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Show THE CITIZEN ARE STARS GALLING US? RE the stars calling ns? Are the inhabitants of Msts or of other planets many millions of miles away striving to get into communication with the human race, a peculiar kind of beings inhabiting a little speck of stardust called the Earth? These are questions which have absorbed the interest not only of scientists but of all who have read , Signor Marconis statement that the wireless instruments everywhere are receiving what may be signals from other plants. -- Marconi my experiments gsaidDuring to an interviewer in London. I have received signals which conceivably might have been sent from or have arisen in interplanetary space. You mean they may have been sent by beings upon other planets to the inhabitants of this one? he was asked. The Yes, he said and added, idea of interplanetary communication appears to me to be by no means outside the Tange of possibility FRENCH scientist, expressing skepticism, said it would be time enough to discuss the question when it was proved that the mysterious sounds picked up by the various instruments were identical. His implied suggestion is that the sounds are not in code and, therefore, not signals. As a beginning of the investigation a comparison of the signals would appear to be a desideratum. If it be shown that the sounds are merely a jumble it will demonstrate that they are not signals. Even if the sounds should prove to be regular, but of only a limited variety, one would be justified in thinking that they represent merely some atmospheric or electrical disturbance. It should be an easy matter, by means of such comparison, to ascertain whether the signals are a code even though the key to the code be undis- coverable for a long time. A so-call- ed ITtheis utterly fascinating to consider probabilities even though we may not solve the mystery. Let us suppose that intelligent be-o- n Mars become obsessed with the idea that other planets are inhabited by intelligent beings. Their natural desire would be to enter into communication as quickly as possible. But suppose that this idea first gripped the minds of the Martians a billion years ago many millions of years before the earth was inhabited. If they had perfected signaling devices about that time they would have grown weary if there be such a thing as weariness among the Martians after -?me years, centuries or aeons of signing. The birds, fishes and reptiles could have sent no signals in reply. Only intelligent beings can send intelligent signals. We can take it for granted either that the people of Mars are millions of years behind us or millions of years ahead of us in progress. It is not within the range of probability that they have reached only the same plane of development at the same period of By F. P. Gallagher still undeveloped. Indeed, it is quite within the range of possibility that they may have four or five more . time. theory here suggested, need not discourage us. It has its bright side. Although the earth beings have not yet communicated with other planetary beings it may very well be that these other beings have been in communication among themselves for millions of years. Marconi has considered this point and says with relation to it: For all we know for years past, possibly for centuries uncounted, many of the stars that we see in the firmament may have been in communication one with the other. Thinking it, we inevitably must be stimulated to great effort toward realization for ourselves of such possibilities if they exist. What reflection at first could be more staggering to the human imagination and then a greater urge toward renewed and ceaseless study than the thought that, through the ages, messages flashed from one celestial sphere to another may have helped to develop whatever conscious life exists upon the communication spheres, to urge along on them through the exchange of thought whatever there exists of the nature of that which we call civilization. We upon the earth have worked alone and stumblingly. If those dwelling in other worlds have had the help of other beings, so that each, finds itself in possession of a progression representative of the sum of the wisdom existing among all the communicating spheres, they may have far surpassed us. Obviously the Martians, millions of years ago, jnight have tried to get into communication with their near neighbor, the Earth, and might have succeeded, to their surprise and joy, in receiving signals from other inhabited spheres. For ages, as Marconi suggests, many of the planets may have been teaching one another their arts and sciences. THE . to what point does this bring Conceivably the mysterious sounds on the wireless may be signals from a dozen or more planets. Perhaps hundreds of planets, every day, sit in the great school of the universe. Perhaps they have been learning in that school for unnumbered aeons and are so far advanced that we will never be able even to understand them. Still, they have not forgotten their A. B. C.s and, once they received signals from us, would they not be willing to stop and listen to our childish, perhaps laughable, pleas for knowledge? So far as we know human beings are endowed with only five senses, although there is ground for belief that they have within them a sixth sense senses, which, when developed, will enable them to communicate on a higher plane with the superior beings of other planets. of the most mysterious things this life of ours is that we see everything as in a glass, darkly." When we look at water we fancy that we know what it is. A study convinces us that it can be divided into elements and we call these elements hydrogen and oxygen. But when we have arrived at the discovery and have been able to isolate the oxygen and hydrogen we ONE do not understand what these elements are. We use strange jargon about molecules, atoms and electrons, knowing all the time that these are mystic words expressing the sum of our ignorance. it not be that somewhere within us, even before we evaporate into pure spirit, there is a faculty which will permit us to apprehend things in a genuinely understanding way, a faculty that will get to the bottom of things? ' Marconi is not wholly silent on these points. His interviewer put to him the following question: May there be in existence elsewhere in the realms of space beings with a magnetic sense, a sense of orientation, or, perhaps, an electric sense? Discoveries to that effect would cause me no surprise," replied the inventor. If beings eixsted possessed of an electric sense highly developed," pursued the interviewer, might this render them capable of the reception of wireless messages?" Who can say?" responden Marconi. It seems not beyond the range of possibility." And when Marconi speaks in such fashion all of us are Impressed. It is only a few years ago that he astounded the world with his discovery of wireless telegraphy. Much water has run under the wheels of the world May since then and most of us have abandoned our skeptical attitude. We have begun to understand that credulity, guided by rules of reason, may be a virtue. Less than twenty-fiv- e years ago a on Marconi, trip across the contito finance his queer invention, nent, visited a certain rich man of Salt Lake City and appealed for aid. To impress the millionaire he set up two wireless instruments, one on each side of the office, and sent signals. The rich man was attacked by a creepy feeling along the backbone. Instead of being impressed with the reasonableness of the thing he began to think that the inventor was a sort of stage conjuror. Determined not to be humbugged, he refused to have anything to do with the invention. Marconis present theory is bound to invite attention to the subject of spirit communications. The spiritists do not wait for the invention of material devices for signaling. A few knocks on a table suffice them. The other world they look to is not a world of planets, not a material world at all, but a world of spirits. According to their notion it is no more difficult for a spirit to communicate from Mars than it is to communicate the distance across a room. Which brings up the old question, What is a spir-- it?" Is the human intelligence a spirit? If so, can it not communicate with other spirits whether they be on Mars or the farthest star without the intervention of any material devices? We must not lose sight of the old, orthodox explanations in our mad search for the novel. The old philosophers assure us that matter and spirit are wholly distinct. According to them spirit has neither length, nor breadth, nor thickness. It can exist by itself, without the me- dium of a body or any other material agency. And yet, if the human mind is a spirit we know that it operates through matter, because it operates through the brain and the body. We know that spirit and matter, even -- (Continued on Page 18.) AND KHEwmnr im will give you real mileage YOU HAVE OUR WORD A. M. IMIY COMPANY State and Exchange Place i i |