INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY PUBLISHED
BY
THE
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
0
HARRISON
E.
HOWE,
EDITOR
EDITORIALS S u bstit u tes UR thoughts on substitutes seem t o be largely 0 centered on materials required by industry and those used in the home as well as in the factory, but we hear very little about substitutes that might be useful in research and in the laboratory generally. Progress has been made in providing means whereby, under priorities, necessary supplies for approved research laboratories can be obtained. These are outlined in the News Edition of September 10. However, difficulties may lie ahead in obtaining some of the equipment and supplies that we have always regarded as essential to laboratories devoted to research, control, testing, and teaching. It is a matter that should be receiving attention, in the hope that some substitutes can be suggested and ready, if, as, and when. Laboratories, like all other worth-while activities, must face the necessity of finding substitutes during the emergency.
Economic Status
THE
economic status of chemists and chemical engineers has been improved by the activities of the over the past years, AMERICANCHEMICALSOCIETY although not so directly as to attract deserved attention. The SOCIETY has always believed that true progress and lasting advancement depend most of all on the demonstrated ability of the individual t o accomplish objectives, to originate and create, t o cooperate with his fellows, and to be a self-starter-in short, upon his own personality and the fact that he is a thinker and a doer. The SOCIETY’S part has been to create more and better opportunities for chemists by the extension of the science of chemistry, to provide easy access to vital information by means of its publications, to keep the public interested often t o the point of financial support through its publicity for chemistry and chemists, and to do its share in promoting the welfare of the chemical industry. The program has been a long-range one, planned for lasting benefits, and has extended to fundamental questions. The work of the Committees on Professional Status and on Professional Training offers but two examples. Changing times have brought changed conditions,
and a t the Atlantic City meeting the Directors and the Council took steps to put the weight of AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY influence definitely on the side of its members in improving their economic status where circumstances warrant. This is set out in detail in the report of the Directors in the News Edition for September 25, and reports indicate that the action has been received favorably by both employee and employer. The effort to obtain deferment for certain chemists and chemical engineers revealed information that served to crystallize the action taken. I n one instance an employer filed a masterful statement, setting forth in detail the qualifications of a chemical engineer who, he claimed, was indispensable. He was a key man, a necessary man, employed on work closely related to defense, and disaster might overtake certain projects if he could not be retained a t his job. There seemed to be no reason to delay the early return of this man to his accustomed place, and it was not until others endeavored to assist the employer in his effort that the truth was revealed. When the officials handling the case learned his rate of pay, they could not reconcile his alleged importance with his income. Necessary though he was to the success of the company’s work, he was being paid only $32 per week. This was evidence enough that he was either overrated or underpaid, and on the complete evidence submitted deferment was denied. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good, and in this instance and in a few others the failure t o pay adequately for services rendered may well lead to an effort t o educate some unenlightened employers t o the real value of their chemists and chemical engineers. This is by no means a new subject, because for years a number of companies in the chemical industry have recognized the problem and have seen t o it, as a matter of executive action and sound business management, that professional men have been adequately compensated for their contributions to the over-all welfare of the company and the industry. If management would devote half as much attention to studying its compensation policies in relation to salaried employees as it does to negotiating with bargaining committees concerned with employees paid by the hour, it would fmd various discrepancies which could be easily overcome. It is not logical that organized groups of employees on an hourly basis should be able t o coerce management into higher wage structures while the 1213
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salaried group is overlooked, whereas when decreases in pay become necessary, the salaried group takes the first cuts. The solution of the problem requires only good management analysis, such as is applied in production acceleration and many other cases. What the SOCIETY suggests amounts to placing a floor under annual salaries for qualified men performing professional work. No ceiling is needed because advancement should be on merit and accomplishment, limited only by the qualifications of the individual.
Chemistry and More Chemistry MISTRY'S intricate anastomosis continues a CH" cause of amazement, even to those who have 4
spent a lifetime observing the industry. In a time like the present, when the utmost stress is laid on increased production, the elaborate interdependence of chemical manufactures becomes strikingly apparent. Proposals to substitute synthetic plastics for metals needed for defense purposes meet strange and unexpected obstacles. The problems involved in synthesis from any combination of basic raw materials are far more difficult of solution than the simplicity and familiarity of the initial substances indicate. In the plastics-formetals problem, difficulty is already affecting supplies of formaldehyde, comparatively simple to process from carbon, water, and air. Rate of production is the only question and that can be solved. Meanwhile, plastic manufacturers compete with each other for formaldehyde, formaldehyde makers compete with numerous consumers of methanol (raw material for formaldehyde) in unrelated fields, and should methanol be withdrawn from other applications the burden of replacing it would rest on ethanol, glycerol, and other solvents and antifreeze agents. Before one follows all the clues to their remote ends in the chemical labyrinth, literally scores of chemical activities have become involved. The problem of formaldehyde is simple when compared with others encountered in all-out production for defense. It is nonetheless typical. We may perhaps better help the metal-saving program by limiting our use of antifreeze in the winter of 1941-42 than by saving tin foil (made, incidentally, of aluminum) from cigaret packages.
Authors Can Help UTHORS have shown every disposition to cooperate A fully with us in the publication of accepted manuscripts, but we still need assistance. Considerable time is frequently lost when authors fail to return their manuscripts with the galleys. The manuscript continues to be valuable in the program of publication, even after the author has read his galleys, and it should be returned with the corrected galley.
Vol. 33, No. 10
Another thief of time is the occasional failure of authors to answer fully questions which they find on the galleys. Please, authors, help us particularly with this problem. Then the matter of large drawings arid photographs. Properly lettered, such large copy is very useful, but under our system of seeking the advice of helpful critics and reviewers it is better for all concerned if illustrations reduced to the size of a manuscript page can be supplied with each copy of the manuscript, leaving the master copies in our hands safe from the hazard of shipment. All these points will be stressed in our next edition of Suggestions to Authors. Meanwhile we feel certain you will assist us.
An Industrial President
THE
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY can be grateful for many factors which have contributed to its success. Few if any are more important than the close cooperation between those working in pure chemistry and those who have made their mark in what is usually callcd "applied" chemistry. In no other country has such a community of interests existed, and indeed in some there has always been a wide gap between the two groups and a mutual lack of understanding as to the necessity and importance of the various categories of effort. The AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYcould not have accomplished what it has or reached its present size, which approaches 29,000 members, but for the fact that the academician and the industrialist have worked together to attain well-defined objectives, each helping the other. The SOCIETY has also been fortunate in its presidents, who have been chosen without regard to their special fields of activity. Since we have been interested in the AMERICAN CHENICALSOCIETY,thirty individuals have been elected to the office, including our present President-Elect. Of the number, twenty-one have come from academic halls and but nine from industry. Those elected for terms following 1934 are all from the universities and colleges. All these men have served the SOCIETY well and each could be presented with pride as the President of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. It will soon be time to nominate another PresidentElect to serve in 1943. Although we have no individual in mind in making this suggestion, we think it would be fitting if such a man could be drawn from industrial circles and hope that by 1943 world conditions will be such that he can give to the work the relatively small amount of time it actually demands. We believe that in such an election the membership would again demonstrate its appreciation of the fact that in the United States the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY represents the whole profession.
