May 3, 1917] 



NATURE 



19; 



and the development of ne%v ones. If our national 

 resources were exhausted, we might well despair of the 

 future ; but the resources of the Empire are almost 

 inexhaustible, and their utilisation is only beginning. 

 The Empire can produce all the great food staples — 

 grain, meat, sugar, and fats^sufficient for the supply 

 of a far larger population than it now contains. The 

 fish supply could be verj- largely increased from Ireland 

 and the banks of Newfoundland. Raw materials of 

 every kind, coal, and mineral oil abound. The Empire 

 has almost a monopoly of some of the rarer metals and 

 earths of which science is making more and more use. 

 We have first to make certain that never again shall 

 Germany obtain control of our raw materials and our 

 key products, and then to ensure that our materials 

 are, so far as possible, manufactured within the Em- 

 pire. Before the war, almost the whole of the Imperial 

 production of palm kernels went to Holland and Ger- 

 many, and the oil expressed from them was exported 

 to the United Kingdom as such, or in the form of 

 margarine and other prepared fats. The story of the 

 Australian zinc concentrates is well known. They and 

 the output of .Australian copper were discovered to be 

 in German hands when u^r broke out, as was a great 

 part of the manganese and hides of India.' The re- 

 sources of the Empire amply suffice for the rebuilding 

 of our national prosperitv, if by the unstinted applica- 

 tion of science in the laboratory, in the workshop, and 

 in the superior direction of commerce and industry 

 they are turned to the fullest account. 



The handling of the great question of the supply of 

 power cannot be left to piecemeal treatment. We 

 now have a Board of Fuel Research, which, in co- 

 operation with the British .Assciation, is investigating 

 economics, and already an annual saving of fiftv 

 million tons of coal is known to be possible. Mr. 

 Newlands estimates that in Scotland more than 

 1,000.000 electrical horse-power could be obtained from 

 water, and he points out that, in Switzerland, one 

 electrical horse-power obtained from water costs 

 \\. iqs. per annum, as compared with 4Z. 115. 8d. in 

 England from coal. The economic advantage of em- 

 ploying water power, wherever practicable, is mani- 

 fest, and in parts of India, as elsewhere within the 

 Empire, there are resources which need to be turned 

 to account. In matters of such broad irnportance as 

 power, lighting, and heat, research on the widest scale 

 is necessan,-, and when conclusions have been reached 

 their application can be secured bv the active co- 

 operation of the interests involved assisted by intelli- 

 gent legislation. 



In trade, the first requisite is sound information kept 

 up to date, to which the Germans owe much of their 

 success. We now have four Trade Commissioners 

 representiner the Dominions, and India must be simi- 

 larly provided; but the whole svstem of consuls and 

 commercial attaches in foreien countries requires com- 

 plete reorganisation, which Government can carry out 

 only bv seekine and following the advice of experi- 

 enced leaders of commerce. 



The Dominions Commission has shown the immense 

 resources of. the Empire, and in its final report it 

 directs attention to the importance of cheap, speedy, 

 and efficient transport between Imoerial ports. Some 

 years aeo I prooosed the estabH<;hment of an " Impe- 

 rial Maritime Council." composed of fifteen representa- 

 tives of the various parts of the Empire, and financed 

 by a I per cent. ad. valorem surtax upon all foreien 

 imports into Imperial ports, which in 1004 would have 

 provided an annual income exceedine 45 millions. The 

 council was to deal with all matters relating to the 

 maritime communication? of the Empire, to build up 

 inter-Imperial transport, and to ensure close studv of 

 the means of developing Imoerial trade as a whole. 



NO. 2479, VOL. 99] 



The Dominions Commission has now recommended 

 the formation of an Imperial Development Board for 

 these and other analogous purposes. This would be 

 a great step in Imperial reconstruction, leading to far- 

 reaching results, provided that the board were execu- 

 tive, amply provided with funds, and completely 

 severed from politics at home and overseas. 



We have now a Department of Scientific and Indus- 

 trial Research with a State endowment of onfe million, 

 which will be able to exercise some of the functions 

 of the Board of Science that the British Science Guild 

 has strongly advocated. Each of the Dominions and 

 India will require the same machinery, and Mr. 

 Hughes has undertaken that .Australia shall be thus 

 provided, while the Canadian Government has ap- 

 pointed an advisory council to advise a committee of 

 the Cabinet on all matters relating to scientific and 

 industrial research. We have also a Board of Scien- 

 tific Studies which is carefully investigating our re- 

 quirements. Systematic and co-ordinated research on 

 a large scale is a primary need, and waste or duplica- 

 tion of efforc can be prevented only by such general 

 direction as to ensure that problems are attacked in 

 the localities most favourable to their solution. Special 

 attention must be given to chemistry, which has many 

 important secrets to vield. "The country," said Sir 

 William Ramsay, "which is in advance in chemistrv 

 will also be foremost in wealth and general pros- 

 peritv." We have certainly fallen behind Germany in 

 this vitally important branch of science, not in the 

 ability and insieht of our chenhists, but in numbers 

 and in the application of chemical discoveries to in- 

 dustry*. It is upon chemistry, the use of power, and 

 co-operative methods that agriculture must mainly de- 

 pend for advancement. 



National reconstruction will require in the future 

 the sustained stimulus which education alone can sup- 

 ply. In our public schools and colleges science must 

 take the place to which it has been long entitled. 

 While trained specialists will alwavs be relatively few, 

 all who are destined to olav a part in national affairs 

 must receive such a grounding in the natural sciences 

 as to ensure that phvsical laws and facts will appeal 

 to them, and that scientific methods of thought will 

 become habitual. For this reason, the British Science 

 Guild has stronelv urged that a knowledge of science 

 should be reauired of all candidates in examinations 

 for the Civil Service. There need be no conflict with 

 what are not well described as "humanistic studies." 

 A broad general education is the best foundation for 

 science training, and in so far as literary studies 

 develop breadth of vision and clearness of style, they 

 are valuable helps to the future specialist. Converselv. 

 such subiects as histor\- take new form when they are 

 approached in a scientific spirit. 



A Parliament or a Government composed of special- 

 ists would be unsuited to its duties; but both need an 

 intelligent appreciation of the relation of science to-~ 

 national life which is now consoicuouslv lacking. 

 "Mankind." writes Prof. Dewey, of Columbia Univer- 

 sity', " so far has been ruled by thines and by words, 

 not bv thoug^ht. ... If ever we are to be governed 

 by intelligence, not bv things and bv words, science 

 must have something to say about what we do and not 

 merely about 7io:;' we may do it more easily and 

 economically," 



.Anart from what we understand bv science teaching, 

 there is the technical training which is needed bv fore- 

 men and worker* in industries, which should be such 

 as to help the abler man to rise. The D'^nartmental 

 Committee on Juvenile Education and Employment 

 has recentlv reported, and its main proposals are the 

 retention at school of all children up to the age of 

 fourteen, with attendance at continuation classes of ' 



