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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 16, No. 7
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE Calendar of Meetings American Institute of Chemical Engineers-Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colo., July 15 to 18, 1924. British Association for the Advancement of Science-Toronto, Canada, August 6 to 13, 1924. American Chemical Society--68th Meeting, Ithaca, hT.Y . , September S to 13, 1924. American Mining Congress-Sacramento, Calif., September 29 to October 4, 1924. American Electrochemical Society-Detroit, Mich., October 2 to 4, 1924. American Association for Advancement of Science-Washington, D. C., December 29, 1924, to January 3, 1925. National Chemical Equipment Exposition and American Institute of Chemical Engineers-State Armory, Providence, R. I., June 22 to 27, 1925.
A Remedy Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: The letter by D. Davidson, entitled “Survival of the Unfit” [THIS JOURNAL, 16,423 (1924) 1, deserves the careful consideration of every one who has the welfare of these United States a t heart. I t would seem, however, that two points mentioned in this letter should have had considerably more stress placed upon them. The points referred to are immigration and education. As Mr. Davidson stated, the peasant class, or its equivalent, is the class from which springs our great men and the class that survives. It is this class that he refers to in the title. So, why should we not be more particular how this class is made up? Why should we allow Europe to send to our shores the people she does not want and whom, if we think about the matter at all, we do not want either? Why should we import cheap help to do our manual labor, thereby robbing our descendants of the training and discipline that can only be acquired by this kind of work, and, also, of a living wage, should they desire to do it? If we insist upon continuing our senseless immigration policy, making no attempt to choose or assimilate those we allow to come into our country, we may eventually find ourselves in essentially the same predicament that Rome was a t the time of her fall. An authority on the subject has stated that only 10 per cent of the population was of old Roman stock. And they did nothing, except in time of war to act as officers in the army, but live in luxurious ease and moral looseness. It takes hard work to develop mental, moral, and physical strength. Nothing else will do it. As to the second point, if the parents of college students were asked as to why they had sent their children to college they would answer, in the majority of cases, so they will not have to do manual labor. Our attitude is fast becoming one of considering manual labor as something that only an uneducated foreigner should do. We have even imbued the foreigners with this attitude, so that they send their children to college for the same reason. That means that the immigrant family furnishes manual labor only as long as the family treasury requires. On all sides we hear, “I am going to send him to college so he will not have to work as hard as I did,” absolutely forgetting the inestimable value of those years of hard work as a character builder and a mental stimulator. Nor do the colleges seem to be doing much of anything toward correcting this attitude. It seems that a good part of these United States is riding to a fall, unless (1) we curtail immigration to our actual needs and to our power of assimilation; (2) we stop considering manual work degrading and something not to be done by an American;
(3) we stop thinking that a college degree relieves us from the necessity of hard work, bath mental and manual. A rediscovery of Christianity might help to clear up many of our difficulties here, as well as those abroad. NAVY YARD NORBOLK, VA. April 22, 1924
FRANCIS W. GLAZE
Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: I am pleased that my letter was of interest to Mr. Glaze. In regard to immigration, there are in northern Europe and Great Britain large numbers still unspoiled by civilization, of the same stock that made our nation. Our basic class of this type is rapidly diminishing and must be recruited from abroad. As for the matter of education, I believe as he does, that there is a virtue in work itself, quite aside from its accomplishment or results. Indeed, results (wealth) , too easily secured without sufficient work bring about a deterioration of character. His last sentence is not a t all amiss. Interwoven with Christianity are the virtues of industry, frugality, and simplicity. However, it has yet been applied only to a limited extent. 4309 ELLISAvE.
D.DAVIDSON
CHICAGO, ILL. M a y 12, 1924
‘‘Professional Protection’ ’ Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: Mr. Frederic Dannerth has, in a letter recently published [THIS JOURNAL, 16, 319 (1924)], invited discussion on the subjectzof an engineer, presumably retained by a client, demanding a commission from the vendors of chemical equipment and machinery. This idea is not new in the least, but rather has been often before the profession. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers has a Code of Ethics in which is the following:
A chemical engineer cannot honorably accept compensation, financial or otherwise, from more than one interested party without the consent of all parties, and whether consulting, designing, installing, or operating, must not accept compensation directly or indirectly from parties dealing with his client or employer. In the Code of Ethics of the Chemical Equipment Association are these paragraphs: Ethical practice shall be such in the eyes of the Association that it shall constitute a violation thereof if any member: Offers or pays commissions t o purchasers or prospective purchasers or their employees or engages in commercial bribery to obtain new business or the continuation of patronage by direct or indirect rebating of purchase money, by granting longterm credits not in keeping with trade custom, by excessive entertaining or any other means. All members of the institute and of the association are required to subscribe to these codes of ethics, and it would seem that the conclusions of these organizations are worthy of the deepest consideration. There seems to be little that can be added to the foregoing quotations, which represent the opinions of both sides-the consulting engineers and the vendors. The reasons are so obvious that it is scarcely necessary to discuss them. CHEMICAL EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATION N E W YORK, N. Y . April 2, 1924
T. C. OLIVER,president
