INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERIMG CHEMISTRY PUBLISHED
BY
THE
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
HARRISON
E.
HOWE,
EDITOR
EDITORIALS Taxes-Other
t h a n Defense
H E R E is no tax complaint where national defense is involved and everyone should be ready to pay what is needed. However, expenses for ordinary functions of the Government have given rise to taxes so heavy as to retard industrial development. There are still millions of people who remain oblivious to the fact that they pay taxes in one way or another. The remainder have various attitudes, depending upon how hard they are hit and to what extent they realize the influence which the tax load has and what the future may bring. We are informed that during 1939 there were instances in the petroleum industry where taxes exceeded wages and dividends combined. The Phillips Petroleum Company reported that the total 1939 taxes collected from the company, together with those on the sale of its products, were more than $11,000,000 in excess of the total wages paid to employees plus total dividends t o stockholders. In another petroleum company a net loss of $1,246,652 was sustained but taxes on the company and its products totaled $549,144. Other interesting illustrations of the tax load are reported by the United States Chamber of Commerce. I food processing corporation paid in taxes $415.50 for each employee and $2.43 on each share of common stock. Taxes took 15.9 cents out of every dollar of operating revenue in the case of a Middle West utility company. -4 glass company paid in taxes $3.06 per share of stock, which was an increase from $1.18 in 1934. The industrialist faces many problems not even thought of by the average citizen. Growing concern over the difficulty of continuing profitable operation and at the same time carrying the heavy tax load is indicated in corporation reports and is discussed by many an executive. Observers point out that private investment is avoiding industrial outlets because of high taxes and is seeking the safety of nonemploymentproducing tax-exempt government securities. So long as this continues the public suffers because new enterprises are stifled and the taxes that might have been gathered from them are nonexistent. Employment is restricted for, as has been stated for the chemical industry, from $7,000 to $10,000 in newly invested capital is required for each job created.
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Fred A. Ulmer, treasurer of the Monsanto Chemical Company, points out that dividends on investments in American corporations are the only income subject to double taxation. Taxes are levied first against the corporation and subsequently against the stockholders whose income reaches taxable amounts when earnings are distributed as dividends. Under the tax law passed by Congress in 1939 corporations with incomes exceeding $32,000 are taxed at 18 per cent. Thus dividends to individuals from investments in American incorporated businesses will pay 18 per cent more tax than income from other sources. Then there is the period during which a process is being developed and absorbing large amounts of invested capital before profit can be shown. I n discussing industry born of research, Henry B. du Pont before the West T;irginia Manufacturers Association said that the plant a t Belle, W. Va., built in 1925 for the original purpose of fixing nitrogen, saw an investment of more than $27,000,000 over a period of 10 years before the cumulative net operating results showed a dollar of profit. And the $27,000,000 is far from being the total investment. Notwithstanding these substantial handicaps in undertaking new enterprises and carrying them to success, industry has a good record. Quoting the National Industrial Conference Board statistics, Edgar Queeny, president of the Monsanto Chemical Company, points out that at the end of 1939 there were 54,700,000 employable persons in the Nation. Of these more than 46,000,000 were employed, and 8,400,000 including 2,500,000 in the WPA were unemployed. The total employment in December, 1939, was down from the average of 1929 only 3 per cent. Last December 11,022,000 persons were employed in manufacturing, which is only 0.34 per cent fewer than were employed in similar activity in 1929. In contrast, the employment in the following categories was less than in 1929 by the percentages indicated: agriculture, 5 per cent; forestry and fishing, 21 per cent; mining, 27 per cent ; construction, 35 per cent; transportation, 20 per cent; public utilities, 22 per cent; trade distribution and finance were almost the same as in 1929; in professional and domestic services there was an increase of 3 per cent. I t is interesting that manufacturing, the greatest user of labor-saving machinery, employed almost as many people at the close of 1939 as it did in the boom period of 1929, while building,
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using the least amount of labor-saving equipment, makes the poorest comparison. It would be too much to expect that industry would have made no mistakes in these most difficult years. It has had no monopoly in that field but it is too generally blamed for unsatisfactory conditions, and the practices of some individuals and groups have often been taken as indicative of the actions of industry. Industry’s attitude as a whole has improved in the last decade. It deserves our confidence and our help. It is only proper to relieve it of many restrictions. It should be given an opportunity under sympathetic and minimum supervision to demonstrate what its leaders claim it can do-namely, go a long way toward restoring conditions which have come to be described as normal.
Added Service
IN THE
Employment Clearing House operated in connection with the Cincinnati meeting of the AMERICANCHEMICALSOCIETY,286 applicants registered. Between 175 and 200 employers availed themselves of the facilities offered and 278 interviews were completed. It is known that a t least 50 registrants obtained positions as a direct result of these interviews, but the record is not sufficiently complete to warrant conclusive statements. The SOCIETYconducted its first Clearing House a t the Chapel Hill meeting in the spring of 1937. It was the result of a suggestion from an unemployed member who believed that the SOCIETYshould provide some means whereby employers present at national meetings might know of fellow members, also in attendance, seeking positions. With experience, the idea has been developed with greater success at each following meeting, and both employers and those seeking employment have praised this additional service of the SOCIETYfor its members. The plan has many advantages. Those who have taken graduates chiefly from near-by universities find a t meetings the product of a large number of institutions widely distributed geographically. They can choose from among those with diversified training and background without spending the time and money required to visit a number of places. From the employees’ point of view much is to be gained through the possibilities of meeting and being interviewed by a number of potential employers. By making comparisons, a registrant may be more fully satisfied with his decision to join a particular organization. One employer says: “We have always felt that a reasonable amount of contacts by young graduates with other organizations was desirable before these men joined our group. In this respect I think the Clearing House offers unusual and highly desirable facilities.” The Clearing House will operate a t the Detroit meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, September
VOL. 32. NO. 8
9 to 13, and the SOCIETY is anxious to have it even more successful than before. With its services available to all members in good standing and to student affiliates, advance registration of those seeking positions is being urged for the first time. Those responsible for the Clearing House activity are anxious to have registrants with experience in so many special lines that no employer can say he cannot find anyone with the training and experience he needs. It is important that registrants observe various suggestions made on the forms supplied and that they give complete and accurate information. It follows that the greater the diversity of registrants, the more use of the Clearing House by employers and the larger number of placements effected. With many employers scanning records, no registrant will be able to say there were too few t o make the Clearing House facilities w-orth his while. The project has already reached a degree of success that proves it to be one of the best and most appreciated services which the SOCIETYoffers, for it has been effective in bringing together under ideal circumstances those who need chemists and chemical engineers and those who seek a place for their professional activities.
You Have Done It! HERE is justifiable pride in being a member of a live, growing organization such as ours. In May, 1937, we predicted that a little effort on the part of members of the AXERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETYcould easily bring our number to at least 25,000. As of July 1, 1940, the total of various classes was 25,060-a net gain of 1782 over last year-and we should therefore be excused for crowing a little. Our present size was not gained by any unusual burst of activity, but resulted from healthy, consistent growth which provided a steadily mounting total month by month. There are many reasons for it, the foremost, w-hat the SOCIETY-through cooperative effortscan do for members in return for their support, financial and otherwise. We are all inclined to recommend t o others those goods, services, and organizations, which please us and which w-e find worthy. Remember, a satisfied customer is the best advertisement. Of course w-e do not expect the SOCIETYto remain a t the 25,060 mark. Appreciation of what science can do is growing, thanks to actual performance of chemistry and chemical engineering and what has been done to inform the public of its value. The AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY will continue its growth. We are by no means content with 25,060, but we are proud.
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Chemists find it comparatively easy to create new things, although it is very difficult to create usable new things.-C. M. A. STINE
