EDISON HAPPY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20105, 26 March 1928, Page 8

EDISON HAPPY

EIGHTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY PEOPLE PAY HOMAGE Thomas Alva Edison, spry of limb and cheerful of spirit for all tl. weight of the eighty-one years whi.-li have ■whitened his hair and deafened his ears to the noises and music of the world in which he is so great a figure, took part last month for the first time in a public celebration of his birthday, and though he termed it “a lot of poppycock? ’ he seemed to enjoy at least some of it as much as the 4000 worshipping school children* who gathered to pay homage. The activities of the day ranged from the singing of spirituals by a chorus of negro voices when he first appeared on the lawn of his winter estate after a breakfast of milk and honey- to the pressing of a key which started in operation a great electric plant at Bellingham. Washington, U.S.A., newly fashioned with equipment which his brain brought into being. Between times he held his annual session with reporters, met a lot of old friends and neighbours from Fort Myers and elsewhere, and cut a huge birthday cake with the whole communitv looking on as a climax to the mun-

icipal celebration in the afternoon. He opened his interview with the newspaper men with the admonition to make it “short and sweet?’ and immediately plunged into a slack of typewritten questions which they handed him. Armed with the stubby pencil he always has handy, he rushed through the list and in half an hour’s time had disposed of them all. about twenty-five in number. Just then Harvey Firestone, the tyre magnate, an old friend of Mr Edison, came in. and the interview was extended to include some politics. 44 Whom are you for in the Presidential election?” demanded Mr Edison. “I’m for Hoover,” rvplied Mr Firestone promptly. “Fine!” approved the wizard. “You are all right. Hoover is a good man and a good engineer. It takes engineers to build up the United States. They're the men that do things.” “Coolidge is all right, though?’ the inventor continued. “I wonder what he does when he gets mad. I guess he just rages inwardly and chokes up. I like to see a man get mad sometimes, and have some bad habits, too. I don’t like them when they’re too good.” Early in the interview Mr Edison indicated that he had not “got religion”

in the last few years, when, in answer to a question as to whether he believed in eternity or any sort of life after j death, he replied—- “ Fifty-fifty, one way or the other is t my present belief.” With a chuckle he j wrote that he expected to spend his • after-life, if any, “experimenting.” Asked to comment on the report that i 11.334 churches in the United States j gained no converts last year, he wrote: : “People are drifting away from . superstition and bunk; increase in [ •cientifie knowledge is responsible.” ! Life’s Most Enjoyable Period Asked which was the most enjoyable ! period of his life—youth, mi.ldle age-, i or old age—he replied, two to eighteen ; years. With Mrs Edison leaning over his j shoulder watching him write he added i that if he had his life to live over j again he would do just as he has been ■ doing. He thinks the moral standard of the younger generation has shown a change for the better since his boyhood days, but that * ‘changes like this are slow.” Among other answers were the following observations:— That he is in favour of the newspapers publishing crime news, but ' thinks they should cut it short. He is opposed to capital punishment, being of the opinion “that society is ■ rich enough to confine criminals for I life; killing them is a relic of our bar baric past.” He added that he favoured severely restricting the pardoning power. “The kind of a person you are.” he wrote in reply to & question asking for a rule of life, “depend* upon your forebears for generations back, just like a plant.” He thinks television may “possibly’’ result in motion pictures being shown in the home by radio, but does not believe the device will be practical for general use. He spoke for the Moviton to-day, but is not enthusiastic over that either. “Most film players have rotten voices.” he said. “Their voices would spoil the picture.” Aviation, in his opinion, is still in its infancy. In twenty years he will be willing to ride in a ’plane, because he thinks they then will be as safe as steamships. Mr Edison said he could not even guess hat invention he would give his major attention to after the conclusion of his rubber experiments, saying that his present task was very complex and would require from six to eight years. He minimised reports that the British fear the outcome of his research, saymg that he u <- not trying Io compete frith the tropics, but to find a plant that would supp’y the United States with rubber in tne event of a war emergency.