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I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEiVISTRY
will be placed upon the students’ courses which, as before, will be under the direct supervision of W. T. Read, a prominent member of our SOCIETY. There is no better way in which with so little time, effort, and expense one may obtain a good cross section of chemistry and the industry which depends upon i t than to be in attendance upon the two events noted. Irrespective of your special interest and your interpretation of what you see and hear, these are the places to find your raw material in concentrated form.
Windmills HEinsistence on the part of many to emulate Don Quixote seems certain to keep green the memory of his tilt with the windmill. The good work which the Federal Trade Commission has done led us to hope that this august bureau would refrain from windmill tilting, but as we understand the circumstances it has failed to do so. Two instances will explain what we have in mind. Some nine or ten years ago the conflict of interest between certain importers and a soap manufacturer led to the filing of a complaint relative to the use of the term “castile” as applied to certain soaps. The Federal Trade -Commission undertook to determine what is meant by castile soap and what the public expects when it purchases castile soap. Since the beginning of the investigation many dictionaries and lexicons have been consulted and many hundreds of laymen have been questioned on a point on which it seems to us their knowledge and experience would be utterly valueless. It is an interesting game which you can try for yourself. Question the first ten people you meet when you go out on the street as to what they expect to receive when they purchase a soap labeled “castile.” We have tried it. The great majority have no idea and the others attach no importance to the raw material that is used, just so long as the soap itself is satisfactory. But it seems the Commission was not satisfied with lay opinions to be had close a t home. It had to send representatives to the West Coast to question people by the hundreds, and out of it all has come a cease and desist order against the company involved, so that hereafter, unless their castile soap is made entirely of oils derived from the olive, it must bear on the label a statement with respect to the other sources of fatty acid. But the case has been appealed, and the courts will now have a n opportunity to learn soap-making, though they may not have the pleasure of conducting their sessions in the favorable climate west of the Rockies where some of the original testimony was collected. While castile soap takes its name from the province where a soap of olive oil ancestry was originally manufactured, it has become a sort of trade term and it has been shown that some sold as castile had no olive oil parentage. We would not defend this practice, but what is the actual virtue of olive oil in soap and, if distinctive, what percentage must be used to protect the public from deception? Is all imported “Castile Soap” made solely from olive oil and alkali? It wiW be a nice question for the attorneys to argue, but we think t h e important thing is to provide the public with a neutral soap of good detergent and lathering qualities, and if that is supplied a t a reasonable price we believe the public interest will have been well served. But why stop with castile soap? The word “sardines” originally applied to small fish caught off Sardinia, but no one imagines that all sardines still come from that one locality or are of the same breed of fish. Salad oil was once nothing but olive oil, but that has long since ceased to be. Strictly speaking, Roquefort cheese should be made from ewe’s milk, the ewes having been pastured on grass and herbs
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of high flavor to be found near Roquefort, and the cheese, after inoculation with a special mold, ripened in the caves of that one locality. In this case a compromise has been made by using “Roquefort Type” as a designation. We assume that Swiss cheese should all be made in Switzerland, but many find the type made elsewhere equally satisfactory. According to advertisements, the original is to be known hereafter as “Switzerland Cheese.” Just what is “gasoline”? We are informed that the trade now accepts as “solid mahogany” material covered with a five-ply veneer of that wood, but how often is care taken to acquaint the purchaser of furniture with that fact? The fur trade is known for its misleading designations which, while understood by the furrier, serve well to allay the suspicions of the purchaser. We have also met “commercially all wool,” and pages could be written regarding efforts to obtain labeling and truth in advertising textiles without much success. When the Commission has settled these important items, we may be able ho suggest more. Perhaps it will tell us upon which syllable in gladiolus the accent should fall, The other instance is again taken from the chemical industry and has to do with the inquiry into the purchase by the du Pont Company of 114,000 shares of the common stock of the U. S. Steel Corporation in July, 1927. No stockholder had protested this investment of the company’s surplus funds, and it appeared to be legal to make the purchase. But some suspicious soul in the Federal Trade Commission imagined this to be part of a great plot to throttle some important business to the detriment of the public. An investigation was begun, embracing the du Pont Company, U. S. Steel Corporation, General Motors, and J. P. Morgan & Co. It was well known that the purchase represented but 2 per cent of the outstanding stock of the corporation, but the investigation began with all else put to one side, and even after the du Pont Company sold all its holdings in the Steel Company in March, 1928, the investigation continued. A p parently it was concerned not with what had happened but what might happen, and now that a report admits that nothing sinful had been done, the Commission appears to persist in the idea that possible financial relationships would have worked harm to the public, though obviously they never operated. We hope in return for the substantial expenditures incurred in investigations of this sort the people derive some sense of security, but to us much of it appears as expensive comedy. Protect the public of course, but try to distinguish between the important and unimportant. There is a lack of judgment in choosing lines along which to expend energy and public funds that is almost discouraging and but for the comedy. Protect the public of course, but try to distinguish minority reports, such as that of Mr. Humphrey in the du Pont decision, we should feel that the windmill tilting of the Commission quite overbalanced any useful service.
Continuing Education N SOME states the law provides that those who have Imust not completed high school but have sought employment continue their education by attending school at least a
half-day a week until they have reached a specified age. This is called “continuing education.” Adult education is the subject in which one of the philanthropic foundations has become interested and, in a certain sense, is one of the accomSOCIETY. Continuing plishments of the AMERICANCHEMICAL adult education is the sort of thing which the Institute of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society offers, for its sessions have been found particularly useful to those whose primary interest has prevented their keeping abreast of developments in other lines.
