340 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



of far more serious import than the military wars of its 

 opening years. On the East, the most systematically in- 

 structed and best-informed people in Europe are our com- 

 petitors; on the West, an energetic offshoot of our own 

 stock, grown bigger than its parent, enters upon the struggle, 

 possessed of natural resources to which we can make no 

 pretension, and with every prospect of soon possessing that 

 cheap labour by which they may be effectually utilised. 

 Many circumstances tend to justify the hope that we may 

 hold our own if we are careful to organise victory." 



The question is — have the steps we have taken to pro- 

 tect ourselves, to hold our own, to organise victory, led to 

 success ? In most cases, most certainly not ! We are 

 fast proving ourselves to be incapable of holding our own 

 in almost every branch of industry. 



Of course there are certain brilliant exceptions to the 

 general rule, but these only prove the rule and enable us to 

 understand the cause of our failure. 



Why is this? It is, I believe, because our character is 

 so firmly set that nothing but severe compulsion will lead 

 us to reform ; it is because, whatever we may term ourselves 

 politically, we are all by nature ultra-conservative, the rank- 

 est political radicals amongst us being the strongest con- 

 servatives in their Qreneral conduct. It is due to our intense 

 belief in ourselves, the outcome of a long period of unex- 

 ampled prosperity. We are so intolerantly individual that 

 we cannot bring ourselves to organise and co-operate, and 

 this probably is the main source from which our difficulties 

 spring. Let me take an illustration from agriculture, the 

 most important of our industries, but one which as all know 

 is in a terribly depressed condition. W 7 e are told that last 

 year ^"36,000,000 worth of butter, cheese, eggs, hams, bacon, 

 fowls, ducks, etc., was imported into this country! Surely 

 we ought to be capable of producing most of these. 



As a matter of fact we cannot even make decent butter 

 or cheese yet. As Sir Henry Gilbert, the distinguished agri- 

 cultural chemist, remarked to me lately when we were sitting 

 together at dinner : " In our village we prefer to buy Brit- 

 tany butter rather than the local ' Best Fresh"'. If we could 



