LXIV THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



war cannot be predicted, but it is certain that the keen rivalry in produc- 

 tion and trade which will begin as soon as peace is declared will de- 

 mand measures of an exceedingly exceptional kind. It will compel 

 the speeding up of the production from all the industries and a com- 

 petition in the world's markets that will involve unremitting toil on 

 the part of the masses unless these industries are organized in a way 

 they have never been hitherto. 



The keenest rivalry will come from the German industries, sup- 

 ported as they will be by all the forces of the German state. They will, 

 of course, depend for their success on cheap labour, and labour has 

 been and will be cheaper in Germany than in any of the allied nations 

 except Italy and Russia. She has won her pre-eminence in a great 

 many of the industries by the application of advanced science to them. 

 It is not too much to expect that she will apply science as it has never 

 been applied before and by that application and her cheap labour 

 she will endeavour to capture the world's markets, and thus make 

 the other nations pay her enormous debt as well as their own. There 

 are some who maintain that, while striving to this end, she will pre- 

 pare for another struggle in the near future. This, however, postu- 

 lates that the human race, or even a part of it, will not learn wisdom 

 from ineffable suffering and sorrow. 



The rest of the world must, to bear its burden even with some 

 measure of relief as time passes, also apply science to its in- 

 dustries as it never did formerly. Labour can never be as cheap in 

 our Empire, France and the United States as it is or will be in Ger- 

 many, and let us hope that no solution of the problem of international 

 competition sought will require a reduction in the reward for daily 

 toil, that will deny the hope of millions to lead a life in which sordid 

 care shall not wholly destroy the soul. What relief and advantage 

 in this competition may be had must come from a resort to a policy 

 which, outside Germany, has never yet been tried, and to follow 

 it to the utmost will involve on the part of the Empire and its allies a 

 revolution in national life. 



We have, of course, natural resources in our world-wide 

 Empire that Germany cannot command and these will constitute 

 an advantage in our favour. They are not inexhaustible, for the 

 only inexhaustible resource of the globe is the sunlight which is the 

 source, ultimately, not only of all our motive power, but also of the 

 energy in all its forms which the world of life manifests. It is not 

 only inexhaustible, but illimitable, for the sun will radiate its energy 

 as unstintedly as now for many millions of years, and mankind may, 

 when other resources of power are exhausted, have to depend wholly 

 on it for all the energy it requires. 



