160 
than 20,000,000l., so that less than one-fifth per cent. 
is allotted to research. ' 
It is difficult to realise what benefits might be gained 
by investigations which could be carried on by the 
N.P.L. if only sufficient funds were available, and of 
what importance they might be to industry at large. 
One example may suffice. Some time ago the Reichs- 
anstalt carried out a most complete set of tests on 
a certain class of machine, an investigation which 
must have cost several thousands of pounds sterling, 
apart from the time it occupied. The results of this 
investigation are available to German manufacturers 
of this machine, and just before the war preparations 
were being. made to take advantage of this, and from 
figures stated a large extra economy was expected. 
This, of course, would enable them, provided the cost 
of manufacture was not too high, to have an enormous 
advantage over such machines manufactured without 
this special knowledge. The Institution of Mechanical 
Engineers saw the importance of this problem and 
appointed a Research Committee to deal with the 
matter, but the first question met with is that of 
finance. Should this be the case in a wealthy country 
such as this that depends on its manufactures for its 
very existence? And that such an investigation is 
required is obvious from the fact that the designs of 
no two independent manufacturers of this machine in 
this country agree among themselves. Of course, each 
claims his is the best, but this cannot be so. 
- Investigations in engineering shops do not meet 
such a case. The question of finance has to be care- 
fully watched, and as soon as results sufficiently good 
are obtained they are generally accepted, and in any 
case the problem is rarely thrashed out to the bottom, 
an almost universal defect in commercial research 
work. Without the help of the National Physical 
Laboratory the position of the aeroplane in this 
country would be very different from what it is, and 
what has been done for the aeroplane requires to be 
done in many other directions. 
But what firm here would do what has been done 
in the commercial synthesis of indigo, on which it is 
said that seventeen years’ work and more than 
1,000,000l. have been spent by one firm alone abroad? 
Here in. chemical investigations and manufactures the 
Government refuses even to give the help of allowing 
cheap alcohol to be obtainable, and much of such 
work is impossible in this country on that account, as 
in many cases methylated and denatured alcohol are 
not suitable. Recently under pressure the restrictions 
have been somewhat relaxed by the Government, but 
many manufacturers have found that the privileges 
granted are so tied up with red tape that the conces- 
sions are practically useless. 
I am sorry to say the employer does not look after 
the welfare of his workmen as he might. In a:small 
factory the head of the firm, as a rule, knows all the 
leading men among the workmen, many of them 
having been with him for years. As the place grows he 
loses touch with his men, and as an actual fact knows 
fewer of those under him when he has 1000 or more 
employees than he did when he had 4oo or under. 
This state of things gets worse when the place is 
turned into a limited liability company, as nearly all 
large places are at present. The result is that a most 
deplorable state of things has come to pass. The 
workman says, “Put not your trust in employers”’; 
the master says, ‘Put not your trust in workmen”’; 
and the official who is between the master and the 
workman says, “‘Put not your’ trust in either.” 
It is difficult to say what is to be done to remedy 
this state of things, but one cannot help feeling much 
might have been done in the past to have prevented 
such a regrettable state of affairs as there is at pre- 
sent. Much of this trouble might have been avoided 
NO. 2452, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
[OcrToBER 26, 1916 
! if employers had shown more consideration for the 
welfare of their workmen. 
With the growth in strength of the Trades Unions, 
which at first were for the legitimate object of seein 
that the workman got fair play, and providing out-of- 
work and old-age benefits, etc.) has grown up a 
system of Trades Union officials who live by agitation, 
and whose jobs would be gone if there were no sup- 
posed grievances to agitate about. These men keep 
the labour world in a constant state of agitation, and 
make the employers’ and officials’ existence a burden 
to them by constant demands of all sorts, many of 
them utterly impracticable and unfair. When 
cannot agitate against the employer they agitate 
against another Trades Union, and thus endless dis- 
putes. spring up on the demarcation of work. Some 
of the worst strikes in the past have been due to 
disputes between two Trades Unions. 
Unless something can be done to bring master and 
man together and make both work for the common 
good, English trade must inevitably go down, and 
the supremacy that England has in the engineering 
of the world will come to an end. 
Nothing ever was a truer statement than that re- 
cently made by Lord Joicey that this country, unless it 
produces as cheap as, or cheaper than, other countries, 
cannot in the long run keep her trade, and this is 
true in spite of any tariff walls which may be set up. 
And if the present state of affairs is maintained of 
unscientific management and obsolete machinery, 
combined with limitation of output and high wages, 
or, in other words, high cost of production, we must, 
sooner or later, go to the wall. 
What is really wanted is common honesty and 
common sense on ‘both sides, for one side is as bad as 
the other at present. . ‘ 
Apart from the considerations set out above, com- 
binations among the firms employed in any one trade 
are most essential for the well-being of that trade. 
It is by such combination that much of the progress 
made of late years by our competitors has been 
effected. Some of these combinations have been inter- 
national, and at least two such in the engineering 
trade were so before the war. These now, of course, 
are, and it is expected will be after the war, confined 
to the Allied and possibly to neutral countries, but 
such combinations, whether among all the engineer- 
ing firms in one district or among firms employed in 
one particular trade, to be successful must be worked 
fairly to all members, and the larger firms must not 
override the smaller, as, it is regrettable to say, has 
been done in combinations of employers in some dis- 
tricts. 
firm very much larger than any of the others, it is 
not unknown for it to act the bully and insist on 
everything being done as would suit its requirements, 
regardless of the rights of others. And, further, such 
combinations are, unless directed by men with broad 
minds and able to take a wide view of things, liable, 
especially in case of emergency, to do much harm, 
If the armament ring in this country had taken 
such a view when it was found what an enormous 
supply of munitions was required, it is doubtful if 
there would have been such a shortage as there has 
been. Hundreds of firms were willing and anxious to 
help in the production of munitions, but when they 
offered their services they were met in many cases 
with a blank refusal, and in all cases with little 
encouragement. And when, under pressure from the 
Government, the ring accepted outside help, in many 
cases the conditions imposed on the sub-contractors 
were unfair in the extreme, apparently the whole idea 
of the ring being to make all the profit they could out 
of the troubles of the Empire. It has been just as 
difficult to persuade the armament ring to give up 
] 
| 
For example, in a-district where there is one. 
