I N D U STRIAL and€ NGINEERING C H E MI STRY
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Published by the American Chemioal Sooiety
EDITORIALS
HARRISON E. HOWE. Editor
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tion that, in 1936, 111,000 persons were killed in the United States, accompanied by a colossal monetary loss. More than that, the National Safety Council reports that approximately 400,000 were permanently disabled by accidents and another 10,300,000 temporarily disabled. Here and there industrial organizations, large cities, and other units, by special efforts were able to show a percentage decrease in accidents, but on the whole the totals were larger in every phase of human activity. Returning prosperity saw a decided growth in motor vehicular travel and deaths in this classification rose 4 per cent above 37,000 in 1935 to reach 38,500, as the all-time high. True, there is increased exposure to traffic hazards under the conditions of today when the registration figures show upwards of 28,000,000 vehicles licensed to travel the streets and highways. Everywhere there are sober-minded people doing their utmost to promote safety, but there is still an enormous lot to be done. Twenty states with standard drivers’ license laws had but a 1 per cent increase in traffic deaths. States without such registration saw a 7 per cent jump. Even falls accounted for 25,000 lives, poisons 9000, drownings 7500, railroads 4000, excessive heat 5000, firearms 3000, gas poisoning 2000. Such figures must impress us with the ever-present necessity of care, caution, and eternally preaching and practicing safety.
Raw Materials and the League H E League of Nations has demonstrated from time T time its willingness to undertake at least the consideration and investigation of the most intricate to
and difficult matters. We recall one study devoted to the protection of intellectual property. Now the League has formed a committee for the study of raw materials and after preliminary sessions has adjourned with a view to further inquiry a t a later date. Apparently the idea has been that, with so much strife arising over important raw materials, of which some nations have a natural national monopoly, the world could be soothed and an approach made toward permanent peace if some plan could be devised either to bring about a transfer of raw materials from those who have them t o those who lack them, or remove the barriers to their free flow. It is reported that the British Empire, regarded as the largest owner of raw materials, has stated that no country can be completely self-sufficient, and has declared that the raw material problem could not be settled by mere transfer of territory, even if this involved whole continents. Each country and each raw material presents a separate case. We can think of few more difficult questions than those which confront the committee. The only hopeful aspect is the growing appreciation that there is an economic base of world-wide conditions that contribute directly to this question of peace or war and that no lasting peace can be expected without economic stabilization on a world-wide scale. If more effort could be made in such a direction, we believe the results would be happier and of more real value than will those approaching the prevention of war from any of the angles involved in actual fighting. A nation made desperate by hunger is the most difficult with which to deal.
Decreased Competition ISPATCHES announcing the proclamation of Chancellor Adolph Hitler forbidding Germans hereafter to accept Nobel Prizes have been read with mixed feelings. The situation appears to have arisen because of official dissatisfaction in Germany of the awarding to one of her citizens of the Peace Prize for 1936. The ruling applies not alone to future Peace Prizes but t o all Nobel Prizes. One of the spokesmen for the government is reported as having said that, when “we do a thing, we do it thoroughly.” So whatever has been done appears to have been quite complete. Since 1901, when the first Nobel awards were made, approximately 25 per cent of them have gone to Germans. Special prizes of 100,000 marks, for which Ger-
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Killing
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HILE a number of well-intentioned groups continue t o work for peace a t any cost, the country merrily goes on killing citizens a t what should be an alarming rate. Even though there were tornadoes, floods, and excessive heat during 1936, and allowing some increase in accidental deaths because of upward trends of employment, it is cause for medita363
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mans alone will compete, are to take their place in the future. Of course, this procedure assures the Germans of winning prizes each year, but it is doubtful whether, in the mind of the world, a national honor of this sort will carry with it the same distinction and eminence that characterizes the Nobel Prizes, which are in international competition and which have been glorified by the type of workers in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and the cause of peace to whom they have been awarded. It is not surprising that the incident should already have lost Germany much good will heretofore existing in Sweden. It will be recalled that the Swedish Nobel Committee functioned even during the World War and between 1914 and 1918 Germans and Britons each won the physics prize twice. That for chemistry went to a German, an American, and a Briton. It is regrettable that a nation which, in the past, has been so much a leader in the Geld of the various sciences should, by a stroke of the pen of a dictator, be withdrawn from consideration where Nobel Prizes are concerned. Maybe others will regard it as a lessening of competition not without some advantage.
Essential Fu nc t io ns of Government HE Bulletin the American Association T sity Professors of
of Univerfor November, 1936, carried copies correspondence between the acting general secretary of the association and the State Comptroller of Alabama. The question discussed was the conditions which anyone accepting appointments in the Alabama educational institutions should face in view of the statutes of that state. We have made further inquiries and from the annual budget it is apparent that uncertainties characterize the situation with respect to certain activities. We shall not become involved in legal technicalities but, as we read this budget, education, health, and public welfare are the groups for which no certain provision is made. It seems that in 1932 the state adopted a budget law intended to prevent the assumption of a current debt. In effect this said that, if the State Treasurer found it impossible to meet appropriations in full, all of them which had been passed by the state legislature should be automatically cut proportionately so that expenditures would actually remain within the state income. The people adopted a constitutional amendment making this permanent and those having to do with education, health, and public welfare were in sympathy with the spirit of the law. When it became obvious that in the fiscal year 193233 there would not be suMicient moneys in the treasury to pay the approved allotments, the then attorney general ruled that the law did not apply to “essential functions of government.” It was necessary, therefore, to define which are the “essential functions of governof
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ment” and for the purposes of this state fiscal matter the attorney general interpreted that just about everything which the state does is an “essential function of government” with the exception of these three great activities -higher education, health, and public welfare. Thus those which have been ruled to be essential are paid in full, and what remains is prorated. This, of course, applies to all funds other than the special ones that are earmarked for education. How does this work out? Suppose that you are an instructor employed at a salary of $2000 per annum, Suppose further that for a given fiscal year your institution receives only 45 per cent of its budget, then you might receive only 45 per cent of your $2000. It is true that sometimes careful management, by which most of the expenses could be paid out of student fees and endowment income, has made it possible to pay salaries in full but these instances are far too few. The present legislature of the state has gone further in a more complete earmarking of educational funds, but it remains to be seen whether many of the teachers and others identified with these so-called nonessential functions of government will be paid the amounts for which their contracts call. Of course, there is nothing much that we can do about it. The American Legion and the ParentTeachers Association in Alabama have endeavored to obtain a court ruling, but without much success. Perhaps if it becomes generally known that there is a definite string to one’s appointment in the State of Alabama, those contemplating service there may at least be warned, and in time the state officials may learn that they are economizing along lines which in the end will prove very costly to their state and to their people. Education, health, and public welfare may not be “essential functions of government’’ in the eyes of some legal experts, but they stand very near the top of any list which the average man would compile of the things which he expects to be administered without stint by his government.
Paragraphs HE problems of the times give rise to pithy sayT ings thal come from the active brains of sharp observers. They are not wisecracks, bul statements that convey much and some of them should be preserved. For example, we read: Every man who habitually spends less than he makes is a capitalist. The man who knows what is best for business is the man who built it up-not the man who wants to tear it down. No one knows anything about the employer’s problem until he has had to meet a payroll, settle with strikers, meet cutthroat competition, fight demagoguery, and ask the bank for more time. In this world you cannot get something you have not worked for, unless someone has worked for something he did not get.
