Jan., 1922
T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Durgin of Chicago in charge. The work of the division will be devoted entirely to the elimination of waste as applied to commercial practices. According to the latest figures there is a better trend in chemical exports of this country, but the volume of commodities in this group which are going abroad is still one-third of the volume for the corresponding period of a year ago. With the possibility of tariff legislation there has been a decided increase in the imports. The volume of trade, however, is still very much less than it was a year ago. The Senate Finance Committee is at present considering individual schedules of the Tariff Bill and will continue to do so until some time next month. Further action on the chemical phases of the tariff cannot he expected until then or later.
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It is believed here that the Secretary of War will recommend to Congress favorable action on Henry Ford’s proposal to develop Muscle Shoals and that Congress will receive the definite plan shortly. The Tariff Commission has been requested by the Senate Finance Committee to prepare for its use.a volume similar to the Summary of Tariff Information compiled for the House Ways and Means Committee last January. The U. S. Geological Survey’s Commercial Atlas, Part 11, will be issued ahout Jan. 1. This will give‘the distribution of developed and undeveloped water power throughout the world. Part I11 will deal with resources of mineral fuels and Part IV with the reserves of the principal metals. December 14, 1921
LONDON LETTER By STEPHENMIALL,167.Hsverstock Hill, Hampstead, N. W.3, England
Industrial conditions here still form a large proportion of .our thoughts, and we have now all made up our minds that a $recovery is beginning and will be very slow and irregular in its .growth. I n this country and probably in this continent we can .look forward to another year of poor trade and much unemployment. But all this is part of the natural cycle; riches beget pride, pride begets war, war begets poverty, poverty begets industry, industry begets riches, and so on. w e are now in the state of poverty but here we are trying to live within our -incomes and as a nation we shall succeed in doing i t this year -or next year or sometime. Our trouble is that some of our neighbors have not yet got so far as we have. Russia has -ceased to have any income, Austria has so overspent her income that her currency is bought by the kilo, Poland can hardly buy anything and is not emerging yet from its considerable impe.cuniosity and Germany, formerly our best or nearly our best .customer in many industries, seems to be going on the same path as Austria and Poland. Before the war Germany did -not raise enough money to cover her national expenditure, -during the war of course no effort was made to ‘do this, and since the armistice she has probably been both unable and unwilling to make the attempt. The issue of paper money on a large scale is analogous in some respects to the issue of bonus share .certificates by the company which is not very prosperous, and there is bound to come a time either in six months or some other %numberof months when this issue by Germany must stop. Five years ago it would have been incredible that Russian rubles should be worth only the paper they were printed on, and I suppose that Germany will a t any rate stop printing marks when it costs more to print them than they will fetch. The time will surely come, and it seems to many of us not very far -off, when the government of that country will find it impossible to carry on with the present financial methods. Then there will be political and labor troubles and Germany will find her-self where we are now-poor, overtaxed, and faced with considerable unemployment. She is having her trade boom now; we had ours two years ago; both were overdone and to some extent unreal. How much of the profit or loss is a mere question of bookkeeping is hard to say. Ten years ago I owned ten houses worth $300 each, three years ago they were worth 2550 “each, now they are worth 2450 each. Am I in fact any richer than I was? The same sort of delusion goes on in Germany a t the present time; a man huys a ton of some chemical compound for say 20,000 marks, the next day it is worth 22,000 marks, and a fortnight afterward 30,000 marks. It may pass through many hands and everyone concerned makes a bookkeeping profit, and he and all his friends repeat the transaction to the utmost of their means and to their entire satisfaction. It seems as if the only way of avoiding a heavy loss in Germany is for each man to buy goods to the utmost extent of the credit he has, and he complacently thinks he is becoming richer. Surely one of these days they will wake up! I met recently in Geneva at the International Labor Conference some Germans whose expenses were about 253 sterling per day or a t the present rate of exchange 30,000 marks per day. How long can the Germans continue to travel in other countries? Another man I heard ’ Qf recently spent a holiday in Austria and had hard work to spend about S10 in three weeks, I mean he had to order expensive wines and luxurious dishes. We have become, whether we like i t or not, a collection of more or less self-supporting states, and it is difficult to know whether, when we impose duties on-chemi-
cals imported from Germany, we arc making the situation worse or merely making it easier for people to endure what is in fact a disagreeable necessity. ORGANIZATION OF FEDERAL COUNCIL We are trying to do here what you seem to have done very efficiently in America, that is, so to organize British chemistry that chemist as a whole can make their voice heard and influence felt. The Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical Industry, the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers, the Faraday Society, the Puhlic -4nalysts, the Dyers and Colorists and the other societies have appointed representatives to form a Federal Council, which is gradually getting into working order. But it is too recent a creation to make its influence felt in government circles; otherwise the Safeguarding of Industries Act-so far as chemicals are concerned-would have been very different. This country professes to be a democracy disguised as a monarchy; it is in fact a bureaucracy mainly recruited from an aristocracy; the officials who do the actual governing are usually about as sympathetic to science as stockbrokers or brigadier generals. I n Parliament the men who understand chemistry and its needs could he numbered on one’s fingers and most of these are naturally put into positions where their knowledge will not be liable to bias their views. Thus Sir Alfred Mond, who knows a good deal about the chemical industry, is in charge of the Ministry of Health; if Sir Joseph Thomson or Sir Ernest Rutherford were successful politicians we should probably find them Colonial Secretary and Director of Poor Law. The average politician seems to regard the chemist as something between an alchemist and a druggist-a clever crank, to be listened to with the courtesy the government official is accustomed to display, but who may be forgotten so soon as his back is turned. The Federal Council hopes that in time i t may be able to keep the country on the right track in matters pertaining to chemistry. November 16, 1921
Review of Scientific Instruments A number of scientists have felt a need for adequate reviews and descriptions of scientific instruments. For some months the matter has been discussed by those interested, including the makers of apparatus, the National Research Council, the Bureau of Standards, and the Optical Society of America. Arrangements have now been completed whereby the Journal of the Optical Society of America will add to its name “and Review of Scientijc Instruments,” devoting a section to such reviews in addition to its regular editorial pages. The first number of the expanded journal is to appear April 15, 1922, and _. monthly thereafter. Paul D. Foote, Bureau of Standards, is editor-in-chief, and F. K. Richtmyer, Cornel1 University, assistant editor-in-chief.
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The Mineral Potash Corporation has been chartered under the laws of Maryland with a capitalization of $700,000 to begin the building and operation of a plant for the manufacture from powdered feldspar of an abrasive for polishing metals, enamels, and household goods. The lands upon which the feldspar deposits are located are a t Ilchester, Howard County, Maryland.
