The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1917 WHAT CONQUERS THE WORLD

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 9 June 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1917 WHAT CONQUERS THE WORLD

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

Never in the history of the world can a period be pointed to in which a wor cxnan was more, worthy of his hire than ho is at the present time, not because the workman now is more clever, more skilled, more industrious, or more conscientious in his work, but because there is a greater demand for labour that is paid for. Old slave systems having been rendered impossible by a higher and more humane civilisation the work, man is now, in very nearly all countries, a fully franchised citizen, and in some countries he handles the icins of Go vernment. The condition of the noik man has improved almost to his own ideal, but what about the quality of his work? We do not mean to ask what any particularly clever worker is capable of doing, but what the sum total quality of work is considered from every standpoint. How much of mental study is combined with manual practices to enable workers to bring out the very best they are capable of? Wherever we look in the history of past ages the monuments of labour’s skill shame us. What buildings there arc of modern construction that the world has any pride in are the result of a careful and conscientious study of the sciences upon which the glorious edifices of old were constructed, not by monkeylike mimicking or copying; but b 7 the stlldy ° f the scientific aspect of construction as well as that of the manual. The nation which is pervaded with a love of art and a desire to excel is the nation that will rule the world. Is the lesson of Germany to be lost upon, the British Empire? Will our people, after this awful experience, drop back into its old ways that paved the way for this war becoming possible? Only the workers of our Empire can answer this question; they, and they alone, have the future of their children and their children’s children in their power and keeping. The Germans arc not an inventive people when compared with Anglo-Saxons; the|y arc more copyists and eribbers than inventors, and yet, let us make no mistake about it, they, by their copying and applying the study of science in their workshops and laboratories very nearly conquered the world, taking it back to the state of its very darkest hour. The huge fightiiig machine is the fashioned tool wherewith Germany sought to Subdue all other peoples, the tool that has been in process of evolution in the colleges, schools, factories, workshops and laboratories of Germany for the last three or four decades, and how perilously near lo success Germany has come. It has taken the combined effort of almost the whole world, civilised and uncivilised, to withstand the fighting machine that German technical schools and colleges have built up, by directing their magnificent industrial education into the most diabolical and devilish channels. It is a well established fact that Germany could, and would, have. I conquered ike world without the de-

struction of a single life if her rulers had left it to workshops, factories, and laboratories. The glory and glamour of war was too tempting for the swashbuckling military caste, however, and what those places of science, art and industry had achieved it has lost, and, let us hope, lost for even. Technical instruction, that is, the special instruction designed to enable men who live by hand labour to apply to their work the leading principles of science which bear more especially upon it, is not a part of the compulsory equipment of the workers in our Empire as it- is in Germany, and what is the result? We have found that Germany not only drove Britain oqt of foreign markets but that she had actually captured the markets of Britain, and had the Kaiser only waited a little longer his workshops and laboratories would have achieved that which his elaboratelyt built-up fighting machine is doomed to fail in. To-day, in our much-vaunted civilisation, we are shamed by the glorious monuments of skill in the application of science to artcraft the work men of olden times have left to us, and our failure to emulate their glorious example has brought us to the brink of slavery to a nation whose people's only virtue seems to be that they have profited by the example of old-time workmen, and have striven to excel in every class of work that is performed in any and every workshop. Surely we can have no better example of the workshop ruling the world, and of its influence in working out the world’s destiny. Technical education is being car ried almost to our doors, but we do little more than spurn the efforts of those who would assist us in building up a future for our Empire that cannot be destroyed. Unlike the parents of old, the parents of to-day allow the Empire ’s youth to do as it pleases, to wander the streets, attend doubtful amusements for mere sensual gratification. Money and time is thus wasted that should be devoted to working out a destiny of our race more in accordance with our desires, and the pride and glory of the millions who come after us. Places of questionable amusement arc full and our technical education schools are empty; the road to mediocrity and failure is crowded, while the way to national greatness is trodden only by the few. The young people fully, prepared with a technical knowledge of what is essential to the vocation in life they are placed will excel, while those who waste their youth will remain among the hewers of wood and drawers of water Let us realise at once that ignorance means failure, perhaps slavery—we have an object lesson in Russia—while technical understanding of everything pertaining to our industries means perpetuation of our rac® and Empire. We can all realise what Germany has lost by the impetuosity of its militarists, who were jealous of the workshops achieving the mastery of the world without their help. We make an appeal to the parents of this town and district to think out this question for themselves for then we know that Tai hape will occupy no belittling position in the category of those places who are doing most to build up the future greatness of the British*Empire.