstone, who feels that he must
escape something, may be less apt
to lie intentionally, but the chances
are ten to one that he will lie in
voluntarily, because he can not help
it, or doesn’t know* any better.
tt o a
We speak the truth not only in
the ordinary sense, but in our
highbrow legal terminology, as
though it were an indivisible
changeless substance which men
could conceal or produce at their
will and pleasure.
We demand "yes” and ‘no”
answers from the veriest ignoramus,
no matter how involved the question
may be.
Quite frequently, witnesses are
nagged into telling untruths against
their will, and we call it a victory
for justice.
tt St tt
Cling to Folly
SCIENCE, education and the ac
cumulated knowledge which they
have combined to produce prove
nothing so distinctly as that the
truth is made of patient study and
careful observation.
They prove something else, and
that Is that nothing has done so
much to blind men to the truth
as superstition, prejudice and fear.
One would suppose that the world
had suffered enough to realize the
folly of calling these ancient buga
boos into being as guarantors of the
very thing they have balked and
mangled through the ages.
Considering how we shudder at
even mild forms of human misery,
how we weep over famine in China
or floods in Russia, and how con
stantly we pat ourselves on the back
as patrons of relief work, is It not
: astounding that we should insist on
, a belief in eternal misery for mil
lions of our fellow beings as the
most effective spur for truth?
Daily Thought
A little that the righteous man
hath is better than the riches of
the many wicked.—Psalms 37:16.
a a a
IF men would only take the
chances of doing right because
it is right, instead of the immediate
certainty of the advantage of doing
wrong, how much happier
their lives be.—B. R. Hay don.
Who said “He'l hath no fury like a
woman scorned?”
Wi’liam Congreve in "The Mourn
ing Bride.”
“The Frost Is on the Pumpkin!”
1 ft MELANCHOLY
\4
Over-Active Thyroid Causes Trouble
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN
Editor Journal of the American Medical
Association and of Hygela. the
Health Matrazine.
IN the throat just over the wind
pipe is a gland known as the
thyroid. Under normal conditions,
it is soft and can not be felt through
the skin, except by those who are
expert in such determinations.
In women, this gland enlarges
somewhat at periodic intervals and
during the process of childbirth.
The gland contains iodine and ap
parently the iodine taken into the
body regulates its activity. This
gland is closely bound with many
activities of the body.
If there is too much secretion
from the gland, the person shows
IT SEEMS TO ME
ONE aspect of British politics will
bear close scrutiny by Ameri
cans. British leaders seem able at
times to forget the search for par
tisan advantage.
Stanley Baldwin, former prime
minister and leader of the Con
servative party, stated a few days
ago that England must be proud of
what the new government had done
in negotiations with America.
Very seldom has congress been
able to take as broadminded an at
titude. Only in the war, and even
then occasionally, can I remember
our national legislature functioning
without regard to party labels.
Much of the opposition in Wilson’s
peace program was grounded in a
fierce desire to prevent a Democrat
from achieving honor. And we are
only too likely to find the Demo
crats and the Insurgents thwarting
Hoover. lest he score a triumph
which will make his administration
successful beyond all criticism.
tt u a
Backs Hoover
I SPEAK as a partisan who has
many times before and after
election barked at the President. I
have no notion, of course, that
Hoover is going to clap his hands in
joy right now at the prosuect that
this column is solidly behind him
in his efforts to reduce armament.
Writing mean pieces about a high
public official is not nearly as much
fun as it might be, because the
newspaper man is tormented with
the knowledge that the person at
tacked is not at all likely to see the
slam in question. Hoover probably
doesn’t know that I am, which is a
misfortune for at least one of us.
There can be no question that
the present negotiations may mark
the most important chapter in a
century of American history. If
partisan advantage can be aban
doned for the cause of war, it seems
to me even more essential that it
should be scrapped for the sake of
peace.
n a tt f
Give and Take
A FAIR compla nt against the
prohibition advocates is their
unwlll ngness to grant the r ght of
debate to their opponents. While I
am convinced that certain drys in
congress are hypocrites, most of the
Anti-Saloon League leaders are sin
cere and honest men, fanatically
honest. I mi?ht add.
When a man is utterly convinced
of the righteousness of his cause
it Is difficult for him to conceive of
his adversary as anything but a
crook.
Still I think the dry leaders ought
to make the effort. Upon sober re
flection they must realize that not
every editorial foe is a rumhound
and that it is Inconceivable that all
the distinguished opponents of Vol
stead! sm are paid , agents of the
“wh skv trust.”
It is quite true that advocates of
modification have used much ridi
cule of the rougher sort in dealing
with the d.*ys. but temperance of
utterance has hardly distinguished
the League spokesmen
in their public utterances.
In particular, their attacks upon
the metropolitan press have all
.DAILY HEALTH SERVICE.
signs of nervousness, the gland
swells, the heart beat becomes rapid,
and there is loss of weight.
He may have tremors, falling of
the hair and changes in the skin.
Women seem to be affected more
by overactivity of the gland than
do men, indeed to the proportion of
about six to one.
As the disease progresses, it ef
fects the eyes so that they push for
ward, producing a condition that
the public calls "pop-eyes.”
For this form of goiter, known
as exophthalmic goiter, the most
common treatment today is surgi
cal operation on the gland. In mild
cases, X-ray is sometimes used to
bring down the activity of the
gland.
HEYWOOD
y BROUN
been couched as if any one who dis
agreed with them must be a villain
of the deepest hue.
Not once has any dry admitted
the possibility that the newspaper
writers of New York attack prohibi
tion because they honestly believe
it to be harmful.
a a a
Courage
INDEED the drys seem to have no
conception of what constitutes
editorial integrity. The Board of
Temperance, Prohibition and Public
Morals of the Methodist church just
has issued a blast in which the
newspapers of New York are con
demned because they "print car
toons which are grossly offensive
to many of their readers.”
Can’t the good Methodists realize
that in saying this they are com-
Questions and Answers
What is the shortest distance be
tween the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans across the United States?
It is 2,103 miles from a point near
Brunswick, Ga., to San Diego, Cal.
Are scorpians insects?
No, they are arachnids.
Why do we have pores in our
skin?
The pores are the orifices or out
lets of the ducts of the sweat glands
which are the organs of excretion of
-+■Tt q O AVt IB (THC “
BURGOYNE SURRENDERS
Oct, 17
General john burgoyne-s
campaign into New York state
from Canada ended disastrously on
Oct. 17, 1777, when he surrendered
with about five thousand British
soldiers to the American general,
Gates, at Saratoga.
Burgoyne landed in America early
in 1777, having been placed in
charge of a powerful expedition of
about ten thousand men with orders
t,o penetrate into New York state
from Canada, march south along
the valley of the Hudson and join
General Howe’s forces, so es to di
vide the American confederacy in
half.
The British general captured Ti
conderoga on July 6, but on Aug.
16 a detachment of his army was
almost annihilated. He was defeated
decisively at Stillwater and surren
dered on Oct. 17.
Burgoyne’s surrender was an im
portant victory for the colonists and
has been termed the turning point
in the revolution.
Washington permitted Burgoyne
to return to England, but he was
refused an audience with the king
and was denied a court-martial.
Burgoyne went over to the Op
position party and resigned his ap
pointments; but on a change of
ministry at the close of the Ameri
| can war he was appointed com
mander-in-chief In Ireland.
This method demands, however,
the most expert type of knowledge
and control. In most cases the
operation is the method of choice.
If the person is exceedingly ill, It
is not infrequently necessary to
take a long period of rest in bed
before the operation, so he may be
capable of withstanding the surgical
procedure.
Because of the nervous reactions,
emotional upsets must be avoided
and proper mental control is de
sirable.
The diet.must be low in certain
protein substances. In some in
stances, iodine is given before the
operation to aid the patient to get
into proper shape for the operation.
Ideals and opinions expressed
in this Column are those cf
one of America’s most inter*
esting writers, and are pre
sented without regard to tne.r
agreement or disagreement
with the editorial attitude rs
this paper.—The Editor.
plimenting New York editors for the
courage with which they uphold
their convictions?
Surely it should never be the
function of a fearless newspaper to
Conduct its editorial policy in such
manner as to offend no one. That
would be a namby-pamby sheet
indeed. And prohibition is too
pressing a problem to permit any
one to sit with any dignity upon the
fence.
I think that believers in Volstead
ism should fight for their cause
just as hard as they are able, no
matter whose feelings are offended.
And in my own half acre T purpose
to fight just as hard on the other
side.
We will never get at the truth if
either side pulls its punches. And
so I say, "Lay on, Mcßride.”
(CoDvris-ht. 1929. by The Times)
the skin, excreting water and cer
tain waste products and to some
extent supplementing the kidney
secretion and also exercising a great
influence in the regulation of body
temperature.
How many Spaniards are there in
the United States?
According to the last census there
were 850,843.
What does the name Lupin mean?
Wolf.
Is Hollywood part of the city of
Los Angeles?
Hollywood is a part of the city of
Los Angeles and approximately
100,000 persons live in it.
Emphasizing the
Correct Note!
They’re comfortable in cold
weather, mild weather, drizzly
weather. They’re soft and rich,
designed and styled exactly like
the finest English models. They
give unusually long wear . . .
Affordably priced at — i
*4O
Wilton Bros. Furnishings
DOTY'S
16 North Meridian St.
FOR YOUR CON'VZNnNC* BTOP.E OPEN UNTIL 9P. U. SATURDAYS
OCT. 17,1929
SCIENCE
-By DAVID DIETZ
772 e Sun Is Able to Reduce
Itself Far Faster Than the
Ladies on This New 18-Day
Diet.
LADIES interested in the eighteen
day diet and other methods of
reducing will be interested In hear
ing how efficient the sun is at the
game.
According to the calculations of
astronomers the sun is reducing at
the rate of 360,000,000,000 tons a
day, or about 4,000,000 tons a sec
ond.
"The sun,” Professor J. H. Jeans,
secretary of the Royal Society of
London, tells us in his newest book,
“Eos, orjthe Wider Aspects of Cos
mogony, "weighed 360,000 million
tons more yesterday than today, and
by tomorrow will weigh 360,000
million tons less.
These are not mere speculative
statements; they rest on observation
and on generally accepted principles
which are directly confirmed by ob
servation.”
This view of what is going on in
the sun grew out of a study of the
source of the sun’s energy. As
Professor Jeans points out, each
square inch of the sun’s surface
continuously radiates enough energy
to keep a 50-horse power engine
running.
Where does this energy come
from? Ordinary combustion is out
of the question. The hypothesis,
I suggested some twenty years ago by
| Professor Jeans, is the generally ac
j cepted one. It is that within the
i sun, matter is being completely
wiped out of existence.
The interior of the sun, accord
ing to this view, is a great crucible
at a temperature of at least
50,003.000 degrees, where electrons,
the fundamental units of matter,
are annihilated by collisions with
one another. In this annihilation
the matter is turned into energy.
a a a
Einstein
THIS view that within the sun,
and within the stars also, of
course, matter is transformed into
energy, completely upsets some of
the older notions of classical phys
ics.
These were contained in the law
of the conservation of energy and
the law of the conservation of mat
ter. According to the first, energy
could be transformed, but neither
increased or decreased. The second
stated the same thing for matter.
The newer view, however, substi
tutes a general law of conservation
for the universe and permits the
j transformation of matter into en
| ergy. Some authorities, Sir Oliver
• Lodge and Dr. R. A. Millikan for
example, think that energy can be
changed back into matter, but that
is still a matter of argument.
From the study of the stars and
the atom, scientists have worked out
the ratio at which matter is changed
into energy. Incidentally, it may be
of interest to note that Einstein’s
famous relativity equations were
used in working out this ratio.
"We can calculate that five or ten
trillion years ago the sun must have
been several times as massive as it
is today, so that already it has lost
most of the mass it had at birth,”
Professor Jeans writes.
"Os each ton it had at birth, only
a few hundredweights at most re
main today.”
a a a
Energy
HOWEVER, no one need worry
particularly. There seems to
be no danger of the sun giving out
in the immediate future. Astronom
ers think that the sun will continue
to shine for at least another five
trillion years.
The amount of energy released
*by the total annihilation of a small
amount of matter is tremendous,
according to the calculations.
“The annihilation of a pound of
coal a week would produce as much
energy as the combustion of the
5,000,000 tons a week which are
mined in the British Isles,” Prof.
Jeans writes.
"An ounce of coal a month would
provide locomotive power for all the
British railways, while a single drop
of oil would take the Mauretania
across the Atlantic.”
Professor Jeans calls attention to
the fact that when he first an
nounced the hypothesis of the
annihilation of matter and its com
plete change into radiation or
energy, he thought that he wai
making a brand new suggestion.
"But I have since found that
Newton had anticipated something
very similar exactly two centuries
earlier,” Jeans writes.
He then quotes from the Opticks,”
written by the great Newton in 1704
in which Newton asks, "And among
such various and strange trans
mutations, why may not nature
change bodies into light and light
into bodies?”