SCIENCE AND THE PRESS 61 
personal experiences of my own that are decisive on the point, 
and if this is so, you can understand how difficult it is for me 
to avoid calling attention as pointedly and publicly as I can 
to what I consider to be a grave national danger. You will 
understand how solicitous I am that the great cohort of public 
advisors represented by the Press should lose no opportunity 
of urging upon the community the importance of this question. 
It is no good doing it upon hearsay; we do not want mere 
commonplaces such as are the currency of the ordinary speaker 
at a prize distribution ; we want to have incorporated in the 
Press a sufficient amount of direct first-hand knowledge of 
these matters, so that real conviction may be heard behind the 
well-turned phrases, so that the pressure may be incessant and 
no opportunities lost. 
I can imagine someone contesting the assertions I have 
made. I could myself point to some splendid examples which 
this country has furnished of the applications of science to 
industry, of branches of manufacture in which we have nothing 
to learn, and in which we lead the world. I could give you 
examples from abroad, where with tremendous scientific para- 
phernalia they are not doing quite as well as we are here by 
the use of rather more mother-wit; and I could end up by 
saying like a true Briton—I am sure amidst applause—that an 
ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory—a profound truth 
provided, of course, that the practice is good and the theory bad. 
The subject is a complicated and difficult one. It is not, 
perhaps, as complicated and difficult as the fiscal question. 
Supposing, however, for the sake of argument, that it is equally 
important, what are the relative resources of the Press for in- 
forming public opinion on the two questions? You know that 
there is not a single newspaper that could afford to be without 
expert knowledge on industrial finance. How many are there, 
I will not say that have access, but who think it important to 
have access, to expert knowledge on industrial science ? 
