TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11397, 7 October 1902, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Wo gather from an article A Reformed in an American magazine Character, that Mx Edison is a re-

formed character. There was a time when be Hred only for work, when he would lock himself up in -is sanctum at hit workshops and work for sixty hours at a sta-etch, without bothering about meals, and taking no mere than an hour's sleep at ware intervals, for the whole period. His dress would have disgraced even a millionaire, who alone is privileged to wear clothes .hat would ens-re dismissal for any of his clerks, and he was probably a dreadfully untidy man, with a painful habit of '"l-aving things lying about." It was to this period of his life tihat the story of his first marriage attaches. "Shortly after the ceremony, he was ©ailed to 'his laboratory on an important __p€______t. He plunged into the work. At midnight one of his friends called fo see him. He ihad just accomplished the object of hi_ labours, amd was preparing to quit work. 'I guess I'd better go home,' he said, as he hurried into his coat and jammed his hat down on to his head; 'you know I was ___rried today.' " The reformer who has changed all -has is, of course, his wife, his second wife, to be acctn-te. She ia a defer woman, who has applied her inventive ability, inherited from her father, to acquire an interest in, and a good deal of knowledge of, her husband's work. She also undertook to keep her husband healthy, and having a good strong wEI of her own, she apparently succeeded in convincing the great inventor that he would live to . invent a great many more things if he put some C-__m-m"___-*se into his habit of life. She will not let him neglect his meals, nor work more than she thinks is good for him, and she regulates his hours of labour as strictly as if she had an Aib_;rat__i Court.awatd to back up her word. 'He has to leave the laboratory at half past six every night, and besides being there io see that _c doe. it, she takes him out for a drive every afternoon. Of course, he resists sometimes, and no doubt she sees tbe wisdom of relaxing her rule when something of great importance is on hand, but on the whole she seems to keep this once u_dom_.tica.-_ ____ ia tho___g__y good order. Edison still works long hours, for he is at his laboratory soon after half past seven, and having already thought out the work for the day, fhe loses _o time in setting hi_ men their various day's tasks. But his home and _._. child-en pow occupy some place in his thoughts, and, according to his biographer, he enjoys "a happiness which few mortals possess," wMoh iB ________ ing a good deal.

The United States America's was the fir** nation Industrial Growths to take an indtt-trial census, and it can still show an example to the world in the completeness and comprehensive character of its __tti-_.c«. When the firet ____*_____ census of ___nuf___-_-_ was ____.__. 1810, Cong___i Toted £6000 for tbe yrotk, and that -mount was found to be sufficient. __. manufacturing census of 1,-00 cost £240,000. And the d_l«rence between this sum and the £6000 of 1810 is regarded by «__<• chief __._.__<___, Mir S. _•_. D. No_th, as a. good m__-Ure of the industrial growth which has intervened. The value Of United States manufactures in 1900 -was nearly £2,700,000,000, __pi___n__ig en inc_?a_e 6f more than sixty fold ■____• the _en_us of 1810. ''There is no-hing in hMory" remarks Mr Notth, "which approaches or approximate* th_s ________ It must remain for all time to _____ the unique and p___on___ftJ. chapter in the _ economic development." The, figures represent not merely a_ _ao_ea_a in wealth, but an tmp_r____ed distribution and diffusion of -wealth, Since 1850 there has been an increas. in capital invested, in m_n_f_cr__-_ of about seventeenfold; in the average number of wage-____e__, about four and one-half fold; in amount of wages paid about ninefold, and in value of products about twelvtefold. Ihiring tho same period the population of the country has increased two and _-quarter fold, and th© value of agricultural products something less than twofold; so that the in- •____« in. iftanufao-ures has been' relatively, as w*ll as literally, et_>r_____. The secret of America's industrial progress is undoubtedly the general us© of power-driven machinery. On this point Mr North says: —"Machinery involves a constantly increasing investment of capital, to make possible ihe increased efficiehcy of labour, and the increased horse-pow_T employed in ma-ufacturing is, on tho whole, the most striking fact brought out by tho tw_fth (1900) census. The total horee-po-m* so employed was reported in 1890 as 5,954,655; in 1900 as an increase of 89.8 per cent, in ten years—-al-together the largest increase shown at any point in the statistics."