440 



NATURE 



[September io, 1903 



public kind which impede its progress," we sh.iU suffer in com- 

 petition with other communities in which science is more 

 generally utilised for the purposes of the national life. 



The Struggle for Existence in Modern Communities. 

 Some years ago, in discussing the relations of scientific 

 instruction to our industries, Huxley pointed out that we were 

 in presence of a new "struggle for existence," a struggle 

 which, once commenced, must go on until only the fittest 

 survives. 



It is a struggle between organised species— nations— not 

 between individuals or any class of individuals. It is, moreover, 

 a struggle in which science and brains take the place of swords 

 and sinews, on which depended the result of those conflicts 

 which, up to the present, have determined the history and fate 

 of nations. The school, the university, the laboratory and the 

 workshop are the battlefields of this new warfare. 



But it is evident that if this, or anything like it, be true, our 

 industries cannot be involved alone ; the scientific spirit, brain- 

 power, must not be limited to the workshop if other nations 

 utilise it in all branches of their administration and executive. 



It is a question of an important change of front. It is a 

 question of finding a new basis of stability for the Empire in 

 face of new conditions. I am certain that those familiar with 

 the present state of things will acknowledge that the Prince of 

 Wales's call, " Wake up," applies quite as much to the members 

 of the Government as it does to the leaders of industry. 



What is wanted is a complete organisation of the resources of 

 the nation, so as to enable it best to face all the new problems 

 which the progress of science, combined with the ebb and flow 

 of population and other factors in international competition, 

 are ever bringing before us. Every Minister, every public 

 department, is involved, and this being so, it is the duty of the 

 whole nation — King, Lords, and Commons — to do what is neces- 

 sary to place our scientific institutions on a proper footing in 

 order to enable us to "face the music" whatever the future 

 may bring. The idea that science is useful only to our in- 

 dustries comes from want of thought. If anyone is under the 

 impression that Britain is only suffering at present from the 

 want of the scientific spirit among our industrial classes, 

 and that those employed in the State service possess adequate 

 brain-power and grip of the conditions of the modern world 

 into which science so largely enters, let him read the 

 report of the Royal Commission on the War in South 

 Africa. There he will see how the whole "system" employed 

 was, in Sir Henry Brackenbury's words applied to a part of it, 

 " iiHsuited to the reqtiiretnents of an Army which is maintained 

 to enable us to make war." Let him read also, in the 

 address of the president of the Society of Chemical Industry 

 what drastic steps had to be taken by Chambers of Commerce 

 and "a quarter of a million of working men " to get the Patent 

 Law Amendment Act into proper shape, in spite of all the 

 advisers and ofKcials of the Board of Trade. Very few people 

 realise the immense number of scientific problems the solution 

 of which is required for the State service. The nation itself is a 

 gigantic workshop, and the more our rulers and legislators, 

 administrators and executive officers possess the scientific 

 spirit, the more the rule of thumb is replaced in the State service 

 by scientific methods, the more able shall we be, thus armed 

 at all points, to compete successfully with other countries along 

 all lines of national as well as of commercial activity. 



It is obvious that the power of a nation for war, in men and 

 arms and ships, is one thing ; its power in the peace struggles 

 to which I have referred is another ; in the latter, the source and 

 standard of national efficiency are entirely changed. To meet 

 war conditions, there must be equality or superiority in battle- 

 ships and army corps. To meet the new peace conditions, there 

 must be equality or superiority in universities, scientific organ- 

 isation and everything which conduces to greater brain power. 



Our Industries are suffering in the Present International 

 Competition. 



The present condition of the nation, so far as its industries 

 are concerned, is as well known, not only to the Prime 

 Minister, but to other political leaders in and out of the 

 Cabinet, as it is to you and to me. Let me refer to two 

 speeches delivered by Lord Rosebery and Mr. Chamberlain on 

 two successive days in January, 1901. 



Lord Rosebery spoke as follows :— 



"... The war I regard with apprehension is the war of 



NO. 1767, VOL. 68] 



irade which is unmistakably upon us. . . . When I look round 

 me I cannot blind my eyes to the fact that so far as we can 

 predict anything of the twentieth century on which we have now 

 entered, it is that it will be one of acutest international conflict 

 in point of trade. We were the first nation of the modern 

 world to discover that trade was an absolute necessity. For 

 that we vvere nicknamed a nation of shopkeepers ; but now every 

 nation wishes to be a nation of shopkeepers too, and I am 

 bound to say that when we look at the character of some of 

 these nations, and when we look at the intelligence of their 

 preparations, we may well feel that it behoves us not to fear, 

 but to gird up our loins in preparation for what is before us." 



Mr. Chamberlain's views were stated in the following 

 words : — 



" I do not think it is necessary for me to say anything as to 

 the urgency and necessity of scientific training. ... It is not 

 too much to say that the existence of this country, as the great 

 commercial nation, depends upon it. . . . It depends very 

 much upon what we are doing now, at the beginning of the 

 twentieth century, whether at its end we shall continue to 

 maintain our .supremacy or even equality with our great 

 commercial and manufacturing rivals." 



All this refers to our industries. We are suffering because 

 trade no longer follows the flag as in the old days, but because 

 trade follows the brains, and our manufacturers are too apt to 

 be careless in securing them. In one chemical establishment in 

 Germany, 400 doctors of .science, the best the universities theie 

 can turn out, have been employed at different times in late 

 years. In the United States the most successful students in 

 the higher teaching centres are snapped up the moment they 

 have finished their course of training, and put into charge 

 of large concerns, so that the idea has got abroad that youth is 

 the password of success in American industry. It has been 

 forgotten that the latest product of the highest scientific educa- 

 tion must necessarily beyourg, and that it is the training and 

 not the age which determines his employment. In Britain, on 

 the other hand, apprentices who can pay high premiums are too 

 often preferred to those who are well educated, and the old rule- 

 of-lhumb processes are preferred to new developments — a con- 

 servatism too often depending upon the master's own want of 

 knowledge. 



I should not be doing my duty if I did not point out that the 

 defeat of our industries one after another, concerning which both 

 Lord Rosebery and Mr. Chamberlain express their anxiety, is by 

 no means the only thing we have to consider. The matter is 

 not one which concerns our industrial classes only, for know- 

 ledge must be pursued for its own sake, and since the full life of 

 a nation with a constantly increasing complexity, not only of 

 industrial, but of high national aims, depends upon the universal 

 presence of the scientific spirit — in other words, brain-power — 

 our whole national life is involved. 



71ie Necessity for a Body dealing with the Organisation oj 

 Science. 



The present awakening in relation to the nation's real needs 

 is largely due to the warnings of men of science. But Mr. 

 Balfour's terrible Manchester picture of our present educa- 

 tional condition ' shows that the warning which has been 

 going on now for more than fifty years has not been forcible 

 enough; but if my contention that other reorganisations 

 besides that of our education are needed is well founded, 

 and if men of scieiice are to act the part of good citizens in 

 taking their share in endeavouring to bring about a better state 

 of things, the question arises, has the neglect of their warnings so 

 far been due to the way in which these have been given ? 



Lord Rosebery, in the address to a Chamber of Commerce 

 from which I have already quoted, expressed his opinion that 

 such bodies do not exercise so much influence as might be ex- 

 pected of them. But if commercial men do not use all the 

 power their organisation provides, do they not by having 

 built up such an organisation put us students of science to 

 shame, who are still the most disorganised members of the 

 community? 



Here, in my opinion, we have the real reason why the scientific 

 needs of the nation fail to command the attention either of the 

 public or of successive Governments. At present, appeals on 

 1 " The existing educational system of this country is chaotic, is in- 

 eflfectual, is utterly behind the age, makes us the laughing-stock of every 

 advanced nation in Europe and America, puts us behind, not only our 

 American cousins, but the German and the Frenchman and the Italian." — 

 Times, October 15, 1902. 



