MR EDISON'S BIRTHDAY

Shannon News, 5 April 1927, Page 3

MR EDISON'S BIRTHDAY

TRIBUTE TO THE YOUNG. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25. Mr. Thomas Edison, on his eightieth birthday, in intervals while reading telegrams of congratulations from all parts of the. world, said he hoped posterity'would remember him first, as the inventor of the phonograph. Being somewhat deaf, he wrote down questions submitted to him on many problems relating to human industry and progress. He champions' the. younger generation for its morals, intelligence and health, and not. subscribe to the belief that youth is "going to the dogs." "Man i s not the unit of life," Mr. Edison said. "He is as dead as granite. That unit consists of swarms of brilliant but highly organised en- . tities, which live in the cells. I believe at times when a man dies, this swarm deserts the body and goes out into space, but keeps on and enters another cycle of life, and is immortal." He says he believes spiritualism is "buncombe," and considers it doubtful if psychic forces exist. He also doubts if electric power will ever be transmitted by radio. The man whose contributions have been greater than any one else's to what Mr. Edison terms the "machine ago." makes it clear that he has plenty of confidence in art. He said machinery and the "machine ago" products could not equal the work done by hand. He refused to predict what life would be like 50 years hence. "No man," he said, "can predict the reaction of tho mass of the peopl-3 te changing conditions." i Mr. Edison says ho believes men i begin to do. their best worlc at 35 I yoars of age. "Science will never bo i able to create life." he said. "Bolshevism is a menace to all countries though I believe that Soviet Russia is sincere."