LXVI THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



view regarding the utilization of science, the new knowledge, as a 

 force in determining solutions of the gigantic problems that will 

 face the allied nations after the war. With the help of this new know- 

 ledge, applied rigorously and universally, it is possible that the nations 

 may not only bear their burdens with some degree of ease, but at- 

 tain a position which will make the occurrence of another war of 

 this character absolutely impossible in the near or more remote 

 future. If that should be the ultimate result, the blood and tears 

 of millions in this war will not be shed wholly in vain. 



It is my firm conviction that, had the allied nations cultivated 

 the sciences as they must do henceforth, there would have been no 

 such war as this. It is beyond question that Germany and Austria 

 are, relatively, poor in natural resources. The one great resource 

 which Germany possesses is to be found in the Strassfurt salt beds, 

 which contain an enormous quantity of potassium salts, a supply 

 without a parallel elsewhere. In all other resources she cannot 

 compare with the British Empire or with France or the United States. 

 Had she not developed her industries, through the rigorous application 

 of science to them, and, had she contented herself with the methods 

 and policy which Great Britain had followed in the last forty years, 

 it is extremely doubtful if her ambitions would have driven her to 

 adopt a policy of world conquest, or that, if they had, she would 

 have been able to stand against the world in arms as she is doing 

 to-day. 



Forty years ago Germany began to develop her industries along 

 scientific lines, not as a result of policy then expressly understood, but 

 simply because those in the control of them recognized that it was 

 only by applying all the scientific lore then available that they could 

 find markets for their products, not only in Germany, but abroad. 

 That they should have been so advanced in this respect must be 

 attributed to the excellence of the German university system, which 

 encouraged research along all lines, in the humanities, in philosophy 

 and in the sciences. The graduates in science of these universities, 

 doctors in philosophy, began to find their way into the industries 

 in the "seventies" and their participation in them soon began to 

 give results. It was due to their activities that Germany succeeded 

 in capturing the control of the aniline dye industry, which was ori- 

 ginally an English one. It was through their activities that the 

 German chemical manufacturers began to dominate the world's 

 markets. In the great industries, that of steel production, for ex- 

 ample, the German pre-eminence was rendered possible by the 

 utilization of the highest skill and expert knowledge that investigators, 

 originally trained in the universities, could bring to bear on the subject. 



