MILLIONAIRE'S FAITH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 399, 7 December 1932, Page 2

MILLIONAIRE'S FAITH

TIME COMING WHEN NATIONS WILL ENJOY GREAT j PROSPERITY. A GREAT AD VENTURE. Mr. Charles M. Schwab, the American steel industrdalist, received the Melchett Medal for 1932 in London at the annual dinner of the Institute of Fuel, at which he expressed 'the greatest optimism over the future. "We have seen depressions come and go," ha said. "We have seen years of depression we thought bad, but they were not so bad as the present one. We may have five or even ten more years of bad business, but the time is coming when the great nation across the Atlantic and yours with it will s'ee prosperity, happiness, and development such as the world has never dreamed of before." Returning to- the present, Mr. Schwab remarked that he was losing mon'sy so rapidly he might have to come to live in England, "just as Samuel Insull has gone to Greece." "We not only must make money but learn how to hold on to it," he said after he had been introduced by the chairman, Sir Hugo Hirst, who described him as "an adventurer in the noblest sense of that word" and traced his career as an industrialist. Mr, Schwab received the Melchett Medal from the hands of Lady Melchett, widow of the donor of the medal. It was given to Mr. Schwab in recognition of his work in the development of the iron and steel industry and his economic use of fuel in that connection. This morning Mr. Schwab addressed a meeting of the Institute of Fuel following the presidential address of Sir Hugo. Both discussed the larger use of coal as a means of aiding economic recovery. Mr. Schwab said in his address that he accepted the Melchett Medal "with great humility as well as great gratitude." Scientific Leadership. "There are varipus men in your own country to whom you might properly have made this award, but you chose to confer it upon one from across the seas,' he said. "Our steel industry in America has made vast strides in the utilisation of fuel, in the application of science to methods of producton. We appreciate the recognition of this progress which is implied in the conferring of the Melchett Medal on an American citizen. "Justice compels me to say, however, that our industry Continues to bow to Great Britain in many aspects of scientific leadership. Your societies have a thoroughness, a high standard of operation, a know-how which form a meas'urilig rod for industrial progress in all countries." There is "much talk and some evidence," Mr. Schwab isaid, "of a recurrence of nationalism in present days of depression. "National pride is natural and proper, but loyalty toi one's own can go hand in hand with appreciation of the worth of others. As world conditions improve we shall see less and less of jihgoism, of economic barriers. I speak as an individual, having no political connections, or interests, in this international field. "It may be that the epidemic of economic schemes which have been adopted by various nations for selfprotection has been unavoidable under emergency circumstances. In the long run, however, nations inevitably will tend to draw together, rather than draw apart. That has been the trend of civilisation from the tribal days onward. Larger and larger areas of the world have worked out methods of handling their affairs by orderly processes of law. Ending Barriers. "I spolce of the natural friendship of English-speaking people due to ties of blood, language, and siniilar institutions. We have a responsibility to set an example of friendship before the rest of th'e world. This friendship must not stpp with AngloSaxons. Language is a baxrier which can be oyercome. "Societies such as this, in fact, recognise no barriers. for the language of , science is the same throughout the world. The laws and formulas of chemistry are the sam'el in Persia as in Spain. No nation can claim pre-emin-ence in the world of science. "Persia gave Us -astronomy; Greece gave us geometry, Germany is uriexcelle'd in chemistry, and Franee is the father of modern medicine. The advance -of our civilisation in tha sciences demands the closest and friendliest co-op'etation amoiig all peoples. "I'iie world as a whole during the iiext twenty-five years will .see a wiser and better founded area of industrial ♦ . . ..

progress than we have enjoyed hitherto. The material benefits and material chang'es cahie upori us so rapidly in the past half-'century that we did not digest them readily. Most of the economic errors of the world have come from a refusal to recognise the laws of crderly progress. The p'pstwar boom, the South Sea Bubble, the Tulip Boom of Holland, and all the other curious- crazes which have swept over hiankind from tihie to time have taken place an defiance of orderly, scientific thinicing. "Every industry must make readjustments to changing conditions. Its variability to make those readjustments is a guarantee of its survival and progress. There mUst be consolidation to effect. -economies. "With all difficulties, the hiacliine age has provideid. the populace as a whole with a high standard of food supplies, • clothing, sanitation, and recreation unknown in earlier centuries. The mind of xhan S'eems to- m'ove 'slowly in masterinjg new coiiditibhs, biit we have emerged from oiir difficulties befbl$ and' we shall do so again, -advaneing to ever higlier st'an-^