Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/76

72 of the modern world into which science so largely enters, let him read the report of the Royal Commission on the War in South Africa. There he will see how the whole 'system' employed was, in Sir Henry Brackenbury's words applied to a part of it, unsuited to the requirements of an Army which is maintained to enable us to make war. Let him read also, in the address of the president of the Society of Chemical Industry, what drastic steps had to be taken by Chambers of Commerce and 'a quarter of a million of working men' to get the Patent Law Amendment Act into proper shape, in spite of all the advisers and officials of the Board of Trade. Very few people realize the immense number of scientific problems the solution of which is required for the state service. The nation itself is a gigantic workshop, and the more our rulers and legislators, administrators and executive officers possess the scientific spirit, the more the rule of thumb is replaced in the state service by scientific methods, the more able shall we be, thus armed at all points, to compete successfully with other countries along all lines of national as well as of commercial activity.

It is obvious that the power of a nation for war, in men and arms and ships, is one thing; its power in the peace struggles to which I have referred is another; in the latter, the source and standard of national efficiency are entirely changed. To meet war conditions, there must be equality or superiority in battleships and army corps. To meet the new peace conditions there must be equality or superiority in universities, scientific organizations and everything which conduces to greater brain-power.

The present condition of the nation, so far as its industries are concerned, is as well known, not only to the Prime Minister, but to other political leaders in and out of the Cabinet, as it is to you and to me. Let me refer to two speeches delivered by Lord Rosebery and Mr. Chamberlain on two successive days in January, 1901:

Lord Rosebery spoke as follows:

. . . The war I regard with apprehension is the war of trade which is unmistakably upon us. . . . When I look round me I cannot blind my eyes to the fact that so far as we can predict anything of the twentieth century on which we have now entered, it is that it will be one of acutest international conflict in point of trade. We were the first nation of the modern world to discover that trade was an absolute necessity. For that we were nicknamed a nation of shopkeepers; but now every nation wishes to be a nation of shopkeepers, too, and I am bound to say that when we look at the character of some of these nations, and when we look at the intelligence of their preparations, we may well feel that it behooves us not to fear, but to gird up our loins in preparation for what is before us.

Mr. Chamberlain's views were stated in the following words:

I do not think it is necessary for me to say anything as to the urgency and necessity of scientific training. . . . It is not too much to say that the