us, the task of the new
Minister of Munitions, the temper of English and Scotch workmen, the flux
into which all manufacturing conditions have been thrown by the war, and
how far old landmarks can be restored after it--we talked hard on these
and many other topics, till I must break it off--unwillingly!--to get some
sleep and write some notes.

Next day took me deep into the very central current of "England's
Effort"--so far as this great phase of it at any rate is concerned. In
this town, even more than in the city I had just left, one felt the throb
of the nation's rising power, concentrated, orderly, determined. Every
single engineering business in a town of engineers was working for the
war. Every manufacturer of any importance was doing his best for the
Government, some in connection with the new Ministry, some with the
Admiralty, some with the War Office. As for the leading firms of the city,
the record of growth, of a mounting energy by day and night, was nothing
short of bewildering. Take these few impressions of a long day, as they
come back to me.

First, a great steel warehouse, full of raw steel of many sorts and kinds,
bayonet steel, rifle steel, shell steel, stacked in every available corner
and against every possible wall--all sold, every bit of it, and ready to
be shipped--some to the Colonies, some to our Allies, with peremptory
orders coming in as to which the harassed head of the firm could only
shake his head with a despairing "impossible!"

Then some hours in a famous works, under the guidance of the managing
director, one of those men, shrewd, indefatigable, humane, in whose
company one learns what it is, in spite of all our supposed deficiencies,
that makes the secret of England's industrial tenacity. An elderly
Scotchman, very plainly marked by the labour and strain of the preceding
eighteen months, but still steadily keeping his head and his temper,
showing the signs of an Evangelical tradition in his strong dislike for
Sunday work, his evident care for his work-people--men and women--and his
just and sympathetic tone towards the labour with which he has to
deal--such is my companion.

He has a wonderful story to tell: "In September, 1914, we were called upon
to manufacture a large extra number of field-guns. We had neither
buildings nor machinery for the order. However, we set to work. We took
down seven dwelling-houses; in three weeks we were whitewashing the walls
of our new workshop and