Today I should like to tell you about the work of a friend of mine who has studied the distribution of our cultural and industrial activities. In making these studies he has a large map of the World and on this map he puts pins for the things he is comparing. If it is music and inventions - he would choose a period of time - say 50 or 100 years - select the important composers of the period - and put red pins at the location of their homes. He would then pick out the outstanding inventions of the same period and locate the inventors' homes with blue pins. It is surprising how they group together. He points out that all of our activities are much more interrelated than we normally think - and that no great development is ever possible in one line without having some effect on all others.

     As a very simple example - take the period from 1850 to 1900. During that time lived one of the greatest composers - Richard Wagner, whose music we are hearing this afternoon. Contemporary with Wagner - we find the name of Rudolph Diesel who invented the engine which today appears in the headlines in connection with submarines, tanks, landing boats and streamlined trains. Both were Germans. But the comparison sometimes goes further than the simple geographic location. For instance Wagner was exiled from Germany and some of his greatest work was done while he was out of his own country. The Diesel family was in Paris at the time of Rudolph's birth and, because of the political situation, they were forced to return to Germany. That particular period was a very turbulent one and it seems to have affected all forms of human activity.