GOODS IN PLENTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 7

GOODS IN PLENTY.

SCIENCE DEFENDED.

ECONOMIC MACHINE FAULTY.

DR. DENHAM'S ADDRESS.

A striking defence of the inventor and the engineer against the accusation that they have contributed to the world's economic chaos, was made by Dr. H. G. Denham, Professor of Chemistry at Canterbury College, in an address on "Science in Its Relation to Commerce,'' which he delivered at the iirst annual dinner of the Canterbury Advertising Club. The amazing labour-saving devices which the scientist and the engineer had perfected, had often had the finger of accusation pointed at them as being responsible in large measure for the present world chaos, said Dr. Den* ham. The same undercurrent of criticism was implied in the remarks of a leading scientific journal, to the effect that scientists were always interfering with the methods of Nature and that one result of the departure from the wasteful conditions of Nature was that we did not know quite what to do. "But whilst many of us are prepared to concede that grave industrial disturbances have often followed as the result of scientific discoveries, the trouble," pr. Denham continued, "has lain not in inability of the scientist to do his share but rather in the ability of man to understand man. Modern developments have led to the turning loose of unlimited resources without regard to the social implications. "All too often we overlook the fact that creative science, capital and skilled labour form three legs of the tripod upon which modern industrial development rests. There can be no real stability unless each foot rests firmly ..upon the ground of their common interest, unless each bears its share of the structure erected at their common desire. Without this triple alliance based on the mutual interest and the loyal cooperation of the investigator, alert manufacturer, and willing artisan, no nation can expect to.be. in the forefront

of modern civilisation, nor can the ] people long remain in that happy contented frame of mind that speaks of real prosperity and of tlio realisation of sound ideals of civilisation. Instability of Demand. "There is one aspect of modern commerce which is all too frequently entirely ignored. I refer to instability of demand. Never before has fashion played so important a part in commercial success or failure. So far as primary products arc concerned, this tendency plays very little part. The world needs its fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and if it does not get them from one source it will from another.

"But- the grit in the cogs of commerce arises from other causes than mere change of fashion. There are colliers willing to produce coal, but needing clothing, textile workers lacking coal but ready and willing to produce the desired fabrics. Both need sundry foodstuffs which the agricultural labourer is ready to produce, though he may sadly lack both coal and clothing. Thirty millions of people are in this predica-. ment, ready to supply the products of their labour in return for what they themselves need, but the absence of that mysterious factor termed money or credit keeps them apart, without work or means or hope. "The trouble lies not with the industrial or scientific machine, but with the economic machine. This seems to have got into such a state of disrepair that some of us wonder at times whether it will ever function again with its former smoothness; others of us question whether its fundamental structure is not built on such unstable foundations as to raise in our minds a doubt whether its basic pattern is well adapted to its function as a basis upon which all activities in a highly organised community must rest.

"As one primarily interested in science and its application to life, I scarcely feel called upon to follow up the economic aspects of the present worlcl position- —I leave that to the economists, the number of whom seems to have increased with the intensity of the depression —but I do realise very keenly that the failure of the economic machine has led many to poiut accusing fingers at the scientist and the engineer as the •authors of the world's woes. But in so far as we have increased by invention and discovery the possibilities for. tha

production of desired goods and services, wo have worked only to put into tlie hands of mankind tools for his liberation from tlio age-long slavery to the earth. Leisure and Comfort. "If we have made it possible to grow more food with less laiid and labour, millions will have more leisure for other things. If we have found ways of producing clothing in richer abundance, has not this meant increased comfort to mankind? The high per capita production of goods which the scientist and the engineer have made possible should mean more goods, more comfort, more leisure than over before, not destitution coupled with a yet more intense fear of what the future holds in store. "If, in the face of potential plenty, some thirty to forty millions are :n serious want of the necessities of life, surely the accusing finger should be pointed, not at the inventor and the engineer, but rather at the economic structure which has hitherto been responsible for the distribution of the world's goods."