tion becomes more general (and the day will come
when every person in our land will be able to
read and write), our morals will be better instead
of worse. Education raises the standard of thought
to a higher level. Public opinion will require
a higher moral standard. Our papers will not be
so largely filled with accounts of crimes committ
ed. Ido not mean to say that crime will vanish
altogether; far from it ; but it will be lesscommon.
Looking backward over the progress we have
made and peering into the future, it does seem
that like "The Children of Israel" of old, we are
indeed a chosen people. That we have been se
lected from the nations of earth to demonstrate
what a "government of the people, by the people
and for the people" may become—a nation of
cities and of men in the highest and best sense
of the word. P. P. STURDEVANT.
ELECTRICAL PROGRESS.
We clip the following from an article written
by Prof. A. S. Kimball of the Worcester Poly
technic Institute:
Fifteen years ago when engineers were asked
what electricity promised in the near future, their
answers claimed so broad a field of application
that few were found whose confidence in the new
science was strong enough to allow them to treat
the prophecy seriously.
To-day the electrical engineer is as confident of
the future as he was in that early time ; his plans
seem almost as visionary, but he has conquered
respect. Large undertakings need opportunity,
capital and ample time for their complete devel
opment; but enough has been done to assure us
that the possibilities of electricity were not over
estimated.
During the past year no great discoveries in
the science have been announced, and no new
and wonderful application of electricity to the
arts has been made ; nevertheless, substantial pro
gress has been realized. One of the most assur
ing features of electric business is the air of per-
THE FREE LANCE.
manence •it is acquiring. Cheap engines and
boilers, tempory quarters and makeshift appli
ances are rapidly giving way to thoroughly built
stations designed with the greatest care for the
work and equipped with the best modern ma
chinery. Capital has found out that the business
has come to stay, and will pay dividends on lib
eral investments.
At the same time the business is rapidly in
creasing. According to estimates presented at
the meeting of the National Electric Light Asso
ciation last August, there are in the United States
1,379 stations, representing nearly one hundred
and twenty millions of capital invested, supply
ing 127,000 arc and 1,590,000 incandescent
lights. But the most astonishing development is
to be seen in the application of electricity to
motor work. There are now in the United States
more electric street railways, with 1,500 miles of
track and 3,000 motor cars already built ; and
over t,OOO miles more will be completed early
this year. Experience has shown that the run
ning expenses of a well built and equipped elec
tric road are less than those of a horse car line of
the same capacity and we may feel tolerably sure
that as soon as the electric roads have passed suc
cessfully the ordeal of a severe winter, and the
relative merits of rival systems have been ascer
tained, the days of the horse car will be number
ed. Electric engineers will then turn their at
tention to long distance railroading with heavy
traffic and challenge the locomotive.
We have no right to expect that the introcluc •
tion of an agent distributing energy on so large • a
scale as required by our electic light and power
systems will be unattended with difficulties.
When telegraph and telephone wires were first
erected, they had the whole field to themselves, and
they dealt with small currents. Poor insulation
harmed no one but the owners of the lines, and
they balanced their loss from leakage against the
cheaper construction required. Now the use :of
heavy currents has made poor insulation not only
expensive but it has interfered with the telephone