186 president's address. — section g. 



(Graph No. 2 shoiws how enormous is the inroad upon the world's 

 coal.) So also does extravagance in the rate at which they are 

 used up. Thus two factors promoting exhaustion are worse than 

 useless, i.e., destructive activities — e.(j., war^ — and certain modes 

 of luxurious living, viz., those which heedlessly draw upon the 

 accumulation of stored energy in the form, foir example, of hydro- 

 carbons. Thus the earth's probable stores of necessary materials, 

 and the rate at which their exploitation is proceeding, are matters 

 which will necessarily engage the world's statesmen and its 

 statists. 



How far the energy existing in falling water, in tidal move- 

 ments, or in the solar rays, or in matter itself will be suc- 

 cessfully utilized, it is not easy to say. At present we appro- 

 priate, of co'urse, very little of what is available, but there are 

 limits to the expense and convenience of the appropriation. The 

 available quantities of necessary materials are by no means illimit- 

 able, ncT are the conditions of use without difficulty. Hence 

 any advance in the rate of use and in the rate of exhaustion are 

 matters cf moment to those who consider the destiny of their race 

 or of their nation. It is for this reason that it will be necessary 

 to make future statistics embrace world-fields, and take account 

 in the widest possible way oi rates of development and exhaus- 

 tion. And it may be noted in this connexion that the elaboration 

 of civilization involves a correspondingly liberal use of material. 

 The demands for timber, for coal and iron, for copper, zinc, tin, 

 and aluminium increase, and it is quite possible that substiiuticns 

 will have to take place, as, for example, aluminium for iron and 

 steel, Portland cements for timber, and sO' on. Already in many 

 countries the question of reafforestation has become pressing, and 

 further increase of population will intensify solicitude as regards 

 future timber supplies. 



Any one who has followed the issue involved m the Treaty of 

 Peace must realize how important, as between individual nation?, 

 coal and iron statistics are, and, of course, also for the wQrld, 

 since the soilidarity of its economic interests is continually ad- 

 vancing. The world's peoples have become very interdependent, 

 consequently if the nations are not merely to drift, but are to take 

 an intelligent interest as to their place in the world -outlook, 

 statistics, in an appropriate way, must take account of the fields 

 referred to. In this connexion it is well to note that the elabora- 

 tion of civilization involves also the raising of the efficiency of 

 production to a correspondingly high value. The whole question 

 of the necessity -of high productive efficiency may be envisaged in 



