Page 21 - 1954

SPEED, MAN 1 S DESTINA TION
'!latching the road ahead of me and glancing once in a while at the flashing countryside through my side-window, I felt at peace as speed raced me on to my destination. Then the happiness was gone as two automobiles side-stepped me and left me gazing at their tail-lights and then I felt alone as I realized that Mr. Speed had left me to ffOon ahead with the others. "Why do people drive at this reckless speed,' I wondered. 'Why do they still want to go faster? 1;/as man born a speec.l demon lvho will never be satisfied?"
Momentarily I came out of my trance as tJVo jet planes flew over me going faster than sound, and I realized that speed is affecting almost every walk of life, In industry, transportation, sports, police protection, and war, speed is the main factor being stressed. The assembly line workers in plants get more money for every extra practise they produce above their quota. In sports the track and field runn~rs practice all their life so that they can run a mile in a faster time than any other human, Then the weapons of destruction brins down a curtain on speed. It now appears that if war was declared to-day, it would be over by tomorrow as the push-button rockets and planes of to-day travel miles in half- seconds.
What is the limit to how fast a human being can travel? There is no limit, But man cannot control his destination at that speed, you may say. But you are wrong. What man cannot do, a man-made machine will do it for him. A jet plane pilot is not fast enough in his reflexes to avoid an oncoming plane directly in his path, as his eyes do not see it fast enough, but that is where man's genius steps in. An electric eye in the nose of the plane, sees the oncoming crash and, in a split second changes the plane's course, while the pilot sits there and does not even have time to •ronderfrom where the other plane came. Similarly other defects in man's composition are overcome and a few more hundred miles per hour are adqed t o the speed of man.
In industry, the demand for more and more speed is introduced every day. A very simple solution for this is to install more machines. But what does the human being do? He invents another machine that goes twice as fast and therefore makes twice as many articles in the same time. Every year more power and speed is added to the automobile. To lessen the addition of danger with the addition of more speed, new safety devices are included. In the automobile of to-day, items such as power brakes, power steering, and low pressure tires, which were accessories a few years back, have become standard equipment to make travelling and transportation both faster anrl safer.
On certain nights if you follmr t he cheers of a huge crowd to some stadium, you will see that one of the favourite pastimes of a human being is to watch speed perform. A flashing hockey game, a speedy football contest, a reckless bob-sled race, or a death-defying stock-car race, any one of these, partially satisfies man's desire for speed and more speed.
Wherever you look, speed lurks there in some form, for man's destination is speed. Even death seems in a hurry as life seems to spe~d by through the years and arrives much too soon.
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By: Ed. Garback XIJ.II. Second in Upper School Essay