i8 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 



affairs of nations, as of individuals, there must, for the sake of 

 amity, be some sacrifice of freedom. Accepted predilections as 

 to national sovereignty have to be abandoned if the world is to keep 

 the peace and allow civilisation to survive. Geologists tell us that 

 in the story of evolution they can trace the records of extinct species 

 which perished through the very amplitude and efficiency of their 

 personal apparatus for attack and defence. This carries a lesson 

 for consideration at Geneva. But there is another aspect of the 

 mechanisation of life which is perhaps less familiar, on which I 

 venture in conclusion a very few words. 



More and more does mechanical production take the place of 

 human effort, not only in manufactures but in all our tasks, even 

 the primitive task of tilling the ground. So man finds this, that 

 while he is enriched with a multitude of possessions and possi- 

 bilities beyond his dreams, he is in great measure deprived of one 

 inestimable blessing, the necessity of toil. We invent the machinery 

 of mass-production, and for the sake of cheapening the unit we 

 develop output on a gigantic scale. Almost automatically the 

 machine delivers a stream of articles in the creation of which the 

 workman has had little part. He has lost the joy of craftsmanship, 

 the old satisfaction in something accomplished through the con- 

 scientious exercise of care and skill. In many cases unemploy- 

 ment is thrust upon him, an unemployment that is more saddening 

 than any drudgery. And the world finds itself glutted with com- 

 petitive commodities, produced in a quantity too great to be 

 absorbed, though every nation strives to secure at least a home 

 market by erecting tariff walls. 



Let me quote in this connection two passages from a single issue 

 of The Times.^ In different ways they illustrate the tyranny of the 

 machine. One is this : 



' The new Ford works built upon a corner of Essex . . . will 

 soon be able to produce motor-cars at the rate of two a minute.' 



The other comes from Moscow. It also relates to the mass- 

 production of motor-cars, and indicates how Russia is reaching 

 out towards a similar perfection under the austere stimulus of the 

 Five Years' Plan : 



' The Commissar lays down dates for the delivery of specified 

 quantities by each factory and invests twenty-one special directors 

 with extraordinary powers to increase production, threatening 

 each director with personal punishment if deliveries are belated.' 



We must admit that there is a sinister side even to the peaceful 

 activities of those who in good faith and with the best intentions 



* The Times, June 25, 1932. 



