1916] INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN CANADA 149 
Again, before the war it was customary for the manufacturers of 
ordinary commercial glass articles to import from Belgium the sand 
used in their manufacture. The loss of this country to the enemy im- 
mediately cut off the supply. Search however was instituted, and it 
was soon found that sand equally suitable existed in large quantities in 
the British Isles. We have heard of the folly of carrying coals to New- 
-castle, but it will be difficult to find examples of economic folly more 
prodigious than the two which I have cited. 
I might also cite an example of the lack of departmental co-operation 
in our own country. A few years ago it became a matter of considerable 
interest to ascertain if radium-bearing minerals existed in deposits of 
any extent in one of the Provinces of Canada. The action which was 
taken in the matter—and I have no doubt that such action was 
taken in good faith and intended for the best—was to offer a 
reward of some $25,000 for the discovery of such minerals in paying 
quantities. Up to the present, I believe, no part of the reward has been 
paid. Now in the procedure followed in this case, the Department re- 
ferred to was quite unaware of the existence of a staff of trained scien- 
tists in another Department of the same Government which had gained 
world wide recognition for its researches on the properties of radium- 
bearing soils and minerals and which, if asked to do so, could have indicated 
a very simple way of making a complete survey of the Province, which 
would give such information as would enable one to say whether 
radium-bearing minerals existed in any considerable quantity or not. 
Moreover, the methods which would be applied in this survey are of 
such a sensitive nature that if deposits of the minerals sought for did exist 
it would be possible to locate them with ease and considerable precision. 
These are but two or three illustrations of our lack of co-ordination 
in effort, but they serve to show what could be done if proper machinery 
were devised to co-ordinate our activities and to work out in detail a 
broad scheme of scientific co-operation. 
II. NATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. 
Coming now more particularly to the subject of my address, namely, 
the establishment of an organisation for stimulating and fostering re- 
search as a basis for our manufactures and industries, we are faced with 
the problem of how to bring such a project into operation with the 
greatest efficiency and the least possible friction. 
UNIVERSITIES AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. 
The view is held in some quarters in Canada that the direction of 
research work, both industrial and purely scientific, should be placed 
