new plant, including important electrifications. The London Midland and Scottish Railway, alone, in this year, 1926, is placing orders for 15,000 goods wagons and 400 new locomotives costing £5,000,000. Where we are hard hit in addition to coal, mentioned above, and shipbuilding, is in the iron and steel industries and engineering. The usual remedy of protection for iron and steel was recently proposed and the application of the industry itself was referred to the Committee of Civil Research. Prime Minister Baldwin, on December 21 last, made the following statement:

The Civil Research Committee has given the subject prolonged and detailed consideration, and has heard a large number of witnesses, representing employers and employed engaged in the iron and steel industries and in allied trades. The evidence revealed a serious situation. The pressure of foreign competition, aided by long hours, low wages, and depreciated currencies, is being severely felt by our manufacturers, and had the Government been able to deal with the iron and steel industries in isolation we might have regarded the case for inquiry as complete. It became clear, however, in the course of our investigations, that the safeguarding of a basic industry of this magnitude would have repercussions of a far wider character which might be held to be in conflict with our declaration in regard to a general tariff. In all the circumstances of the present time we have come to the conclusion that the application cannot be granted.

This plainly gives the reason: "long hours, low wages and depreciated currencies" on the Continent of Europe are causing the injury. But this cannot last. We are competing successfully in contracts abroad against Continental firms; and in any case, are we to reduce the standard of living of our workpeople to that of our Continental competitors? The answer is, No! We have deliberately adopted the high wages, high organization policy of the United States, and we will win through on it.

With regard to our debt to America, used as one of the counts against us, as a reason for our coming decline, it must be remembered that we never expected the default of our European debtors on whose behalf much of the money is borrowed. Nevertheless France has promised to pay us twelve and a half million pounds a year to begin with, and the Italians have negotiated for the funding and payment of their debt in London.

The observations of those interested and the statistics them

selves show that in Britain there is less crime, less drunkenness and more happiness generally among the people. The poorer class and the children are better clad than they ever have been, morals are better, and there is already a reaction setting in from the license of the War period, which shows that the spirit of the people is healthy. The physique of the younger generation shows a great improvement, especially that of the young men.

Nor do our arts of statecraft show a decline. We have got over the worst of our Irish troubles and have thus removed a grave canker from the body politic. Thanks to the wise grant of selfgovernment, where it was due, our Empire has never been more firmly knit together nor more loyal to the throne. The same policy is being pursued in India. Our recent action in accepting a mandate for Mesopotamia from the League of Nations for a further twenty-five years has been criticized by many, including myself. But such an action is hardly the gesture of a decadent people. Rather, the criticism is that we are too optimistic of our strength or that we take on too great responsibilities, in the vigor of our revival.

It is true we are going through hard times and still have hard times to go through; but there are unmistakable signs of strength and real indications of a trade revival. The recent signature of the Locarno Pact will help, and, at any rate, it exposes us as the leading political power in Europe. It is to be hoped that a "boom" is not upon us. If we can go on with our slow recovery and improvement, all will be well, and we shall rally from this depression as we recovered from depressions following the Seven Years' War, the war with our former American Colonies, and the Napoleonic Wars themselves.

The American people may rest assured that we shall meet our obligations, and will remain a great market for both their manufactured goods and their raw materials, as well as their sincere friends.

London, 1926.

J. M. KENWORTHY.

CONCERNING ENDOWMENTS

BY HANFORD HENDERSON

EVERY man, however original and independent he may think himself, is in reality the beneficiary of a tremendous endowment. He is the direct heir of that universal experience which we call Civilization. We are all of us the possessors of marvellous wealth. We have our wonderful bodies, the product of an evolutionary process stretching back so far that the most speculative among us hesitate to hazard any guess as to its duration. We have our still more wonderful intellects, creating a world much larger, much more intricate, much more subtle, than the vast world of visible Nature. Most beneficent of all, we have the spiritual life, with its conquest of space and time, and its irrepressible claim to immortality.

No one, not even the apostles of equality, would insist for one moment that this vast inheritance is the same for all, that the heirs of civilization are the recipients of like portions. We have only to compare bodies and minds and souls to realize how endlessly unequal are these human legacies. Even our individual share varies, and we are aware of periods of drought and plenty. We do not bring to the succeeding adventures of life the same body, the same mind, the same soul. These vary so amazingly that after some great emotional experience we rightly speak of a changed man, and of being born again.

In our ordinary moods, and in the midst of our daily pre-occupations, we are not greatly impressed by this tremendous gift of the past, for it represents our accustomed environment. We are prone to take it for granted and to offer no thanks. We seldom stop to think how good the gods have been to us. In spite of all our frailties, it is a marvellous thing just to be a man! But in taking so much for granted, we commonly take too much and assume a human average which does not exist, and apply a generalized standard which labels without really evaluating. There

seems objectively to be one world, but in effect there are as many worlds as there are people in it.

And then, in addition to this personal endowment, this legacy wrapped up in the organism itself, in body, mind and soul, there is a seemingly capricious external legacy which must never be forgotten, since it plays so important a part in human destiny. This outer aspect of civilization represents a skilful adaptation of the raw materials of Nature to human uses. It constitutes a universal contributory endowment which we too little take cognizance of,-the cleared field, the dwelling-house, the public building, the road, bridge, tunnel, the vehicles of transportation, the lines of communication, the stupendous mechanical equipment of industry, all the clever discoveries and inventions, all the lovely creations of art. This vast accumulated wealth is the product of a multitude of dead workers, driven some by want, some by ambition, some by curiosity, some by reverence, some fortunate ones by the sheer love of beauty. And we, the men of today, inherit collectively this immeasurable wealth. Part of our inheritance is personal, our individual share of houses and lands, and the multiform tools and achievements of civilized life. But the larger part is impersonal, the marvellous beauty and convenience of that outer world to which we, late comers among the toilers, have for the moment succeeded. And it is worth remarking that while a man, in thinking of his wealth, commonly has in mind his personal share in our colossal joint heritage, this is not necessarily or even generally the more important. A "poor" man, living in the rich environment of an active, intelligent community, may easily be much better off than a "rich" man out in the wilderness.

But all these possessions, like the organic legacies of bodies and minds and souls, represent only the given conditions, the inherited setting for the living drama of today. As a spectacle, they are impressive; as a potential opportunity, they are beyond price; and I would not willingly belittle either their magnificence or their importance. But they imply no merit on the part of the generation which today happens to possess them. Nor do they, in spite of their large convenience and beauty, carry any guarantee whatever that our contemporary drama will be admirable.

Right here is the crux of the whole matter. It deserves the closest scrutiny on the part of those who concern themselves with social problems, and with the large general questions of our human destiny. Broadly speaking, two points of view are possible. They are both understandable, but they are exclusive and contradict each other; consequently the social theories which grow out of them lead to opposite conclusions and programmes. The first point of view denies, of course, what I have just said about the impotence of the world endowment to produce of itself an admirable succeeding world; and specifically asserts the contrary. It is a doctrine of necessity. Man is a puppet of fate, the product of the world endowment, the result of his environment. From this point of view, free will is an illusion, and man is logically quite devoid of responsibility. If he make himself too much of a social nuisance, he is imprisoned or hanged, just as wild beasts, when they become a menace, are summarily disposed of. But short of inconvenient extremes of misconduct, man must be looked upon in the same dispassionate natural history spirit that we feel when we watch the antics of animals, or study the growth of plants.

The major objection to this point of view is to be found in the large mass of contradictory evidence. It is too voluminous to be presented in full, but one or two pertinent facts may be indicated.

The rise and fall of nations, for example, is one of the enigmas of history; and it is particularly baffling that while their rise is so gradual, their decline is so rapid, and in so many cases follows close upon the highest wave of material civilization and power. The fortunate nations would seem to be the target for the gods of misfortune-a brilliant flowering and then disaster. Just now America is approaching the crest of the wave, exhibiting a prosperity and a material civilization never before equalled, and already some of her anxious lovers are beginning to ask whether this is but another prelude to another immense disaster. One looks back, and asks, Where is Assyria? Where is Egypt? Where is Greece? Where is Rome? Even in our own day, Where is the German Empire? Will it be asked, a moment hence, Where is America?