Or, on second thought, we see that man is the
greatest spendthrift of all, for he wants to expend so much more energy
than he has that he borrows from the winds, the streams and the coal in
the rocks. He robs minerals and plants of the energy which they have
stored up to spend for their own purposes, just as he robs the bee of
its honey and the silk worm of its cocoon.
Man's chief business is in reversing the processes of nature. That is
the way he gets his living. And one of his greatest triumphs was when he
discovered how to undo iron rust and get the metal out of it. In the
four thousand years since he first did this he has accomplished more
than in the millions of years before. Without knowing the value of iron
rust man could attain only to the culture of the Aztecs and Incas, the
ancient Egyptians and Assyrians.
The prosperity of modern states is dependent on the amount of iron rust
which they possess and utilize. England, United States, Germany, all
nations are competing to see which can dig the most iron rust out of the
ground and make out of it railroads, bridges, buildings, machinery,
battleships and such other tools and toys and then let them relapse into
rust again.
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