nclude the military, or if so, military preoccupied with other matters that
throughout the whole chemical indusit is certain that the 8000 chemists and chemical engineers who will be graduated this spring will not be nearly enough. And a point specially worth noting is that fm insuilicient proportion of graduate students are being trained. The industries say that of the men they employ this year 30 per .cent should have Doctors' and Masters' degrees; while only 20 per cent of those graduated by our institutions this year will Nfil this specification. President Conant, of Harvard, in his recent report for the year 1940-1941, brought up several of the fundamental points involved in this matter of the supply and demand of chemists. He says:
"Even now the . . . serious contradiction existing with respect to the supply of trained manpower is not fully understood. A consideration of this vital problem is important both to the eEciency of the national effort and to an intelligent development of the part which our universities can best play in the task which lies before us. In the h t place, an authoritatiye and, wmpreto speed up production. hensive survey of the country's needs for m e d men and Naval R.O.T.C. units have no small women for the war should be made at once. Such a survey, I understand, is now planned by one branch of the federal governer. At some of our colleges 100 @er ment."
and chemiqd mgim%mare He k atiggets that., followhg such a survey, a ese units,.and, glmdgg dpwn t&@.&$.):&qq wffjch is essentially a v&y cent seems a fair werage. Fe*,; if . ~ g p policy S@@. of &e principle of Selective much further cal, industry; tbq .ate aight fof the combat forces. .Not that:we Service. A suilid&.f,b b e r of men with the proper training and qualdications to f a each of the necessary tasks revealed by the survey should be selected and asdo not think that it woul: impose any hard- signed to that particular work. As this would &ect the R.O.T.C. units if they would keep their the chemical profession it would mean, presumably, that off our promis'ig chemists, physicists, and engi- the actual need for chemists in the production industries would be definitely ascertained. Students of preWhat are we training them for, anyway? uw seems possible--perhaps probabl-that the draft age, who have the promise, quaWications, and furnish some sort of student aid for ability to make good chemists would then be picked g for the technical professions. We out in sufficient number to 6ll the evident needs and to prophesy that only those students who are assigned to their period of training. Later, they would likely to be availabk for industrial technical presumably be put to work in technical positions and perhaps even pohibited from combat service. be eligible for aid. While this is somewhat vague it nevertheless begins urgent need and limited supply of chemists, to make sense. We very much need a practical imof the recent auestionnaire from cthe Office plementation of this general idea. The plan which comes the nearest to doing this of any of which we haye yet heard is one brought to our attention by Dr. Harold S. Booth, of Western Reserve University. It has been called the "U. S. Professional Training Reserve." The idea is that q d e d students in training for certain designated professions, including chemistry, shall, after their first year, be enrolled in lhe Professional Training Reserve, which is intended to have as reputable standing as the Army and Naval Reserve Corps. Upon the certification of a student to it to increase still the Reserve he would be put in a deferred classification an estimate of their by his Selective Service board; his continuance in the Reserve would depend upon his maintaining a proper s t m w d ; an?i at the end of his training, the length I
of which would be determined by his ability and record, industry would have the first call upon his services. Administrative details would seem to offer no more W c u l t y than that incidental to any large-scale plan, and it would do three things which seem very necessary in view of the present situation: 1. It would assure a reservoir of trained personnel from which industry and the professions could draw. 2. It would relieve the uncertainties which surround the present operation of the Selective Service System, to which the proposed plan would virtually be an adjunct. 3. It would lessen, if not prevent, the competition between industry and the professions on the one hand and the armed services, including the R.O.T.C., on the other. The Professional Training Reserve would be a tangible and respectable way in which a student might choose to serve, without requiring any apology to his conscience or to others.
w
E HAVE received a number of comments on our observations in last month's Outlook and the list of "Ten Questions" in the same number. It has been suggested that the general argument might be extended a little, here and there. We therefore take the immediate opportunity to do so, while the question is still fresh. From the very start, there has been no change in the policy of the Occupational Deferment division of the Selective Service System. Colonel J. F. Battley, who is in charge of this division, as well as General Hershey himself, has repeatedly gone on record in support of the necessity of retaining technically trained men in their technical fields. Whatever doubt there may be on this score elsewhere, there is none in the inner circles and among the higher-ups. Perhaps it would be well to emphasize further the responsibility of the individual for seeing that his case is properly appreciated by his local board, and if he is a professional chemical student or a chemist employed
in necessary work and he is nmertheless given a I-A classification, it is not only his privilege but his duty to register an appeal within the ten days legally allowed. Colonel Battley, speaking a t the St. Louis meeting of the A. C. S., emphasized the responsibility of each of us for seeing that the clear intention of the Selective Service Act is carried out. The supply of graduate students is beginning to present a serious problem. This will affect the standard and eEciency of instruction, in which graduate students participate as assistants. Selective Service plays some part, a t least, in this. In his recent statement to state directors (1-347, January 12, 1942), General Hershey stresses the importance of the deferment of both students andinstrzlctorsintechnical fields, such as chemistry and chemical engineering. At his request material has been collected for a statement on the urgent need for graduate-trained men in the technical fields. We proposed the question whether chemical training now will lead into a blind alley after the war. In answering this we thought it well to put the emphasis upon the present emergency and to imply that conditions after the war must, for the moment, be left to look out for themselves. We do not think it improper, however, that students should be thinking of their own future-indeed they are. We find many of them even now balancing the possible consequences of choosing this or that branch of serpice. It should be .obvious to our young chemists in training that when the time comes for them to find permanent, stable places in their profession experience in the "combat army" in World War I1 will have nothing but sentimental value, while service in the "production army" will be chemical experience worth having had. Those who have been out of contact with their profession for a long period may find it difficult to return to it. We do not offer this as an argument superior to the country's urgent need. We are not interested in limiting enrolment in the combat forces-far from it! But we are interested in putting trained technicians to work in the places where they can best serve.
FORMULA OF THE MONTH
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