SHRINKING THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 8

SHRINKING THE WORLD.

(By FRANK A. GARBUTT.)

A few days ago, aa time goes, the world was an enormous place. Haj'penings in one part had no effect upon another. People lived and died without knowing what was occurring elsewhere. News travelled slowly, and what little did travel was elementally true. Came steamships, railroads, the telegraph, oceanic cables, telephones, wireless, radio, aeroplanes, motion pictures, wireless photography, and now television. A king abdicates in England and the world hears his farewell address, as it is delivered. A year's journey is cn<y>mpassed in a few days—breakfast in Los Angeles, dinner in New York—and the beginning is only in sight. The mass of instantaneous intercommunication is now only limited by the time available for reading and much of it is propaganda—not fact. Nations are at each other'*; throats, armed with deathdealing devices hitherto unknown, seeking territory and trade. Dictators, beneficent and otherwise, are plotting for power. Locally, class hatred is fomented and strife rampant. All is making for progress, but at a terrible and unnecessary cost in human suffering that delays the day when peace and prosperity will be enjoyed by all. We must adapt and consolidate ourselves to cope with the shrinking world and sift the true from the false or pay a bitter penalty.—(N.A.N.A.)