296 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



be of sufficient interest and importance to the people of the state. 

 This is already the practice of several states in which academies 

 of science flourish and it is done by the national government for 

 the National Academy. It should also provide a suitable build- 

 ing in which the regular meetings of the academy could be held, 

 where its archives and collections could be stored and where its 

 special committees could hold their meetings and prepare their 

 re]:)orts. This is certainly a modest demand if the members of 

 the academy pledge themselves in return to give to the state with- 

 out cost, in the form of advice and counsel, the full benefit of 

 their scientific training and technical skill. 



During the past few years in public and ])rivate speech, in 

 books, newspapers and magazines the word "efficiency" has been 

 heard and seen almost ad nauseam. The better the horse the 

 more we are inclined to ride it to death, but that phase of the 

 meaning of this word which implies making full and economic 

 use of all our varied resources must in the end enjoy a useful 

 survival. From the awful calamity which has fallen upon the 

 world in the form of a general European war there are many 

 lessons to be learned, not the least important of which is to dis- 

 cover the origin and cause of the marvelous efficiency of the 

 military forces of one of the great nations involved, or rather, 

 of the people of that nation, or still more accurately, of the na- 

 tion as a whole, which has displayed a capacity for the immedi- 

 ate and complete utilization of every available resource, animate 

 and inanimate, that has commanded the admiration of even its 

 most bitter foes. 



For one of the principal sources of this efficiency we have 

 not far to look. 



In 1893, when every nation of the world was collecting the 

 best examples of its material resources and industrial products 

 for exihibition at the great World's Fair held at Chicago in cele- 

 bration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 

 America, an old man in Berlin was commanded to present him- 

 self at the Royal Palace for an interview with the Emperor of 

 Germany. To him spoke the Kaiser, saying : 



