CHEMISTRY IN RELATION TO NATIONAL DEFENSE* Probably no other science is so comprehensive as chemistry. Its presence and influence are manifested in all fields of human endeavor; it has, in its short existence as a real science, fundamentally changed the very essence of human civilization. It has opened up vast spheres, new to the world, for the expenditure of human energy. It has already assumed gigantic proportions, with no conceivable limit to its possibilities. Even now, scarce out of its embryo, it holds a position analogous to that which venerable philosophy once held. Although in years to come prodigal offspring may forsake the parent, as was the case with philosophy, it is yet a well-defined and allembracing subject. But to do justice to all its countless phases, angles, and branches would necessitate a lifetime's sacrifice, great knowledge of the suhject, and rare genius; and as this is to be a limited effort, let us choose and briefly review its manifold relations to a well-known pastime--mutual destruction. War is immemorial, has been landed by the poet, encouraged by the statesman, tolerated by the commoner, and firmly rooted in civilization by the militarist. Formerly it consisted of hand to hand engagements, brilliant stratew,., and brute force; now it is fought out in laboratories and in chemists' minds. While generals and diplomats take credit for heroism, the striving researchers are denounced as enemies of the human race. Chemists are a t the same time the odious and the indispensable ally of ambitious politicians. Because in 1914 the science of chemistry was among the conscripts, and because i t has taken frightful revenge for this coercion by becoming hopelessly entangled in the net of Mars, those concerned for the welfare of our nation have taken a deep interest in this profound and infinite subject. Our civilization is chemically built; our amazing twentieth
* Prize-winning high-schwl essay, 1927-28.
century progress is due to chemical research; and now our national integrity is to be based upon chemical initiative. No longer shall a patriotic mobilization to a sensational appeal save us. Gone is the day when peerless leaders can stem the tide alone. All are helpless without the chemist's aid. He alone cannot win, but he alone can maintain an impregnable national defense. Nor does this gospel lack its exponent among the nations of the world. General Lefebre, in "The Riddle of the Rhine," emphatically states that between 1914-1918 there took place in warfare such radical changes as could not have been effected in a hundred years of previous peace! This zealous disciple of the cause goes on to say that initiative in electricity, chemistry, and other sciences will be the decisive factor of future warfare, and that disarmament and outlawry, by post-war sentiment, of certain pernicious substances will have no detrimental effect, due to inevitable monopolization of chemical resources. In short, the belligerent of the next great conflict who enjoys a chemical monopoly will vanquish his foes. Such an advantage had Germany in 1914, but she was pitted against a preponderant enemy, had no precedent, and failed to follow up her initial gas attack. This was a mere contingency. No prophecy can be made in regard to the future, except that chemistry will maintain and end all major conflicts, leaving the instigation to temporal institutions. And we, the people of the United States, to keep the world safe for democracy, must fight fire with fire. Our chemical ingenuity is peerless, our natural resources in general surpass those of any other great powers, and our merchants are fully capable of competition with Europeans in the marts of world trade; but unless these all hang together, they and our vaunted civilization will all hang separately on gibbets erected by wiser nations. If our resources are judiciously expended, our mercantile genius heartily supported, then the dynamic chemist will joyfully undertake to mold these raw products into finished engines of destruction, or useful peace-time materials, as the case may be. But a prophet is not without honor save in his own country. Was not the submarine, an American invention, first used by a foreign nation? Was not President Wilson's conception of a League of Nations repudiated in this Democracy to be accepted thankfully by Europeans? Has not many another inventor and theorist gone abroad for recognition? It is all too true; we are hopelessly human. Yet since human character and thought are so easily molded, it is very probable that the nine stitches in place of one are within the bounds of possibility. Let us hope some Demosthenes will rail and inveigh against public indifference. If the nation once senses its predicament, proper legislation and preparations will naturally result. As has been said, the recent war gave an incredible impetus to chemical
development. Among the chemist's contributions to the art of war are some so predominant that they at once arrest our attention. Gas is the first to come to mind, and gas is undeniably the greatest, deadliest, most efficacious weapon ever contrived by human inventiveness. We are told that the battles of tomorrow will be limited in extent only by the bounds of nature herself. War will be waged on a grand scale, gas will permeate the vaults and vitiate the air of great cities, and airplanes, from invisible heights, will deluge populations with lethal substances. Let us hope, pray, and beseech that such a calamity will not be necessary to awaken interest. If this theme becomes ethereal, it is due entirely to the volatile nature of the next war. Moreover, because of the flexibility of the industry, the manufacture of poison gases cannot be curbed. Typical of this is the similarity between the dye and poison gas industries. With slight alterations in machinery and personnel, either can be changed to the other on almost an instant's notice. Likewise, since the nitrate industry presents two such different aspects, i t would be ticklish diplomacy to proscribe its continuance for it might be easily extenuated on the grounds of economic necessity. All this points inevitably to the fact that we, to compete with foreign powers and to uphold our integrity, must develop a thriving peacetime industry which will turn to account in time of war, should offer incentive to enterprising chemists, and shall have to reserve and utilize such resources as will render us independent in time of a crisis. Nevertheless, we should not assume a hermit-like policy by erecting forbidding tariff walls, but, on the contrary, should cultivate a brisk commercial intercourse and endeavor to break up any monopoly held by another nation. Even as we must reach out the national arm for the constituents of poison gases, so we must have a concern for sources of potential explosives. Nitrates, potash, and phosphates are of these requisites which invite American initiative. Found chiefly in far-off lands, in far-off lands they must be sought. Germany had control of these sources, and had not Britannia ruled the waves, the Iron Cross might even now embellish the earth. Our chemists as well as others can devise more violent, propellant, or deceptive explosives, but practical use calls for accessibility and largescale economical production. As the chief use of explosives, and of the compounds from which they are prepared, is a peaceful one, a great industry can be amply justified. Pacifists will object, but no deluded minority should be allowed to hinder a constructive national program. We continue building battleships, an obsolescent department of the navy, which cost us millions of dollars to construct and operate, and which are a dead burden in time of peace, so why not maintain an industry practical in both peace and war. This would be the most effective means of disarmament and of ending suicidal army and naval competition among the
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great rivals of the earth. In arguing the point, let us concede it a wrong and prove i t the best means to an end. Then, if anyone can provide a better scheme, so much the better. From the standpoint of its pristine motives, if there were any, the late European turmoil was a huge, terrible joke. New states were formed, old governments subverted, constitutions wrought and abolished, and society reversed; hut the German ensign does not greet the four comers of the world, Britain was not exterminated, nor did she herself annihilate the Tentons, France is yet an integral republic, and the United States still flaunts democracy and dollar diplomacy in the face of the world. Despite its seeming futility, however, this great disturbance will probably be accounted hy future generations as one of the greatest landmarks in all the history of mankind-ranking with the year one and the ice ages as a line demarcation between two vastly different epochs. This brief period of strife has revolutionized society the world over, and has been attended by the discovery and introduction of more new theories, facts, innovations, and mechanical devices than have been witnessed through any similar era in history. The fall of a dynasty or collapse of some institution is insignificant in the eyes of this great war. Things of more lasting effect and greater moment have been brought about. Seated firmly on one of the high peaks resulting from the late upheaval is aviation. Though the conquest of the air is a product of pre-war genius, it required this crucial test to stabilize and perfect it. The art has been made safe and numbered among Mars' most vicious tools by the recent war. Luckily, though, it is far from the burden incurred by armies and navies for it augurs well to become a most important means of commercial transit. It is yet in its infancy, however, and demands some patient guardian and tutor. What better instructor than chemical science! Daring young pilots cannot give the airplane its proper place in domestic and bellicose spheres; it must be modified, shaped, improved, and instituted by government subsidy and chemical intuition. These two, in cooperation with the myriads of aeronautical aspirants, can realize the dreams of aviation's leading exponents and silence the Phillipics of certain editorialists. Chemists have produced in sufficient quantities the rare element helium for the navigation of lighter-than-air craft, making this a more feasible project. They have otherwise lent immeasurable aid in the perfection of these leviathans and have been prominent in the transition of aeronautics from a daredevil occupation of a foolhardy few to a safe, sane, and economic policy. And i t is due to their activity that duralumin has made the winged squadron such an important unit in war. Summing up the foregoing, if correct, it is safe to say that modern war consists of three major departments, viz.: the explosive, the gas, the aeronautical. Such are the great changes in warfare that individual engage-
ments will be classified as guerrilla tactics, cavalry will be confined to military parades, infantry will be effectual only in follow-up maneuvers, and strategists must think in terms of gas, aviation, and monster guns. Submarines and airplanes will relegate the gallant man-0'-war to story books, messengers of death from far above will threaten lives of "high moguls" formerly safe behind the lines, and the "Four Horsemen" will leave in their wake pestilence, famine, conquest, and death. Wholesale slaughter of defenseless women, children, and decrepits will become inevitable, with only the consolation of fixing the blame. After each active participant has deftly evaded the guilt, some wag will suggest the chemists. Yes, they have devised these hellish weapons! They are the abettors of aime and rapine! In vain will fair-minded men remind the people and their demagogues that chemistry was involuntarily drafted into the war, that usurping governments converted peaceful laboratories into bristling arsenals, and that the reluctant chemist's talents were forcefully prostituted on the altar of Mars. As more pertinent to the subject, let us briefly inquire into our nation's chemical rank among the powers that be. Within an area larger than Augustus' empire, there is yet a vast virgin territory of incredible potentiality. Compared with the intensive exploitation of Europe's age-old land, our fair country seems merely scratched. Well-nigh inexhaustible chemical resources abound within our national confines, beckoning to the chemist's genius and the capitalist's foresight. If England were cut off from her colonial empire, she would be pitifully marooned on a barren rock, whereas we, in similar circumstances,would be securely ensconcedin averitable world of our own. Yet, though augmented by fabled Atlantis itself, our situation, destitute of chemical enterprise, would be as embarrassing as John Bull's. Once fully awake to the situation, sufficient capital backing a fruitful chemical industry, and that industry heartily approved, the gods of fortune are with us. The Utopian dream of leadership in peace and ascendency in war would be accomplished.
