New Britain herald., 1918-12-24
RECONSTRUCTION IS
 TREMENDOUS TASK
Ability Amounting to Genius Is
 Necessary for Success


 ] hurling back a brutal, ignoble foe, 1 the task of strengthening out the tor I tured, twisted forms of civilization will ) require ingenuity amounting to geni-
 us. Greece and Rome are gone and ] Europe to be rebuilt And the plumb 1 ing of the new regime must all be ] "open," for there will be no "secret ! treaties
 But who will play the leads" in ] this Great Renaissance?
 Not Artists, as in the singing and 1 dancing Italian awakening.
 1 Not Philosophers, as in the Greek 1 Age of Perfection.
 { Nor lawyers with "pecedents''-nor 1 political stump" speakers, will be able to put @ reeling planet back in 1 it's right orbit.
 By way of answering this question, | 8 Belgian Relief Commissioner asks, Do you realize that within ten years ] the engineers of this country will be l the deciding factors in the govern 1 ment?" Strong meat this, enough to give us pause," as the phrase -monger ! would say. But after all, isn't there something to the challenge?
 Engineering certainly has taken it's pIaca with the historic professions, Law, Medicine and Theology, and 1 these must heed the presence of the new arrival-philosoph in overalls Iris our engineers these days who are shaping in terms of human experience the distractions of the laboratory, not the Mystics; and the machine-shop, not the sheltered grove, setting the pace for industrial progress, Uncle Sam cleaned up house" for mediaeval Europe, hut to achieve supremacy in the rewards of peace he will also have to capture the markets of the world, Internal prosperity will not be enough, for national strength is in direct ratio to foreign trade Nations satisfied with provincial performance fade from history's pages. Perplexing readjustments, and many are in the wake of the feverish demands of peace. need suhtler solu- ton than foreign investments. Our ships of trade can be victorious on the seven seas our mills kept rum ming full speed on, but newer econo- mics must constantly be inprovised and the old national foe, Waste. for ever slain. Quick action must be avoided and careful advance plan ming" perfected All this spells en- gineering in it's finest sense and makes for an efficiency such as supervised our war industries, the successful CO., ordination of which gave humanity the strings to draw the curtain for all times on the ghastly Pageant of Autocracy. But if we think we are going to walk away with the worlds busi- ness without many star bouts," we are in for a. rude awakening. Since 1914, England has bought fifty million dollars worth of machine tools and organized a huge army of woman workers, most of whom had never be- fore been inside a factory. The tense years have girded Britain's loins with ! industrial confidence. Germany even 1 before her defeat on the field, with | characteristic thoroughness, planned | out back-stair campaigns to capture l international trade. Dot feller Fritz is 1 9 smart feiler, so watch out for the 1 old made in Germany bird under l camouf1age of Spanish or Holland 1 aise dressing.
 Let's face the facts as brave1y. as l we face bullets. In problems calling l for industrial fnesse, our methods ! ofttime are crude enough, as witness ! the Aircraft Production Board. And l before the war we couldn't make our l railroads pay-led the world in un- 1 employment, and scraped away on a ] bad third fiddle in the Export Over l ture of the Nations.
 ] Any mural decorator will tell YOU l that Commerce is the Horn of Plenty. ] And Wealth, the greatest weapon of
 q triumphant democracy, is the gift of ! applied science. Men do not work ! any harder now than they ever did ] and never were there more intensive I thinkers than the Greeks. These At 1 tic philosophers, however looked upon l exact knowledge as a pitiable thing l and treated it like a meta physical l step child. Plato, you remember
 boasted that he didn't know how to | pack his valise and Socrates's igno- ! rance of natural science was pathetic l The engineering renown of the mill | tary heroes of the Great War rests or their genius for destruction. They
 1 smashed the foe, unloosing Force ir l all it's primordial nakedness and
 savagery. Industrial engineers didn't
 | wait for world chaos to eliminate
 non-e -essentials,' their desks have al.
 ways been quiet battlegrounds fol
 l quiet processes of the mind. Long
 time they trod the ways of peace
 where was no martial music, 'seek-
 l ing' no bubble reputation at the can.
 non's mouth" as again they shall gc
 back into throbbing factories---intc
 noisy shipyards-into sooty mills, tc
 grapple, as part of their days work,
 with the gigantic job of worlds re
 cuperation.