The Place of Science in Industry

Abstract

AN interesting article, by Mr. W. H. Dawson, appears in the November number of the Fortnightly Review, under the heading “The Campaign against German Trade”. It is there given as the opinion of one of “the six best known industrial leaders, of Germany” that “England's days as an industrial country are over. Your industry will pass more and more into the hands of the younger nations, and you will become simply a trading country”. The author of the article goes on to point out that the lesson of Germanys success will not be learned “if we refuse to grasp the fact that its people have brought to industrial and trading pursuits just the same habits of method, thoroughness, concentration, and seriousness which mark them in other departments of life”. He attributes the success largely to the cooperation between science and industry which prevails in Germany. This cannot be denied; but a further reason for Germanys rivalry, so far as it is successful, is afforded by a quotation from a speech made in July, 1912, by the Prussian Minister of Commerce; it is that the desire of manufacturers is, without exception, that the import duties on competitive articles may be kept as high as possible, and the foreign duties on articles exported from Germany as low as possible. It is also emphasised by the writer of the article that German employers have never had to encounter systematic opposition on the part of the workers, as has so often been the case in this country. Again, the German cultivates methods of distribution much more sedulously than does the Englishman; he never forgets that he exists for his customers; and the larger firms, or combinations of them, keep highly paid agents in every important market. The Germans are also greatly aided by their banks, which advance money on the security of orders.