§ 14

Science and industry misapplied may prove to be a curse! They are misapplied when used for purposes of destruction. What folly it is when it is regarded coolly, rationally and with common sense! Millions upon millions of money are wasted, which, if spent in the construction of national intellectual stability, upon education and all that education would provide, would ennoble the nation. The great war, made by politicians, by egoists, has been the most devastating in the history of mankind. Science has been applied to it with acrid avidity. Without the misapplication of scientific inventions the disasters caused by the war would have been impossible. Science wrongly applied, facilities invented as aids to peaceful transport and international as well as national contact abused, have worked havoc. The age of iron and steel, of cheap and accessible fuel, coal and oils, of easy communication between races instinctively and by tradition antagonistic, has said its say in something very near the destruction of Europe. Every discovery made to be used to promote prosperity and peace has been used for the destruction of both. Terrible things science has done during the last five years. Without railways, without motors, without factories, without aeroplanes, without chemistry, each in its way desirable, if used for construction, the great war would have been impossible; impossible as it has been enacted. Wars will be as long as man remains foolish. As yet it appears the folly of men is more potent than their wisdom. They invent for peace, they use for war. What a contradiction this implies! They are answerable for this misapplication of science.