Previews

Perhaps it was not meant to take the spotlight off Henry Ford's enormous new building at Chicago's Century of Progress but such was certainly the effect of a party given by General Motors' Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. on the eve of last week's Fair opening (see p. 12). To the General Motors Building he invited an army of U. S. leaders for a prophetic symposium on "Industrial Progress in the Next Century." What some of the guests saw ahead:

P: It is not difficult ... to predict the propulsion of airplanes by radiated energy with the power plants located on the ground. Nor is it difficult to envision the entire system of aerial transportation . . . unaffected by fog and weather conditions. Most of this work is being studied today under the name of photosynthesis--that is, how plants grow.--Charles Franklin Kettering, General Motors' researching vice president. P: It is reasonable to suppose that we shall soon find some knowledge regarding the ancient history of the universe. Has it been in operation forever, or did it start at some more or less definite time in the ancient past? . . . The possibility of synthetically preparing chlorophyll and through its action storing chemically the power from the sun in a more efficient way than can be done through the growth of plants is an enticing one.--Physicist Arthur Holly Compton. P: The life of man upon this earth is 70 years. A child born today may expect to live 60 years instead of the 35 years it could expect in 1833. --In the 21st Century ... we shall see the majority of mankind approximating three score years and ten.--Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the American Medical Association Journal. P: Facsimile radio, that is, the sending of pictures and printed matter through the air, is looming on the horizon of science. ... I believe the day will come when you will turn on the facsimile receiver when retiring and in the morning the paper tape will tell the story of what flashed through the sky while you slumbered.--President Merlin Hall Aylesworth of National Broadcasting Co.P: In 1949 the world's 20 largest corporations got together on a life-term installment program for goods and services. They offered each subscriber complete equipment for living--food, clothing, a home, an auto, a plane, television, and a world travel ticket good on all trains and boats--all for a flat monthly payment. In 1953 they threw in a life and disability insurance policy. In 1959 they added medical service complete. ... At the end of 1969, an agreement was reached whereby the asylums of the country filled all political offices with harmless nuts suffering from delusions of grandeur. . . . On July 4. 1981, the last flyswatter on earth was publicly burned.--Journalist Walter B. Pitkin (Life Begins at Forty, More Power to You). P: Within ten years fruit from California or Turkestan will be served in London with all the freshness and taste of freshly gathered fruit by suspended animation of both enzymes and micro-organisms.-- Researcher Charles S. Ash of California Packing Corp. Tartly the New York Times summed up the symposium: "The responses reveal 300 leaders fluttering unimaginatively on the ground. ... It is impossible for them to conceive Utopia without our cement, our improved bakery, our metal furniture, our tractors, our rustless wire-rope, our quick-drying lacquers.''

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.