The growth of the electrical machine industry in 1999 was enormous. The United States of the Americas led the world in their manufacture. The dawn of this vast industry was already manifest, even in 1899. The capital invested in electrical industries in that year was as follows:
928 electric railways, aggregating 14,850 miles, $883,000,000 2,838 electric light central stations, 335,486,518 25,000 private electric lighting plants, 87,500,000 Power transmission (750,000 motors in use), 150,000,000 Electrical apparatus in mining, 125,000,000 Telegraph, telephone, &c. 600,000,000 -------------- Total, $2,180,986,518
In 1999 nearly a third of the entire capital of the vast American Republic was invested in electrical interests of some form or other. The export trade of American machines became stupendous. The world demanded only the American make; no substitutes would answer.
American pluck and brains proved the lever that Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, so long sighed for. American brains moved the world.
No more grave robberies in the twentieth century. The old style of burial becomes a back number. Popular errors about Cremation removed. Undertakers at a discount. Costly funerals discouraged. Funeral etiquette in 1999. No person buried alive in the twentieth century. Sacred memories of the dead still jealously treasured. "Rented graves" and other burial abominations of the nineteenth century are forever banished.
The great innovation of the twentieth century which long rankled within the human breast, but finally uprooted and conquered prejudice, was cremation. The [No More "Earth to Earth."] old traditions and forms of Christian burial were difficult to eradicate, but reason and a general sense of public safety finally broke down the barriers and traditions of ages. Cremation for many years shocked public sensibilities. The terrors of the hidden grave, nameless and horrible, were eliminated by the new and only safe process of disposing of the dead. In the contention which prevailed during the first half of the twentieth century, many were reluctant to accept cremation as the true mode of burial. By degrees, however, public opinion settled down and adjusting itself to the new conditions, accepted the quicker and safer methods of burial.