p. 720 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 45. (11/16/1915)

After the War

SPEAKING of the loss of energy represented in war, a genius has figured out what is necessary in order to overcome this waste. After stating that there is hardly a man who works up to the limit of his capacity, that there are millions who try to do as little work as possible, he further says that it has been jokingly remarked that the collective energy of the baby's cry would run the railroads of New York State if it could be conserved, that only fifteen per cent of the energy of coal is utilized, that the unharnessed water power of the United States represents millions of horse power going to waste, and that probably less than five per cent of the available human energy in the world is productively employed.

Figuring out the cost of the war, and then considering this increase in efficiency, he concludes: “If, by greater industry or concentration, 50,000,000 men working three hundred days a year can increase their production by the equivalent of ten cents a day for thirteen years, the resulting increment at the end of that period will offset the assumed loss, interest and principal.”

It is quite probable that the demand for labor after the war will bring about even a greater increase. For example, in Europe, the era of railroad building that succeeded the Napoleonic wars increased the world's wealth by many times the sum the wars had cost. In our own country, industrial coordination and the use of automatic machinery was so rapidly extended after the war of the Confederacy that our national wealth, estimated at seven billion dollars in 1850, had grown to one hundred and eighty-seven billion in 1912.

Printing Plant in the Philippines

A FEW lines from Elder L. V. Finster, in charge of our work in the Philippines, say that they have purchased two and one half acres of land within three miles of the center of the city of Manila, and that he was at work on plans for our printing plant, and that soon mechanics would be busy putting up the building. The plan includes cottages for the workers, and such other necessary buildings as would properly accompany the regular printing office. Our readers have already been informed that the General Conference is furnishing the land and the buildings for our printing plant in the Philippines, and our Pacific Press Publishing Association is equipping it with the necessary presses and other machinery.

California Board of Education Biennial Report

THE first Biennial Report of the Board of Education of the state of California has reached us from the state office at Sacramento. It is a volume of two hundred and fifty pages, containing the first reports of the various activities of the State Board, as described by its several officers and committees. Teachers and others interested may secure copies by applying to the State Board of Education, Sacramento, California.

War and the Artificial Limb Business

A PITTSBURGH firm has received a fifteen-million-dollar order for artificial arms and legs to assist the men that are being made cripples by the great European war. Some men, who see but little in this world aside from business, will tell you that such things as that show the benefits of war. That is, their ideas of humanity are so narrow, they are willing that a large part of the human family shall suffer in order that a small part of it may have plenty of business.

Aéroplanes Spot Forest Fires

THE aéroplane is now used in fighting forest fires. For example, Mr. L. A. Vilas, using his hydroaéroplane, rising from Big Trout Lake, Wisconsin, a thousand feet, can see forty miles around him, watching for the first smoke of forest fires, and giving the forestry headquarters the signal.