SERVICE OF BRAINS TO HANDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

SERVICE OF BRAINS TO HANDS

By MATANGA

A Great Partnership

THE. Science Congress may unaware promote a little quiet thought upon the vital need {or brains. They are sometimes forgotten. This is "the machine age," we are often told, in word and tone suggesting that a longer title, "the automatic-machine age," would better express the fact—as if the contrivances that seem to take care of themselves can also make and erect and start and feed themselves. However, it is still true, in a very full sense, that this is the age of the band. Jlanual dexterity is in demand, and j s insisting: on better reward for its toil. It has a good ease." Even the machinery most expected to displace manual toil has proved dependent on it, in both its making and control. Manufacture ousts culture: the Garden of Eden is occupied bv factories. The hand that rocks the cradle —on the goldminer's claim, where the swinging vessel is eagerly watched for its sparkling treasure —would rule the world, The players on the banjo—the knightly name of the roadman's long-handled shovel —would dictate the music of the spheres. You could not get into Russia a little while ago unless vou could show corns on palm or finger; and it would seem as if the order of the black hand were still seeking to establish itself everywhere. Be it so. For long enough toilivorn hands, horny and black, have held little enough of the world's good. If only they have a care how they take their rights and how they use them, and do not withhold the rights of others, all the world may be glad.

On occasion the hand shows itself inclined to forget that it is a member of a body, and especially that it is dependent 011 the head as truly as the head is dependent 011 it. For the hand to say to the head, in lordly superiority, "I have no need of thee-'" is pitifully foolish. Dexterity is horn in the brain. Without tjie mind's guidance, the hand would fail. Let hut the head go a little astray, and the hand can take nothing, hold nothing, do nothing as it should. Manual efficiency comes from mental development, as truly as manual development aids mental efficiency. Really, they are partners. Gauge of Material Output

, The manual worker, come to unwonted opulence and power, is apt to be ignorantlv scornful of the folk who are doing the mental work of the world. Applying the most misleading of tests — the gauge of material output —he asks of others, "What have you to show?" and proudly acclaims himself the only producer. He forgets that he really creates nothing material himself, that nith all his exertion he succeeds in nothing but the moving of matter—its coaxing above the ground or its forcible removal to the surface of land or sea, its assembly in a convenient place or its reshaping in a desirable form. A little honest thinking would make him humbler in the presence of the mental workers, for they are really nearer true primary production than is he. These things are impressed by the growth of attention to scientific research. This is to put a premium on the brain-worker, and to give recognition to the truth that the hand's achievement tarries for the mind's advance.

This giving of opportunity to the mind must be thorough-going and venturesome, if the hand is to gain full scope and reward. Knowledge for its own sake, even, regardless of immediate practical gains, must be freely sought, for experience proves that very wonderful practical discoveries have come from intellectual research seemingly quite remote from possibility of usefulness.

We are apt to be impatient if immediate utilities fail to follow the discovery of knowledge. "Does it cut any icer" we, coldly ask of some scientific quest. It may not. There may be at the time no ice to cut, but experience shows that likely enough, in some future season of our need, it may cut a great deal at extremely critical times. There is a childish petulance too often manifested by the manufacturer and the artisan toward study that yields no obvious and speedy practical gain. With our lust for dividends, wo would uproot the young iruit-tree because, forsooth, it does not come into full bearing within a month or tw j of its planting. Utility of Pure Science Truth to tell, science has always done its biggest things for art and manufacture when its gaze has not been limited by an immediate practical need pressing to be met. It will still be so, no doubt. This is not to say that the practical problems connected with industry should not be brought before the student in science. A wise teacher fan use- such problems without detriment to the academic value of his teaching; and, especially for mature students, already schooled in the principles of scientific research, such problems may be set with positive advantage. But their capable handling will depend upon accurate knowledge of the great general principles that science reveals.

As to now practical problems, presenting difficulties hitherto unsuspected, their successful negotiation will follow more easily and hopefully from such general study than from inquiry begun Specially to meet their separate requirements. Broad vision from a height •'a better revealer of the right road than trial essays to find it afoot in the thicket.

Pure science is as truly aloof from commercial manufacture as the reconJJ&isance 'piano is from the field of la' 6 ' ' n precisely the same way, its direct share in an advance ma .V seem small, its range of vision makes the advance possible. Is it not, therefore, incumbent upon all concerned in industrial and commercial advance by the human host to equip ? n d support this valuable aerial adjunct?

A Salutary Lesson The World War proved how great British folly three generations ??°- Then a youthful chemist, Per,ln?t patented a process for the proHoS 11 t' lo ani 1 ine dye. He sv u. ac^eTecl a veritable triumph in esthetic chemistry, and his discovery ji^ an °ne of the famous industries of ® .* or ltl, that of extracting useful anH ° tS rom coal-tar. Over a. thousj . se Parate colours, as well as wonj. ,' fuels- and explosives and scents, 6 been gained from the treatment 'Coal-tar that Perkins' discovery made Tnlii c Britain was blind to the thf • s discovery, and the indusnnif>vi ,gratc( l to Germany. There it was wa« roa l | sed that in this discovery up the whole future of Be«s ' ■ c^em 'stry, and German alertth» this advantage eagerly for »J a therland. of €n w «r cut us off from the supply Wis manufactured on the OUr y, Jerkins' research, wo realised itnnraci i , v cry draper's shop soon the on ns - the front wit}, „ " r *tish need was brought home ® Pr 'Tian shell fired in the learnt » *' lp struggle. Have wo meed If ' CSson ? Is mind to get its * honour where the hand toils?