efficiency of the existing industries, but has caused powerful new industries to arise. Vast quantities of chemicals, electrical apparatus, glass, optical-ware, machinery, tools, &c., which formerly were imported from abroad, are now manufactured in this country, especially as import prohibitions have provided a powerful stimulus. The War has greatly promoted technical education and increased technical ability, for skilled workers in enormous numbers were wanted. Hence hundreds of schools had to be created in which unskilled workers were converted into highly skilled ones. Inventiveness was stimulated by the necessity to manufacture numerous articles which hitherto were made abroad by secret processes. Last, but not least, the War has led to the creation of huge model factories for making munitions, compared with which the great Woolwich establishment is small and out of date. These giant factories will not be pulled down after the conclusion of peace, but will, of course, be adapted to the production of ordinary goods. Great Britain will undoubtedly follow in this the example set by the United States after the Civil War.

The War has doubled the manufacturing efficiency not only of Great Britain, but of France, Russia, Italy, and Japan as well. When the struggle is over, the United States will no longer compete with industrial nations possessed of an antiquated outfit whose output per man is exceedingly low owing to the use of inefficient and labour-wasting machinery and methods. During the War the most important industries of the whole world have become Americanised. The United States will henceforth have to compete on equal terms in an Americanised world. They may discover that the War has destroyed their industrial paramountcy.

The change effected by the War will be particularly striking in the iron and steel industry, the most important of all manufacturing industries. Before the struggle the United States and Germany dominated the world's iron and steel trade, and Britain's position had sunk very low indeed,

as the following figures show, which are taken from the 'Statesman's Year Book':

In 1912 the United Kingdom produced only about onehalf as much iron as Germany, and one-third as much iron as the United States. In the same year the United Kingdom produced only about one-third as much steel as Germany and one-fifth as much steel as the United States.

Germany's defeat will no doubt lead to the decline of her mightiest industry. The bulk of the iron ore employed by the German iron industry came before the War from German Lorraine, Luxemburg, and the French districts close to the German frontier. The principal iron deposits on the Continent are dominated by the guns of Metz and Diedenhofen on the one hand, and of Verdun and Nancy on the other. Germany's desperate attack upon Verdun was probably largely due to the wish to deprive France of her steel. France's acquisition of Alsace-Lorraine will deprive Germany of the bulk of her iron ore and make France the proprietor of the largest iron deposits in Europe. The iron ore in sight in the small Lorraine-Luxemburg district is approximately as plentiful and as rich in metal as the iron ore of the United States.

Iron-smelting requires of course vast quantities of coal. About a ton and a half of coal is needed for every ton of iron ore. Unfortunately France has little coal, and has to import vast quantities of coal, although her iron industry is at present of comparatively little importance. The output of the French coal-mines can apparently not be greatly increased. Near the German frontier, but outside AlsaceLorraine, on the Saar River, there are German coal-mines

which France might acquire, but these do not yield a satis factory coke for iron-smelting. Hence Germany uses Westphalian coal for smelting the iron of Lorraine. Possessing the Lorraine ore beds, France would lack coal wherewith to smelt it. She would therefore either have to import coal from Westphalia or England for exploiting that vast resource, or she would have to send a large part of the Lorraine ore to Germany or England for smelting. Great Britain and France have been partners in war and should be partners in peace. They might jointly exploit the vast ore deposits mentioned. By co-operating, England and France might dominate not only the iron trade of Europe, but perhaps that of the world. They might leave far behind them the iron industry of the United States

In consequence of the War the industrial output of the United Kingdom, as that of the United States after the Civil War, may be doubled and trebled. The United Kingdom, like the small industrial area of the United States, will find its best and safest market for a vastly increased industrial output in the Dominions and Colonies, in its Far West. After the Civil War the United States developed their great estate with the same energy with which they had conducted the war. I have shown in the beginning of this chapter that the United States, with their comparatively small territory; have almost exactly twice as many miles of railway as has the whole of the British Empire with its immense territory. Hundreds of thousands of miles of railway are required throughout the British Empire. The opening of the Dominions and Colonies by means of railways alone will give full employment to the vastly enlarged iron and steel industries of Great Britain and the Dominions for decades to come. The British Dominions have room for

hundreds of millions of white settlers. After the end of the Civil War money had to be made to pay off the war debt. To make money, the Far West had to be opened up by means of railways and immigrants, for railways and settlement must go hand in hand. The numerous immigrants kept fully

employed not only the American iron and steel industry which the war had created, but all the American industries which had been immensely enlarged during the struggle.

In territory and in latent resources the British Empire is far superior to the United States, but in developed and exploited resources, in industrial power, wealth, and white population, the Empire is very inferior to the Great Republic. Between 1871 and 1911 the population of the United States increased by 53,500,000, that of Germany increased by 25,400,000, while the white population of the British Empire grew by only 21,500,000. That comparison is humiliating for the British Empire. If the same rate of progress or a similar rate should continue to prevail, the British Empire would in course of time become a second-rate or a third-rate Power.

Wealth is power. The British Empire should endeavour to be the leading Anglo-Saxon nation, not only in territory, but in white population and wealth as well. Hitherto the development of the Empire has been restricted by a small-minded parochial policy of the component parts, by lack of Imperial organisation and co-operation. The great Imperial domain can be adequately protected and exploited only by the Empire as a whole, by a truly Imperial Government, by Empire-wide co-operation. Immigration and emigration, transportation by land and water, the planful opening and settlement of the vast empty spaces of the Empire, and the question of inter-Imperial trade must be settled imperially, not parochially. If that is done, there is every reason to believe that in a few decades the British Empire will be far ahead of the United States both in white population and in wealth.

It may be argued that the British Dominions and Colonies cannot be developed as rapidly as the United States, although the resources of the former are greater than those of the latter, because the United States are a single country which nature has opened up by a number of magnificent rivers. That argument is erroneous. The United States are not

a State, but a number of States, which jealously defend their State rights and which do not readily co-operate. Besides, the seas are the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Hudson of the British Empire. They do not separate, but connect the different parts.

In consequence of the Civil War, the United States standardised their chaotic railway system, as has been shown. They placed it under imperial control, and gradually evolved a unified and national system by means of the Inter-State Commerce Commission. Cheap transport and freight and equitable rates are the best means for opening up the Empire rapidly. The Governments of the Empire should learn from America's lesson and control transport by land and water throughout the Empire. At present private railway companies and shipping companies direct, divert, stimulate, or restrict the imperial trade according to their convenience, or even penalise British and facilitate foreign trade for their own benefit. The transport companies by land and sea must be taught that the interests of the Empire are more important than those of their shareholders.

An Imperial Government in the full sense of the term should investigate and take stock of the Imperial resources, for they are unknown. It is nobody's business to study and describe the resources of the Empire. No official survey has even been made of England's coal beds. The resources of the Empire are exploited, or wasted, at will by private individuals. The mineral resources of the United States have been explored and described by the American Geological Survey, which has rendered invaluable service, and of recent years the Americans have embarked upon the policy of preserving their natural resources under the guidance of their national Conservation Commission. An Imperial stocktaking is necessary. The Empire belongs to the race, not to a few capitalists. Its exploitation should be guided by national and Imperial interests. Yet such guidance need not restrict very much the activities of enterprising capitalists.

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