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THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D EXGINEERING C H E i I S T R Y
Vol. 13, No. 8
EDITORIAIS A Time for Gathering The period September 6 to 17, 1921, looms large in its potentialities for chemistry in America. Chemists of England, Canada and the United States will then gather to make fast the ties that naturally bind them, to discuss matters of scientific importance, to determine policies which should prove of lasting benefit in future development and to speak in united voices to our several peoples about those subjects on which we have a right and a responsibility to speak. Then follows the National Exposition of Chemical Industries. For this great gathering many forces are working to insure its being an historic occasion. The railroads are cooperating to diminish the cost of travel. The Trunk Line Association and the South Eastern Passenger Association are offering reduced rates under the certificate plan (for important details concerning this feature see page 734 of this issue). It is hoped that other railway associations will soon take similar action. Chemists from the Pacific Coast will have the benefit of the regular summer tourist rates. Not only are the hotels in New York City anxious to accommodate a8 many as possible, but Columbia University, in order to make sure that all will be provided for, will open its dormitories a t the very low charge of $1.50 per day or $10.00 for the entire period. This arrangement is particularly fortunate in view of the fact that practically d l of the meetings will be held in the lecture rooms of the University. A glimpse at the preliminary program, almost completed, shows an unusual assemblage of individual papers and symposiums of far-reaching importance. Secretary Hoover will be warmly welcomed, for his is a vitalizing touch wherever it falls. For the first time the Chemical Exposition will display its exhibits on one great floor, with a larger number of exhibitors than in any previous year. At last the management will be in position to provide for lectures, addresses, and industrial movie films, a hall adequate in size and which, while in the same building as the exhibits, will be sufficiently removed to enable a thoughtful and attentive hearing of the subjects presented. So much from the optimistic standpoint. But there is a graver reason which calls upon every chemist, no matter what the sacrifice, to make himself a personal part of this meeting. The feeling that a crisis is upon us cannot be set aside. Let us look the situation squarely in the face. Today chemists of standing throughout the country are out of positions and this year’s graduates from our universities find but few openings available to them. Of course we must expect to take our share of the generally low conditions in all lines of industry, but to the nation which is chemically farsighted such times should be marked by most strenuous research efforts in preparation for the swing of the economic pendulum back to the upward curve of industrial activity. No, there are deeper and more insidious reasons for this lack of employment of chemists. Two of these stand out preeminent. First, the chemical industry is being exploited by capital to-day in some quarters in a way which indicates no conception of the value of the scientific and technical men in such an industry, but rather suggests the tricks of a horse trader who rations his stock on carefully administered* doses of arsenic preparatory to a quick sale. On this point we expect to write much more specifically in a subsequent issue. Secondly, the legislative issue trembles in the balance. Strange indeed is it that an industry which served this country
so well during the critical days when millions of American young men were being hastily transported to the front to stay the assault of the German armies upon our very civilization, should nom be blackguarded by those who sought to hold us back from that great conflict-and yet find followers sufficient to defeat legislation whose sole purpose is to preserve the industry as a permanent asset to the nation. And such a following! The Democrats casting aside the admonition of former President Wilson in two annual messages, and plainly for party politics, join forces now with the American Protective Tariff League, while the latter is evidently led by the ready chameleon Mr. Metz and in a subterranean way by the agents of the Radische Company. Every political trick known is being tried by those who lead the opposition, even while flaunting a flag of fair but hypocritical intentions. So brazen has become the attack that possibly their methods may yet prove a boomerang. It is time that the voice of American chemists should be heard in all of this turmoil. No action of the Committee on National Policies can take the place of the united voice of our members in national gathering assembled. It is time for action. Come on!
Have You Done Your Share? “The elements of national defense are now the sum total of all the economic resources of the country plus all the man power: I n time of imminent danger, the mobilization of a thousand chemists might be infinitely more important than the mobilization of a million troops.” This definite conviction is expressed by Frank I. Cobb, the vigorous editorial writer of the New York World, in an article on the “Economic Aspects of Disarmament’’ in the August number of the Atlantic Monthly. Scarcely had the ink dried upon that printed page when the House of Representatives turned down the recommendation of its Ways and Means Committee and defeated the coaltar chemical limited embargo feature of the Fordney tariff bill by a vote of 208 to 193. The outcome of that vote was a great surprise, for it was felt that after the careful study given by the Committee to thi’s intricate and technical subject its recommendation would be accepted. But it was not, and thereby the chemical industry of America has been seriously jeopardized. While realizing that the particular link in the chemical industry adversely affected by this vote is not relatively the most important as to tonnage and value of output, nevertheless it is in this industry that proportionately the greatest number of chemists are utilized and it is for this branch of the industry that a large part of the young chemists in our universities are now in training. The industry calls for supplies of chemicals from all other lines and unquestionably it represents that part of our industry most intimately bound up with national defense. Strike down the coal-tar chemical industry and there will be a fatal slump all along the line in matters chemical. The mobilization of Mr. Cohh’s “a thousand chemists’’ may become a difficult matter in such a contingency. It is worth while, therefore, that the unfavorable vote in the House be analyzed, in order to see if the situation may not yet be saved. The vote was upon an amendment by Congressman Frear of Wisconsin to strike from the bill the embargo section. This Congressman’s fight against the embargo mas just as
