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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1920. 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN 6- CO., LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 

 addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial conununications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 



Science and Labour. 



A FORTNIGHT ago the British Association 

 was in session at Cardiff, and men of 

 science were engaged in making and discussing 

 contributions to the world's store of natural 

 knowledge. This week the Trades Union Con- 

 gress meets at Portsmouth, and representatives 

 of manual labour are asserting their industrial 

 and political claims with no uncertain voice. The 

 spirits of the two bodies are as the poles apart. 

 On one .side we have the explorer, animated solely 

 by zeal for discovery and eager to learn of new 

 fields in which pioneers are prospecting : on the 

 Other we have workers seeking — no doubt reason- 

 ably in some cases — full rights and privileges for 

 particular occupational interests, and aiming to 

 use these interests for political power. 



It is not within the province of Nature to 



discuss these ambitions of manual labour, or to 



anticipate the effects of a policy which, to say the 



'ist, has little constructive work behind it. We 



<y, however, deal appropriately with the rcla- 



ns of science to labour, especially as the activi- 



• s of both are essential to human progress and 



irospcrity. Schemes for securing greater pay for 



s 1,-ibour occupy most of the attention of the 



l)lii: Press and social platform, while the vastly 



■re important subject of the creation of wealth 



ough scientific discovery and industrial appli- 



tion is almost nnhcrdoH hv the vrrv people who 



iiri)fit most by it. 



N". 2654, VOL. I06J 



Labour alone may build pyramids to-day, as it 

 did four thousand years ago, but it cannot create 

 new industries without new knowledge, and this 

 is obtained by scientific research, whether carried 

 on in an academic laboratory or in the works. 

 Without the aid of science and invention, this 

 country would be in the condition of China, where 

 four-fifths of the population are peasant cultivators 

 of the soil, and the social condition of the people 

 is far below that of any British working class. 

 The fullest encouragement must, of course, be 

 given to the greatest of our industries — agricul- 

 ture — but it should also be remembered that there 

 are only about as many acres of permanent 

 pasture and arable land together, in the United 

 Kingdom, as there are people in this kingdom, 

 and that we must depend largely for our exist- 

 ence upon foreign trade. By the use of our 

 knowledge and the development of our natural 

 resources we have to be able to offer other coun- 

 tries what they are not yet in a position to pro- 

 duce for themselves, for the lack of either one 

 or the other of these factors of prosperity. 

 Resources can be exhausted, but scientific dis- 

 covery can continually provide new openings for 

 industry, and the nation which makes the best 

 use of it can be assured of a leading position for 

 its products in the markets of the world. 



When, about the end of the eighteenth 

 century, the home demand for corn exceeded the 

 home supply, the population of England and 

 Wales was about nine millions : now it is about 

 forty millions, and we have to look to improved 

 methods of cultivation, and to the production 

 of new varieties of wheat, to enable us to provide 

 more than a week-end supply of food. As a large 

 and progressively increasing proportion of the 

 world's inhabitants feed upon wheat, markets from 

 which we now obtain supplies will also have the 

 demands of other countries to meet, and it will 

 be necessary for us to grow more of our own, 

 as well as to produce goods which other countries 

 will purchase from us. 



We now export textile goods to the value of 

 nearly three hundred million pounds annually, 

 and we are able to do so, not because of any 

 specific aptitude on the part of the British manual 

 worker, but because of machinery and of chemical 

 industry, which produces the dyes required for 

 piece goods. Fifty years ago nearly all the cotton 

 grown in the United Slates was exported to 

 luirope : now, every year more and more raw 

 cotton is being used in the mills of the New 

 England States, and we have to seek fresh 



