Page:Science and the Great War.djvu/33

Rh and take into account the indomitable spirit which lives in the following passage:

 'To-day it does not matter whether a farmer or a manufacturer prospers or whether a company pays dividend, but we have all got to live. It is not a question of money at all, but of bread, meat, and potatoes. This is constantly being overlooked by many classes; for instance, certain persons interested in sugar are doing all they can to induce the Government either to permit the export of sugar or to keep up the price of sugar at home by fixing minimum prices or making similar regulations. Many people support these endeavours on the ground that money must be earned somehow. The argument is not sound. There is no need to earn money. We are all making sacrifices in these grave times, and the sugar producers and dealers will have to join us for good or evil. The fulfilment of their wishes would be a betrayal of the Fatherland's interests.

'In order to do all that has to be done to meet our deficit we must make use of the gift which marks us out from other nations—capacity for methodical and determined action' (pp. 81, 82).

How our enemies reckoned on the articles of the Declaration of London is all set forth, together with the admission that England has not yet ratified it. They enumerate the oil-yielding materials of various kinds and the nitrates which, under this instrument, cannot be declared contraband (p. 12).

Germany, we are made to realize, is at war—not at law, nor going to endanger her cause by a too nice consideration of neutral interests.

 'No political considerations demand the surrender of vital interests' (p. 95). It would be 'a mistake to permit the export of grain to Switzerland out of consideration for that country; the wish to help a friendly nation ought under no conditions to increase still further the difficulty of feeding our own people during the war' (p. 84).

'Whatever happens we must avoid sharing our food-stuffs with the foreigner. If there ever was anything