DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 102, 21 July 1927, Page 12

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

THE VOICE ACROSS THE SEA (Copyright, 1927.J----TT was a significant step in progress the other day when telephonic conA versation was held between London and New York. It was but a short time ago when a message was delivered by cable across the Atlantic and this was thought to be a remarkable occurrence. That the human voice can be carried immediately over so wide a space is surely an achievement of science. It was not the result of the discovery of any one man, but a gradual growth of the efforts being put forth by the English and American Telephone Companies. In less than an hour business to the extent of more than six millions was transacted by bankers and a news agency had received the first commercial radio telephone from London to New York. The service is not yet perfect, but the progress that has been made has been remarkable. It shows that the times we live in are as important as any past times that we may expect inventions that shall alter the course of destiny at any moment. The publisher of the “New York Times” talked with the publisher of the “London Times” and exchanged views. The effect of this invention it is hard to estimate, but it all goes aloug with the railroads and the electric telegraph and the radio to make the world smaller. To talk over the transatlantic requires that people speak in the same language and naturally England and America will be brought closer together than America and any other nation for they are both English-speaking peoples. Whatever consolidates these peoples makes for the peace of the world. The United States and England are both committed to a policy of peace, and they are both prosperous nations. Their pacifism does not spring from feebleness, but from the triumph of reason over force. Whatever tends to make the different branches of the English-speaking race one in thought and in feeling is a guarantee of security. It will not be long before an inhabitant of the Pacific Coast will be able to take down his telephone and have the telephone girl simply plug him in to London where he can be heard distinctly. The radio, which consists of a little box sitting anywhere in your house, capable of picking up sounds from a distant city, is in itself a marvellous invention and this adaptation of the radio to telephonic communication is no less marvellous.