692
I N D U S T R I A L AND ENGINEERISG CHEMISTRY
money, in accordance with an arrangement heretofore had between said Textile Alliance, Inc., and the Department of State. To administer such sums of money as a fund by and through a Board of Directors composed of the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Agriculture, and three individuals familiar with the textile industry or its allied branches, to be appointed by the President, the members of said board to serve without compensation for their services.
Franklin R. Hobbs, well known for his consistent support of American chemical industry, and now president of the National Association of TTool Manufacturers, has been made chairman of the board, n i t h Stuart W. Cramer and Harry D. Thonipson the other members. The agreement u i t h the State Department, under which the alliance operated, stipulated that any profits were to be divided 75 per cent to the Government and 25 per cent to the alliance, the t u o sums to be sFent for a like purpose. To make assurance doubly sure, a friendly suit was entered a t the request of the alliance, and the decision handed down directs the alliance to pay the endomnment fund for research in pure science a t Princeton, $124,253, the Massachusetts Institute of Techcology, $28,000, and the Philadelphia Textile School, approximately $248,000. Such funds as may remain to the credit of the alliance will later be distributed for scientific research. The larger sum-$1,202,457-becomes the fund to be managed by the Textile Foundation. These two groups, while independent, will unquestionably u o r k in cooperation, although the Textile Foundation is not obligated to make any appropriations to the institute. The American textile industry has long been regarded as extremely dilatory in its use of science. It has allon-ed competitors in other countries to outstrip it in this regard, but we should take courage from recent events and assist, if the opportunity presents itself, toward supporting programs of work when they have been prepared.
Encouraging Signs HERE is no need of whistling to maintain one’s courage in these days of arrested business if one but considers the changes that are being made for the better. The chemical industry seems to have been affected less by the current recession in business than almost any other large industry. There has been a greater demand for good men this year than in any year within our memory. Industries have not been inclined to discontinue their scientific work, the only disturbances having been due to mergers, 1%ith their acconipanying concentration of research, rather than to cancellation of programs of investigation. A coal research laboratory-thanks to President Baker’s initiative-is being established a t the Carnegie Institute of Technology. At last the textile industry is to take research seriously. The Mellon Institute, in a sense the mother of industrial research organizations, is to have a n impressive new home with greatly extended facilities. We sat about a table not long ago where directors of research activities told something of their work. This one spoke of ninety technical men on his research staff. Another said that their quarters were so crowded that they had about decided to specify extra thin chemists mhen adding to their force. A third, connected with a research organization but three years old, related the necessity of doubling a laboratory which now has eighty rooms, and which incidentally finds places for forty mathematicians. Still another represented a corporation which is building a great new engineering laboratory. And the plans of others of the group indicated no abatement in research activity. There is also a growing disposition to regard the scientist in industry in the proper light. A ?Jew England paper
Vol. 22, s o . 7
manufacturer is reported once to have said, “By all mean5 have a chemist, but put him in a corner somewhere; he has no imagination.” We have all seen men laboring in industry in poorly appointed laboratories, badly located and indifferently supported, which would indicate the employer t o have had about the same view. Contrast this with what the Aluminum Company has just provided a t S e w Kensington. Here, in a laboratory set upon a hill, there is the obvious intention of providing every facility within reason to insure the best work a well-chosen staff is able to do. These chemists are in no out-of-the-way corner, but are placed in a setting that would delight any executive. We take it to mean, not only appreciation of the work of the past, but a confirmed faith in the possibilities of the future. We see, then, many encoiiraging signs and reasons for optimism-or do you prefer “actomism?”
The Business of Bidding T IS generally the practice when purchases of any imporIthose tance are to be made to obtain estimates or bids from prepared to supply goods or services in accordance with the stated specifications. I n some organizations no purchase amounting to more than fifty dollars can be made without obtaining three separate and distinct bids. I n a few organizations bids are required on every order. This is partly to avoid favoritism and partly to obtain the best possible price. People in business expect those who deal with them to obtain estimates, just as they themselves do when they must make purchases, and the shopping which is in constant process in our retail establishments is a part of the same performance. The practice of getting bids becomes alarming only when the buyer makes no proper discrimination between the reputation, ability, and facilities of several proposed sources of supply, or when the specifications, inspection, or the acceptance of delivery is such that he loses sight of quality and consequently does not keep his bidders on a n equal basis. There is room for objection on another ground-namely, when the business of bidding is so frightfully overdone, as is the case with some educational institutions. When a buyer sends an itemized list requesting bids from a t least sixty-two different establishments, we feel it is time to call attention to the abuse of the system. The policy pursued by most of our educational institutions, and to some extent by our industrial laboratories, makes it necessary to maintain a considerable bidding department in some of the laboratory supply houses, where the peak load is felt during May, June, July, and August. Obviously, any unnecessary size in such a department means an increase in the overhead of the business, which in the end the customer must pay. Perhaps but a few of our readers have ever figured one of these bidding lists but, by the time catalog numbers and specifications are compared, sizes checked, prices extended, and the list copied, we believe that a fair estimate would be a cost of twenty-five dollars for the average list. A matter of simple arithmetic shows then that, when sixty-two identical lists are sent out, if all are figured and submitted, we have an overhead cost in excess of twelve hundred dollars. This does not take into consideration the time lost b y the buyer in going through all of these bids to sort out the lowest prices on each item. This must then be followed by writing goodness only knows how many fractional orders, and we still are left with the question of quality obtained and the ultimate net saving. We would not raise a voice against specifications. If you want to buy on quality, the more rigid the specifications the better, but see to it that only goods meeting the
