July 5, 1917] 



NATURE 



;69 



the sheer business aspect of the matter has been 

 hitherto insufficiently apprehended. 



Many people will probably hesitate to follow the 

 author in his proposals for an Educational 

 Authority, and especially in the sug^gfestion that it 

 should be a committee formed, not by the Board 

 af Education, but within the Privy Council. It 

 would be interesting- to observe the attitude of 

 the Nonconformists if the Archbishops were alone 

 :o represent the educational policy for theologians ; 

 and, indeed, even in science the President of the 

 Royal Society would probably find it beyond even 

 lis powers to represent so vast a series of subjects. 



\Vhat seems to be really wanted is perhaps 

 -lot so very remote, after all, from the essential 

 elements of the proposed scheme. The general 

 ines of educational policy will have to be laid 

 iown by people who are in contact with both 

 education and affairs, and the means for giving 

 iffect to such policy will have to be provided, 

 rhe carrying out of the policy, when the general 

 Dlan is settled, \\A\\ have to be left to the teachers, 

 .vho ought not to be hampered in working out the 

 ietails according- to individual predilection. No 

 ioubt, a considerable overhauling' of vested 

 nterests will be called for, abuses will have to be 

 rhecked, and care will have to be taken that a 

 >roper balance is preserved between educational 

 efficiency and the tendency towards early and 

 excessive specialisation, whether at the school or 

 it the university. 



The danger of undue specialisation is a real 

 Dne, especially among a people which, like our- 

 selves, prides itself on being practical. It must 

 lot be forgotten that it is, and will continue to 

 )e, the business of schools, as well as of the univer- 

 sities, to train citizens as well as specialists, and 

 hat, while some will become specialists, all oug-ht 



be good citizens. Intelligent citizenship im- 

 olies an intelligent outlook on the conditions that 

 nake for, and are involved in, our national and 

 xjrporate life, and it becomes the more urgent to 

 ;onsider carefully, among the wide range of sub- 

 ects, vyhat things are, and what thing-s are not, of 

 immediate value in securing the satisfaction of 



his paramount need. In our great schools it is 

 :i matter of common complaint that too much time 

 las been devoted in the past, with astonishingly 

 mall apparent result, to a very limited section of 

 he "humanities," too little — sometimes none at all 

 i— to the great organised mass of knowledge com- 

 'nonly called science. And yet it is to the advance 

 >f science that we owe not only almost all our 

 naterial progress, but nearly all our modem out- 

 [ook on life and on the great problems that life 

 lolds for each one of us. J. B. Farmer. 



THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY OF 

 MUNITIONS. 



1 ITTLE more than two vears ago a small party 

 ^-^ of men met together at 6 Whitehall Gar- 

 lens, under the chairmanship of the present Prime 

 ^linister, to form a Munitions Department. In 

 he words of Dr. Addison, the present 

 'linister of Munitions, speaking- in the House 



NO. 2488, VOL. 99] 



of Commons on June 28: "There was to be one 

 aim and one aim only — to obtain the g-oods and 

 make delivery of them to the Army." The story, 

 if it is ever told, of the creation of an org^anisation 

 which is responsible to-day for the employment of 

 two million persons, and for keeping the products 

 of their exertions up to a level w-hich continually 

 rises, will certainly be astonishing, possibly one 

 of the most wonderful in the history of this coun- 

 try, for the Ministry presents, perhaps, the most 

 remarkable aggregation of men and women of 

 diverse qualifications and attainments that has 

 ever been got together in this country or in the 

 world. Men from every branch of commerce and 

 industry are serving, men of science, lawyers, 

 literary men, travellers, soldiers and sailors, many 

 of them as volunteers. The story, when 

 told, will be one of improvisations connected with 

 many disappointments, manifold and unexpected 

 difficulties, and endless expedients, resulting- in the 

 creation of an org-anisation which, assuming, or 

 having^ forced upon it, first this function and then 

 that, became at last as prodigious in its propor- 

 tions as in its output of munitions, and now con- 

 stitutes an imperishable monument to British 

 genius and resource. 



On June 28, however. Dr. Addison reviewed the 

 work of the various departments of the Ministry 

 in plain and moderate language. He dealt with 

 those which are concerned with the production of 

 completed ammunition and the gun§,\vhich use it, 

 then with those which require the use either of 

 steam or of internal-combusion engines, those 

 which deal with the provision and working up of 

 minerals and metals, certain common services, 

 the trench warfare and other specialised depart- 

 ments, and those of labour and finance. A brief 

 reference will be made to one or two of the most 

 imtx)rtant activities of these departments. 



Before the war this country was entirely depend- 

 ent on Germany for its supplies of potash. This 

 substance is required in both the agricultural and 

 the glass industries. With regard to this Dr. 

 Addison states : " Thanks to the ingenuity of Mr. 

 Kenneth Chance and other gentlemen working 

 with him, a process has been discovered whereby 

 great quantities of potash may be obtained, and 

 the development of the scheme is now in operation 

 with the assistance of the Ministr\'. We shall be 

 able to provide every ounce of potash that the 

 glass trade requires, as well as ven.' largely to 

 meet the needs of agriculture." 



Previous to the outbreak of war the output of 

 steel in this country was about seven million tons 

 per annum, and had remained almost stationary 

 for some years. The output to-day is at the rate 

 of nearly ten million tons, and a scheme is being 

 worked out by which it is hoped to raise the pro- 

 duction to twelve million tons by the end of igi8. 

 The production of sulphuric acid has undergone 

 ereat developments both in private w-orks and in 

 Government factories. A section of the Exolosives 

 Supply Department has been set up for the pro- 

 vision of all the artificial manures that are re- 

 quired, and the Ministry contemplates supplying 

 at least a million tons of superphosphate, half a 



