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diff --git a/75248-0.txt b/75248-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61e0e9b --- /dev/null +++ b/75248-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1950 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75248 *** + + + + + + PEGASUS + + + + + TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW + + _For a full list of this Series see the end + of this Book_ + +[Illustration: + + GUY ONE-TON LORRY + + Hauling a full load up a one-in-two gradient (notice the vertical + stick hanging from string from lamp bracket) + + [_Frontispiece_ +] + + + + + PEGASUS + PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORTATION + + + BY + + COLONEL J. F. C. FULLER + + WITH 8 PLATES + + LONDON + KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. + NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. + + + + + _Printed in Great Britain by_ + MACKAYS LTD., CHATHAM + + + + + PREFACE + + +The first part of this little book, namely “The Battle of the Iron +Horse,” appeared, very much as it stands, in the September number of +_The National Review_, 1925, and I have to thank the editor, Mr. Leo +Maxse, for his kindness in allowing me to republish it. + +The second part is based partially on personal experience and +reflection, and partially on the lectures and papers of others. In the +war, the tank brought me to realize the enormous possibilities of +cross-country movement, and, in 1921, I set down my ideas as regards its +commercial future in a pamphlet entitled _Economic Movement_, which was +published in 1922. + +Of the works of others, I have borrowed ideas from the following:— + +“Improvements in the Efficiency of Roadless Vehicles.” A paper read +before the members of The Institution of Automobile Engineers, by +Colonel P. H. Johnson, C.B.E., D.S.O., December, 1921. + +“Multi-Wheel and Track Motor.” A paper read before the members of the +above Institution by Major T. G. Tulloch, March, 1923. + +“The Progress of Mechanical Engineering in the Military Service.” A +lecture delivered before the members of The Institution of Mechanical +Engineers, by Major G. le Q. Martel, D.S.O., M.C., January, 1924. + +“Transport in Tropical Africa.” A paper read before the members of The +Royal Society of Arts, by Mr. R. H. Brackenbury, February, 1925. + +“The Roadless Transport Problem.” A paper read before the members of The +British Association, by Colonel P. H. Johnson, C.B.E., D.S.O., August, +1925. + + J.F.C.F. + + _Staff College, Camberley. + November, 1925._ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION 9 + + THE BATTLE OF THE IRON HORSE + The Railway Centenary 13 + The Protean Problem 17 + The X-Ray Transporter 20 + Erichthonius, Wheelwright 25 + The Philosopher’s Steam 29 + George Stephenson, Engine-wright 32 + The Nature of the Beast 40 + Protean Ignorance 44 + + THE CONQUEST OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS + The Equation of Power and Movement 48 + The Riddle of the Gordian Knot 52 + The Problem of Unemployment 59 + The Problem of Power 66 + Problems of Movement 69 + Two-Dimensional Movement 77 + The Elysian Fields 87 + The Wings of Pegasus 91 + + + + + PEGASUS + + PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORTATION + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +Whatever man does entails movement, mental or bodily. Movement is, in +fact, the mainspring of his evolution and of the civilization which this +evolution engenders; consequently, in the economic growth of movement +must be sought the direction of all progress, both physical and +psychological. As the mind of man moves, so does the world, in which +this mind works, move round him, delivering up to his imagination and +his hands the mysteries it so sedulously hides. For it is through the +conquest of mysteries that man, the mystery of mysteries, strides out of +a dark and unknown past towards some unknown future. + +It would be both logical and easy, I think, to start with the soles of +man’s feet and to work upwards to his brain. To show how, from simple +walking, man’s natural means of progression, he took to riding, and then +thought of the oar, the wheel and the sail, until to-day he rushes over +the surface of the earth, surges through the waves and roars through the +air, excelling the horse, the fish and the bird. But in so small a book +as this it is not my intention to write a history of transportation. In +place, I intend to consider two things: first, the reaction against +novelty of movement, and secondly, the possibilities of what to-day is +still a novel form of movement, namely, the movement of roadless +vehicles, that is of vehicles which do not require roads for their +locomotion. Also, I intend to show how these vehicles may help us solve +several of our most pressing problems, and above all that of +over-population at home and under-population in our Dominions and +Colonies. + +If I can do this with any semblance of success, it may perhaps excuse +the restrictions I am placing on this subject, for I fully realize the +immense future possibilities of other means of movement. The railway has +not come to the end of its evolution, far from it to any reader of Mr. +Horniman’s book, “How to Make the Railways Pay for the War,” in which +Mr. Gattie’s “third-dimensional” railway system is described, a system +which bids fair, were it introduced, to prove as revolutionary as George +Stephenson’s locomotive itself. Nor has the steamship, except perhaps in +size, reached its utmost development, for every day heralds a further +improvement, and, as for aircraft, they are scarcely out of the nursery; +yet I am of opinion that, until a radical change in their engines is +introduced, and this change may demand a new motive force, their utility +in peace will be severely restricted, and, if restricted in peace, in +numbers they are not likely to be so numerous in war as some people +imagine. I mention these things here because of the limit I have placed +on the items I intend to examine when compared to the subject of +economic movement as a whole. + +I have called this little book Pegasus, not only because this famous +steed had wings, which to me are the wings of imagination, but because +he was born near the sources of the ocean and sprang from the blood of +Medusa. To me, the sources of the ocean are symbolic of these little +islands of ours, which produced not only the first practical steam +engine and the first locomotive, but also the footed wheel which +developed into the caterpillar track. Further, Medusa, that monster who +turned all who gazed on her to stone, is surely the incarnation of that +obstructive ignorance which, by impeding originality of idea and novelty +of action, compels thought and things to grow, and through struggle with +her to prove their utility and worth. + + + + + THE BATTLE OF THE IRON HORSE + + + THE RAILWAY CENTENARY + +I must begin somewhere, and since I refuse to begin at the soles of +men’s feet, which are the beginning of his anatomy, the earth is our +natural datum point, I will begin just a hundred years ago, when the +world we know to-day was as remote from the world as it was then, as the +world I hope to point the way to will, in many ways, be as remote from +the world as it is now. + +On the 27th of September, of this very year in which I write, took place +the centenary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway, and +though it was not the first line to be constructed in England (for the +Killingworth railway was built in 1814, and again this was not the first +upon which locomotives ran), its claim to priority is nevertheless well +founded, for it was the first railway the public noticed, and, in +democratic countries, the birth of anything original must date from the +moment the most ignorant in the land realize its existence. It flatters +ignorance to be always first—such is democratic pride. + +The 27th of September, 1825, was a very remarkable day in the world’s +history, one of those birthdays which have no predictable date, but +which depend on the outburst of genius of some great man. The great man +was a humble and self-taught engine-wright from Killingworth, one George +Stephenson, albeit an honest and persevering man, a worker, a thinker +and a dreamer; one of those human thunder clouds which, from time to +time, beat up against the conventional currents of thought, and out of +which flash the lightnings of unsuspected things—a very remarkable and +creative man. + +On the 27th of September, a hundred years ago, a great concourse of +people assembled at Brusselton Incline, some nine miles from Darlington. +There, the travelling engine, as it was called, driven by George +Stephenson, the greatest genius of his age, moved forward amidst shrill +blasts of its whistle, “with its immense train of carriages,” +thirty-eight in number; “and such was its velocity,” writes an +eye-witness, “that in some parts the speed was frequently twelve miles +an hour!” It took sixty-five minutes to cover the nine miles to +Darlington, and the multitude stood aghast! + +But the other day, I travelled in the “Detroiter” from New York to near +by the front door of Mr. Henry Ford—another remarkable and self-taught +revolutionary—the distance, if I remember rightly, some seven hundred +and fifty miles, and the time taken was fourteen hours. From Brusselton +Incline the iron horse hauled away, amidst wild excitement, the +stupendous load of ninety tons. At Pittsburg, I have seen locomotives +hauling six and seven thousand tons of coal, puffing by all unobserved. +Surely Einstein is right, the relative is only true, and ninety tons in +1825 was almost as unbelievable as to-day would be a centaur galloping +between the taxis of Piccadilly or Fifth Avenue. + +All this must have been remembered during the centenary celebrations +this year, and broadcast from meeting room, assembly hall and dinner +table, for centenaries lose their interest without much feeding. There, +little men in tail coats, morning jackets and lounge suits, some with +trousers creased and others somewhat baggy at the knee, according to the +political creed of the wearer, in port and beer, and, in America, I know +not what, toasted the memory of the great man. Pæans and praise gushed +from their arid heads like the water from the rock smitten by Moses. +These little men, sitting for a bare few minutes on the chariot wheel of +genius, did say, “What a dust do we raise!” And in our morning papers we +read of all this blather and pomposity, and overlooked an eternal truth. +For we got into our railway carriages next day and complained of their +unfitness for human habitation, even of the most temporary nature, and +condemned the line we were travelling on as impossible, because the +train was five minutes late. Outwardly a very ordinary picture, all +this—the drinking, speechmaking and travelling troubles of little men, +some strap-hangers to genius, but most quite normal nonentities; yet +behind it all lurks a somewhat interesting problem—the protean +psychology of the very ordinary man. + + + THE PROTEAN PROBLEM + +Since that famous Brusselton gathering, the noise of which has long +deafened the world to the wonder of its sound, what changes do we see! A +whole earth rejuvenated, as humanity, like a shuttle, works the woof of +a new civilization through the warp of an old. Civilization is built on +movement, and the picture of life to-day is as different from that of +1825, in rough proportion, as a cinema show differs from a neolithic +rock painting. In this short hundred years, the life span of a very old +man, such a revolution has been brought about by the locomotive that the +world has been reborn. And, to our limited intelligence, always that of +a child, we have forgotten the events of this first birthday; and the +changes, which it conjured out of the depths of ignorance, are to-day +accepted by us all as the essentials of our surroundings and as +necessitous to our lives. + +If some magician could appear to-day, and, by a wave of his wand, banish +all railroads to limbo, a calamity would fall upon this world to which +no parallel could be found since Noah entered the Ark. The greatest +plagues, famines and wars would vanish like wisps of smoke into the +night, when compared to its all-consuming horror. It would be like +dragging out of the human body the arterial and venous systems, and yet +leaving the man alive, an aching mass of bones and fiery nerves. The +picture is indescribable, it is beyond the grasp of intelligence to grip +it, and yet, in 1825, the ancestors, the grandfathers, and great +grandfathers, and great grandmothers, too, of all the little men who in +1925 were dressed in dinner jackets (or tuxedo, as they call it over the +Atlantic) morning coats and lounge suits, made to measure and “off the +peg,” were shouting down George Stephenson, even more boisterously than +their grandsons and great grandsons this year shouted him up. This, then +is the protean problem, that eternal truth overlooked as we read in our +newspapers that a workman has been killed in Walworth or a girl has +deposited a baby outside an A.B.C. in the Strand, and so on, _ad +infinitum_, the long categories of the normalities of life. This is the +inner problem George Stephenson has to teach us, and let us consider it, +for it is a live and moving problem, and one which will not be +masticated by very ordinary men, as they gulp down their beer, their +port or iced water. It is the problem of “‘Hail, king of the Jews,’ one +day and ‘Crucify Him’ the next.” It is, as I say, the veritable protean +problem of humanity, and nine hundred and ninety-nine human beings out +of every thousand are very, very, ordinary men. + + + THE X-RAY TRANSPORTER + +Let us picture to ourselves another magician descending on this earth of +ours, a man of magic with the prosaic name of John Smith, yet none the +less a man of genius, for all such are magicians in very fact. He is a +very modern genius, and, I will suppose that he has discovered how to +transform any and all physical things into ether waves moving at 186,000 +miles a second, and that he can precipitate in its original form any +article or being sent to any given spot; all this arrived at by tapping +a key or pressing a button. + +What a traffic problem is here opened to this world; so immense that it +puts to blush the power of that horrid wizard who would remove our +railways. Its conception is no more impossible than that of +broadcasting. Even in so remote a village as Camberley (thirty miles +distant from London, and there I write), where electrical genius is +conspicuously absent, I can switch on to Paris and listen to Galli Curci +or any other human bird. And what appears to me far more marvellous, +simultaneously a fisherman in Trondhjem can do likewise. An immense +audience in fact this Galli Curci can command, and totally unknown to +her, totally unseen and out of contact even with itself, a dust of +individuals, each speck of which can travel on or off her song by mere +pressure of the hand, each speck of which can travel by ear at infinite +speed and to any civilized point on the globe. If this is not magic, +what is? + +If song can be etherealized, why not then the singer? How much more +remarkable would it not be, in place of scanning bold headlines of dead +workmen and deposited babies, to read that Melba will sing in New York, +at a quarter past three next Saturday afternoon, and at the Opera House +in Paris, that very same day, and but twenty minutes later. + +If we can transmit one thing, surely the day must soon come when we +shall be able to transmit all things, and my genius John Smith is the +man of that day. What could he not do? He could solve the traffic +problem in Regent Street or Broadway, for all, astonished reader, you +would have to do would be to sit on a transmitter, press a button, and +in the minutest fraction of a second, you would find yourself in Peter +Robinson’s, or Mr. Morgan’s office, or wherever you wanted to go, all +for a penny or a couple of cents! He could banish the Communists to the +moon, where there are no capitalists and where there is plenty of ice to +keep their heads cool. He could replace the League of Nations by a row +of chairs. The Grenadier Guards would fall in to the stentorian yells of +their Sergeant-Major to be seated. The button would be pressed by the +Army Council and, in less than a twinkle of an eye, they would be doing +their famous goose-step down the Sieges Alle, to the utter consternation +of the terrible Teuton. + +Dear and crawling reader, what could he not do, and what could not you +do? Half-a-crown, or half-a-dollar, would take you round the world—bag, +baggage and all. And if you do not forget your purse, you can breakfast +in New York at a cafeteria, lunch with Ongo-Pongo on the shores of Lake +Chad, have tea in Yoshiwara, at the “Nectarine” for choice, and sup with +Doris in the Bois de Boulogne at 8.30—this, indeed, is to live. + +But what would you do—you beefsteak-eating bull of a Briton, yes, what +would you do? You would don your lounge suit or your morning coat, or +your tuxedo, as your great grandfathers did right back in 1825. You +would become thoroughly traditional and would say: “Why, this man is +mad—a raving lunatic! Send me to Lake Chad?... Good God, man, what is he +thinking about ... Lock him up!” + +Then the storm would burst. The leading engineers, “eminent” as they are +called by every newspaper, would say it was contrary to etheric law; +Harley Street would be thoroughly up in arms, for all their old lady +friends might suddenly betake themselves in a second to Madeira and get +cured of their ailments; the physicians would say the human frame cannot +stand this rush; the bath-chairmen would say that their occupation was +gone; the lawyers would say it was illegal and that it would lead to the +Cocos Islands becoming a refuge for criminals; the soldiers would say, +how could they be expected to protect this dash dashed land, why, it did +not fit their strategy, therefore it _must_ be wrong. And what would the +clergy say? Heaven alone knows, for whilst antiquity and things +antiquated separate the Churches, any novelty of a progressive nature is +apt to bring them together with amazing unanimity. + +The reader may be beginning to think that I, the writer, am off my head, +but I am not. So far, all I have done is to reveal protean +possibilities, now I will turn to actualities of the same psychological +order. I will imagine that this genius Mr. Smith has, in disgust, +removed himself to Aldebaran, and that we are about to get back to the +Brusselton Incline. + + + ERICHTHONIUS, WHEELWRIGHT + +I must have missed the Incline in my haste to get back to Brusselton, +for I find myself in Athens in the Minoan age, or thereabouts, for the +year is 1486 B.C. Everyone seems very excited; porters have thrown down +their baskets and are yelling unintelligible words, yet of a pronounced +and universal meaning; shoemakers are beating at a house door with their +lasts. Whatever is up? A dainty little creature, some now far away +Doris, approaches me and says: “Do you know what that old blighter (my +Attic is weak) has done? Why, he has invented a thing called a chariot, +and all these poor people have lost their jobs.” + +Of course, Erichthonius never invented the chariot; the idea of a pure +inventor is but a piece of proletarian imagery, a morsel of that +ignorance which is the soul of the crowd. This old man, even if he ever +lived, which seems doubtful, did no more than Savery did, or Newcomen, +or Watt, or Stephenson, or Marconi did; that is, he was a link in that +great chain we call progress, each link being the great thought of a +great man. Tutenkhamon had his chariot as we well know, and many another +before him, and we read in the Acts of the Apostles of a eunuch of great +authority, a kind of Maître d’Hôtel of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, +journeying to Jerusalem sitting in his chariot reading Esaias, the +prophet, which is no mean compliment to the Roman road-makers in +Palestine. + +I must, however, hasten back to Brusselton, for there lies my goal; but +stop, what is this? “A whirlicote,” a “Noah’s Ark,” or, in common +language, an Elizabethan coach; for sure—a direct descendent of the +handicraft of Erichthonius. The Earl of Rutland, it is said, first built +whirlicotes in this country, in 1565, and, in spite of the villainous +condition of the roads, my lords and ladies soon took to them. This, +apparently, was a sure proof, in its day, that the country was going to +the dogs; for, early in the seventeenth century, a bill was brought into +Parliament “to prevent the effeminacy of men riding in coaches.” +Hitherto Englishmen had ridden or walked, why should they not continue +to do so, why not, indeed? + +In the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the number of coaches +in London was reckoned at six thousand and odd, and in a curious old +book, published in 1636, and recently reprinted, called “Coach and +Sedan,” of these six thousand and odd whirlicotes we read:— + +“I easilie (quoth I) beleeve it, when in certaine places of the Citie, +as I have often observed, I have never come but I have there, the way +barricado’d up with a _Coach_, two, or three, that what hast, or +businesse soever a man hath; hee must waite my Ladie (I know not whose) +leasure (who is in the next shop, buying pendants for her eares; or a +collar for her dogge) ere hee can find any passage.” + +It is Regent Street or Fifth Avenue over again, for, according to this +author, when there is a new Masque at Whitehall, the coaches stand +together “like mutton-pies in a cooke’s oven,” and then he adds: and +“hardly you can thrust a pole between them!” + +In its turn, the stage coach was opposed tooth and nail, because it was +something new. In 1671, Sir Henry Herbert, M.P., stated that: “If a man +were to propose to convey us regularly to Edinburgh in seven days, and +bring us back in seven more, should we not vote him to Bedlam?” Sir +Henry Herbert is what I call a psychological Proteus, a kind of +intellectual amoeba which propagates itself by simple division, the +parts of which are always with us and alike—they never die. + + + THE PHILOSOPHER’S STEAM + +The Brusselton Incline is now in sight, so I will pause and look back +whilst I regain breath. The horse of Troy was a very wonderful beast, +and many strange things came out of it, for it was the strangest thing +man had seen since the Ark. But years after Troy was burnt, a stranger +thing was seen in Alexandria. It was called an aeolipile, a kind of +rudimentary steam engine, which was invented by one, Hero, in 130 B.C. +He used it to open and close the doors of a temple, yet it was +eventually destined to open the portal of a new world, a glimpse of +which would have sent Hero or Columbus completely out of their minds. +Yet these greater doors remained closed for seventeen hundred years, +when another, this time Battista della Porta, in the year 1601, +re-discovered the power of steam. + +In 1641, Marion de Lorme, accompanied by the Marquis of Worcester, +visited the madhouse of the Bicêtre in Paris, and this is what he +writes:— + +“We were crossing the court, and I, more dead than alive with fright, +kept close to my companion’s side, when a frightful face appeared behind +some immense bars, and a hoarse voice exclaimed, ‘I am not mad! I am not +mad! I have made a discovery that would enrich the country that adopted +it.’ ‘What has he discovered?’ asked our guide. ‘Oh!’ answered the +keeper, shrugging his shoulders, ‘Something trifling enough; you would +never guess it; it is the use of the steam of boiling water.’” + +Who was this maniac? It was Solomon de Caus, he had a vision whilst +dabbling with steam vessels, and he had seen carriages and ships +propelled by steam. This was too much for men dressed in half hose and +doublets, or whatever was the tuxedo of their day. “Carriages driven by +steam ... lock him up!” So he was locked up. But the idea lived on, and +it grew. There was Giovanni Branca, Edward Somerset, Marquis of +Worcester, then Thomas Savery, who, in 1698, obtained a patent for a +water raising engine. There were others, Jean de Hautefeuille, who, in +1678, suggested the piston; Denis Papin, 1690, of cylinder and piston +fame. At length Thomas Newcomen, 1705, something near success; others +still, Humphrey Potter, Henry Beighton, but all waiting for _the_ man. +Then _the_ man came in the form of a poor instrument maker, and the new +Jerusalem of the steam age was Glasgow, for there did he work. This man +was James Watt, who, having realized that the cylinder of an engine +should always be as hot as the steam which entered it, in 1769 threw +open the doors of the most stupendous epoch in economic history. The +transmutation of heat into mechanical work had been discovered, it was +the true stone of the philosophers, the “Open Sesame” to another age. + + + GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINE-WRIGHT + +In the very year James Watt built the first practical steam engine, +namely, the year 1769—the year Napoleon was born—fearful riots were +taking place in Russia, because some enlightened person had introduced +the potato, a useful vegetable as we all know, yet at this time one in +which the Russian peasant saw the Satanic thumb, for he was certain that +this humble vegetable was the “devil’s apple.” Though why this should +have detracted from its nutritive qualities I cannot say. + +Looking back now, and we are nearing Brusselton, it seems to me that +there is no difference between the spirit of these deluded peasants and +those who, with shoe lasts, beat vigorously on the door of +Erichthonius’s house. They are one and all Sir Henry Herberts, though +the particular cut of their clothes may differ. George Stephenson, +having studied steam engines in general and Mr. Trevithick’s crude and +inefficient locomotive in particular, determined to build one of his +own, and, with the support of Lord Ravensworth, he accomplished this +feat at Killingworth in 1814. There the first efficient locomotive was +made. Had Lord Eldon been a Russian, he would probably have objected to +potatoes, but being an Englishman he preferred bigger game. “I am +sorry,” he said, “to find the intelligent people of the North-country +gone mad on the subject of railways.” A few miles had only been opened, +but this was quite sufficient to establish madness, and by some other of +his ilk, the adage, “A fool and his money are soon parted,” was applied +to Lord Ravensworth. + +The Killingworth railway was followed by the Stockton and Darlington +line. Mr. Edward Pease, the Quaker supporter of Stephenson, had said: +“Let the country but make the railroads, and the railroads will make the +country.” Be it remembered that locomotives had been working at +Killingworth, and very efficiently, for ten years; but there were others +who, unlike Mr. Pease, were full of the spirit of old Herbert. The Duke +of Cleveland opposed the measure in Parliament, as the line would pass +through his fox covers, and, due to his influence it was thrown out. A +new survey was made, avoiding these precious earths, and the railway was +built. + +The next line was that between Manchester and Liverpool. Lord Derby +turned out his farm hands to chase Stephenson’s surveyors off his +estates. Lord Sefton did likewise, and the Duke of Bridgewater +threatened to shoot them at sight. Stephenson had his theodolite so +often smashed that he deemed it wise to hire a prize fighter to carry +it. The “Quarterly Review” supported the project, and it is curious to +read what it said, for it will give the reader some idea of the +virulence of the opposition. It says: + +“What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held +out of locomotives travelling _twice as fast_ as stage coaches! We +should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be +fired off upon one of Congreve’s ricochet rockets, as trust themselves +to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate.... We trust that +Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction, limit the speed to +_eight or nine miles an hour_, which we entirely agree with Mr. +Sylvester is as great as can be ventured on with safety.” + +This was praise indeed, and it is amazing that the British Parliament, +which is always full of ordinary men, did not take the hint and limit +the speed of the locomotive to that of a trotting horse. Nevertheless, +though this grand opportunity was missed, the Parliamentary Committee +did all in its power to obstruct the measure. One of its members asked +George Stephenson: “Suppose a cow were to stray upon the line?” There +was a hush of horror, then he added: “Would not that, think you, be a +very awkward circumstance?” “Yes,” answered Stephenson, “very awkward +indeed—_for the coo_!” + +The leading councils openly declared that this “untaught and +inarticulate genius” was mad.... “Every part of the scheme shows that +this man has applied himself to a subject of which he has no knowledge, +and to which he has no science to apply.” Not only would these +locomotive engines be a terrible nuisance, “in consequence of the fire +and smoke vomited forth by them,” but “the value of land in the +neighbourhood of Manchester alone would be deteriorated by no less than +£20,000!” “The most absurd scheme that ever entered into the head of man +to conceive,” shouted Mr. Alderson, the leading counsel. “No engineer in +his senses would go through Chat Moss,” solemnly declared Mr. Giles, the +most eminent engineer brought forward by the opposition. He estimated +the cost of such a project at £270,000. Stephenson did it for £28,000, +but the line was an expensive one as it had so many fox covers to avoid. + +All this was but a preliminary skirmish, the main battle now began. The +beef-eating Briton was thoroughly aroused. George Stephenson was +considered to be an incarnation or certainly an implement of his Satanic +Majesty. The public were appealed to, and ever ready to hinder progress, +they took off their tuxedo, smocks, frocks, morning coats or whatever +covered their bodies, and formed phalanx against the common foe. A +meeting of Manchester ministers of all denominations was convened. This +meeting declared that the locomotive was “in direct opposition both to +the law of God and to the most enduring interests of society.” This set +match to powder. The doctors declared that the air would be poisoned and +birds would die of suffocation. The landowners, that the preservation of +pheasants and foxes was no longer possible. Householders, that their +houses would be burnt down and the air polluted by clouds of smoke. +Horse-breeders, that horses would become extinct. Farmers, that oats and +hay would be rendered unsaleable. Innkeepers, that inns would be ruined. +Passengers, that boilers would burst. Heaven knows who—“that the +locomotive would prevent cows grazing, hens laying, and would cause +ladies to give premature birth to children at the sight of these things +moving at four and a half miles an hour!” + +Yet there was this consolation. The very, very ordinary man, the British +public at large, declared that “the weight of the locomotive (six tons!) +would completely prevent its moving, and that railways, even if made, +could _never_ be worked by steam power.” Yet for ten years now, and +more, the Killingworth engines were running daily! + +The Stockton and Darlington line was a tremendous success; so also was +the railway between Manchester and Liverpool, yet opposition thickened +rather than lessened. In 1830, the “Rocket” had attained a speed of +thirty-five miles an hour, yet, in 1832, Colonel Sibthorpe (the Army now +come into the picture and oh! how bravely), declared his hatred of these +“infernal railroads,” and that he “would rather meet a highwayman, or +see a burglar on his premises, than an engineer!” When the Birmingham +railway bill was before Parliament, Sir Astley Cooper, that most eminent +of surgeons, declared: “You are entering upon an enormous undertaking of +which you know nothing. Then look at the recklessness of your +proceedings! You are proposing to destroy property, cutting up our +estates in all directions! Why, gentlemen, if this sort of thing be +permitted to go on, you will in a very few years _destroy the +noblesse_!” And this, from a man who had been knighted for cutting a wen +out of George IV.’s neck! + + + THE NATURE OF THE BEAST + +All this is not only amusing, but vastly instructive—these beaters of +shoe lasts on the lintel of genius. Here we have a deep and vivid study +presented to us of popular ignorance, that universal coagulant of truth. +In 1824, George Stephenson had said to his son and a companion: “Now +lads, I will tell you that I think you will live to see the day when +railways will come to supersede almost all other methods of conveyance +in this country—when mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads will +become the Great Highway for the King and all his subjects. The time is +coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway +than to walk on foot.” + +The victory was won in 1825, the year following this memorable prophecy; +yet, in 1835, the reactionaries were still fighting a rear guard action, +and we find the landed gentry sending forward their servants and luggage +by rail and condemning themselves to jog along the roads in the family +coach. On the Continent it was just the same, and even in 1862 the Papal +Government opposed the opening of the Rome and Naples railway. The rear +guard fought on until June, 1842, when, on a certain Monday, Her Majesty +Queen Victoria made her first railway trip. It was from Windsor to +London, and her coach had a crown on its roof. The reactionaries went +head over heels, donned their frock coats or whatever garment +appertained to their social rank, and declared the railway the greatest +blessing God had ever permitted man to discover. The Marquis of Bristol, +wildly excited, said that “if necessary, they might _make a tunnel +beneath his very drawing-room_,” and the Rev. F. Litchfield that he did +not mind if a railway ran through his bedroom, “with the bedposts for a +station.” Ever irrational and unbalanced, very ordinary men went as mad +on railways as they had been mad against them. The panic of 1844–1846 +was the result. In the last-mentioned year applications were made to +Parliament for powers to raise £389,000,000 for the construction of new +lines. + +On the 26th of June, 1847, a year before George Stephenson died, he +attended the opening of the Trent Valley Railway. Sir Robert Peel was +his host and proclaimed him “the chief of our practical philosophers.” +Seven baronets and two or three dozen members of Parliament, all in +frock coats and tall hats, did homage to the great engineer, whilst the +clergy blessed the enterprise and bid all hail to the new line as +“enabling them to carry on with greater facility those operations in +connection with religion which were calculated to be so beneficial to +the country.” + +I wonder what passed in George Stephenson’s mind. In 1825 he was +universally proclaimed mad and a danger to society; in 1847 he is +proclaimed “the chief of our practical philosophers” and the saviour of +society. I wonder which he objected to most—their abuse or their praise? +Both, I should imagine, were largely overlooked by him, for he was a +very great man, and surely those who abused him and praised him—very, +very small—truly insignificant. + + + PROTEAN IGNORANCE + +Protean ignorance never dies; this is the problem which confronts us. +George Stephenson has only been my peg upon which I have hung this musty +old skin, indeed no golden fleece, but just as magical, so that I might +the better examine it; and a fine stout peg it is—all of British oak. + +Stephenson was the father of the locomotive; as to this there can be no +dispute, and equally can there be no doubt that the locomotive has +changed the superstructure of the civilized world, yet its foundations +remain permanently fixed. Matter fluctuates as the will of man unmasks +the material world; but the soul of man remains fixed, abiding in the +solitude of his ignorance. + +Ignorance and stupidity are always with us, they are the Dioscuri of the +temple of life. To change the material world is like changing our +clothes, to change the spiritual world is like changing our intestines. +Spiritual, I admit, is not the exact word, neither is moral nor human. +To me, the spiritual is all-pervading and uninfluenced by intelligence +or reason. A man who is grossly ignorant is grossly religious, for he is +a worshipper of idols. + +To-day we see the multitudes bending the knee to Baal, and yet we see +them surrounded by misery, woe and suffering. No disease is incurable, +no ill cannot be conquered. But every would-be saviour, however humble, +must prepare for crucifixion, because the very multitudes they would +save are in themselves their worst enemies. + +Henry Herbert never dies, he was here before Adam took form from out the +dust of Eden, and he will be the last man to leave this earth when the +last trumpet sounds, and I have not the slightest doubt that he will +then question the wisdom of the Almighty. He will question the wisdom of +all things new, and yet, to-day, the world is groaning for novelty, for +material growth means also material decay. Though very ordinary men can +build middens, it is only the extraordinary man who can shift these +piles of refuse—accumulations of old traditions, customs and accepted +things. To me the moral of this centenary is not the power of steam, but +the power of the will of man. George Stephenson triumphed over all +difficulties, because he was possessed of a will to win. The stronger +opposition grew the more mighty grew his will. Protean ignorance has, +therefore, its virtue; it renders progress difficult to attain; it is +the whetstone of genius. When we realize this, in place of wringing our +hands in lamentation when Henry Herbert beats his last against our door, +we open it and look at him, and laugh, and then close it and go on with +our work—in one word, we persevere. Laughter and Perseverance, surely +these two are the shield and sword of progress. + + + + + THE CONQUEST OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS + + + THE EQUATION OF POWER AND MOVEMENT + +Power and Movement, these are the foundations of civilization and the +sire and dam of progress, and before the days of Watt, Fulton and +Stephenson, all Anglo-Saxons, how shallow were they laid; so shallow +that their social and industrial superstruction is, to-day, difficult to +visualize, let alone to understand. Here is a little glimpse, and if not +a very dramatic one, yet one which is apt to make us wonder at this lost +world of little more than a century ago, a world all but obscured in +clouds of steam. + +In 1770, Adam Smith wrote (and be it remembered that for fifty years +after this date the picture remains true) the following:— + +“A broad-wheeled wagon attended by two men, and drawn by eight horses, +in about six weeks’ time carries and brings back between London and +Edinburgh near four ton weight of goods. Upon two hundred tons of goods, +therefore, carried by the cheapest land-carriage from London to +Edinburgh, there must be charged the maintenance of a hundred men for +three weeks, and both the maintenance, and, what is nearly equal to the +maintenance, the wear and tear of four hundred horses, as well as of +fifty great wagons.” + +To-day, when the trans-Siberian railway is in working order, a man can +travel in the same time, with four tons of baggage if he wishes, from +London to Tokio and back. Edinburgh is four hundred miles from London, +and Tokio is some eight thousand miles from this same city; such has +been the expansion of movement and the contraction of space, and +to-morrow aircraft may reduce the time taken to a fortnight. + +The fire of Prometheus is as a rush-light compared to the volcano of +steam which, like all great world forces, is a mixture of Pandora and +her box; for it has given us beauty and wealth, and also ugliness and +starvation. It revived the world, bled white during the Napoleonic wars, +and, in place of conquering the world as the great Corsican attempted, +it recreated it. + +When men began to move by steam power, Titans strode this earth. In +peace time we see science advancing as it had never advanced before, +industry growing beyond belief or imagination. Cities spring up in the +night, such as Chicago, for whilst, in 1830, its population numbered a +hundred souls, to-day it holds nearly three millions. Nations grew and +doubled, trebled and quadrupled their populations, and the wealth of +Crœsus is to-day but the bank balance of Henry Ford. Yet out of all this +prosperity, created by steam power, arose the Great War of 1914–1918, +which, in its four years of frenzy, was to show a surfeited civilisation +the destructive power of steam. + +What do we see during this last period of roaring turmoil? A curious +picture. The railway and the steamship, which, during days of peace, +increased movement out of all belief, during war end by impeding it. +Like great funnels, we see the railways, pouring forth cataracts of men, +veritable human inundations, and then we see that, though it is easy to +move masses by rail, once the rail is left behind, it is next to +impossible to supply these masses by road, or to move them in face of +gun and machine gun. The war becomes a war of trenches, not a moving +war, but a stationary affair—men look at each other and sometimes shoot. + +As peace begets war, power and movement are the foundation of the +second, just as they are of the first. On the battlefield or in the +workshop, power is useless without movement. It is no good setting up a +boot factory, unless you can get the boots on to the feet of the people, +and in war it is no good piling up bayonets, unless you can get them +into the intestines of your enemy. Thus, it happened that, before the +war was three months old, though each side possessed much power, power +in itself was useless, for it could not be moved. The remaining four +years of the war were spent in solving the equation of power and +movement. + +This problem was partially solved by the tank, which possessed both +power and movement. And from the armies which used these machines, and +there were never very many of them, little streamlets of men trickled +forward out of these great stagnant human pools, and the war was won. + + + THE RIDDLE OF THE GORDIAN KNOT + +What is our problem to-day? It is again the problem of power and +movement; not a new problem, but a very old problem, in fact the eternal +problem dressed up in a new frock. Our problem is to revive our old +industries, so far as they can be revived, and to establish new ones, +for industries, like the human beings who create them, grow old, come on +the pension list and die. Our problem is, as it was during the war, to +shift the population, to demobilize our great army of unemployed, and to +cause it to trickle from our over-populated little island into our +underpopulated Dominions and Colonies. Lastly, our problem is to secure +ourselves against another war. + +To-day, we find ourselves in a veritable labyrinth of difficulties, but +there must be a way out, possibly several, for otherwise we could not be +standing in its centre. We have got into it, so we can get out of it, as +we have of many a former maze; but how? + +It is here that I think the spirit of George Stephenson can help us, and +it is for this reason that I have taken up so much of this little book +with this great man’s name and work, and with the difficulties he faced +and, undaunted, conquered. His motto was “Perseverance”; let it be ours. +He did not talk over much, but he took his coat off and got to work. He +worked single-handed and was obstructed at every turn. The whole country +was against him, yet he conquered, and, more to him than to any other +man a century ago, it seems to me, were the problems, which then faced +England, solved, and they are the problems which face England now. + +As it may be said, and with some truth, in fact a great deal of truth, +that the railway made the war, since it made the peace which preceded +the war, so with equal truth may it be said that the petrol engine, +encased in a tank, by making peace possible, may now make peace +profitable, even if in doing so it begets the germs of another war. In +other words, as the war was so largely won by the tank, so must the +peace which has followed it be largely won by the caterpillar tractor, +or roadless vehicle. + +Henry Herbert will vote me to Bedlam, but this is the most encouraging +fact of all, for every new idea must start by being in a minority of +one, such as that of George Stephenson’s against the world. The stronger +the opposition the better the idea, may not be a law of Nature, yet it +is a pretty sound rule, and one with few exceptions. If we persevere and +laugh, the caterpillar tractor will win the peace, and to paraphrase the +words of George Stephenson, I will, in my turn, make a prophecy: + +“Now lads, I venture to tell you that I think you will live to see the +day when tracked vehicles will supersede almost all other methods of +conveyance in roadless countries; when armies will be moved across +country and roadless traction will become the chief means of commercial +movement in all undeveloped lands. The time is coming when it will be +cheaper for a farmer or soldier to use a tracked machine than to travel +by rail.” + +As it took Mahomet three years to collect thirteen followers, I shall +not be downcast if I collect no greater a number out of the readers of +this book, because perseverance was the motto of Mahomet as well as of +Stephenson, and as perseverance won them their battles, may it win me +mine. + +Many will consider my prophecy ridiculous, and a multitude of Henry +Herberts will foam at the mouth. Protean ignorance is against me—a +resilient Everest of oiled rubber. A hundred years ago it was +boisterously hostile to novelty, to-day it is somnolently apathetic, +and, in this latter mood, it is almost more overpowering than in the +former. Nevertheless, let us smile, let us take off our coats and climb +this glutinous mountain, for the Elysian fields lie beyond. + +A few years ago we were told that, once the war was won, this little +island of ours was going to be fit for heroes to live in, as if any +country ever had been or could be an Eldorado after a great war! To-day, +we have well over a million unemployed men and women in this country, +and I have no doubt there are many heroes and heroines amongst them; +certainly the conditions demand an heroic race to win through. + +Our present difficulties all boil down to one recognizable sediment. +Great Britain is over-populated. Before the war we were over-populated, +and to-day we are still more so, and to-morrow matters are likely to be +worse.[1] There are three solutions to this problem. Either we must stop +breeding, or we must create new home industries and so absorb our +surplus population, or we must transport it to less thickly populated +areas overseas. + +Footnote 1: + + In 1913, 700,000 emigrated from this country; in 1923, only 463,000 + left. + +Six hundred and odd politicians in Westminster, some in black ties and +others in red, chatter like a wilderness of monkeys, whilst those who +were proclaimed heroes may consider themselves lucky if they are allowed +to stand in the gutter and sell bootlaces; and in this chatter the +problem is drowned, only to bob up again, between each breath. + +We are told that the Government’s determination is “not to tolerate +propaganda for birth control in clinics and maternity centres supported +by public funds.” This settles the first solution, at least the +Government does not believe in it. Recently, because the coal mining +industry was unable to pay its way, it is now subsidized, and many new +industries are left unprotected, so the second solution joins the first. +As regards the third solution, very little has been done outside private +effort, because the problem has been tackled from the wrong end. +Attempts are persistently being made to shift the unemployed; who wants +them? In place attempts should be made to shift the employed, but this +question I will examine a little later on. + +The point I want the reader, however, to realize is that, as the riddle +of the Gordian knot was _not_ solved by cutting it, so the problem of +over-population will not be solved by the dole. Cutting and doling can +be done by any fool with his coat on, they are too easy; for the problem +which faces us demands that we take our coats off and get to work, in +place of turning our less fortunate fellow citizens into unemployable +vagrants. + + + THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT + +Birth control I rule out of discussion, and though I am of opinion that +it might well be made compulsory amongst politicians, my solution +demands not a restriction, but a vast increase in the birth rate. + +The invention of the locomotive and steamship upset all birth rate +calculations.[2] During the last century it has been reckoned that +twenty-eight million people left Europe by sea, four millions during the +first half and twenty-four millions during the second, the period of +railway and steamship development. Out of these twenty-eight million +emigrants, twenty-two millions went to the United States, the population +of which was five and a quarter millions in the year 1800, seventy-six +millions in 1900, and is about one hundred and ten millions to-day, and +quite possibly, before the present century is out, this figure will be +doubled. + +Footnote 2: + + In 1750, before the industrial revolution set in, the population of + the United Kingdom was 6,517,000. + +In the United Kingdom we see, if not so great, as startling an increase, +considering the smallness of the country. In 1801, the population +numbered about sixteen millions, and to-day, excluding Ireland, it +numbers about forty-four millions, which is probably four or five +millions more than the industry of the country can economically support, +as unemployment and the low standard of living, not only now but before +the war, testify to. + +Let us remember always what has created the great civilizations of the +past, empires and kingdoms, prosperous lands and great cities. It is +movement and the means of movement. First man placed a bundle on his +wife’s head and gave her a kick, then he tamed the ox and beat it with a +stick, thus civilization became possible. At length, he invented the +wheel and the sail, and, by means of these inventions, mankind crept out +of primeval darkness into the dawn of history. In 1809 Fulton invented +the steamship, and in 1814 George Stephenson built his first locomotive. +It is, as I have already said, these inventions which have created not +only such immense cities as modern London and New York, but which have +shifted millions of men, women and children from one part of the globe +to the other. Why did they shift them, this is the question? Because the +steamship and the railway enabled them to tap sources of wealth which +did not exist in their own countries; for without prospects of wealth +there would be little or no movement. + +To-day, we possess an Empire of over fourteen million square miles in +area, of which three-quarters is sparsely inhabited. In Canada we find +nine million two hundred thousand people; in Australia five million +eight hundred thousand; in South Africa eight millions, and in New +Zealand only one million two hundred thousand; yet New Zealand is as big +as the British Isles. + +Without considering our immense Colonial possessions, the potential +wealth of the Dominions alone should eventually be sufficient to support +certainly one if not two hundred millions of Englishmen. On the one hand +we have room for at least a hundred millions, and on the other we have a +surplus of some five millions. The redistribution of this surplus should +not prove an insuperable problem, and even if it cost us twenty pounds a +head to arrive at a solution, it would be cheap when compared to +spending forty-six millions a year on doles and poor rates, which, far +from solving the problem of unemployment, only accentuate it.[3] + +Footnote 3: + + “Schemes to the value of approximately £466,000,000 undertaken in + connection with the relief of unemployment have, or are being assisted + by the Exchequer.”—_Whitaker’s Almanack._ + +In former times, the danger inherent in immigrations was the hostility +of the tribes in occupation of the new lands—the problem was a military +one. To-day, the difficulty is not military, but financial. To-day, it +is no longer bows and arrows which restrict immigration, but money. +To-day, it is not profitable to tackle a land owner with a rifle, and +nearly all land worth owning is owned; instead the settler must buy the +land, or be sufficiently skilled to dispose of his labour at a profit. + +Our present-day unemployed have no money and little skill. To send such +people to the Dominions is no true solution of the unemployment problem, +for it only shifts the unemployed from one place to another, and this +does not solve the problem. In 1914, Germany attempted to gain the +French Colonies, not because she wanted to shift to them the vagrants of +Berlin and Hamburg; but, because the possession of these Colonies would +have enabled thousands of well-to-do Germans, the small capitalists and +skilled workers of the middle classes, to enrich themselves without loss +of nationality. Incidentally, as these people emigrated, room would be +made in Germany for the under-dog. Competition would have decreased with +a decrease in not the unemployed, but in the employed population. Wages +would have increased in proportion and, by degrees, the greater +percentage of the under-dogs, through increased wealth, would have +raised themselves into the middle class as small capitalists. + +To-day, there is no necessity for us to covet the territories of other +nations. We possess ten million square miles of sparsely-populated land +in which Englishmen will not be lost to the Empire. To-day, we see this +problem mentioned in every paper, but writers will persist in thinking +in terms of the _unemployed_. It is the _employed_ we must shift, not +only because at home room will thus be made for the unemployed,[4] but +because it is the skilled man or the small capitalist who can thrive in +the Dominions and Colonies and the unemployed normally cannot. + +Footnote 4: + + It may be considered by some that this will mean that we in England + shall be left with the unworkable dregs of society. Such a view is a + gross libel on the bulk of the unemployed. Before the War, seventy per + cent. of the recruits for the army enlisted because they were + unemployed. During the War these men were universally proclaimed + heroes, and such they were. I can personally testify, after + twenty-seven years of service in the army, that less than five per + cent. of the men in any unit of regular soldiers would make + undesirable citizens if vocational training were fully established. + If, however, men are kept unemployed for years they will eventually + become unemployable. + + + THE PROBLEM OF POWER + +To move we must not only possess the means of movement, but the will to +move; for, without this will, all the means in the world are but scrap +iron and dead timber. The men who first tamed the camel and the horse +must have had ideas in their heads—visions which impelled them to do +what they did. It may have been sympathy for his wife as she carried his +load which induced men to jump on a horse’s back, but much more likely +was it her low carrying power and possibly also to get away from her +restless tongue. + +In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the will to move is stimulated by +material gain. To possess something easily, cheaply, and, if possible, +for nothing, is the urge of both commerce and robbery, twins of Fear and +Greed, forces of vice as well as of virtue, the forces of the growth of +the human world, and forces not to be set aside lightly. + +The nomadic hordes surged out of Asia in the search after food. It was +the desire to fill their stomachs which moved them. They trickled over +Europe until they met the sea, and then, as years passed by, they +conquered the ocean and swept into the New World. What will happen when +the Americans begin to swarm, it is difficult to say. Will they once +again set out to pursue the setting sun? Who knows? + +So also with the wars of the world, as with these slow but steady human +inundations, it has nearly always been a material goal, however shadowy +in form, which has provided the urge. Security, what is this? The shield +of Prosperity and Liberty—a desert, a river, a range of mountains, or a +feeble neighbour; in one word, a secure frontier to shield a people, so +that they may enjoy the fruits of peace; this has been the urge of war. + +Then, from war, which so often is but robbery on a national scale, to +turn to barter, amicable warfare; and from barter to turn to commerce, +amicable war on a national scale, what has been the urge? A gold field, +oil wells, land where corn will grow or cattle will breed; in one word, +the possibilities of wealth, which is the loadstone of movement. + +The potential wealth of the Empire is stupendous, and potential wealth +is power asleep, power awaiting to be roused from its slumbers, the +power of coal, of oil, and water, of the air and the sun’s rays, of the +tides and of the atoms themselves. The whole world is a gigantic battery +of power, and our Empire covers a quarter of this world, and all that is +needed is to detonate it, and it can only be detonated by the will of +man. + +The Romans conquered by building roads, the modern world, by building +railways. Yet both are but a one-dimensional means of movement, and, in +type, so near related, that even to-day the gauge of our railway lines +is the gauge of the Roman chariots. Suppose now that these roads and +railways could suddenly expand laterally, so that from a few feet broad +they could expand to a few yards in breadth, then to hundreds of yards, +miles, and hundreds of miles, until it is as easy to move over the +surface of the earth as over the surface of the sea. A second dimension +would be given to movement; a new world would be born, since a +stupendous sleeping power would be awakened. Stephenson improved the +chariot. In place of taking three weeks to go from London to Edinburgh +we can now travel there in eight hours. He conquered Time rather than +Space. The storming of the Bastions of Space, this is the problem of the +future, and one of our engines of conquest is the cross-country machine. + + + PROBLEMS OF MOVEMENT + +Economic movement may be divided into five great categories, namely, +movement by air, by water, by rail, by road and by pack. Each may be +divided into two sub-categories. Thus, air movement by transport lighter +and heavier than air; water movement into sea transport and inland water +transport; railway movement into broad and narrow-gauge lines; road +movement into transport by wagon and lorry, and pack movement into human +and animal porterage or carriage. + +I do not here intend to examine movement by air and water, and, as +regards the other three categories, I will limit my examination to their +use in undeveloped countries, more particularly within the Empire, and I +will start with the railway. + +_The Railway._ The country through which a railway is built may be +divided into three economic areas:— + +(i) A belt about eighty miles in width, through the centre of which the +railway runs. + +(ii) Two belts, each about twenty miles wide, extending on the flanks of +the central belt. + +(iii) The whole of the country concerned, excluding the above three +belts. + +Whether the prosperity of the country is based on minerals, cattle, or +cereals, the first belt is normally prosperous, the second two less +prosperous, and the remainder of the country unremunerative. To bring +the whole country up to the prosperity of the first belt demands a +railway every eighty miles. + +Obviously, in an undeveloped country, to build railways every eighty +miles is prohibitively costly, but as nearly every nation in the world +is prepared to spend millions of pounds on the construction and +maintenance of railways and rolling stock, and often with little +reference to the law of supply and demand, it is advisable, I think, +briefly to examine the question of cost. + +The cost of a railway decreases as the load increases; the load must, +consequently, be sufficient to pay for the capital expenditure entailed +in constructing the line and also its maintenance. The cost of the +Nigerian railways was £11,000 per open mile; the estimated cost of new +construction in the Gold Coast lies between £13,000 and £17,000 per +mile. For railways costing as much as these, and the figures are not +abnormally high, to pay, the country they traverse must not only be +fertile or rich in minerals, but thickly inhabited. + +I have already examined the question of population in the Dominions, all +of which are to-day sparsely inhabited, so I will now turn to another +area, namely, British Tropical Africa, a potentially immensely rich +country covering some two and a half million square miles and occupied +by forty million inhabitants. To run railways through this country would +be similar to running railways through Great Britain less its present +elaborate system of roads[5] and with a population numbering about two +and a quarter millions. In such conditions railways would most certainly +not pay, and would only begin to do so when road feeders had been built +and the country had become thickly populated. + +Footnote 5: + + There are 178,000 miles of road in Great Britain. + +_The Road_. As economically the railway is length with little breadth, +in undeveloped countries it can only be looked upon as an artery, +depending for its freight on the roads and tracks which converge on it. +If these roads and tracks be few in number, generally speaking, freights +will be insignificant, and the railway, in place of fostering wealth, +will swallow it up or stifle it. The railway must, therefore, be skirted +by a network of roads. + +The cheapest form of road is a rough cart track, and where the country +consists of grass land and the rainfall is low, as in South Africa, +extensive use can be made of bullock wagons for purposes of +transportation. The bullock wagon has reached, however, the zenith of +its evolution, and is by no means suited for countries where grazing is +difficult. If fodder has to be carried in bulk, it at once becomes an +uneconomical means of movement. + +If the country to be traversed is unsuited to this means of transport, +we are left with the lorry, and though light box-cars, such as Ford +vans, can use rough tracks and frequently move across country, the load +carried is so small, that, unless it is of a particularly valuable +nature, or distance is short, the cost of carriage becomes prohibitive. +We are left, therefore, with the heavy lorry, varying from three to six +tons burden. + +These vehicles obviously demand macadamized roads, which not only are +extremely expensive to build, but in a sparsely inhabited country +prohibitively expensive to maintain. Here in England, we spend yearly +£50,000,000 and more on road repair.[6] In Jamaica, £1,000,000 is spent +on the maintenance of lorry roads. In both countries this means that +each inhabitant has to pay slightly more than £1 a year to meet the road +repair bill. In tropical countries, where torrential rains fall and +vegetation luxuriates, the macadamized road is out of the question, so +also is it in desert land where the sand is apt to silt over the +roadways. + +Footnote 6: + + In 1914–1915 the maintenance of roads cost £19,000,000, in 1921–1922 + this sum had risen to £45,500,000. + +If the road will not suit the vehicle, the vehicle must be made to suit +the road. Here again the difficulty is economically almost insuperable. +Balloon tyres, the use of light trailers and of multi-wheel vehicles +will partially overcome the difficulty; but rubber rapidly deteriorates +in tropical countries, and though a vehicle, such as the Renault six +twin-wheel car, has carried out some wonderful performances in the +Sahara and elsewhere, the maintenance of twelve balloon tyres +practically rules it out of court in most undeveloped countries. + +If the bullock wagon is restricted to certain areas, and if the lorry +demands a road which is prohibitively expensive, the only remaining +sources of transport which can feed the railway are the pack animal and +the human porter. + +_The Pack Animal._ In examining this last system of transport, I will +begin with the human pack-animal, the native porter. Not only is this +means of carriage the most primitive of all, which renders it somewhat +of an anachronism in the twentieth century, but it is extravagant in the +extreme. Economically it is unsound, since the human pack-animal stands +in the way of the development of his country. In the first place his +productive work is lost, and in the second, the load carried is so small +as to offer little encouragement to the producer. Last, and by no means +least, unlike the railway, as the amount increases, so does the cost per +ton mile increase with it. + +On a large scale the system is impossible, and the substitution of pack +animals for porters is but little less uneconomical, except in +mountainous countries and desert lands, and in the latter, it would seem +that the reign of the camel is approaching its end, since in most places +where a camel can go a car can follow. + + + TWO-DIMENSIONAL MOVEMENT + +The above, I admit, is a very brief summary of an immense and complex +subject, namely, the bridging of the gap which exists between the +producer and the arterial railway, or the producer and his market, if it +be a distant one. Ruling out pack and porter as being too uneconomical +to be used on a large scale, we are left with the wagon, the lorry and +the light railway. All these three means can cover great distances, but +they do not solve the problem, because the solution does not only lie in +power to traverse distance, but in ability to cover the largest area in +the shortest time. + +The difficulty so far has been that the wheel demands a road and +destroys a road, and that, whilst it is easy, though frequently very +costly, to make a road which will suit a wheel, it is most difficult to +make a wheel which will not damage a road; for failing a cheap and +simple form of Pedrail wheel, a system of multi-wheels has to be +resorted to, and this system leads directly to the tracked machine, +which not only can dispense with roads, but, what is equally important, +can make its own track, just as the feet of a man form a path by +frequently crossing the same piece of ground. + +This is not the place to examine in detail the technicalities of +roadless vehicles; but to-day there are two main types of these +vehicles; an all-tracked machine of the tank type, and a half-tracked +machine which has wheels in front and tracks in rear. The first is more +suitable for heavy loads, and the second for light. + +In the manufacture of these vehicles three main problems must be solved: + +(1) The vehicle must be able to use roads without damaging them; nor +must it damage the surface of the ground it travels over. + +(2) It must be able to move across country without damaging itself. + +(3) The cost per ton-mile must be equal or lower than that of existing +vehicles. + +It may seem a paradox to lay down that the first requirement of a +roadless vehicle is that it can negotiate roads, but, in fact, it is not +so; for it stands to reason that, when prepared tracks do exist, it is +only wasting time and energy to travel across country. Further, if the +tracks of the vehicle are so constructed that they do not damage roads, +they will not damage the surface of the ground, and, consequently, by +continually travelling over the same ground, they will compact and +consolidate its surface and rapidly form a road of their own which will +require no metalling. This advantage is one of the great secrets of its +success. + +As movement across country entails traversing rough ground, the tracks +of a roadless vehicle must permit of the absorption of obstacles. This +absorption is attained by springing the tracks. In an unsprung machine, +obstacles are either crushed into the ground or the vehicle has to lift +itself over them. In both cases the result is injury to the machine, and +loss of power and discomfort. + +It stands to reason that the vehicle must be durable, simple and easy to +maintain; also that the ton-mile cost must be low. As regards this +latter requirement, experimental machines have so far proved that this +is a possibility. A one-ton roadless Guy Lorry recently travelled from +London to Aldershot, and its ton mileage was fifty-two to the gallon. It +has also been worked out that the cost per ton-mile of the Sentinel +tractor, “including overhead charges, depreciation, interest on capital +and all running charges, and allowing for a 20-tons net load for a +reasonable number of working days in the year,” will be slightly under +twopence per ton-mile. + +[Illustration: + + SENTINEL TRACTOR + + [_Face p. 80_ +] + +In the future, the types of roadless vehicles are likely to be great as +the surface of the ground differs in various countries; also fuels of +all kinds are likely to be burnt, such as petrol, oil and coal, and in +tropical countries, where these fuels are scarce or expensive, producer +gas is almost certain to become the main motive power. + +The most remarkable achievement as yet carried out by roadless vehicles +is undoubtedly the crossing of the Sahara from Touggourt to Timbuctoo, +during the winter of 1922–1923, by Citroën motorcars fitted with half +tracks invented by Monsieur Kegresse. The distance travelled was three +thousand six hundred kilometres, and the time taken was twenty days, +that is on an average one hundred and twelve miles a day. All machines +returned safely, and the total journey there and back was over seven +thousand kilometres. + +The nature of the country crossed was by no means uniform, for it was +sandy, rocky, mountainous and, in the neighbourhood of the river Niger, +covered with tropical vegetation. To build a railway from Touggourt to +Timbuctoo would cost, at the lowest reckoning, a thousand millions of +francs—possibly much more; this alone accentuates the importance of the +achievement and its interest to us, for the Empire contains thousands of +square miles of roadless country. + +I fully realize that, though the roadless vehicle can replace the +motor-car, it cannot replace the railway, if the railway is an efficient +one. This is, however, not the problem. The problem is, first to bridge +the gap between the producer and the railway, and secondly to create in +undeveloped countries sufficient wealth to enable more railways to be +built. Co-operation with existing railways, this is what must be aimed +at. + +[Illustration: + + CROSSLEY-KEGRESSE CAR + + [_Face p. 82_ +] + +For purposes of illustration, I will take British East Africa as an +example. A railway runs from Mombasa via Nairobi to the Great Lakes. +Forty miles on each side of this railway, generally speaking, is +commercially remunerative. This is the first belt I mentioned above, the +second two belts are productively a gamble for any but capitalist +pioneers, and the remainder of the country is but the playground of rich +colonists who can afford to speculate on likely railway extensions in +the future, or else of simple fools. + +I will now suppose that a reliable roadless vehicle exists which can +transport across country five or ten tons of produce. What do we see? We +see the first belt extending from forty miles on each side of the +railway to a hundred miles, and the second two belts being pushed out, +in vastly improved circumstances, fifty to a hundred miles on each side +of the new central belt. In fact, we have more than doubled the central +belt and trebled the belts adjoining it, and, in doing so, have more +than doubled the commercial prosperity of the country. + +What now is our next step in the evolution of economic movement? It is, +out of the wealth resulting, to extend from our main Mombasa-Nairobi +railway, metre gauge lines in herringbone fashion up to the confines of +the new central belt, and at the termini of these to build receiving +depôts. In place of metre gauge lines, huge roadless machines, carrying +and hauling from a hundred tons upwards, will in the end, I think, prove +more economical. Once these depôts have been established, the smaller +machines belonging to the farms and stations can bring produce to them +and dump it. Thus, by degrees, will the central railway be fed by a +prosperous area some four to five hundred miles in width. + +[Illustration: + + MORRIS ONE-TON LORRY + + [_Face p. 84_ +] + +To take another example. A transportation problem which faces every +farmer is that of rapid door-to-door delivery. To-day, especially in +such countries as Canada, what do we see? We see chain-tracked machines +used for agricultural work, but we seldom see movement of the produce +grown carried out save by horse-drawn vehicles, which can negotiate +cultivated land if it be fairly dry.[7] Two horses cannot pull much more +than a ton over a heavy field to the farm itself. At the farm, which may +be fifty miles from a railway, the produce has either to be transported +by cart to the station, which may take three days and two to return, or +loaded into a lorry which, unless the roads are good, will take one day +each way. The loss of time is considerable, and the roadless vehicle +would appear to be the only practical solution. It can be loaded at the +extremity of a field in any weather and condition of ground, and moved +direct to the railway either by road or across country at a normal lorry +speed, and carrying from three to ten tons according to size. Delivery +is from door to door, and the only limitation as to load would appear to +be the factor of safety of the bridges which may have to be crossed. + +Footnote 7: + + In Canada, snow offers a serious difficulty to movement by wagon or + car during the winter months; there should be no great difficulty in + producing a roadless vehicle which will cross snow almost as easily as + grass land. + +In waterless, as well as roadless areas, such as exist in Australia, +wagons and lorries are frequently useless, and the roadless vehicle is +again the solution, for it does not require a road to move along, or a +well at which to seek refreshment. It carries its own roadway and its +own water supply, and, if necessary, water for man and beast in +districts where water is scarce. + +In mining countries, such as Chili and South Africa, and in +oil-producing countries, such as Mexico and Persia, the need for a +weight-carrying, roadless vehicle is much felt, and in these countries, +where again roads are few and bad, and water frequently scarcer, it +would prove as useful as in agricultural lands. + +[Illustration: + + VULCAN TWO-TON LORRY + + [_Face p. 86_ +] + + + THE ELYSIAN FIELDS + +To conquer the Elysian Fields we must establish new industries at home, +we must move our surplus population to the lands which are +underpopulated, and we must be prepared to secure our Empire against +foreign aggression. All these problems can the roadless vehicle help us +to solve. + +First, the vehicle itself is a new type of machine which will demand an +industry of its own. Twenty-five years ago, as many of us remember, it +was a rarity to see a motor-car; yet there were men who, even then, +could see them in legions, and one of these men was Mr. (now Earl) +Balfour. “In the House of Commons on Thursday, May 17, 1900, Mr. Balfour +said he sometimes dreamed—perhaps it was only a dream—that in addition +to railways and tramways, we might see great highways constructed for +rapid motor traffic, and confined to motor traffic, which would have the +immense advantage, if it could be practicable, of taking the workman +from door to door, which no tramcar and no railway could do. Is it +possible for Mr. Balfour’s dream to be realized?”—_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +To-day, this question is apt to make us smile, seeing that the motor-car +industry is one of the largest and richest in the world; that in 1924 +there were half a million cars in this country and nearly fourteen +millions in the United States,[8] and that hundreds of millions of +pounds have been spent on motor roads. + +Footnote 8: + + In 1924 there was one car to every eight people in the U.S.A., and one + to every seventy-four in Great Britain. + +Surely then, if I be right as regards the powers of the roadless +vehicle, its future should be as great as that of the motor-car, +possibly greater, seeing that most of the world is still in a roadless +condition. Surely, here is employment for many men, and a source of +wealth which can only be guessed at in thousands of millions of pounds. + +[Illustration: + + GUY TWO-AND-A-HALF-TON LORRY + + [_Face p. 88_ +] + +And this machine will not only create industrial wealth, but +agricultural prosperity, for it will enable the farmer to settle in +lands which to-day are but wilderness and waste. The old means will +continue, but will be pushed more and more into the beyond. The porter +will bring in his small load and so will the pack animal. These loads +will be collected and loaded on small roadless machines which will +convey them to the depôts from which the giant machines work backward +and forward to the railway, which will carry its hundreds of thousands +of tons down to the sea. We shall see less porters, less pack animals +and less wagons, but more railways and more ships, and these demand men +to work them. The waste lands will become fertile; townships will spring +up; industries will be created, and the energy of millions of men and +women will be profitably expended. + +Now follows a curious sequent. If, commercially, we want to expand the +Empire, strategically we want to contract it. Our object is not to +maintain an immense army to pursue a course of foreign wars, but to +maintain law and order throughout the Empire and safeguard its +existence. The fewer men we employ the less will the army cost, and, be +it remembered, military expenditure during peace time is unremunerative. + +To contract the Empire is not to abandon large tracts of country, this +is to cut the Gordian knot in place of unravelling it; but, instead, to +move over it quicker than we can to-day. What we want to contract is +time and not space, the time taken in moving over ground and +particularly over roadless country. The roadless vehicle will help us to +solve this problem. A battalion may march a hundred miles in a week, but +if carried in roadless vehicles this distance can be multiplied by +seven; and what is even more important, for long periods a line of +communication can be dispensed with, because the battalion can carry +supplies with it for several weeks. + +[Illustration: + + DAIMLER THREE-TON LORRY + + [_Face p. 90_ +] + +The main strategical importance of the roadless vehicle lies, however, +in the fact that it will, by degrees, fill the Dominions and Colonies +with virile men. Australia with a population of twenty-five millions has +little to fear from Asiatic races; with fifty millions—nothing. All +these changes and many others will be discovered in an Empire recreated +by a little iron, a little thought, and much perseverance. + + + THE WINGS OF PEGASUS + +The wings of Pegasus are the wings of imagination—that telescope of the +mind which magnifies the glimpses of the future; and, once we have +focussed these glimpses, we must bring them down to earth, and chart out +their anatomy, so that we and others can set to work. + +Rudyard Kipling mounted Pegasus when he said: “When a nation is lost, +the underlying cause of the collapse is always that she cannot handle +her transport. Everything in life, from marriage to manslaughter, turns +on the speed and cost at which men, things and thoughts can be shifted +from one place to another. If you can tie up a nation’s transport, you +can take her off your books.” + +Shifting of thought, this is our first need, for the Great War destroyed +an epoch, yet we still hark back to this epoch. A new world requires new +ideas, and in the first half of this little book I have shown how ideas, +a hundred years ago, were throttled by the protean stupidity and +ignorance of man. To-day, these vices continue, but in their senile +forms of apathy and indolence. Every government is faced by trade +depression, unemployment and the cost of security, yet each in turn, +whether Liberal, Conservative or Labour, turns from these problems and +deflates itself on some patent shibboleth—protection, free trade, +capital levy, etc., etc., until it is pushed out of office by a blind, +but aggravated country. + +[Illustration: + + F.W.D. THREE-TON LORRY AND TRAILER + (Six tons useful load) + + [_Face p. 92_ +] + +The crucial problem to-day is movement in all its forms. If to-morrow +you can move twice the speed you can to-day, you will have twice the +time at your disposal to work in. It is not gold standards and other +such humbug which produce wealth, it is work; and if, to-morrow, you +have twice as much time to work in as you have to-day, your existing +wealth will be doubled. + +This is the problem which George Stephenson saw quite clearly, and +solved within the limits of the conditions he worked in. He gave the +world a one-dimensional movement of a superiority never dreamt of before +his day, and this superiority recreated the civilized world. To-day, we +can expand this movement to cover two dimensions and recreate the world +again. One day it will be done, because the world is a roadless planet, +but for us, as an Empire, it may be done too late. No government minds +spending millions of pounds on some pet hobby—doles, pensions, cruisers, +naval bases, worn-out coal pits, etc., etc., but no government so far +has spent sixpence on roadless vehicles. A hundred thousand pounds or so +judiciously expended on research and experiment might well result in the +production of half a dozen efficient types of cross-country machines. +Has no government the intelligence to understand this, or the +imagination to see what it may lead to? + +Pegasus without his wings is a very ordinary animal; with them—most +extraordinary, for he flew to Olympus, a land fit for heroes to live in, +and not one in which no one but a hero can survive. Why not follow his +example, why not look around us and discover the pivot of our +difficulties, and then, why not from the mountain top of reason gaze +into the future and conjure up the images of things to be? Then, let us +descend into those tumultuous and dismal valleys below, and to Laughter +and Perseverance add Wisdom. With this trinity to lighten our way, +surely will our way grow straight and broad, and the clouds which are +gathering around us, disperse; and surely then shall we discover those +Fortunate Islands which to-day we are so blindly seeking. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + _Each, pott 8vo, 2/6 net_ _Occasionally illustrated_ + + + + + TO-DAY AND + + TO-MORROW + + +This series of books, by some of the most distinguished English +thinkers, scientists, philosophers, doctors, critics, and artists, was +at once recognized as a noteworthy event. Written from various points of +view, one book frequently opposing the argument of another, they provide +the reader with a stimulating survey of the most modern thought in many +departments of life. Several volumes are devoted to the future trend of +Civilization, conceived as a whole; while others deal with particular +provinces, and cover the future of Woman, War, Population, Clothes, +Wireless, Morals, Drama, Poetry, Art, Sex, Law, etc. + +It is interesting to see in these neat little volumes, issued at a low +price, the revival of a form of literature, the Pamphlet, which has been +in disuse for 200 years. + + + _Published by_ + KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. + Broadway House: 68–74 Carter Lane, London, E.C.4 + + + + + _VOLUMES READY_ + + + =Daedalus=, or Science and the Future. By J. B. S. HALDANE, Reader in + Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. _Sixth impression._ + + “A fascinating and daring little book.”—_Westminster Gazette._ “The + essay is brilliant, sparkling with wit and bristling with + challenges.”—_British Medical Journal._ + + “Predicts the most startling changes.”—_Morning Post._ + + =Callinicus=, a Defence of Chemical Warfare. By J. B. S. HALDANE. + _Second impression._ + + “Mr. Haldane’s brilliant study.”—_Times Leading Article._ “A book to + be read by every intelligent adult.”—_Spectator._ “This brilliant + little monograph.”—_Daily News._ + + =Icarus=, or the Future of Science. By BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. + _Fourth impression._ + + “Utter pessimism.”—_Observer._ “Mr. Russell refuses to believe that + the progress of Science must be a boon to mankind.”—_Morning Post._ + “A stimulating book, that leaves one not at all discouraged.”—_Daily + Herald._ + + =What I Believe.= By BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. _Second impression._ + + “One of the most brilliant and thought-stimulating little books I + have read—a better book even than _Icarus_.”—_Nation._ “Simply and + brilliantly written.”—_Nature._ “In stabbing sentences he punctures + the bubble of cruelty, envy, narrowness, and ill-will which those in + authority call their morals.”—_New Leader._ + + =Tantalus=, or the Future of Man. By F. C. S. SCHILLER, D.Sc., Fellow + of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. _Second impression._ + + “They are all (_Daedalus_, _Icarus_, and _Tantalus_) brilliantly + clever, and they supplement or correct one another.”—_Dean Inge_, in + _Morning Post_. “Immensely valuable and infinitely readable.”—_Daily + News._ “The book of the week.”—_Spectator._ + + =Cassandra=, or the Future of the British Empire. By F. C. S. + SCHILLER, D.Sc. + + Just published. The book questions the power of the British Empire + to-day. Naval supremacy has been abandoned, the labour situation at + home is critical, England is entangled in European affairs, and + (consequently) the Dominions have more sympathy with the American + rather than the British view-point. The probable outcome of this + situation is indicated. + + =Quo Vadimus?= Glimpses of the Future. By E. E. FOURNIER D’ALBE, + D.Sc., author of “Selenium, the Moon Element,” etc. + + “A wonderful vision of the future. A book that will be talked + about.”—_Daily Graphic._ “A remarkable contribution to a remarkable + series.”—_Manchester Dispatch._ “Interesting and singularly + plausible.”—_Daily Telegraph._ + + =Hephaestus=, the Soul of the Machine. By E. E. FOURNIER D’ALBE, D.Sc. + + “A worthy contribution to this interesting series. A delightful and + thought-provoking essay.”—_Birmingham Post._ “There is a special + pleasure in meeting with a book like _Hephaestus_. The author has + the merit of really understanding what he is talking + about.”—_Engineering._ + + =Lysistrata=, or Woman’s Future and Future Woman. By ANTHONY M. + LUDOVICI, author of “A Defence of Aristocracy”, etc. + + “A stimulating book. Volumes would be needed to deal, in the + fullness his work provokes, with all the problems raised.”—_Sunday + Times._ “Pro-feminine, but anti-feministic.”—_Scotsman._ “Full of + brilliant common-sense.”—_Observer._ + + =Hypatia=, or Woman and Knowledge. By MRS BERTRAND RUSSELL. With a + frontispiece. _Second impression._ + + An answer to _Lysistrata_. “A passionate vindication of the rights + of women.”—_Manchester Guardian._ “Says a number of things that + sensible women have been wanting publicly said for a long + time.”—_Daily Herald._ “Everyone who cares at all about these things + should read it.”—_Weekly Westminster._ + + =Thrasymachus=, the Future of Morals. By C. E. M. JOAD, author of + “Common-Sense Ethics,” etc. + + “His provocative book.”—_Graphic._ “Written in a style of deliberate + brilliance.”—_Times Literary Supplement._ “As outspoken and + unequivocal a contribution as could well be imagined. Even those + readers who dissent will be forced to recognize the admirable + clarity with which he states his case. A book that will + startle.”—_Daily Chronicle._ + + =The Passing of the Phantoms=: a Study of Evolutionary Psychology and + Morals. By C. J. PATTEN, Professor of Anatomy, Sheffield University. + With 4 Plates. + + “Readers of _Daedalus_, _Icarus_ and _Tantalus_, will be grateful + for an excellent presentation of yet another point of + view.”—_Yorkshire Post._ “This bright and bracing little + book.”—_Literary Guide._ “Interesting and original.”—_Medical + Times._ + + =The Mongol in our Midst=: a Study of Man and his Three Faces. By F. + G. CROOKSHANK, M.D., F.R.C.P. With 28 Plates. _Second Edition, + revised._ + + “A brilliant piece of speculative induction.”—_Saturday Review._ “An + extremely interesting and suggestive book, which will reward careful + reading.”—_Sunday Times._ “The pictures carry fearful + conviction.”—_Daily Herald._ + + =The Conquest of Cancer.= By H. W. S. WRIGHT, M.S., F.R.C.S. + Introduction by F. G. CROOKSHANK, M.D. + + “Eminently suitable for general reading. The problem is fairly and + lucidly presented. One merit of Mr. Wright’s plan is that he tells + people what, in his judgment, they can best do, _here and + now_.”—From the _Introduction_. + + =Pygmalion=, or the Doctor of the Future. By R. MCNAIR WILSON, M.D. + + “Dr Wilson has added a brilliant essay to this series.”—_Times + Literary Supplement._ “This is a very little book, but there is much + wisdom in it.”—_Evening Standard._ “No doctor worth his salt would + venture to say that Dr Wilson was wrong.”—_Daily Herald._ + + =Prometheus=, or Biology and the Advancement of Man. By H. S. + JENNINGS, Professor of Zoology, Johns Hopkins University. + + “This volume is one of the most remarkable that has yet appeared in + this series. Certainly the information it contains will be due to + most educated laymen. It is essentially a discussion of ... heredity + and environment, and it clearly establishes the fact that the + current use of these terms has no scientific justification.”—_Times + Literary Supplement._ “An exceedingly brilliant book.”—_New Leader._ + + =Narcissus=: an Anatomy of Clothes. By GERALD HEARD. With 19 + illustrations. + + “A most suggestive book.”—_Nation._ “Irresistible. Reading it is + like a switchback journey. Starting from prehistoric times we rocket + down the ages.”—_Daily News._ “Interesting, provocative, and + entertaining.”—_Queen._ + + =Thamyris=, or Is There a Future for Poetry? By R. C. TREVELYAN. + + “Learned, sensible, and very well-written.”—_Affable Hawk_, in _New + Statesman_. “Very suggestive.”—_J. C. Squire_, in _Observer_. “A + very charming piece of work. I agree with all, or at any rate, + almost all its conclusions.”—_J. St. Loe Strachey_, in _Spectator_. + + =Proteus=, or the Future of Intelligence. By VERNON LEE, author of + “Satan the Waster,” etc. + + “We should like to follow the author’s suggestions as to the effect + of intelligence on the future of Ethics, Aesthetics, and Manners. + Her book is profoundly stimulating and should be read by + everyone.”—_Outlook._ “A concise, suggestive piece of + work.”—_Saturday Review._ + + =Timotheus=, the Future of the Theatre. By BONAMY DOBRÉE, author of + “Restoration Drama,” etc. + + “A witty, mischievous little book, to be read with delight.”—_Times + Literary Supplement._ “This is a delightfully witty + book.”—_Scotsman._ “In a subtly satirical vein he visualizes various + kinds of theatres in 200 years time. His gay little book makes + delightful reading.”—_Nation._ + + =Paris=, or the Future of War. By Captain B. H. LIDDELL HART. + + A companion volume to _Callinicus_. “A gem of close thinking and + deduction.”—_Observer._ “A noteworthy contribution to a problem of + concern to every citizen in this country.”—_Daily Chronicle._ “There + is some lively thinking about the future of war in Paris, just added + to this set of live-wire pamphlets on big subjects.”—_Manchester + Guardian._ + + =Wireless Possibilities.= By Professor A. M. LOW. With 4 diagrams. + + “As might be expected from an inventor who is always so fresh, he + has many interesting things to say.”—_Evening Standard._ “The mantle + of Blake has fallen upon the physicists. To them we look for + visions, and we find them in this book.”—_New Statesman._ + + =Perseus=: of Dragons. By H. F. SCOTT STOKES. With 2 illustrations. + + “A diverting little book, chock-full of ideas. Mr. Stokes’ + dragon-lore is both quaint and various.”—_Morning Post._ “Very + amusingly written, and a mine of curious knowledge for which the + discerning reader will find many uses.”—_Glasgow Herald._ + + =Lycurgus=, or the Future of Law. By E. S. P. HAYNES, author of + “Concerning Solicitors,” etc. + + “An interesting and concisely written book.”—_Yorkshire Post._ “He + roundly declares that English criminal law is a blend of barbaric + violence, medieval prejudices, and modern fallacies.... A humane and + conscientious investigation.”—_T.P.’s Weekly._ “A thoughtful + book—deserves careful reading.”—_Law Times._ + + + + + _VOLUMES JUST PUBLISHED._ + + + =Euterpe=, or the Future of Art. By LIONEL R. MCCOLVIN, author of “The + Theory of Book-Selection.” + + Shows the considerable influence which commercial and economic + factors exert on all branches of art—literature, painting, music, + architecture, etc. It analyses the various factors responsible for + the present low standard of popular taste and suggests methods for + improvement. + + =Atlantis=, or America and the Future. By Colonel J. F. C. FULLER, + author of “The Reformation of War,” etc. + + In the turmoil and materialism of the United States the author sees + the beginning of a new civilization which, if it can find its soul, + is likely to exceed in grandeur anything as yet accomplished by the + civilizations of the Old World. + + =Midas=, or the United States and the Future. By C. H. BRETHERTON, + author of “The Real Ireland,” etc. + + A companion volume to _Atlantis_. Four main sections deal with the + U.S.A. as a Melting Pot, the Future of American Government, the + Future of American Character, and the Intellectual Future of + America. The conclusion deals with Industrial Potentialities. + + =Nuntius=, or the Future of Advertising. By GILBERT RUSSELL. + + Shows that advertising has become, not merely an economic necessity, + but a real benefit to social life. Examines its present position as + a factor in civilization and outlines its potentialities, not merely + as a commercial, but as a social and political, influence. + + =Pegasus=, or Problems of Transport. By Colonel J. F. C. FULLER. With + Plates. + + The author, after a brief review of the history of the railway, + shows that roadless vehicles, which in the form of tanks did so much + to win the recent war, in the form of commercial machines, may do as + much to win the present peace, by solving the problem of + over-population and, consequently, of unemployment. + + + + + _READY SHORTLY_ + + + =Artifex=, or the Future of Craftsmanship. By JOHN GLOAG, author of + “Time, Taste, and Furniture.” + + After a suggestive sketch of the history of craftsmanship, the + author examines the possibilities in the use of machinery to extend + craftsmanship and make beautiful articles of commerce. + + =Birth Control and the State=: a Plea and a Forecast. By C. P. + BLACKER, _M.C._, M.A., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. + + A level-headed examination of the case for and against birth + control, summing up in its favour. + + =Sybilla=, or the Future of Prophecy. By C. A. MACE, University of St. + Andrew’s. + + An examination of the possibilities of scientific forecasting, with + special reference to certain volumes in this series. + + =Gallio=, or the Tyranny of Science. By J. W. N. SULLIVAN, author of + “A History of Mathematics.” + + An attack on the values which science is so successfully imposing + upon civilization. + + =The Future of the English Language.= By BASIL DE SELINCOURT, author + of “The English Secret,” etc. + + An analysis of the present condition of the English language and the + paths along which it is progressing. + + =Mercurius=, or the World on Wings. By C. THOMPSON WALKER. + + A brilliant picture of the world as it will be when inevitable + developments in aircraft take place. + + =Lars Porsena=, or the Future of Swearing. By ROBERT GRAVES, author of + “Country Sentiment,” etc. + + An account of the popular decline in swearing, the possibility that + it will regain its lost prestige, and new influences which are + affecting it. + + =Plato’s American Republic.= By J. D. WOODRUFF. + + A series of witty dialogues in the Platonic manner dealing with + aspects of American life and manners. + + =The Future of Architecture.= By CHRISTIAN BARMAN, editor of “The + Architects’ Journal.” + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed bold font in =equals=. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75248 *** |