4 ms·
Continued: t i ti wJ Is will go on. One may therefore preme that in 2022 most States will have tionalized railways, telegraphs, teleones, canals, docks, water
by PotatoPancakes 5y ago
Continued:
t i ti wJ Is will go on. One may therefore preme that in 2022 most States will have tionalized railways, telegraphs, teleones, canals, docks, water supply, gas \ ' any) and electricity. Other industries 11 exist much as they do to-day, but it likely that the State will be inclined to ntrol them, to limit their profits, and to bitrate between them and the workers, e find a hint of this in America in the ti-trust acts; a hundred years hence e tendency will be much stronger. It is >rth noting as an international factor
at b/that time purely national Industries 11 almost have disappeared, and that the >rk of the world will be in the hands of ntrolled combines governing the supply a commodity from China to Peru. Unfortunately these international relains through trade are not likely to have ected political conditions. There will ill be war. The wars of that period may a little less frequent than they are toy, and be limited by arrangements such the Pacific agreement, the agreement tween Canada and the United States of rierica to leave their frontier unfortified, ., but it will still be there. I suspect at those wars to come will be made horle beyond my conception by new poison ses, inextinguishable flames and light>of smoke clouds. In those wars the airane bomb will seem as out of date as is
clay tne hatchet. War may ultimately sappear, but this lies beyond the limits this article and even beyond those of f mind. \s regards the United States in particu, it is likely that the country will have me to a complete settlement, with a popition of about 240,000,000. The idea of rth and South, East and West, will have noet disappeared; by that time the Amerin race will have taken so definite a form it immigration will not affect it. The nfirican from Key West and the Amerin from Seattle will be much the same nd of mic. That is to say as regards race, but I feel at mentally the American of 2022 will ve enormously changed. He is to-day e most enterprising creature in the orld, and is driven by a continual urge to se, to make money. That is because the odern American lives in a country that only partly developed, and where imense wealth still lies ready for him to ke. In 2022 that will be as finished as
s to-day in England. American wealth 11 then he eithe.- developed or known, d all of it will belong to somebody, lere will he no more opportunity in nerica than there is in England to-day. lose Americans will know that it is actically certain that they will die much the same position as the one in which ey were born. Those Americans will erefore be less enterprising and much ire pleasure loving. They will have belled against long hours: the chances e that in 2022 few people will work >re than seven hours a day, if as much. The effect of this, which I am sure unds regrettable to many of my readers 11. in my opinion, be good. It was essen1 that the American race should be cable of intense labor and intense ambin if it was to develop its vast country, t one result has been haste, overwork, ise, all of which is bad for the nerves. 2022 America will have made her forae and will he enjoying it as well as she n. I think that she will be a happier counr than she is to-day. The appeal of alth will be less because wealth II be difficult to attain, so those aericans to come will be producing in t and literature infinitely more than they e producing to-day. To-day, in fiction, ? aerlca leads the world by sincerity, tli and fearlessness, hut the American vel of significance is a novel of revolt
alnst the thralls of money, of convenn anrl of puritanism. In 2022 Ameriran srature will be a literature of culture, e battle will he over and the muzzle There will be no more things one n't say, and things one can't think No ubt there will be In 2022 people who nk as they would have thought in 1022, even a little earlier, but a great liberaln of mind will prevail, rt is not my business to corgrat ilat" > future, and I have no desire to do so. It Is impossible to say a thing Is good bad; all one can say is that it exists, it in case some of my readers feel relsion when they contemplate my lunch Is or my nationalized railroads, to those vould say that they are perhaps unduly xious. The world takes care of Itself; has been doing so for hundreds of cen
ries nnri is still spinning; tne worm win te care of Itsplf In 2022: that Is Its chlpf r-upatlon. Morp than that. I fppl conlcpd that though thp world may Iosp icps, It will dpvolop othpr grarps, that the wholp. and as timp goes on. man id grows more intelligent, more amiable d more honpst. rhp fnturp will bp difficult: what dops it mattpr? So was thp past difficult: flcultlps did not prevent Its turning into tolerable preser^.