564 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 745 



merce from the handicraft state in the one 

 case and from the primitive forms of trans- 

 portation on the other. I put it approxi- 

 mately near the truth in saying that ma- 

 chine industry, meaning all work done by 

 mechanical power, would have been im- 

 possible but for the use which has been 

 made of physics, chemistry and mechanics 

 in the evolution of the modern system of 

 production and commercial distribution. 

 These three sciences, for instance, share the 

 honor of achievement in the development 

 of the steel rail on our railroads, from the 

 strip of soft iron strung on a pair of par- 

 allel girders to a self-sufficient iron rail 

 resting on cross-ties, into the present-day 

 steel rail weighing 100 pounds to the yard. 

 Here we have chemistry, physics, mechan- 

 iies and metallurgy working conjointly 

 toward an end, which has in turn become 

 the point of departure for a series of de- 

 velopments in the more economical hand- 

 ling of freight. Cutting down costs and 

 increasing carrying capacity have followed 

 the path along which the sciences have led 

 at every stage, in a railway system now 

 representing an investment of $20,000,000,- 

 000 in the United States alone. 



ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC SERVICE 



I need hardly remind you that the most 

 rapid strides among investment activities 

 have indeed been made by those in which 

 science has had the largest sway. These 

 are the fields in which engineering has ap- 

 plied the sciences to profitable uses. One's 

 mind naturally turns to the various enter- 

 prises in which electrical power has a do- 

 main of its own. Communication, illumi- 

 nation and transportation — three funda- 

 mental necessaries of modern living have 

 opened fields of almost unlimited invest- 

 ment possibilities. In all of them, whether 

 it concerns the telephone or the lighting 

 and power problem, the lines of respon- 

 sible relations with the public are being 



gradually lain down on safer bases. The 

 popular appreciation of mutual approach 

 to common understanding has already been 

 developed in scores of public service cor- 

 porations, far beyond the needs of public 

 subscription to capital requirements. The 

 very faith aroused in the soundness of 

 these agencies is an asset of no mean sig- 

 nificance in proving the profitableness of 

 their investments. 



SCIENTIFIC BASES OP LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRY 



It is not usually recognized that science 

 puts a premium on the large-scale indus- 

 try as compared with the smaller under- 

 taking. The latter can not always afford 

 the expense of maintaining experimental 

 work. The advantage would even be 

 doubtful if it could. But with the consoli- 

 dation of industries under a central man- 

 agement, the scope of scientific possibilities 

 becomes immensely enlarged. Experi- 

 ments which demonstrate better results for 

 one plant can immediately be appropri- 

 ated by all. By the exact measurements 

 of methods and results in one establish- 

 ment the efficiency of all the others can be 

 tested. This indicates one of the ways in 

 which the sciences have contributed toward 

 the concentration of control and the enor- 

 mous capitalization of the industrial com- 

 binations known as the trusts. 



Science in this case pointed out the 

 enormous wastes of so large a number of 

 independent establishments, and helped to 

 measure the extent of economies possible 

 under unified control guided by scientific 

 foresight. We may regret the resulting 

 change. We may even fear for the future 

 of popular welfare in a regime of appar- 

 ently impregnable combinations. But one 

 thing is sui'e as fate— and that is this: So 

 far as these consolidations are founded 

 upon scientific bases and remain there, 

 their origin, development and future are 

 assured. But so far as they have had an 



