2 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



have gained by being less spendthrift in some directions, for it does 

 not follow that we would have been more enterprising in others. 



The war, and a combination of circumstances surrounding it, 

 has brought new ideas to our minds, and none more vividly than this 

 — that the strength of a nation depends neither on the physical, 

 intellectual and moral character of its citizens, nor on the stability 

 and freedom of its institutions, nor on the efficiency of its organiza- 

 tion, but on the existence of all of these things. 



We share the growing consciousness, which is everywhere appar- 

 ent, that national prosperity depends on the character, stability, 

 freedom and efficiency of the human resources of a nation, rather 

 than on the amount of its exports or imports, or the gold it may 

 have to its credit at a given time.* For lack of that consciousness 

 in the past we have placed the sanctity of property on a higher level 

 than human life and civic welfare. In that matter democratic nations 

 are not the least blameworthy, for they are prone to exalt individual 

 liberty above social justice, and to treat liberty as an end in itself, 

 instead of as a means to attain the end of equal opportunity for all 

 its citizens. t 



The self-styled practical man, who has lacked ideals and 

 vision in his outlook on life — and prided himself on the fact — has 

 been perhaps the most potent factor in building up the organization 

 and system in peace which has in part caused this war and been dis- 

 credited by this war. To-day the same man is claiming that the loss 

 of material wealth in the war will be small as compared with the 

 strength of soul we will gain as a result. Whatever be the truth as 

 regards the claim, we have the important fact that the "man in the 

 street" and the "man in the trench" have undergone a change of 

 attitude that will have its effect in profoundly altering the course 

 of history in the next generation. It is certain that that change will 

 result in demands for more justice in our human relations, more 

 efficient organization, more scientific training and higher ethical 



* While the conservation of natural resources and the promotion of industries 

 are important and the development of trade has possibilities of benefit, the conser- 

 vation of life and ability in the individual workers is supreme. Next to that comes 

 the provision of conservation of opportunity for satisfactory employment. — 

 Report of Royal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Education. 



t There is nothing more fatal to a people than that it should narrow its vision 

 to the material needs of the hour. National ideals without imagination are but as 

 the thistles of the wilderness, fit neither for food nor fuel. A nation that depends 

 upon them must perish. We shall need, at the end of the war, better workshops, 

 but we shall also need more than ever every institution that will exalt the vision 

 of the people above and beyond the workshop and the counting-house. We shall 

 need every national tradition that will remind them that men cannot live by bread 

 alone. — The Right Hon. Lloyd George. 



