Decembek 24, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



889 



During the past few years in public and 

 private speech, in books, newspapers and 

 magazines the word "efficiency" has been 

 heard and seen almost ad nauseam. The 

 better the horse the more we are inclined to 

 ride it to death, but that phase of the mean- 

 ing of this word which implies making full 

 and economic use of all our varied re- 

 sources must in the end enjoy a useful sur- 

 vival. From the awful calamity which has 

 fallen upon the world in the form of a 

 general European war there are many 

 lessons to be learned, not the least impor- 

 tant of which is to discover the origin and 

 cause of the marvellous efficiency of the 

 military forces of one of the great nations 

 involved, or rather, of the people of that 

 nation, or still more accurately, of the na- 

 tion as a whole, which has displayed a capa- 

 city for the immediate and complete utiliza- 

 tion of every available resource, animate 

 and inanimate, that has commanded the ad- 

 miration of even its most bitter foes. 



For one of the principal sources of this 

 efficiency we have not far to look. 



In 1893, when every nation of the world 

 was collecting the best examples of its ma- 

 terial resources and industrial products for 

 exhibition at the great World's Fair held 

 at Chicago in celebration of the four hun- 

 dredth anniversary of the discovery of 

 America, an old man in Berlin was com- 

 manded to present himself at the Royal 

 Palace for an interview with the Emperor 

 of Germany. To him spoke the Kaiser, 

 saying : 



We are sending to America the finest products of 

 our factories, our mills, onr fields and our mines; 

 some of our choicest works of art will be there, but 

 above all of these Germany is most proud of the 

 men she produces. You are the best we have and 

 you must go to represent us.i 



1 This is no imaginary interview. I have given 

 as nearly as possible the exact words used by 

 Baroness von Helmholtz in telling me of it after- 

 wards. 



The man thus addressed was not a field 

 marshal of the German army, or an ad- 

 miral of her navy, her most famous diplo- 

 mat or her richest iron-master. He was 

 Herman Ludwig Ferdinand von Helm- 

 holtz, Germany's greatest natural philoso- 

 pher, at once the most versatile and pro- 

 found scholar of the nineteenth century. 



The incident is well worthy of our at- 

 tention as a striking illustration of the 

 value which is set upon men of science and 

 their work by the German Empire. Dur- 

 ing the past fifty years no other nation has 

 so encouraged scientific research and by no 

 other nation have scientific discoveries 

 been so readily accepted and so quickly 

 utilized. In all legislation upon economic 

 questions the man of science has had para- 

 mount influence, and in that greatest of all 

 economies, the prevention of unnecessary 

 waste and the getting out of every material 

 thing the last drop of usefulness, the Ger- 

 mans, from prince to peasant, have no 

 rival.- The administration of her munici- 

 pal governments is a model for the rest of 

 the world, because the advice of the scholar 

 has been sought at every turn. All of her 

 foremost industrial enterprises have had 

 their beginning in the laboratory. In many 

 important lines she has controlled the mar- 

 kets of the world, not on account of her su- 



2 A personal experience, amusing but instructive, 

 may be worth relating. While living in one of the 

 largest cities in Germany I ordered a suit of 

 clothes from a good shop on one of the principal 

 streets. On the first trial of the coat I failed to 

 find the small "change" or ticket pocket usually 

 on the right side. When I called attention to its 

 absence the tailor showed me that it had been pat 

 in on the inside of the larger pocket below, explain- 

 ing that if he put it where it is usually placed by' 

 American or English workmen it would be impos- 

 sible to have the coat turned, as the cut in the 

 cloth would then show on the left side! And when 

 I expressed my preference for the usual location he . 

 remarked, ' ' Nearly every gentleman in Germany 

 has his coat turned once. ' ' 



