She was,
however, ruined. "Serve you right," she was told, "coming here and
taking the bread out of our people's mouths." What a strange idea of
humanity! What are "our people"? If a Scotsman settles in London is he
"taking the bread out of our people's mouths'"? We forget that the
foreigner is very often an enormous accession to a State. The Norman
conquerors who organised us, the Flemings who improved our weaving, the
Huguenots who gave new ideas to our commerce, the Germans who brought
us scientific method have all been amongst the makers of England.
Exclusiveness is a constricting cord that strangles progress. Exchange
of commodities is, we know, the life of trade, and exchange of men and
ideas is the life of more than trade.

The last quotation I shall make from Professor Frankland's address has,
I venture to think, very considerable bearing on the possibilities of
future friendship:

Notwithstanding the absence of material inducements, I venture
to say without fear of contradiction that there is more original
investigation being prosecuted in this country by chemists than
by any other body of British men of science, and this I
attribute to the fact that such a large proportion of our number
have either been at German universities or are the pupils of
those who have been at these centres of research. Nor are any of
us, I am sure, even during this unfortunate crisis, unmindful of
the hospitality and inspiration which we have received in the
schools of the enemy.

One has met with so much pettiness and folly masquerading as patriotism
that it is delightful to welcome such a truly noble utterance.

The allusion to the conditions of labour in Professor Frankland's
address is also important. Most of us regard the German labourer as far
too controlled and regulated, but everyone knows that Germany was to the
fore in care for the health and well-being of the workman: "As to the
factory legislation in general, not only do they afford to children and
juveniles a greater measure of protection in regard to hours and other
conditions of work than is enforced by the English Factory Acts, but
many of their provisions for ensuring the health, comfort, and safety of
all workers go beyond the limits which are thought sufficient in this
country." (W. H. Dawson, "The Evolution of Modern Germany," p. 332.)

Insurance against sickness and old age were measures that we learned
from Germany.