PUBLISHED
BY
THE
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
0
HARRISON
E.
HOWE,
EDITOR
EDITOR IALS T o Arms
this country and but for what has been acquired by purchase and exchange we would be as helpless as we were in the first World War and still playing the role of the greatest market for modern inventions perfected abroad. Even the testimony on technical subjects introduced a t hearings before congressional committees has often been so deceptive as t o lead the uninformed t o wholly erroneous conclusions and to leave the public with the impression that, after all, the chemical industry has been overemphasized and misrepresented as a worthwhile national asset. Obviously our educational program has been less effective than we had thought. It is our duty to do what we can to make available t o the public concise accounts of some American achievements, t o set matters straight, afford a source of information t o commentators and columnists, and to make documentary evidence easily accessible t o the intelligent reader who otherwise might wonder whether, after all, what Witness X had t o say or what is included in a speech by the senator can be substantiated by the facts. This is a considerable undertaking, but it appears to be our duty. We shall attempt i t with the help of those members of the SOCIETY upon whom we shall call and those who may volunteer guaranteed facts. By way of an example we quote the following from a recent letter :
FOR
some years considerable effort has been expended by both groups and individuals t o give the nontechnical public a correct understanding of what scientists have done in the United States that can be interpreted in terms of public benefit. I n particular, chemistry has come to be presented in nontechnical language and with authority, not so much to praise the accomplishments of the American chemical industry as t o have the lay reader know that the type of work so extensively done means something to the individual and tends t o give the United States the strength and protection called for by today’s conditions. I n what has been published and said from public platform, great care has been exercised t o have the account complete, authentic, and truthful. Likewise, in their work the researcher and the technologist have drawn from whatever source offered something useful regardless of geographic or scientific boundaries. I n order to make the United States strong there has been no hesitancy in acquiring the use of foreign-owned patents and the right t o employ foreign-developed procedures, I n many cases the new knowledge has been acquired through exchange, rather than by ordinary purchase, but we have gained what was sought and we must take the word of specialists that too much was not given in exchange. This is not the time to start worrying about how these things occurred. The principal point is that we are selfsufficient, that we have either created for ourselves or acquired from others by honorable means the necessary technology and “know-how”. If we look in another direction, however, we are led to believe by ardent crusaders, whose principal interests you may decide for yourselves, that American scientists and technologists are low class creatures. The various assertions made, for instance by the Department of Justice, would lead the layman t o believe that we are very clever in adaptation and prefer t o make our progress by acquiring the right to apply the skill of others, leaving us in a weakened position because of our willingness t o disclose whatever we know in the hope of gaining some small portion of technical knowledge in exchange. If one bases his conclusionson what the papers print on the lawyers’ interpretations of scientific discoveries rather than those of the scientist, he is bound to believe that there has been no scientific progress in
e
I read this morning the story of the methane cracking and how this was so locked up with the I. G.Standard Oil combination that our war efforts are seriously hamstrung. I happened to pick up Carleton Ellis’ excellent book on “Petroleum Derivatives”, ublished by the Chemical Catalog Co. in 1934,and found a long 1st of technical references dating as far back as 1809. I am also aware that many other professional chemists are equally informed of the fact that these cracking o erations were installed and opand in Germany back beerated on a commercial scale in fore 1930 and quite independent of any I. G.-Standard Oil licenses. I believe that the Shell Company has operated such a unit for a number of years in California, and I know that British chemical interests have highly developed processes. I know of several independent American engineering companies that long ago constructed s stems which in no sense of the word are responsible to the G.-Standard Oil combination.
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Chemists do not need t o wait on what we may publish in future on this subject. They can help in this defense of our American ways by acquainting others with the true status of our present technology. The winning of this war does not necessitate losing those things which experience has taught us are vital t o our continued progress.
64%
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Replacements HE Selective Service System rests primarily on the T j u d Dment n of some 6600 men who render senw’ e on local boards and endeavor to classify- properly the thousands of men throughout the country called for registration and examination. We would expect to find 90 to 95 per cent of these men well qualified to discharge the difficult duty that confronts them, but here and there is an individual who by prejudice or lack of training or understanding makes mistakes costly to his Government and difficult for those whom he really should serve. Members of the Congress enjoy conducting investigations, usually named for them and hence offering an opportunity for country-wide publicity. We suggest t o any such now seeking a subject, the investigation of Selective Service System Boards to ascertain their qualifications as determined by some of their practices and decisions. Of course we ha1.e special reference to the evident lack of appreciation exhibited in some quarters for the trained necessary men. There is a conviction on the part of some boards that there should be no dificulty during the first six months deferment period to find a replacement for a necessary man and deferment beyond two six-month periods is regarded as entirely impossible. Of course the management that makes no effortwithin six months or a year t o train another to take the place, of the necessary man who has been called is in a poor position to press his point of view. But it does seem that anyone capable of intelligent service on a Selective Service Board should soon realize how difficult replacements are. We in the chemical profession know that it is impossible really to train within a year a replacement for the chemist or chemical engineer who has devoted four years of intensive work to his basic training and who then is just ready to begin to learn industrial technology. After he has had two years of actual experience, he can begin to make himself really useful-perhaps. This is no reflection on the capabilities of the young men who become chemists and chemical engineers; it is merely another way of stating that they have chosen for their career highly complex fields, that involve so many factors that i t takes time to learn what is necessary and how to apply what is learned. The demand for these necessary men in industry has been such that to find a replacement, who in twelve months can really fill the niche left vacant when the Selective Service System picks a man from his plant job, is so difficult that we are justified in saying it cannot be done. Time and again i t has been pointed out that the bravest man a t the front in a war like the present one is useless and helpless unless supplied adequately with the sort of things that can only be made satisfactorily with the work and supervision of his technically trained brother. It is difficult to understand why this perfectly plain truthful evaluation of the situation cannot be understood or a t least seems to be cast aside by 10
Vol. 34, No. 6
per cent of the men serving on Selective Service Boards. It costs the Government too much to teach these people the hard way and there is not time. Do what you can to make the combat army effective by educating those in places of power to appreciate the production army, to give it the personnel quite as much as the materials it needs, and to do their best to place men and women where they can do the most for the country, as measured by their particular capabilities.
Who’s Who in Your Town
w
HEN some function like meeting the governor or
a dignitary from a foreign country is to come off in your town, we suspect you could come close to selecting the committee that would be officially appointed to extend a welcome, deliver the keys to the city, or do whatever is customary to emphasize that the visitor is welcome, is accorded all the honors of which your community is capable, and above all is shown that brand of hospitality which gives rise to local pride. In this parade of who’s who will be representatives of the local chamber of commerce or board of trade, some bankers, a few representative manufacturers, the city fathers, certainly a scattering of professional politicians, perhaps a clergyman and doctor, and if you possess someone of national or international reputation his name will be on the list, though he may not don a high hat and ride in a limousine. But will there be any chemists on your committee? Real estate dealers and lawyers become leading citizens, as do men of means generally, but a man may have won a prize in science and still to the home folks remain merely a nut. M e often wonder just what it takes to become a local leader. Not that we have aspirations-just a healthy curiosity-but so often we are curious about the process that has transformed an ordinary chap into such a specimen. \Ye have become convinced, however, that science is not one of the prerequisites. We are uncertain whether it is because the scientist is too busy with what are to him, and in the long run to the community, more important matters, or is it that his work has not j e t become well enough understood to be appreciated? It is obvious how a scientist could consider what is about to happen in a test tube or in a Petri dish much more important than merely going to see another of our species, and why with all there is to do, time devoted to another experiment is a better investment than getting into the socially proper clothes and standing for a time in a line. But that is the individual’s point of view and not that of society. One of the needed things is for the public to acquire that understanding and appreciation of the chemist’s work that will cause him to be regarded as a leader in the community-a leader a t least in the local ~ h o ’ s who.
