THE NEW WORLD AFTER THE WAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEW WORLD AFTER THE WAR.

(Specially Written for "Wimble's Reminder".)

One of the most stereotyped remarks anent the War is that "It will be a changed world after THIS war!" It will, undoubtedly. It always has been after other wars. Every great conL-t oi this sort brings disaster to millions of people and for them changes the world entirely. It is appalling that any single individual should have the power to spread misery, suffering and ruined lives from one side of the earth to the other. Perhaps iwhen humanity has counted the cost of throwing down Kaiser Wilhelm it wiH decide to have no more individuals armed with such dangerous power. There have been frightful struggle before. Civilisations hare disappeared under waves of barbarism. Nations have been stampel on and enslaved and practically obliterated. But, on the other hand, there have been wars that have shown an almost immediate benefit. The Crusades took most of the armed gangs that had made Western Europe a hell to early graves in Palestine or on the roads thereto. Such as canie back returned with much common sense battered home into them; they brought ba-.k knowledge, and, altogether, it is safe to say that Europo benefitted by the Crusaaes. • The American Civil War was followed by a tremendous burst of prosperity and a great influx of population. The Franco-German War of 1870 followed by prosperity >n France, the defeated realm, and depression in victorious German*-.

Exactly •what Ls going to" happen after this War has run its course i> hard to guess at. If the resolutions of the Economic Conference of Paris are carried out thoroughly, .we in Australia, at any rate ana assured of rosperity. The returning soldiers will Li easily and eagerly absorbed in the new industries that must be started : f the resolutions of that Conference are to bo honourably adhered to. But it is interesting to speculate upon what further effects it will haTe upon our national life. It has to be rememtared that this war ha 6 hurried on the development of the practice of aviation by about 60 years. It has pushed or the development of the manifold uses of the internal combustion engine also by about half a century. The Battle of Verdun proved that motor traction was more reliable and efficient than the railway carriage. It has rushed surgery to undreamt of heights, and to-day doctors are training men to use artificial hands in a manner that 150 years ago would have earned them a fiery death for wizardry. Perhaps the greatest result of this war is that it has driven home to the communal conscience "that every one of us is his brother's keeper. The richest man in the land has had it brought right home to him that some day his personal safety may depend upon the whole of the present generation of children being well fed, we'.l educated and properly supplied with crafts, trades and other means of earning decent, wholesome livings. Certainly it will be a changed world after the war. For about the first time for centuries we shall suddenly realise that, after all, th« nation is only the family on a larger sea»!e. Probably the whole scheme of our lives will be considerably modified. The development of the aeroplane is full of wonderful possibilities. The latest Sikorsky giant llya Mourametz aeroplane, carrying two quick-firing cannon, four machine guns, ammunition, bombs to drop on German trains of munitions, and seven men. walked through the sky at over 100 miles per hour. British and French battleplanes have a standard speed of 90 miles per hour, and manv of them have done 120. Certain it is that for long journeys and the conveyance of mails and passengers the railways will become obsolete. The aeroplane will develop an impatient type of wayfarer who will threaten to get out and walk if he finds the speed anything less than a mile and a half per minute. The chief trouble about railway carriage is the tendency of trains to get in ono another s way. Also, railway freight means several handlings. The produce has to be loaded on to a wagon at the farm. Hauled to the railwav station, it is hauled off the wagon. Then it hauled into the railway truck. At its destined station it is hauled out of the truck on to a delivery cart ana once more hauled off at its penultimate destination.

That means four handlings at least Sometimes it means five or six. ff goods were conveyed straight to their destinatioh from where they are produced by motor lorry, it would save two handlings at least. The lorry iwould not be blocked by those in front oi it as railway trains are. The actual cost of the lorry carriage would probably be less than* by rnfiway for any distance up to 150 miks. The posibilities of the internal combustion engine about the house ore enormous. It has been proved in Flanders that a little motor cycle engine attached to a modern generator can turn on enough electric power to keep 60 or 70 lights going, to supply a surplus for heating purposes and in some cases cooking also. This means that everv country house can have e'ectrio light, electric driven fans in summer and electric heater, in winter. With tin- aeroplane to annihilate distance, the little motor engine to generate electricity for light, heat and power to give the country home the refinements and conveniences of eity houses, life in the wilderness will lose its worst ph.ose—that of isolation.