8 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
comparatively limited and not particularly wealthy public, largely com- 
posed of the professional classes who have suffered in no small measure 
from the economic effects of the War. The present high price of this 
class of literature is to the public detriment. Eventually it is no less to 
the detriment of the printing and publishing trades. Publishers are well 
aware of this fact, and attempts are being made by discussions between 
employers and the executives of the Typographical Association and other 
societies of compositors to reach an equitable solution, and it is greatly 
to be hoped that it will be speedily found. 
All thinking men are agreed that science is at the basis of national 
progress. Science can only develop by research. Research is the 
mother of discovery, and discovery of invention. The industrial 
position of a nation, its manufactures and commerce, and ultimately its 
wealth, depend upon invention. Its welfare and stability largely rest 
upon the equitable distribution of its wealth. All this seems so obvious, 
and has been so frequently and so convincingly stated, that it is super- 
fluous to dwell upon it in a scientific gathering to-day. 
A late distinguished Admiral, you may remember, insisted on the 
value of reiteration. On this particular question it was never more 
needed than now. The crisis through which we have recently passed 
requires it in the interests of national welfare. Of all post-war 
problems to engage our serious attention, none is more important in 
regard to our position and continued existence than the nation’s attitude 
towards science and scientific research, and there is no more opportune 
time than the present in which to seek to enforce the teaching of one 
of the most pregnant lessons of our late experience. 
It is, unfortunately, only too true that the industrial world has in 
the past underrated the value of research. One indication that the 
nation is at length aroused to its importance is to be seen in the estab- 
lishment of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, with 
its many subordinate associations. The outbreak of the Great War, 
and much in its subsequent history, revealed, as we all know, many 
national shortcomings, due to our indifference to and actual neglect of 
many things which are at the root of our prosperity and security. 
During the War, and at its close, various attempts, more or less un- 
connected, were made to find a remedy. Of the several committees 
and boards which were set up, those which still exist have now been 
co-ordinated, and brought under the control of a central organisation— 
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Research has 
now become a national and State-aided object. For the first time in our 
history its pursuit with us has been organised by Government action. 
As thus organised it seeks to fulfil the aspirations to which I have 
referred, whilst meeting many of the objections which have been urged 
against the endowment of research. It must be recognised that modern 
