268 



NATURE 



[June 6, 191 8 



suffered from the exigencies of political jurisdic- 

 tion and, to some extent, from the mischief of 

 bureaucratic control. At Rome, too, policy and 

 technical Boards were in existence in connection 

 with the public services, but these Boards occu- 

 pied only a consultative position. Italy, in the 

 strug'g'le mentioned,, was desirous of emancipating" 

 its public services of a technical nature from poli- 

 tical influences and the incubus of bureaucracy, 

 and substituting therefor an industrial .organisa- 

 tion and commercial methods of administration. 



It is not surprising, then, that M. Fayol should 

 have told the Paris audience to whom he addressed 

 himself in November last that only those who 

 possess technical and administrative, ability 

 combined are really capable of laying down 

 scientific methods of administration and of erect- 

 ing the framework of a scientific organisation. 

 No practical person familiar with the requirements 

 of modern technical enterprises is likely to quarrel 

 with him for holding this view. It must.be evident 

 even to the most casual observer that we have 

 now reached a stage in industrial development 

 such that, in order to obtain the fullest measure 

 of success from human effort, it has become im- 

 peratively necessary to secure from men possess- 

 ing scientific attainments and a technical training 

 the highest degree of co-operation in the adminis- 

 tration and management of .technical enterprises, 

 whether privately owned or in the hands of the 

 State; further, that any attempt to divorce the 

 administrative from the technical control in such 

 enterprises is mischievous, and must, if persisted 

 in, eventually lead to national ruin. 



W. A. J. O'Meara. 



"AFTER THE WAR." 

 '^pHE final report of the Committee on Com- 

 ^ mercial and Industrial Policy after the War 

 has now been issued ; it necessarily deals with such 

 a vast, number of complex subjects that it has 

 perforce to content itself with generalities, more 

 or less vague, and gives but few indications upon 

 which any definite line of policy can be based. It 

 is notably weak in what should, perhaps, have 

 been its most important inquiry — namely, as to 

 the utilisation of the natural resources of the 

 Empire to the best advantage in the future ; it is 

 significant that the title of the Committee is "on 

 Commercial and Industrial Policy," instead of "on 

 Industrial and Commercial Policy," as it logically 

 should have been, seeing that a sound commercral 

 policy can only be developed upon lines following 

 industrial development, and not vice versa. 



In most cases this Committee has merely, sum- 

 marised the reports of various Departmental Com- 

 mittees, without giving any indication of the rela- 

 tive importance of the subjects discussed. For 

 example, the coal trade is thus briefly dealt with, 

 and there is no indication in the report to what 

 an overwhelming extent this is the essential in- 

 dustry upon which our Empire depends. Mr. 

 Scoby Smith has, indeed, appended a very valu- 

 able note upon the importance of conserving our 

 NO. 2536, VOL. lOl] 



supply of coking coal, but even this does not touch 

 the larger question. Coal plays, in fact, a two- 

 fold part; not only is it the raw material from 

 which a host of important industrial and pharma- 

 ceutical products may be obtained, but, above all 

 and beyond all, it is also practically the sole source 

 from which we draw our mechanical energy. With- 

 out a continuance of the supply of abundant and 

 relatively cheaply won coal that we have hitherto 

 enjoyed, the industrial supremacy of Britain would 

 be gone, and we should rapidly fall to a very 

 subordinate position amongst nations. It is 

 scarcely too much to say that the magnitude of 

 this problem completely overshadows all the 

 others ; if the whole of the recommendations put 

 forward by the Committee could be acted upon, 

 and if they all produced the maximum of good 

 effect that the most sanguine member of the Com- 

 mittee could expect, they would be p>owerless to 

 save Great Britain from industrial ruin if she 

 could no longer produce an abundant output of 

 coal as cheaply as her competitors. The Com- 

 rnittee does not appear to have realised that such 

 coal production is the most urgent and the most 

 vital of all after-the-war problems. 



There are, it is true, some recommendations as 

 to mineral production in general which naturally 

 do include our coal production. Thus the Com- 

 mittee strongly recommends an intelligence and 

 advisory bureau for dealing with metals and 

 minerals, and a special letter from the chairman 

 of the Committee to the Premier emphasises this 

 recommendation, and supports the resolution of the 

 Imperial War Conference to the effect that an 

 Imperial mineral resources bureau should be 

 established in London. It is satisfactory to know 

 that such a bureau is in process of formation, and 

 the general tenor of the Committee's views on 

 the subject would seem to be quite sound, espe- 

 cially in respect of the principle which is laid 

 down — ^that the functions of the bureau should 

 be the dissemination of 'intelligence and advice, 

 but be in no sense executive ; and, further, that 

 the utmost use should be made of the services of 

 technical and scientific experts. The value of 

 such a bureau to the mineral industries of the 

 Empire should be very great, and its suggested 

 activities are exactly what is required ; hitherto 

 the assistance that the coal-mining industry has 

 received from' the Governmental authorities has 

 been essentially of the negative order. 



Our mining- engineers can be trusted to work 

 out their own problems for themselves, as they 

 have always done, but the increasing complexity 

 of mining methods demands a far better supply of 

 official information than has been forthcoming up 

 to the present. It is only necessary to compare 

 our meagre Home Office annual reports with the 

 splendid volumes of the Prussian Zeitschriften to 

 realise how greatly we have been handicapped in 

 this respect. Of all national resources, mineral 

 resources need the most scientific study, the most 

 complete utilisation, and the most careful con- 

 servation, because, unjike other natural resources, 

 they are not reproductive, and, once used, they 



