RECIPROCAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
It has been shown that the expansion which the iimerican chemical industries, particularly the synthetic organic chemical industry, enjoyed under the artificial stimulation of the war, continued in peacetime directions at a slower but saner pace under the beneficial effects of a protective tariff. Under this system monopolies of materials by foreign countries have been broken, and strong, well-rounded divisions of the chemical industry established. Research was encouraged and capital ventured to produce new products and to create new industries. These new developments have been characterized by almost continuous reductions in prices. Prices of many longer established chemicals are lower than before the war and, in general, the prices of chemicals are relatively lower than those of most other manufactured products when compared over the same period. Fair application of the protective tariff system has been attempted by means of the so-called flexible tariff provision, and safeguards against abuses from imported goods have been erected by the antidumping law and by provisions for unfair methods of competition, exclusion of goods produced under forced labor, countervailing duties on goods imported with benefit of foreign export subsidies, and exclusion of merchandise from countries which discriminate against our commerce; but since the beginning of the trade agreements pro-
gram in 1934 these safeguards have been resorted to with much less frequency. In fact, possibility of relief under the flexible tariff becomes more restricted as new concessions are granted to foreign countries; at the same time the anomaly arises of increased domestic costs resulting from higher wages, shorter hours, and higher taxes. The reciprocal trade agreements program has resulted in reduction of many duties without apparent serious major effect on our chemical industries but with far from equivalent recompense in the form of concessions on chemicals from foreign countries. The effect of rate reductions on products in the manufacture of which chemicals are consumed may have more serious consequences on our chemical industries, but it is still too early to appraise this situation properly. Unlike the totalitarian states, we do not embargo imports or exports of raw materials or finished products except for reasons of neutrality, national defense or conservation, narcotic, quarantine, or other measures enacted for the common good. With protection against an influx of foreign goods produced a t much lower wages than our own, the law of supply and demand is permitted to function (unless exception be made of the methods employed to aid agriculture), and the profit incentive is allowed to operate, all in an orderly fashion for the benefit, not of an autocratic government, but of all the people. Hence we are blessed with our American Way.
EQUIP M ENT MEETS INDUSTRY’S CHALLENGE * r c
sr
CHARLES F. ROTH Grand Central Palace, New York, N. Y
A
N ESSENTIAL auxiliary to the chemical industry is the design and manufacture of chemical equipment-a great American industry in itself. Chemistry, carried forward in the American Way, has been supplemented effectively by the increasing availability of well-designed, durable, chemical engineering equipment. Effective coordination of research, invention, production, and finance has nowhere been better exemplified. Katural incentives and freedom under the American system of government have played a telling part in the development of the chemical industry as it has grown to industrial maturity since the days of the World War. It is now just a quarter century since those days when the politically ebullient conditions in Europe introduced an era of international distress. The conflagration which produced the greatest international war ever engaged in by civilized peoples had been preceded by a variety of commercial clashes. However, had the commercial units of the nations, rather than the political and military, been in the ascendancy at that time, the ensuing state of events would have been very different. Commercial intelligence services of the European governments had been functioning as effectively as the military services did later. In chemical fields this was particularly so. Developments in a consumer nation which had pot>entialities 570
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to create competition were met vigorously by the “dumping” of quantities of the same product made abroad. This practice was successful in causing a depression of the market and usually resulted in closing new infant industries by frightening off capital and creative ability. The United States, in fact all of the Americas, were consumer nations and to a large measure dependent upon foreign sources to augment their supply of chemicals and chemical products. I n this economic situation home products were not manufactured to an extent to give us independence of foreign sources. Even our native production was to a considerable extent carried on in equipment of foreign manufacture. Imported apparatus and machinery were in fact preferred, and suspicion existed with respect to much of the equipment made in America.
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FEDERAL RESEARCH CONTRIBUTES sr AMERICAN WAY TO THE *
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HE United States Government has conducted research in chemical and related fields for many years. Much of this work has contributed directly or indirectly to the development of the American Way which characterizes our chemical industries. Fundamental research performed in numerous government laboratories has supplied basic scientific data without which industrial development in many lines could not have proceeded. New processes have been developed which industry has translated to commercial undertakings. Waste and by-product problems have been solved, some resulting in the creation of new industries, others in elimination of harmful or uneconomic practices. Systematic exploration and evaluation of our natural resources-animal, vegetable, and mineral-have yielded more abundant and diversified raw materials for the chemical and process industries to manipulate, and use of lower grades or poorer qualities of materials has been made feasible through new or improved methods of processing. As our civilization grows more complex, it becomes more and more necessary for the Federal Government to conduct rerrearch; and it is increasingly apparent that this agency, more than any other, is better qualified to conduct certain types of research. A recent report of the National Resources Committee on government research states that the Government has certain constitutional obligations to carry on research, as in national defense, determination of standards, regulatory functions as traffic in food and drugs, supsrvision of power production, flood control and highway transportation, and in fields of national or interstate character such as agriculture, weather forecasting, and fisheries. It finds that the Government is better equipped to conduct research in those fields which are unusually costly in proportion to monetary return but are of great practical or social value. It also finds that the Government by means of its authority, prestige, and resources is far better able than other agencies to organize, coordinate, and direct research on a nationwide scale as exemplified in the coordination of work through the state experiment stations, through the military services, and their constant information of industrial developments, which avoids duplication of effort, and through the availability to industry of huge central research laboratories such as that of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. :Funds appropriated for federal research are continually increasing as the importance of these activities grows. The amounts appropriated for the various types of research are 574
DEXTERNORTH Arthur D. Little, Inc.
of interest, both to show their relative importance and to facilitate comprehension of the devious ways in which this research contributes to the development of the American Way. Though no exact figures are available, reasonably accurate estimates have been obtained by the National Resources Committee. The federal budget for 1938 shows that the $57,700,000 appropriated for research was distributed approximately as shown in the following five categories into which government research, other than in the social sciences and in statistics, may roughly be divided: Natural sciences Engineering Surveys and mapping Public health Physical sciences
Million Dollars 22.4 21
9.4 2.7 2.2
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57.7
Per Cent 39 36 16 5 4
100
Research in the natural sciences pertains principally to agriculture but also includes the activities of the Bureau of Fisheries and the Smithsonian Institution. The Department of Agriculture may well be said to be the largest single research organization in the world. Through field laboratories, grants-in-aid, extension activities, and cooperative arrangements with federal, state, and private agencies, it effectively coordinates and advises on all agricultural research work in the United States. This democratic method is in striking contrast to methods of the dictatorial states which largely control the direction research must pursue. Through various bureaus, such as Plant Industry, Animal Industry, Dairy Industry, Fisheries, and others, research in the natural sciences (as will be pointed out later) materially benefits the proeessing industries which draw upon animal and vegetable raw materials. TYPES OF FEDERAL RESEARCH
National defense is by far the largest item in engineering research, accounting for 17.3 out of 22.4 million dollars. It includes the engineering research of the air forces of the Army and Navy, and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as well as other defense activities. Other items in engineering research include the Bureau of Mines, the Tennessee Valley Authority, agricultural engineering, public roads, and air commerce. Since national defense is now largely a matter of scientific ingenuity, the combined aid of chemistry, metallurgy, and
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ject of experiment and pilot-plant application. Aluminum, nickel, chromium, the noble metals, the rare metals, and numerous alloys in the ferrous and nonferrous groups found new uses. It seemed as though there might be innumerable special metal combinations with properties adapted to every specialized use.
ent. Designing to advanced requirements, their manufacturers have taken advantage of every phase of technical development. Progressing in the American Way, the instrument makers have provided new tools for old industries and have met the needs of new industries with broad understanding. By comparison with a 1914 catalog of laboratory apparatus, the present output reveals that manufacturers have made great strides in this field of production. Inventiveness and improvement in apparatus have followed quickly or have led the advances in industry, research, and the teaching of chemistry-good evidence of the interrelation of scientific achievement.
Courtesy, Ernest Scott & C o m p a n y
TRIPLEEFFECT EVAPORATOR WITH SIMPLEJET CONDENSER A N D WET VACUUMPUMP, INSTALLED IN A KRAFT
PULPMILL
Subsequently stabilized, the wartime period in the chemical equipment field was one of accelerated inventiveness and emergency reduction to practice. Equipment used for any special purpose prior to the war expanded its uses during the days of forced measures. hfany of the new applications were strengthened subsequently through the improvement of materials, notably in strength and corrosion resistance. During the last two decades the composite objective has been lightness and compactness coupled with greater strength and corrosion resistance. As these objectives have been attained,
Courtesy, L . 0. Kouen
Brothers, I n c .
STAINLESS-STEEL JACKETED MIXING VESSELFOR USE ON CORROSIVE AND EASILYCONTAMINATED MATERIAL
Courtesy, T h e P/audler C o m p a n y
GLASS-LINEDSTEEL CHEMICAL REACTION KETTLE,1700-GALLON CAPACITY style in design has been introduced. Ugliness of shape and form having been proved dispensable, designers have introduced art into form consistent with functional requirements. THE World War necessity, which forced the manufacture and acceptance of American-made chemical engineering equipment, had also a lasting effect upon the making of instruments of precision for production, control, and research. .Basically these are the same, constructionally they are differ'MAY, 1939-Page
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Business initiative and patriotism, not government mandate, prompted the growth and expansion of the chemical equipment industry in this country. A desire to serve, prompted by financial profits to courageous capital, inspired experimentation and catalyzed improvement. Financial emoluments will continue the industry now firmly established. The surface has merely been turned; when cultivation is carried deeper, even greater achievements may be expected. The creation of many new industries has been a characteristic of this greater century. No equal period in all the centuries before has produced the advance in chemical equipment that has here been made. As chemical science advances by steps, making each succeeding step possible, new industries will be born and new requirements for equipment, apparatus, and instruments will be met. They will be met by these manufacturers who entered a field with relatively little experience, but who, with an abundance of courage, grew with those industries they were serving and proved that the American Way of doing business is justified. THE AMERICAN WAY
