SCIENCE AND. PUBLIC LIFE.
" NATE are learning that nothing can be accomplished. on a large scale without the indispensable pre- liminary of first taking thought." So says Mr Haldane in the preface to an admirable littlq book on " Science in Public Affairs " which has just been edited by the Rev. J. E. Hand and published by Mr. George Allen (5s. net). It is curious to notice that in some respects the bragging modern world has retrograded since twenty centuries ago. What Mr. Haldane now specifies as the remedy for modern errors was a truism in Roman Judaea,—" For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it ?" Plato meant much the same as the present Secretary for War when he said that the human race would never have rest from its evils " until philosophers were kings, or the kings and princes of the world had the spirit and power of philosophy." This is a lesson of which our own Empire is in particular need. Ever since science began to come to its own, this country has taken the lead in advancing it, and has fallen to the rear in applying its teachings to practical use in government and in private enterprise. The successful competition of Germany and the United States in our great industries is commonly attributed to the care which is taken in both countries to utilise the latest discoveries of research which bear upon the things to be done. In America the manufacturer is always pre- pared to " scrap " his costly machinery as soon as science tells him that be can make an appreciable saving by introducing some newer appliances. The success of Germany in the production of colours, scents, &c., from coal-tar—a discovery which the recent honours paid to Dr. Perkin remind us to have been first made in this country—is directly attributable to the 'readiness of German manufacturers to employ large and expensive staffs of scientific chemists in their industrial concerns,— a lesson which is enforced by the success of such exceptional British firms as adopt this far-seeing and enlightehed policy. The spirit of national organisation has barely touched our important middle class with its life-giving breath. " In no country," says Professor Sadler in the book now before us, " is more voluntary labour devoted to matters of public concern; in none is more of it wasted and weakened by duplication and division of .effort. In no country is there so much benevolent and self-denying activity in coping with the evil consequences of social dislocation, and so little dis- position to think out and to deal trenchantly with the causes of it." However we choose to put it, this want of the true scientific spirit—which means, after all, simply a due perception of causes and their effects—is one of the great defects of modern England.
During the last decade, as Mr. Haldane justifiably claims, the nation has begun to wake up from the some- what stupefied condition of material self-satisfaction which the great successes of the Victorian era had induced. " Muddling through " is no longer an ideal which can be held up for admiration. We have learnt that " science is essential to victory, whether the struggle be in the arts of war or in those of peace. Organisation is the key to success; organisation depends on steady thinking, and thinking depends on ideas, ideas which give birth to ideals." The trained mind is more and more regarded as the true ruler of the country, or at least as the essential adviser of the nominal ruler, for it is as yet too much to hope for a Parliament, or even a Cabinet, of experts • and the British tendency is to doubt whether such a iarlia- ment or Cabinet might not bring about evils greater than those which it would seek to abolish. The object of Mr. Hand's collection of essays is to draw attention to some departments of national life in which there is most obviously room for an immediate introduction of the scientific method, for " the application to public affairs of science, i.e., of systematic and ordered knowledge." No one can read these pages without being con- scious of the great need that exists for reform in this direction. The opening essay on " Science and Physical Development " gives a lurid picture of the extent to which our population is falling behind the human material of other nations, in constlquence of long neglect of the most elementary principles of hygiene. No breeder of livestock would expect anything but bankruptcy if he attempted to rear his young animals in the surroundings or on the food that are held good enough for the great mass of the future workers in this country. It will be said that every thoughtful person is alive to the need for reform, but that it is practically impossible to attempt it without remodel- ling our whole social .system, or plunging head foremost into the ocean of State Socialism. Take, then, another instance, given by Mr. V. V. Branford in his very interest- ing essay on " Science and Citizenship." The accurate prediction of changes in the weather is a matter of vital importance to the agriculturist, and so affects the whole problem of urban over-population. The high-level observatory which existed for many years on the summit of Ben Nevis did most useful work towards making such predictions possible. But last year it was dismantled, " because the influence of the scientific party was not equal to securing for its support about £500 out of the hundred and forty odd millions which constitute the annual national Budget." The Argentine Government immediately cabled to secure the services of the staff,—a pleasing proof of what a comparatively poor agricultural country thinks of the need for such work. Sir Norman Lockyer's well-remembered comparison between Universi- ties and battleships is still much in need of being urged on the people of this country.
It is, of course, in relation to industry that the helpful- ness of science is most apparent. Mr. J. A. Hobson contributes a very suggestive and philosophical essay on this subject. Among other things, he draws a striking comparison: between British and American business methods. In the United States the task of planning the structure of a great business is recognised as that of an expert, and is usually entrusted to a scientific specialist, whose duty it is to co-ordinate all the departinep.ts and guard against any waste of energy or leakage of power in the great organism, which " differs as widely from the old empirical type as the modern turbine steamship from the old sailing vessel." As an example of British practice, we may refer to the remarkable speech on railway administration—one of our chief industries—which was delivered by Mr. George Peel at the meeting of the Railway Investment Company last month. In this speech he compared British with American methods, and pointed out that there was no English railway which had ever thought it worth while to produce a clear statement of the work which it did, " in fact, how many tons were carried how many miles." In America the production of statistics of working based on this unit of the ton-mile is naturally regarded as the first essential towards economical administration. But the British railways all seem afraid of giving their share- holders material on which to base an intelligent criticism of the operation of the line. Consequently, they deprive themselves of any possibility of a scientific treatment of the relation between work done and expense. The Economist in a recent leading article drew attention to the fact that the great railway companies, which are always complaining that they are handicapped by the unduly high assessment of their buildings for local rating purposes, have never troubled to work out the total assessment of their lines in a manner which would enable them to say whether or not it surpassed the statutory limit. As this is a matter which railway directors are very ready to put forward as a reason for their inability to pay satis- factory dividends, one would think that an organised attempt would have been made to study it and get up a case for presentation to Parliament. It is hardly necessary to hunt for further instances of the regrettable lack of scientific method in the conduct of our great industries, though they could be multiplied by the dozen. The im- portant thing is that people at large should awake to the one thing needful for our national success, the growth of a truly scientific spirit in the conduct of affairs, from the smallest industry to the administration of the State itself. We heartily commend the attempt made by Mr. Hand and his collaborators to arouse and instruct public feeling on a matter of such vital urgency.
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