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What may happen in the next hundred years*
               By John Elfreth Watkins Jr.

                   ou may not believe the strange prophesies I am about to
               Ytell you. But, the most educated and conventional minds
               in America have said they will come to pass. I have asked the
               most rational and deliberate men in our greatest institutions
               of science and learning, each in his turn, his opinion on how
               his field o  investigation will have advanced by the dawn of
               2001 – 100 years from now. I have carefully transcribed the
               opinions.

               Americans will be from one to two inches taller. Extensive
               improvements in areas like medicine, sanitation, nutrition
               and physical fitness will contribute to their inc ease in
               stature. They will live to be fi ty years old instead of thirty-
               five as  t this moment – this improvement will be the result
               of living in the suburbs. There will be almost no houses in
               the city. In just a few minutes, they will make the trip from
               suburban home to office  It will cost a penny.

               There Will Be No Cars on the Street in the Large Cities.
               High-speed vehicles will be below or high above the ground
               when they enter city limits. In most cities, they will travel
               in broad subways or tunnels, with plenty of lighting and
               ventilation, or climb “moving ramps”supported by high
               trestles leading to the top. Freight trucks with cushioned
               wheels and high-volume passenger trains will fill these
               underground or overhead streets. Subways and ramps
               will be reserved for express trains.  Therefore, noise will be
               eliminated from the city.

               Automobiles will be less expensive than horses are today.
               On farms, hay-wagons, truck-wagons, hay-rakes, harrows
               and plows will have automotive engines. A motor weighing


               *Taken from a newspaper of 1900.

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