SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20089, 29 October 1928, Page 8

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

In his phrase, "the advantages to he gained by the scientific organisation of industry," tho Marquess of Londonderry has epitomised the, hopes centred in Britain's National Industrial Council. There is need of this scientific organisation, and it can be achieved only by nonpartisan and co-operative study. It is something of far wider range than the application of science to methods of production and manufacture. Of tho increasing use of that there can be no doubt. Tho day of rule of thumb is fast passing, and better methods, economically sound, the outcome of scientific research, are bound to come in increasing measure. What the National Industrial Council is charged to undertake, however, is of greater moment, for a deadlock between employers and employed may destroy the gains created by scientific methods in industrial processes, and no one be a whit better off because of them. To bring to bear on the whole mechanism of industry the same "organised common sense" —as science has been well described by a noted exponent —is a supreme necessity. Too often the contributory makers of national wealth arc ruinously antagonistic, working at cross purposes, fighting each for its own hand. Into the rights and wrongs of this conflict there has been much inquiry, but even this has often been prejudicially partisan, and it has accomplished little else than the accentuation of opposing points of view. If higher ground can now be taken in a spirit of conciliation, with the sharing of a common purpose to make the industrial machinery run smoothly, untold good should result. The total national wealth should be increased and Britain's ability to do profitable business in the markets of the world be assured. Tt is an ideal to be sought by practical means in every country ol the Empire.