THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 17 



calamity might fall on one and be already old before others knew 

 of it to offer help. Now we have all the world made practically 

 instant in its interchange of thought. Through this physical 

 linkage, which annihilates both space and time, there is opened 

 a possibility of quick discussion, common resolution, simultaneous 

 action. Can you imagine any practical gift of science more 

 indispensable as a step towards establishing the sense of international 

 brotherhood which we now consciously lack and wistfully desire ? 

 Should that aspiration ever become more than a dream we shall 

 indeed have cause to bless the creators of electrical communication, 

 to praise them and magnify them for ever. 



In the present-day thinkers' attitude towards what is called 

 mechanical progress we are conscious of a changed spirit. Admira- 

 tion is tempered by criticism ; complacency has given way to doubt ; 

 doubt is passing into alarm. There is a sense of perplexity and 

 frustration, as in one who has gone a long way and finds he has 

 taken the wrong turning. To go back is impossible : how shall 

 he proceed .'' Where will he find himself if he follows this path 

 or that ? An old exponent of applied mechanics may be forgiven 

 if he expresses something of the disillusion with which, now standing 

 aside, he watches the sweeping pageant of discovery and invention 

 in which he used to take unbounded delight. It is impossible not 

 to ask. Whither does this tremendous procession tend ? What, after 

 all, is its goal } What its probable influence upon the future of the 

 human race ? 



The pageant itself is a modern aff'air. A century ago it had 

 barely taken form and had acquired none of the momentum which 

 rather awes us to-day. The Industrial Revolution, as everybody 

 knows, was of British origin ; for a time our island remained the 

 factory of the world. But soon, as was inevitable, the change 

 of habit spread, and now every country, even China, is become 

 more or less mechanised. The cornucopia of the engineer has been 

 shaken over all the earth, scattering everywhere an endowment 

 of previously unpossessed and unimagined capacities and powers. 

 Beyond question many of these gifts are benefits to man, making 

 life fuller, wider, healthier, richer in comforts and interests and 

 in such happiness as material things can promote. But we are 

 acutely aware that the engineer's gifts have been and may be 

 grievously abused. In some there is potential tragedy as well as 

 present burden. Man was ethically unprepared for so great a 

 bounty. In the slow evolution of morals he is still unfit for the 

 tremendous responsibility it entails. The command of Nature has 

 been put into his hands before he knows how to command himself. 



I need not dwell on consequent dangers which now press them- 

 selves insistently on our attention. We are learning that in the 



