Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 81: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Coe AMAZING STORIES hardly suppress a thrill of pride, such as overcarne him when he had seen his first house completed ; for the top of the shaft fitted neatly ito the floor of the airship cabin, and he could see a tiny car run swiftly up. the shaft and into the cabin itself. It was all an idea which he had conceived and discussed often with his fellow club members, the device of a mooring mast, which would extend into a hole in an airship, so that an elevator in the shaft would rise level with the cabin floor. But they had laughed at him, and here it was, a wonderful reality. A moment later he saw the car descend, laden with people. “Tell me,” he turned to Warren. “I am eager to know the progress the world has made, especially in sociology and transportation. There was a deal of theorizing in my time, but from what I have seen I imagine that most of it either exaggerated or under- estimated the truth. That dirigible, for instance. I imagine it is a transatlantic conveyance—” Warren nodded “—is all oceanic transportation like that?” “No, indeed,” said the guide, ‘The airships carry only mail, visiting and returning diplomats, and such people as can convince the authorities that their voy- age requires all possible haste and are willing to pay the price. The passage from New York to Paris takes something over fifteen hours. Ordinary trans- “ oceanic traffic has changed radically. You may have noticed that there is nothing in sight resembling a port, or loading place for ships.” “T have remarked something like that,” admitted Markham, “but I had thought it was due to the trans- cendency of airships.” — “There was some little agitation for developing air navigation in your time,” Warren went on, “which. lasted until well after the Chaos of 1975. But these plans were ultimately shelved for many reasons, one of which was the unexpected develop- ment of means of surface transportation. Trans- atlantic voyagers now travel in gigantic covered sledges which have practically no draft at all, and are driven both by water screws and by air propellers. These ply between the great seaport at the eastern tip of Long Island and a recently developed port on the coast of France, taking no more than thirty hours for the trip. From the seaport, passengers are taken in ten minutes by pneumatic tubes to the Grand Depot, half a mile beneath the New York Tower. Freight boats are modeled more after the so-called ocean greyhounds of your time, but never take more than sixty hours to go to Europe. They also dock at the Eastern Seaport, but the freight is shot by tub to the Distribution; Center. es “Tnter-urban communication is carried on through the great pneumatic tubes. As I have told you, the Transcontinental Pneumatic is now under construc- tion and will afford transportation between the coasts in from two to three hours.” | “But surely the pneumatic tube isn’t universal,” _ suggested Markham. — =e “Certainly not,’ said Warren, “although in time it probably will be. In outlying sections we have the advanced equivalent of the railroad of your time. It is single railed, like the pleasure vehicles I have — described to you, and also like those vehicles, the trains draw their power from the same compound rail they ride on. These rails are so constructed, with bridges, viaducts, and tunnels, that there is a - thinimum of curves and-the altitude does not vary.a hundred feet in as many miles. The result is a Warren had said was true; there was not a single smooth speed of one hundred and fifty miles an hour. ‘The Monorails, as they are called, are used through- out Australia, Africa, Asia, and South America, but no longer in Europe, and only in the less settled por- tions of North America.” They had turned back toward the south. The sun was hovering above the western horizon, a depart- ing watchman taking his last look at a satisfied and satisfactory world. There was a growing chill in the air. “Tell me of the people,” said Markham. ‘How they live; are they happy? Surely with your ad- vanced machinery, unemployment must present a problem.” “Ah,” said Warren, “the solution of that problem is a matter on which we pride ourselves. Let me explain. We assume that two men, working eight hours with hand tools, can complete a piece of work in that time. A machine is invented to do the work of both men in the same time, so that only one is now needed to handle the machine. In your time, one of those men would have handled the machine, and the other would have starved. Today, the men would each work four hours at handling the machine, and both would be happy.” “T see,’ said Markham. “As the efficiency of your machinery increases you divide the time of labor among the number of workers displaced by the ma- chine. It is wonderful, almost ideal, but it never would have worked in my age. The spare time would have hung heavy on our hands.” “That,” explained Warren, “is.a matter of evolu- tion. We spend this ‘spare time’ in reading, in harm- less and beneficial amusement, and the pursuit of the arts and sciences. The world has advanced tre- mendously in that respect.” “Community life has also undergone radical changes. There are today in the United States only fifteen cities, similar in appearance to this, except for differences based on climate, population, and regional architecture. Each city has its standardized build- ings and its municipal tower, some follow the pure checkerboard design, like New York, and some are radial, like Washington. Five cities, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, and New Orleans, have a population of over ten million. The others all have over five. There are an additional ten mil- lion living in the half-dozen nameless Factory Cities, and twenty-five million more scattered throughout the land. These last are the food makers, the back- _ bone of the country. All the land outside the cities is either national parkland or else under cultivation, _ except for a few suburbs of a strictly residential — character in the neighborhood of the larger cities. The twenty-five million are served by the Monorails _ and by private airplanes; they are forbidden by the ~ government to organize into communities or mutual benefit associations, so that they regard themselves as _ a whole and are doubtlessly happier that way.” eS Somehow they had stopped to lean on the nar- tow railing of a path that bridged the abyss between — two buildings and watch Long Island bathed in the _ last rays of the sun, Where once had thrived the © growing borough of Brooklyn was now a beautiful — parkland of close-cropped lawn, reddening trees, and scattered residences and bungalows that stretched away to the east as far as Markham could see. Wha building of urban cbr he alee of —