Page:Science and War.djvu/64

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was not until these factories were actually at work that they ventured to declare war. But for the existence of those factories the war could not have lasted six months. The existence of these factories changed everything. Throughout the war the Germans were comfortably making their Nitrates at home while we were bringing ours by a perilous journey across the seas from the Pacific coast of South America. That advantage they still retain but it will be an unpardonable act of folly on the part of our Government and our people if it is allowed to exist any longer, now that Peace has set free the man power of the nation and made it possible for us to atone for our past neglect of these scientific discoveries so vitally important to our country's safety in time of War.

To my mind there is one over-mastering lesson to be derived from the contemplation of all that Science has done for War She has made mankind too formidable a being to be permitted to have recourse to it. Uncontrolled indulgence either on the part of a nation

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