Air Wonder Stories, May 1930 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

fm LITTLE more than two years ago, in the Jatter ml part of May, 1967, to be exact, a group of four |men ‘were seated before the fireplace of a log y} cabin in the heart of the Pennsylvania Alle- j ghenies, It was early in the evening; the fire before which they sat dissipated the darkness that strove to mantle the room. Three of these men were scientists, and together with the fourth they were spending a week in fishing in the well-filled trout streams of which the district boasted. The three were: Dr. Leo Vachell, in all probability the greatest scientist in the United States; Alexis. Demetriovich, a Russian- who, although not nearly so well known as Vachell, was nevertheless thought to be one of the cleverest scientific minds of the day; and Allen Kieth, an astreno- mer of no mean ability, I, Paul Taylor, was the fourth member of the group. The fact that Vachell and I were lifelong friends was responsible for my presence. There had been little conversation: dur- ing the early part of the evening; Vachell and Kieth were smoking meditatively; I had jotted down some ideas for a story that had come to my mind during the day; while. Demetriovich, for almost an hour, had been poring over the pages of a news- paper that had been published two days before. ~ / THE INVISIBLE DESTROYER L. A. ESCHBACH . union will bring about-the downfall of our present civilization, “As for its being the best thing. for-the peace of the world,” ‘he continued, “a little thought should :convince-even you that the idea is preposterous. Do you imagine for a moment that “any government or any set of Jaws will abolish war? Bah! The last fight will take place between the last’ two individuals left on earth. You: certainly don’t believe, even though every nation signs the Union Pact, that they'll all hold true to their agreement, do you? All that will be needed to send two nations at each other’s throats will be a little argu- ment about boundaries, or commerce, or any number of other trivial matters. No, Kieth, there neyer has been, nor ever will be a solution to the problem of war.” OU are probably correct, Alex,” Vachell ‘interposed, “but don’t you believe that an International Government will at-least. render wars less numerous, inasmuch as a revolting nation will be pit- ted against every other nation on earth? I believe that a government will think twice before opening hostilities against a neigh- bor, when all the nations are united.” “T suppose that is*so,” Demetriovich as- sented rather reluctantly. “But that isn’t what-T had: reference to when I spoke of the downfall of civilization, I was think- ing of the effect it would have upon our mode of living, o Suddenly, Demetriovich — a short, heavy-set man with bushy black hair, thick, irregular’ eye- brows, and a straggling beard— looked up from his reading, His brows were contracted in a heavy frown. “They'll never do it!” he ex- claimed. “They'll never do it!” “Do what?) Vachell asked. The Russian. pointed to- an -ar- ticle in the newspaper he ‘held. “Unite the nations,’ he replied, “You've all heard oi the recent World Conference held, in Lon- don, and their decision to unite the nations under one govern- ment a year after the date of the conference, Their reason for 4, ; to allow time for dealing with any dissension that may arise. Almost every government on earth had a representative at the meeting; and the decision to unite was unanimous, but,” he concluded, “they'll never’ do it!” “Why not?” Kieth exclaimed. “T can see to reason why they won't tite, nor why they vrs waiting a year, by the way, is. T is well known that theworld in which we Uve and have. our being is only one of the possible worlds that may ewist in the same space with ws, Astonishing as this statement may sound, when we examine it we still find it to be true. As_our author points out, everything we see and hear and feet and detect with our other senses is perceptible. to us merely -be- cause of certain vibrations of these bodies, and that if it were possible te change the rate of vibration st might. be possible to de- tect a new world twohich exists simultaneously with ours. If one could discover how to use ‘this vir bration, what @ great power he might have over life! He could in fact become the ruler of our universe, because as we know vibra- tion igathe secret of all life. In this remarkable avittion story of the future, our author treats of such a theme in @ simple yet very dramatic manner. Incidentally, we might say, there isa fun- damental error in-the science of this story, which we have purposely allowed in, We would be very glad to hear from our-readers giving us their point of view aato what this error is, and we will publish in our reader's columns the best answers. “The- political: problems. of to- day are simple when compared with the complexities’ that would drise with the establishment of an International ruling body. At present we have to contend with the -so-called grafter, and his crooked methods in politics, ‘To- day, we meet with petty’ vote buy- ing, with the control of execu- tives by organizations that secure office for the politicians, with the purchase of immunity from the law by the dishonest rich, and similar instances of. unpunished crime. What would the condi- tions be in the case of an Inter- national Government? Every couritry on earth with all their graft, would render the govern- ment of the world rotten to the core!” Demetriovich had arisen in his excitement, and had tnconsciously assumed the air of a lecturer, shaking the folded newspaper to emphasize his words. Yet there was: nothing ludicrous :about his actions; the deadly earnestness of his every word and gesture dispelled any feeling of mirth prevalent opinion that an International Government will be the solution of all our problems-of state, I believe that it is the best thing that could possibly occur for the peace and pros- “That would be your opinion,” Demetriovich snorted scorn- shouldn’t. It seems to be the = 3 perity of the world.” Se fully. “And that’s how it appears on the surface, But I’ve been considering the problem from every angle for the last two days, and I tell you that, if it is carried out, this world before it was fully formed. “But more important. still,” he continued after a moment's pause, “are the financial and industrial problems that would arise. Even today, the corporations and trusts have become a menace to the financial peace of the world, placing far too great a degree of power in individual hands, Imagine what will happen if the field of financial endeavor is widened to encompass the entire world! Eventually, I verily believe, the money of the world would-be controlled by ten or fifteen. men. 1005