THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 35 



the land areas of the world. Western Europe and North America have 

 an undue share of those deposits that can be worked on a large scale, and 

 it is the large-scale movement that marks the specialised character of the 

 new industrialism. Anglo-Saxon character would have found limited 

 scope for its energy but for the fact that nine- tenths of the coal, two-thirds 

 of the copper and as much as 98 per cent, of the iron-ore consumed 

 by the world come from the countries that border the North Atlantic. 

 Dr. Wegener might like to add this fact to the data on which he has 

 based his theory of drifting continental fragments. 



The industrial revolution, which began in Great Britain, has always 

 been recognised as a dominant phase in western civilisation, but it is now 

 assuming a new character. It spread first to the western countries of 

 Europe, and developed there because of the favourable conditions of 

 mineral resources, but the force of the movement faded out towards the 

 Slavic East and the Latin South ; the mechanical industries of Italy are 

 based on imported scrap. When the new industries became transplanted 

 west of the Atlantic the natural conditions which originally favoured 

 Great Britain were found to be reproduced on a larger scale. 



Thus, in these two main areas, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, a 

 family of industries based on mineral resources has arisen to dominate the 

 world ; for no similar area, so far as our geological information tends to 

 show, seems to combine the essential features in any other part of the 

 world. Other parts of the world will continue to supply minor accessories ; 

 and the isolated basic industries associated with coal and iron will 

 supply local needs on a relatively small scale. But political control, 

 which follows industrial dominance, must lie with the countries that 

 border the North Atlantic. 



It is only in this region that there is any approach to the state of being 

 self-contained. And yet since the war there has arisen, first in Europe 

 and then by imitation in Asia, a degree of national exclusiveness more 

 pronounced than any which marked international relations before 1914. 

 Each small political unit has become vaguely conscious of the value of 

 minerals, and has shown a tendency to conserve its resources for national 

 exploitation on the assumption that they add appreciably to military 

 security. 



There is, however, no such thing now as equality of nations in mineral 

 resources ; ' self-determination ' and the ' closed door ' are misleading 

 guides to the smaller nations. Political control may hamper, but cannot 

 stem, the current of the new industrialisation ; commercial and industrial 



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