PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 23 



in connection both with the war itself and with our manu- 

 factures and in other ways. I think there can be no doubt 

 that the Germans owe much of their success both in war and 

 commerce to the employment of scientific men and methods 

 to an extent far beyond anything we have hitherto attempted 

 in England, and in so far we may take a lesson from them. 

 At the same time, in spite of this, it would seem from statistics 

 that Germany has been by no means so prolific of the new 

 inventions themselves as England, but she has been much 

 more ready in developing and making use of them without 

 regard to where they may have originated. In the matter of 

 scientific research the results may be apparently very small 

 for a long time and for a considerable expenditure, but it is 

 the only way to progress on a sure foundation, and the results 

 in the long run are well worth the labour and money expended. 

 It is said that " Art cannot be forced " no more can science, 

 and if a larger number of competent men were put in such a 

 position that they could devote their lives to research work, 

 the nation would be the richer by it. This matter has been 

 discused in Parliament, and a scheme proposed constituting 

 an " Advisory Council on Industrial Research," which it is 

 hoped will meet the case and open the way to further im- 

 provements. Hitherto nearly all research work has been 

 done without payment or reward, and it is naturally the case 

 that the great bulk of those who are capable of this work 

 have to spend most of their time in earning a livelihood in 

 some more remunerative way. A point connected with the 

 above is the large number of products for which we have been 

 either chiefly or entirely dependent on Germany, but which 

 we are now by force of necessity trying to learn how to make 

 for ourselves. In so far as this can be accomplished it will 

 be for the financial benefit of the country, as large sums have 

 been annually sent abroad in payment. The shortness of 

 dyes has been much before the public, a shortness in which 

 America, and probably other countries too, have also suffered 

 greatly, and America, with no war on her hands, is using every 

 endeavour to overcome the difficulty and become self- 



