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T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Both a Public Welfare and a Public Works Department were discussed a t meetings of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor held during the past week. One feature of the new Administration is the fact that there have been practically no changes in the heads of scientific or technical departments. During the past month the following heads of technical corps in the War Department have been appointed and confirmed: Brig. Gen. Amos A. Fries, chief of Chemical Warfare; Brig. Gen. Harry Taylor, assistant chief of Engineers; Maj. Gen. G. 0.
VoI. 13, No. 6
Squier, chief Signal Officer; Brig. Gen. W. S. Peirce, assistant chief of Ordnance; Maj. Gen. Charles T. Menoher, chief of Air Service; Brig. Gen. William Mitchell, assistant chief of Air Service. In order to undertake a study of structural clay products and other nonmetallic building materials, the Bureau of Mines has asked Congress for an additional appropriation of $47,000. It is proposed to study brick and tile manufacture, as well as the cement, slate, and feldspar industries. May, 16, 1921
LONDON LETTER BY STEPHENMIALL,28, Belsize Grove, Hampstead, N. W. 3, England
We are now experiencing another coal strike, and tomorrow we are to have a strike of railway men, transport workers, electricians, and others. These events have so far excited little interest in the minds of many of us. We have had so many threatened strikes which did not take place and so many others that did take place that we are becoming hardened to them. Although we vaguely recognize the danger of them and acutely feel the monetary loss involved, we are more annoyed and disappointed than excited. The air raids we had in London during the war had somewhat similar psychological effects; the first ones greatly excited and alarmed us; after experiencing half a dozen of them, many of us began to regard them merely as a nuisance causing no doubt a few deaths of people who were not engaged in warlike pursuits, destroying a few private houses, spoiling the night’s rest of great numbers of people, but not giving us the feeling that they were occurrences of first-rate importance. Just as we got blas6 with air raids, so we are now with strikes. They disturb us hardly more than a new outbreak of war in the east of Europe, or some other disagreeable event of common occurrence. But whether caused by strikes, high prices, general poverty of the world, or other conditions, we cannot dismiss from our minds the lack of business, the increasing unemployment, the decreasing wealth, if indeed it can still be called wealth. The chemical factories which are a t work so much as half the time are few, and fortunate are those who can sell as fast as they are making. THE REPARATIONS ACT
The Reparations Act, which compels the buyer to hand over to the government half the purchase money for German goods, has now been in operation a few weeks. Its immediate effect was to destroy a t once trade between this country and Germany. There are faint indications that here and there the measure is having the desired effect in causing Germany to pay us something of the money due to us. If the German need to export is greater than our need to import, the measure may in time be a success; we can only give it a pretty good trial and trust that if it seems likely to be effective our allies will adopt a similar plan. Meanwhile the experiment is being made on our vile bodies.
THE KEY INDUSTRIES BILL
Entangled with this problem is the Key Industries Bill to prevent the manufacture of fine chemicals and other industries, vital to our well-being, from being crushed out of existence by dumping from countries whose low rate of exchange gives them so great an advantage in export. The bill is expected to provide for a tariff of 33 1/3 per cent, but so far has not yet been printed, and the government is too busy with labor difficulties to consider any other problem a t the moment. The Federal Council for Pure and Applied Chemistry is asking the government to provide for the free importation of research chemicals which are not manufactured in this country. JOINT MEETINGS OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETIES
If only the tax collectors would have a prolonged strike, how many delightful prospects lie before us. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is holding its meeting in Brussels a t the end of June. The Soci6t6 de Chimie Industrielle is holding its annual meeting in Paris in July and has been so good as to invite some of their English colleagues to attend. Sir William Pope and a few others of us look forward very much to this visit. And then in August and September those of us who are so fortunate as to have a bank manager of an easygoing nature will strain his indulgence almost to the breaking point to enable us to visit our kith and kin in Canada and the United States. This year is going to be so serious a one for us all in Europe that unless we get a little change of scenery and mental atmosphere we shall not pull through. When, with prices falling as they have been, we find firms like Brunner Mond and Co., Lever Brothers, the Mond Nickel Co., and the other dreadnaughts coming out for loans of a million or so sterling, as fast as the market can supply them or even faster, the plight of the small ciuisers and gunboats may easily be realized to be fairly pitiable. None of us who visit you next summer will be able to put before you new developments, new industries, or processes. Warehouses filled to the roof with products of all kinds are the features of the day. It is as hard for a ton of salt-cake to find a home to-day as it was a year ago for a newcomer to London or Washington. April 14, 1921
PARIS LETTER B y CHARLESLORMAND, 4 Avenue de l’Observatoire, Paris, France
Despite the present state of uncertainty in France, occasioned by Germany’s bad grace, the industrial crisis seems to have reached its limit, and signs indicative of the resumption of a certain amount of trade activity are already visible. The welcome given to President Viviani during his tour in the States showed France that it could rely pn American sympathy, and we fully realize how important it is for us that our policy in present discussions should have the approval of the American government. INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS IN GERMANY
German industry has not suffered from the war; in fact, the latter proved an incentive to very active improvements in her industries, so much so that a great many German companies are now distributing large dividends to their shareholders; to quote a few examples: Hallische Maschinenfabrik of Halle, 35 per cent; The JohannFaber A. G. Pencil Manufacturing Company, 25 per cent on a six months’ operation, or, in other words, 50 per cent on a full financial year; Sektkellerei Kupferberg und Co. of Maienz, 24 per cent plus a 20 per cent bonus, i. e., 44 per cent altogether; Phil. Penin Gummiwarenfabrik A.-G. of Leipzig, 20 per cent plus a 20 per cent bonus, i. e., 40 per cent altogether.
These figures are very significant and serve to show that Germany’s capacity to pay is by no means so feeble as she would have us believe. CONDITIONS IN FRANCE
As for ourselves,, we have to rebuild our devastated regions. Our mines in the “Nord” are not yet capable of working a t full capacity. Although our coal production has increased from 22,300 tons in 1919 to 25,200 tons in 1920, our import figures are still very large. They are given as 22,000 tons for 1920, e.g., we produce about half the quantity of coal needed for home consumption. When we are certain as to our political safety, we shall gradually regain our industrial equilibrium. All French traders and manufacturers deplore the customs measures which the government has had to take to protect French industry. In his speech a t the inaugural meeting of the Office National du Commerce Extkrieur (Kational Office for Foreign Trade) the Minister of Trade, Mr. Dior, who is himself one of the most important manufacturers of sulfuric acid and fertilizer, expressed the point of view of the French government : “France,” he said, “is not protectionist. The customs measures that it is
