232 CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS 



of about 93 % and 91 % respectively. There weie also 

 being manufactured about 60,000 tons of trinitrotoluene and 

 30,000 tons of cordite per annum. These factories have been 

 erected on a semi-permanent basis, and could continue 

 operations if some industrial use were found for their products. 

 It is one of the problems of the future to convert some of this 

 war enterprise into useful peace industry, and to this end 

 the fertilizer trade might take some active part. 



As regards the more intellectual side of the question, the 

 view that Britain is superior to Germany in the possession of 

 creative scientific power hasalways been maintained in modern 

 times by students of philosophy and history. That this view 

 has been a correct one was amply demonstrated by Pope in 

 his Presidential Address of 1919 to the Chemical Society. 

 Whilst Great Britain overcame its initial handicap by many 

 novel scientific devices of military value, Germany did little 

 more than use the elaborate plans which had been devised 

 before the declaration of war. The brilliant position which 

 Germany had held in applied science arose from the keen 

 appreciation of the advantages of science exhibited both by 

 the German people and by the German Government. Ger- 

 many grasped the essential fact that rich economic rewards 

 were to be gained from the systematic exploitation of scien- 

 tific industry. Great Britain, however, continued to neglect 

 scientific effort, and to devote its energies almost entirely 

 to financial enterprise. It seems somewhat doubtful if 

 the British people have learnt this important lesson of the 

 war, and there is a great fear that they may return to their 

 original neglect of scientific initiative. 



The outlook for 1920 is a shortage of phosphates. 



REFERENCES TO SECTION II. 



Pope, " Chemistry in the National Service," Presidential Address, 

 Journ. Chem, Soc., 1919, p. 397 T ; Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., May, 1910, 

 p. 158 R. 



Bush, " The Cottrell Electrostatic Recovery Process of Flue Dust and 

 Fumes," Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., October, 1918, p. 389 R. 



Russell, "Artificial Fertilizers: their Present Use and Future Prospects," 

 Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., March, 1917, p. 250. 



Chandler, Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1919, p. 121 T. 



Davidson, " Electrical Precipitation of Tar-fog from Gas," Journ. Soc. 

 Chem. Ind., 1919, p. 315 A. 



