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. CHAPTER XIX. Cremation Becomes a Law. 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. Cremation in 1999 became the only legalized form of burial. Every cemetery was [Cremation Became a Law.] provided with a crematory long before 1950. Electricity was employed in reducing the body to ashes. Grave robberies that so often disgraced the nineteenth century, became impossible. A rich man was at least sure of a safe burial of his ashes after cremation, while the poor man's body, which formerly was thrust into a Potter's field, was safe at last from medical students and professional body-snatchers, who often robbed graves to [Rich and Poor on Equal Footing.] secure a skeleton. Millionaires in the twentieth century enjoyed after death the same degree of safety vouchsafed to the poor man. Their dust was on equal footing.