January 14, 19 15] 



NATURE 



5-17 



another's patent is likely to be successful, and whether 

 it mav not be possible, by infringing a patent, so to 

 saddle an opponent with' legal expenses as to break 

 his competition, is not easily defensible. Fair com- 

 petition between individuals lies at the bottom of all 

 trade ; unfair competition, backed by all the resources 

 of the State, is what we have had to face with 

 Germany. 



We hjive recently had brought to our notice German 

 methods applied to the shipping industry, and the 

 Australians have been pointing out that the control of 

 the •• base metal market " is almost entirely in German 

 hands. 



It is necessary to go further; just as the German 

 State has shown itself to be no respecter of treaties, 

 just as the leaders of the German army have revealed 

 themselves as breakers of ever\- humane law, 

 treacherous and deceitful, so long as they think they 

 can gain their ends, so it is foolish not to be warned 

 that the German nation as a whole, is completely 

 unworthy of trust; that commercial agreements are 

 regarded by members of that nation as binding only 

 so long as some advantage is to be gained by keeping 

 to them, and that dishonesty is excusable if only it 

 appears to lead to German prosperity. For there is a 

 sort of debased patriotism in the average German 

 mind, " Deutschland, Deutschland iiber alles, iiber 

 alles in der Welt," no matter how* the supremacy of 

 *• Deutschland " is secured. 



\\'e were shocked at the beginning of the war by 

 the disregard towards treaties displayed by our oppo- 

 nents ; we were amazed at the treatment of Belgian 

 non-combatants; and we are slowly realising that 

 ever\- trick, from firing on the Red Cross to the false 

 display of the white flag of surrendei, is made use of 

 bv the enemy, and not, be it observed, by individual 

 groups of our opponents, but by command from high 

 quarters. We are slowly and incredulously awaken- 

 ing to the knowledge that German commercial tricks 

 are on a par with their tricks in war : that the whole 

 nation is infected by the microbe of dishonour and 

 dishonesty. 



Of course, there are honest men among our oppo- 

 nents ; from time to time we read of kind acts to our 

 wounded; and from a lifelong experience of Germany 

 and the Germans I have no hesitation in stating there 

 are Germans as kindly, as honest, and as upright as 

 there are among ourselves, the French, the Americans, 

 and among the inhabitants of all other nations. That 

 is not the point. \\'hat we have to face is a nation 

 organised for a policy of dishonesty ; and a nation 

 which, as a nation, approves of that policy. More- 

 over, this nation believes that the policy of dishonesty 

 is likelv to be a successful one, and it has the will, 

 and believed itself to have the power, to enforce this 

 policv on the whole world. Conscientious Germans 

 have been impressed more by the end than by the 

 means adopted to gain that end : the prosperity of 

 their "Vaterland." 



I conceive that the main purpose of the Institute 

 of Industrj- and Commerce is to take counsel and 

 evolve some means for combating this attack. Just 

 as it is clear that peace can never be declared until 

 the chance of another Teutonic outburst is made im- 

 possible, bv the total disbandment of the German 

 armv, so it must be evident that the commercial 

 system of Germany cannot be allowed to continue. 

 It is probable that' it is better to make a beginning 

 bv an alliance of science, industry, and comrnerce, 

 such as the institute contemplates; but it will be 

 necessarv, if the future German State is allowed to 

 retain the powder of waging an industrial war, to 

 combat it bv the action of the organised British 

 nation, that is, by the State. Once that conquest is 



NO. 2359, VOL. 94] 



achieved, however, we should do well to remember 

 that commerce should be co-operative and not com- 

 petitive; that it is to our interest not only that we 

 ourselves should prosper, but that others should also 

 prosper; that, indeed, our own prosperity is bound up 

 in the prosperity of our fellow-creatures. 



WiLU.\ii Ramsay. 



STATE AID FOR SCIENCE.^ 

 Introductory. 



ELEMENTARY education and the training of 

 teachers for work in elementary schools have 

 been the object of State solicitude for the past eightv 

 years. Increasing sums of money have been devoted 

 to these two purposes; rules and' regulations in rich 

 variety have been framed for the proper disposal of 

 this nioney, and some of the ablest and most energetic 

 administrators have spent their lives in the endeavour 

 to carrs- them out; a vast system of officials and 

 organisations has arisen to see that no possible flaw 

 or fault remains in the effective distribution of the 

 sums annually voted by the State ; and yet the general 

 consensus of opinion among those best qualified to 

 judge is that the results achieved are very poor, that 

 thev are transient in effect and occasionally even harm- 

 ful'rather than beneficial. Gigantic efforts have been 

 and are being made, yet the results are plainly incom- 

 mensurate with the outlay; ver}- few indeed being 

 satisfied that the State and the localitA" are getting 

 monev's worth for their expenditure. 



This then being the present position as regards the 

 problem of elementary education let us now see how- 

 far the same position is true in regard to the small 

 portion of the State's annual expenditure on education 

 of all tvpes and degrees which is specifically ear- 

 marked for the promotion of science teaching, scien- 

 tific training, and research. It may perhaps turn out 

 to be true that the ineffectiveness of much of our 

 educational system is due to the absence of the scien- 

 tific spirit arnong our administrators and teachers, to 

 lack of definite knowledge of the capabilities of the 

 child mind, and neglect of the conclusions which 

 science, if properly studied, could have supplied. 



Taking as the basis of our investigations the various 

 sums voted bv the State for the promotion of science 

 during the past sixty years, we can from the variations 

 in the amounts, and in the particular objects for 

 which these amounts were granted, observe how the 

 encouragement given to science has fluctuated. For 

 this purpose the Estimates annually presented to Par- 

 liament are the most trustworthy guide — a guide who, 

 however, frequently leads one astray. 



The task of following any particular item of the 

 Vote from vear to year is rendered difficult from the 

 various reorganisations and rearrangements occasioned 

 by the changes made from time to time in the organi- 

 sation of the various offices, as, for example, when 

 the control of science instruction in Scotland was 

 transferred to the Scottish Education Department in 

 1897-8, and that for Ireland in 1899-1900 to the Board 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Nor is this 

 the onlv source of confusion. Sub-heads dealing with 

 science are sometimes kept separate from and some- 

 times amalgamated with those relating to art, so that 

 it is not possible to say with certainty whether a 

 particular form of aid has increased, diminished, or 

 disappeared. 



This difficulty becomes accentuated in the year 1900. 

 when the Science and Art Department became amal- 

 gamated with the Education Department, and the two 

 started anew on their official career as the Board of 

 Education. In subsequent Estimates votes were 



1 Abrilged from a paper read before Section L of the British Associa-ion 

 at M-ilbourne, by C. A. Buckmaster. 



