Canadian Foreslrij Journal, August, 1918 



1821 



Scientific Investigation Holds The Key 

 to Canada's Future 



To Stop Exportation of Raw Materials Demands Great- 

 er Faith in the Laboratory and Less in the Bank Loan 



In current discussions of afler- 

 t he-war industrial development in 

 Canada a new and hopeful note is 

 sounding: — that no permanent pro- 

 gress can be looked for until technical 

 education and scientific research are 

 more liberally provided for in our 

 educational systems, and government 

 policies. The newly-formed Cana- 

 dian Industrial Reconstruction As- 

 sociation emphasi7;es these needs in 

 Canadian life very plainly. The 

 Canadian Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion also seems clearly apprised of 

 the demand for a closer alliance with 

 scientific effort. In a recent publica- 

 tion of the Canadian Railway War 

 Board, the striking discrepancies be- 

 tween the value of many Canadian 

 products at the time of export and 

 their value in the form in which 

 they reach the consumer is vigorously 

 underlined, although the War Board 

 declines to launch into a discussion of 

 causes and confines itself to arousing 

 national pride of manufacturers. 

 The bulletin discusses the handicaps 

 under which Canada must pursue 

 her way until to the raw materials, 

 so abundantly allowed to us by 

 Nature, is added a greater degree of 

 labor, skill and art. The point is 

 illustrated by the following: 

 Raw eggs and icing. 

 "Raw material is the white of 

 an egg. A housekeeper adds labor 

 and makes it white froth — adds 

 labor with skill and it becomes 

 a stiff white froth." 



"Employs, with her labor and 

 skill, art — in putting into the dish 

 first, the right amount of sugar and 

 flavor — and creates a stiff, white 

 highly-palatable material for icing 

 a cake." 



"There is nothing new m this. 

 "Her raw material is worth one 

 cent. 



"Plus labor — two cents. 

 "Plus labor and skill — five cents. 

 "Plus labor, skill and art — twenty 

 cents. 



"So with all industry." 

 "Yet Canada sells rough stone 

 for grind-stones at $5.00 a ton and 

 buys foreign-made grindstones at 

 $100.00 a ton. 

 "Sells "fine copper in ore, matte 

 or regulus" for 11.9 cents a pound 

 and buys it back in ingots at 19.2 

 cents a pound; in strips, sheets 

 or plates (unpolished at 22.8 cents 

 a pound; in straight tubing at 

 28.6 cents a pound; in trolling 

 spoons at $2.00 a pound; in cornets 

 for the band at, say, five! 



"Sells wheat at 1.8 cents a 

 pound, when she could get 2.5 

 cents a pound for it as wheat 

 flour. And buys it back in the 

 form of unsweetened biscuits at 

 7.2 cents a pound! 



"Sells a carload of pulp-wood 

 for a six-gross carton of American 

 tooth-paste! 



"A train-load of nickel matte 

 from Sudbury for two cars of medium 

 priced automobiles!" 

 The Railway War Board econ- 

 omist, however, might have contin- 

 ued his interesting lesson to inform 

 Canadian capitalists that advanced 

 industrial processes are not set up by 

 the mere construction of mill walls 

 and the hiring of a staff. The suc- 

 cess of scores of famous corporations 

 all the world over may be traced 

 back to the laboratories which in 

 their own unadvertised corner apply 

 scientific calculation to a thousand 

 problems of industrial management. 

 Canada has yet no reason to plume 

 herself upon the amount of official 



