INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
398
Uncle John’s Sermon
1N T H E impressive
series of monographs sponsored by the AhfERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY,the fiftieth of which is now being announced, one would not expect to find a sermon to chemists. But our Treasurer, John E. Teeple, in his discussion of the industrial development of Searles Lake brines, fortunately includes a number of interesting things, among which we find a sermon for the younger men. The text has been found in some of the special features of the difficult problem presented in the utilization of Searles Lake. Even those who are not particularly interested in the separation of so complex a mixture of salts as this dry pocket presents would do well to read that part of the monograph which gives the history of the development and the difficulties overcome. Doctor Teeple clearly sets out his basis for distinguishing between the chemist, the chemical engineer, the physical chemist, and the physicist, classifying them according to ‘‘the amount of material they need to have in hand in order t o be a t their very best level of thought.” He says the chemist does best when working in grams, the chemical engineer demands tons, the physical chemist “is one who works best and thinks best with molecules rather than grams or tons, probably not t o exceed ten or a dozen molecules at one time, and the modern physicist is at his very best inside the spacious confines of a single atom.” Now for the sermon, penned out of Doctor Teeple’s extensive and varied experience: My lecture t o young men who are about to assume a position giving them some authority over other technical men runs about as follows: (1) Don’t strut; the fact that you now have a certain title or position is extremely unimportant to everyone but yourself. It doesn’t prove anything. Maybe in selecting you some one made a mistake which will be rectified later. The essential thing is, what can you do, what can you contribute, how much better are you than a vacancy in the office? Crazy Ludwig was king of Bavaria, and Caligula’s horse was consul of Rome. These were important events to Ludwig and maybe t o the horse, but they can hardly be counted as factors in successful progress. (2) Never hesitate to make a decision. Never pass it up to your superiors unless it involves factors quite outside your province and beyond your control which might adversely affect other departments. Likewise insist on your subordinates making their own decisions whenever humanly possible. It may make you feel tremendously important to hold conferences and issue edicts, but it isn’t good for the men, nor in the long run is it good for the business. Help them whenever you can, advise with them on matters where your judgment or experience may be better than theirs, see that they have the vision of what you are aiming at, but be very chary about issuing orders, and never place responsibility on a man without a t the same time giving him adequate authority. Have a genuine respect for other men who are really doing anything, whether your subordinates, associates or superiors. Every one of them is probably a better and abler man than you are in some particular kind of work. See t o it that there is some work that you do better than any of them in order to maintain their respect, too. The man who has not a real appreciation for the work of other men should be allowed t o depart from an organization quietly and quickly. (3) Don’t overwork the push button, and don’t be a fusser. When men are on the carpet in your office they are not doing the work for which they are paid, and weeks afterwards they may be resenting unfair things you said, instead of doing constructive work. (4) Play fair; no alibis. If something goes wrong don’t hesitate to take the blame. We can forgive honest mistakes when a man tries to do something. What we can’t forgive is the mistake of the man who is afraid to do anything. If the thing happens to go just right then remember that you probably didn’t accomplish it all alone and entirely unaided. Maybe there were others present. A position of responsibility means an opportunity for leadership. If you haven’t the quality of leadership, all the authority in the world will not confer it on you; it must be developed inside yourself.
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VOl. 21, No. 5
The foregoing is really a part of the Searles Lake development story and, as Doctor Teeple says, it may be particularly useful to young men “at this time when business is so permeated with glorified office boys who call themselves executives.” We are always glad to stress fundamentals in these columns, and we believe those which Doctor Teeple has laid down are very important, not onIy t o the younger men, but to some of those whose graduation is years behind them but who have never learned these cardinal points.
Research the Trust Buster FEW years ago, when reputations were made through A the gentle art of compelling combinations to dissolve and reorganize their business affairs. the activity gained the name of “trust busting.” In those days it had to be done through the courts, but today there are other methods, and consequently the consumer’s attitude toward mergers and combinations has changed. In discussing the control of oil production, the Chicago Tribune recently said editorially: Combinations in restraint of trade no longer hold the menace in the consumer’s mind which they once had. For one thing the technological advances of the last twenty years have left only the fewest commodities for which there are no adequate substitutes available a t only slightly higher prices. If a combination controlling a commodity attempts to bleed the public which must buy it by raising prices beyond reasonable levels, the probability is that a substitute commodity will seize the markets. If such a commodity is not already known, its discovery can be predicted with something amounting to certainty.
There is much in experience to substantiate this point of view. Research has become one of the greatest factors opposed to stabilization, and those who employ it to the full are the only ones who look to the future with confidence, realizing that, while tomorrow they may not be manufacturing what they do today, they will nevertheless be prominent among those present in the particular field with which they are identified. The great corporations, if they would, could not monopolize scientific thought, and the constant increase in appreciation of the work of the scientist tends to strengthen the consumer’s faith in the laboratory as a means for saving him from the pressure of any over-greedy merger, trust, or cartel.
The Value of Publication HE satisfactory increase in the circulation of INDUSTRIAL T~~~ ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY might be taken to indicate a growing appreciation of the publication of technical articles, particularly in the chemical field, and such is undoubtedly the case. But there is another sort of value in publication which we are reminded to stress after reading the addresses of F. B. Jewett, president of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and of Willis R. Whitney, director of the Research Laboratories of the General Electric Company. If the younger men of the type so necessary in industrial progress are to produce the utmost for their employers, they must be given satisfactory surroundings in which to work, ideal conditions of association with their fellows, suitable tools, and, to quote Doctor Jewett, “we must see to it that a just recognition of their achievement is accorded them.” This does not mean simply an adequate monetary return, which, though necessary, sometimes ranks second in importance to the individual, who wishes his fellows to know what he has been enabled to accomplish. Now to quote Doctor Whitney: “Publication in some form to
