CENEAR 50 (38) 1-32 (1972)
Chemical and Engineering News 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Editorial
Editor: PATRICK P. McCURDY Managing Editor: Melvin J. Josephs Assistant Managing Editors: Michael Heylin, James H. Krieger, Brendan F. Somerville Senior Editors: Earl V. Anderson (New York), David M. Kiefer (Washington) Senior Associate Editors: Howard J. Sanders, Donald J. Soisson Staff Writer: Joseph Haggin Assistant Editors: Kathryn Campbell, Ernest L. Carpenter, Madeleine Polinger Jacobs, Richard J. Seltzer Editing Services: Joyce A. Richards (Head) Editorial Reference: Barbara A. Gallagher Production Manager: Bacil Guiley Associate Production Manager: Leroy Corcoran Art Director: Norman W. Favin Art/Production: Judy Bitting, Dawn Leland, Joe Phillips NEWS BUREAUS: New York: William F. Fallwell (Head). Chicago: Ward Worthy (Assistant Editor). Houston: Bruce F. Greek (Head). San Francisco: Thomas T. Bradshaw (Assistant Editor). Washington: Fred H. Zerkel (Head), Thomas E. Feare (Assistant Editor) FOREIGN BUREAUS: London: Dermot A. O'Sullivan (Head). Tokyo: Michael K. McAbee (Head) ADVISORY BOARD: Aaron M. Altschul, Alfred E. Brown, Norman Coggeshall, Marcia Coleman, Herbert S. Gutowsky, Anna J. Harrison, James D. Idol, Jr., Norman Kharasch, Gerald D. Laubach, Lawrence Lessing, Norman J. Lewis, Paul Oreffice, Michael N. Papadopoulos, Rustum Roy, Herbert L. Toor
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Is there a United Nations? . . . . . . is the question put by James Reston in his Sept. 13 column in The New York Times as he pondered this week's opening of the 27th General Assembly. His answer is not very cheering. "The United Nations organization has never been weaker than it is now. It is bankrupt." And at another level, following the disaster of the Olympics in Munich, it is indeed hard to hold out much hope for a united nations of any kind, lower or upper case. Still, there is a "united nations" of growing scope, power, and influence coalescing around the world that is far from bankrupt, that does give reason for very definite optimism. We are speaking of the fact of the global market, the multinational corporations and trading groups that serve it, and the millions of people who are benefiting from it. Swallow-tailed statesmen and petits fonctionnaires at the UN may have trouble settling world issues, midst their protocol and paperwork. Guns continue to bark at too many trouble spots. But businessmen are moving goods, scientists swapping science, engineers transplanting technology, ignoring national boundaries. One result is that the individual consumer has gained access to a vast storehouse of goods, services, technology, and international understanding at bargain prices. The smallest retail outlet is fast becoming a terminus of a complex trading network that no supranational governing body could purposefully have put together and made work. There are countless examples. But let's take a simple one. We recently succumbed to the lure of a 10-speed bicycle. It carries the label "AMF Hercules." AMF, of course, is an "American"firm. But Raleigh, an English manufacturer, "made" the bicycle. Or did it? We quickly discovered that the shifting mechanism came from France; pedals, chain, and brakes from Germany; carrier from Switzerland; wheels from England; tires from Austria; inner tubes from Japan. Similar examples abound in the electronics field, where labels mean little. The outside name may be GE, Magnavox, Admiral, or Webcor, but the parts are usually from Japan, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. An automatic record changer may bear the name Panasonic. But chances are the changer was made by Britain's BSR. And so it goes. The U.S. chemical industry, too, is intimately tied into this world market, as well it should be. Chemicals themselves have become a world commodity. End products made from chemicals crisscross the globe, and most consumers probably couldn't care less where they originate. U.S. chemical companies operate in foreign countries as indigenous enterprises. They sell technology and they buy technology. It is the same with foreign chemical companies. Entrepreneurs now have at their fingertips a multitude of options: chemicals, electronic components, heavy industry units—you name it— from wherever. This also means, unfortunately, local disruptions. U.S. workers, for example, may well lose jobs. But if we really believe in the "free market" and our own capabilities, we should be able to innovate and carve out new niches. We have apparently left the electronic consumer goods field. Perhaps we will ultimately have to do the same in automobiles, work-a-day computers, apparel, chemical commodities, "standard"analytical instruments. Our edge may lie in exploratory probing, sophisticated technology, management know-how. Let's push in these and similar areas and let others excel in what they do best. Let us capitalize on knowledge, the key resource, rather than build fences. In any event, the world " f r e e " market, fortunately, is forcing the issue. No overall planning organization has been able to get a complete handle on this particular free market—yet. So there is still room for flexibility and maneuver. The UN will continue to be bankrupt so long as it fails to meet actual needs. Meanwhile, as always, bona fide grass-roots operations will find a way. Patrick P. McCurdy C&EN EDITORIALS REPRESENT ONLY THE VIEWS OF THE AUTHOR AND AIM AT TRIGGERING INTELLIGENT DISCUSSION.
Sept. 18, 1972 C&EN
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