NATURE 



[September 4, igig 



cannot expect in four years to reach the position 

 which it has taken forty years of organisation, 

 skill, and enterprise on the part of Germany to 

 secure. 



The country, therefore, will welcome the steps 

 which the Board of Trade has taken, in con- 

 formity with the Prime Minister's recent state- 

 ment in Parliament, to protect goods manufac- 

 tured in Great Britain and Ireland against 

 "dumping," and to check any flood of imports 

 (for instance, from Germany) that might arise 

 from a collapse of exchange so disproportionate 

 to costs of production in the country of origin as 

 to enable sales to take place in this country at 

 prices altogether below costs of production here. 

 It is, of course, too much to expect that this 

 action will pass unchallenged. There is a school 

 of politicians in this country who, like the Bour- 

 bons, learn nothing and forget nothing. They 

 are a decreasing faction, it is true, and recent 

 events have tended to submerge the survivors. 

 In a few years they will be as extinct as the dodo. 

 It is a significant fact that the fiscal tenets of 

 the Manchester School are never cherished by a 

 real democracy. 



Pending the legislation which is to be introduced 

 into Parliament when it reassembles in the 

 autumn, the Board of Trade under the powers 

 conferred upon it will, as from September i, 

 1919, prohibit the importation into the United 

 Kingdom of synthetic dyestuffs, drugs, and 

 "intermediates" needed in their manufacture; 

 also synthetic flavourings and perfumes, .synthetic 

 photographic chemicals, and a considerable 

 number of inorganic products and medicaments 

 of which the manufacture had to be started in 

 this country in consequence of the war, and which 

 German manufacturers had intended to "dump" 

 into this country as soon as trade relations were 

 re-established. 



In addition to the chemical products enumer- 

 ated in the schedule of the proclamation, the 

 Board of Trade is taking steps to protect the 

 new industries dealing with optical glass, scien- 

 tific glassware, laboratory porcelain, and a 

 number of products of which the Germans by 

 various means, some of them of a very dubious 

 character, had secured a monopoly. This action 

 will, no doubt, occasion great perturbation in the 

 Teutonic mind. It may even amount to dismay. 

 The enemy had probably calculated, and as usual 

 miscalculated, on prejudices which occasionally 

 seem to obscure the recognition of our true in- 

 terests as a trading community. " 'Tis sport to 

 have the engineer hoist with his own petar. " 



THE ORGANISATION OF RESEARCH. 

 "pART of the scherhe devised by the Depart- 

 -»- ment of Scientific and Industrial Research 

 for the administration of the funds placed at its 

 disposal by Parliament was the formation of 

 associations among groups of manufacturers, and 

 a conference was held on July 29 of representa- 

 NO. 2601, VOL. 104] 



tives of the associations already formed for the 

 purpose of discussing some of the many problems 

 which have presented themselves in connection 

 with their work. 



In the absence of Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, 

 President of the Board of Education, the chair 

 was taken by Sir William McCormick, chairman 

 of the Advisory Council. Sir Frank Heath, secre- 

 tary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research, was also present, besides some sixty to 

 seventy representatives. A great diversity of 

 subjects was thus represented, though some, 

 especially the great chemical industries, were con- 

 spicuously unrepresented. 



The meeting was informed that nine research 

 associations were in operation, eight more have 

 been approved and are only waiting the licence 

 of the Board of Trade, ■ while twelve others are 

 under discussion. So much having been accom- 

 plished in the three years which have elapsed since 

 the idea originated, it may be assumed that a 

 general approval has been given to the schemi; 

 by the industrial world, but the initial difficulties 

 are far from being overcome as yet. 



.Among the subjects discussed at the conference 

 the first was the formation of a records bureau, 

 and the second the difficult and important one 

 of the conditions of employment of research 

 workers engaged by the associations. Other ques- 

 tions related to co-operation among the associa- 

 tions, and the amount and method of assessment 

 of the subscriptions to be paid by the associated 

 firms in addition to the subsidy from departmental 

 funds. 



The formation of a bureau of information and 

 for the recording of results secured by research is 

 a matter of the utmost importance. In the first 

 place it is proposed that its task should consist 

 in storing up the results of work done by the 

 associations, but even this will be found very 

 expensive and not free from difficulties, owing to 

 the views prevalent in some quarters as to 

 secrecy. The associations require access to in- 

 formation of every kind, and apparently the 

 representatives assembled have something to learn 

 with regard to the existing sources of much of 

 the information they require, for throughout the 

 discussion no reference was made to the magni- 

 ficent journals, containing both original papers 

 and abstracts, issued by .some of the British and 

 American engineering and chemical societies. It 

 seems to be recognised that a large number of 

 reference libraries will have to be established, 

 especially in the neighbourhood of great centres 

 of industry; but it ought also to be understood 

 that every association will require a library stored 

 with works of reference, and especiallv journals 

 cognisant of the subjects it represents; indeed, 

 every works which has a laboratory for research 

 must be similarly provided. All this represents a 

 large outlay of money, the amount of which can 

 scarcely be calculated as yet. 



The other serious point under discussion con- 

 cerned the interests of the separate associations, 

 and perhaps more particularly those of the in- 



