PACIFIC SOUTHWEST ASSOCIATION O F CHEMISTRY TEACHERS TRAINING CHEMISTS FOR BETTER JOBS' STERLING I. REDMAN Redman Division, Central Scientific Company, San Francisco, California when the startine waee for a recent grad;ate in rh&nistry with a. bachelor's degree was $125 per month, a small group of members of the California Section of t,he A. C. S. began informal luncheon meet,ings to discuss the economic plight of chemists, and to t,ry t,o ascertain the reasons for the discrimination het,ween wages paid chemists and those paid to janitors, warehousemen, and other manual workers. Out of these informal meetings developed a special committee of the Section to study t,he economic st,atus of the chemist,. Throughont a period of several years, with the hearty rooperation of large industrial employers of chemists, rolleges and universities, and the federal government, and stimulated hy meetings with young chemists, data were assembled on wages paid to beginners, to men with graduate degrees, and to those with experience, special training, and better-thanaverage qualifications. Finally, out of these studies came the convirt,ion t,hat if we were to do something about the matter, and not just continue t,o talk about it, we should take some practical step. An employment committee was established by t,he Section to function not only as a clearing house between applicants and employers but also to assist in bringing about a standardization of salaries for different classes of applicants, and to serve as an information hnreau for both employers and applicants as to current salary levels, opportunities, and ronditions here and elsewhere. During the six years of its existence personal interviews have been held with many hundreds of chemists, from beginners to Ph.D.'s with twenty-five years or more of experience. Employers ranging in size from those employing a single routine analyst to one of the largest flour-milling companies in the United States have sought the services of the bureau in personal interviews. Personnel directors; chief chemists, directors of research, vice-presidents in charge of plant production, and many others have participated in these interviews. Finally, hundreds of men have secured positions as a result, ranging from beginners to chief chemists, research men, and teachers of chemistry in u
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Presented before the Pacific Southwest Association of Chemmtrp Teachers at San F~.mriaro,Cnliiornia, November 4, 1949.
colleges. These men have come from small, medium and large colleges and universities, extending from Maine to Alabama, and from Virginia to Texas, as well as throughout the West Coast. Out of the study made by these two committees have come several practical though not profound observations, which may be stated briefly as follows: 1. Except in t,imes of war or of unusual prosperity amounting to boom periods, the output of chemistry majors witah bachelor's degrees considerably exceeds the nation's ability to absorb them-acutely so on the West Coast. 2. Wages paid to beginners fluctuate with the relationship between supply and demand for chemists, affecting civil service and teaching rates as well as industrial salaries. 3. The lower earning rates hear a relationship to the higher and tend to pull the latter down with them in slack periods. 4. As chemical training is set up in the colleges and accepted by employers, controls to deal with the situation a.re lacking. 5. If the chemist is t,aken care of during his first five years out of school, his own ability, along with diversification of opportunity and other unpredictable factors, more or less fortuitous, will take care of him from there on. 6. The responsibility for any changes which may be desirable rests not on the colleges and universities, not on federal and state governments, and not on industry, but on all working together. Various remedies have been proposed to deal with this situation and to bring about permanent improvement in the economic and professional status of chemists. The two which have been most intensively discussed are: A. State licensure, which must he based on the establishment of definitions, classes, and qualifications, and will require examinations and certification. B. Unionization, also involving definitions, classes, and qualifications, but providing continuous attention to earning levels.
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It should be observed that the Federal Civil Service, in the ratings for chemists, was the first to establish clear definitions of classes and to set up definite qualifications for each grade. The Union FAETC organization has followed suit, hut with fewer grades and ratings. The American Chemical Society has made some attempt at classification, primarily for memhership in the Society. In participating in National Labor Board hearings the A. C. S. was able to secure recognition for a division between professional and nouprofessional activities of chemists without direct specific reference to degree of training, type of specialization, or years of service. There is no desire on my part to suggest the application of the Wallace method of reducing the size of the chemical crop by ploughing under or killimg off beginners. Nor does controlled obsolescense constitute an available remedy. From the negative point of view it must be admitted first of all that more job opportunities for chemists cannot be created by any changes @ prescribed training, just as more jobs for bricklayers cannot be produced by establishing more and better training schools. Second, if earning rates are related to general economic conditions they will naturally and immediately rise and fall as periods of prosperity or war are followed by periods of recession. Third, in agreement with the contentions of Otto Eiseuschiil, the economic status of the chemist is largely determined by his own ability, energy, and determination to succeed. Admitting the validity of these statements, there is nothing to be gained by preserving the status pua nor by failing to derive help from experiments tried by other groups and found successful. Furthermore, if the chemical profession or fraternity itself fails to take alarm, note the situation and find remedies, the Unions stand ready a t any opportune moment to move in and guarantee tangible results. Whether this is desirable need not enter into this discussion. The Shell and Cutter Laboratory cases are well known to all, and the economic fruits were not to my knowledge refused by any who benefited. Let us try setting some positive considerations over against th? negative ones just outlined. From the
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
point of view of placement, our employment committee finds that a considerable number of good men are passed by for good positions because they lack certain scientific courses in addition to the four years of chemistry and one year of physics ordinarily required in the West for a chemistry major. These are primarily: elementary bacteriology, additional physics, and biochemistry. In California, where agriculture is our largest industry, bacteriology and biochemistry are frequently included in the necessary or desirable qualifications for chemistry positions. 4 year of each subject with accompanying laboratory work would increase the number of opportunities open to Western chemists. To increase the content of an already overcrowded curriculum might require lengthening the requirement for a degree in chemistry to five years. This would put it on a par with the time required for a high-school teacher's certificate. If a fifth year were added. some additional desirable courses in physics could be added, such as optical and electrical measurements, and possibly some elementary work in business procedure. A five-year man would find more potential openings and consequently could start a t a higher rate of pay. Another suggestion is the adoption of a trainee period of two years, which might be somewhat like the arrangement a t Antioch College or the University of Cincinnati, interspersed with semesters of school work; or it might. follow graduation, like the internship required of M.D.'s. Either plan would require close cooperation with industry in working out the program. A similar situation existed in the clinical and medical laboratory field. Requirements were established several years ago by the State Board of Public Health, providing for the grading and licensing of laboratory technicians and technologists. For the former, a bachelor's degree must be followed by a state examination in four subjects. To pass this a candidate must of necessity spend a t least a year in a laboratory properly accredited for trainee work. The results of the new requirements were soon evident in rt better grade of technician and a greatly increased beginning salary. It is my hope that the foregoing remarks may reveal a need and may suggest possible fields of study with the hope of improving the economic status of the chemist,.
