ADDRESS. 7 



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 industries 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, ' unsaited 

 to the requirements 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 advisei's and 

 oflicials 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 v/hich 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 battleships and army corps. To meet the new 

 peace conditions, there must be equality or superiority in Universities, 

 scientific organisation, and everything which conduces to greater brain- 

 power. 



Our Industries are suffering in the ^yresent hiternational ComjMtition. 



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

 cerned, 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 trade which 

 is unmistakably upon us. . . . When I look round me I cannot blind my 



