Nov., 1921
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
3-That when an extreme and sudden advance has been made in evolution, like the unprecedented development of engineering industry the past half century, its subsidence into the accepted daily order of living is followed by some other, resulting advance through evolution. These laws are presented in detail by Edwin Grant Conklin in his invaluable book, “The Direction of Human Evolution.” &Recently we have been given the law of human action by Korzyhski, that man is a time binding creature, in contrast with the animals that are space binding, and vegetables that are material or element binding forms of life. And that social, governmental, and intellectual progress is dependent upon our observance of this time binding principle, in balance with the laws of equal action and of evolution above cited. THESE LAWS PROVIDE A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INRESEARCH. They are as fundamental to human progress as the laws of gravity, atomic weight, valence of the elements, and the benzene ring. How can we apply them? Horace Greeley said, when resumption of specie payment occupied the front page after the Civil War, as disarmament does to-day, “The way to resume is to resume.” The way to apply these laws is to apply them. Roger W. Babson has shown the way. He has organized a corps of people who study the whole subject of human industrial relations through statistics and translate the results of their research into language that every business executive understands-MONEY. By similar statistical analyses and by surveys, experimentation and science applied to human relations through research, we chemists and engineers can accomplish similar results throughout the entire social industrial field. The Federated American Engineering Societies have located the road by their Research upon Elimination of Waste in Industry. The September issue of Mechanical Engineering, the journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in a summary of this work says, “The report discloses losses and waste due to the restraint and dissipation of the creative power of those who work in industry. It lays the foundation for knowledge of the destructive influences which have too much controlled the past. From this knowledge will grow the conviction that mental and moral forces must be added in a much larger degree to the physical resources now employed, if industry is to serve all who are dependent upon its continuous and effective operation.” Thii, preliminary survey by the Engineers disclosed that, “Over 50 per cent of the responsibility of these wastes can be placed a t the door of management and less than 25 per cent a t the door of labor, while the amount chargeable to outside contacts is least of all.” DUSTRlAL
I N OTHER WORDS,
THE
GREATEST
PROBLEMS O F INDUSTRY
TO-DAY ARE THOSE OF HUMAN RELATIONS.
Copies of the report can be obtained from The Federated Engineering Societies, 29 West 39th St., New Pork City. Every American chemist should study it. The American Chemical Society, in cooperation with The Federated Engineers, should undertake systematic, persistent research in this field. Among subjects that require deep, serious study are, secondary education; production, distribution and manufacture of food and clothing; city housing; local city transportation; ownership, taxation and use of agricultural land in its relation to production of food and the raw materials of clothing and of housing; charity that coddles the effects, instead of eliminating the causes of subnormal humanity; and the influence of modern industry upon marriage and the vital and racial problems that arise from industrial city life. CHIEFLY W E NEED TO MAKE DEEP RESEARCH TO EVOLVE A MODERN SYSTEM O F CITY, STATE, AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.
“As things go now,” says Alleyne Ireland in his book, “Democracy and the Human Equation,” “we afford the peculiar spectacle of a people who apply twentieth century methods to twentieth century problems in engineering, chemistry, medicine, surgery and industry, and who in government approach the problems of
1067
the twentieth century with the theories and implements of the eighteenth century. What is now needed is that the special knowledge of the biologist, the psychologist, the sociologist and of the political scientist should be coordinated in an exhaustive inquiry into the form and function of government. The value of such an inquiry would be inestimable.” “Democracy and the Human Equation” is itsel€ a study in government well worth careful reading. It should be studied in conjunction with Norman Angell’s “The Fruits of Victory.” Such research constitutes the most vital part of the investigation upon Elimination of Waste in Industry. Each of the subjects mentioned rides as a heavy load upon industry and is reflected in needless taxation, and in swiftly declining efficiency of the workers of all classes. To a large degree the conditions to be studied are avoidable causes of the social unrest that hampers industry. Collectively they steadily increase the cost of industrial production and reduce the mental and physical standards of living. That reduction reacts upon industry in restricted demand for superior goods, and in degenerated appreciation of art, literature, the drama, and all those higher objects of life that c$aracterize advancing civilization and growing commerce. These high intellectual standards of life, placed within reach of the many, have made the United States the best market of the world. THE MANAGEMENT O F INDUSTRY WILL COMMIT FINANCIAL SUICIDE IR IT IGNORES OR DESTROYS AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS.
As the chief purpose of Social Industrial Research is to ensure the continuance of profitable industry, its cost should be borne mainly by industry through voluntary contributions by contract in sufficient amount and for long enough time to assure conclusive results from the studies or experiments. The research should be directed by the American societies of engineers and chemists. They, who are creators of modern industry, are best equipped to perform this lifesaving service. The personnel for the detail of the study should he secured mainly from the greater universities and technical schools. The seniors and postgraduate students of the university departments of economics and social relations would be admirably suited for such social industrial research. The resulting cooperation of industry, engineers, and universities in these studies upon science applied to our greatest national social industrial problems would produce a new order of social education, as beneficial and creative as the order of technical education that has given us our entire staff of American chemists and engineers since 1870, who in turn gave u s modern industry. Ultimately and soon, various branches of Social Industrial Engineering would grow from this new applied science, and this century would be characterized by huge, splendid attainments in social, mental engineering, as the nineteenth century was by material engineering. Social Industrial Research, by cooperation of the engineering industries, the American chemists and the universities, is the most appealing call of applied science to-day. It will prove highly profitable to industry. ACTION AND REACTION ARE EQUAL. We get out of life what we put into it. If we chemists and engineers put in much, our reward will be proportionately great; for, “Engineering is the science of directing the greatest forces of nature to the utmost benefit of man.”
Spare Time-A
Defense
Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: In the May issue of THISJOURNAL there was published a very well-written attack upon the Editor’s experiment of introducing into its pages a discussion of social industrial relations. Mr. F. 0. Sprague can find in the article “no reference to chemistry, or any other science, unless it be philosophy” and on this seems to base his objections.
1068
T H E JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Now it is true that there is probably not one statement in the “Criticism” which would be successfully contradicted and yet the article as a whole shows clearly the necessity for Dr. Jordan’s preaching. There are many men who take such joy in the work they are doing that they can find but very little patience to listen to anyone who does not speak on their subject. This implies an enviable sense of security in one’s own chosen profession; it indicates conviction that one is on the right path of progress. Is such a n attitude justified? Has Mr. Sprague any guarantee that the highest efficiency is the highest good; does he know where we are going in this progress? I would not want to go ahead full-tilt in an unknown, dark room; I will not fix my whole attention on chemistry or shoe-cobbling to the exclusion of the art of living and the right to make more or less intelligent guesses a t what this world really is. If I specialize I a m more likely to further that one branch that I am paying attention to, than if I disperse my energies. But my accretions of knowledge would be rectilinear; they would have no width and I would be incapable of judging of their worth to human society. I would be a machine, working ,in its own special way, that would have to be started from outside, stopped from the outside, and whose product would be of value only when joined to that of other similar machines. I would be in the hands of the engineers of men the politicians, who would use my labor as they saw fit. Chemistry, instead of being a peer among peers would be a handmaid, a servant of others. Doctors and lawyers have ruled us for long, not because of the advancements in their sciences, but because for one reason and another doctors and lawyers were widely educated men, not narrowly educated. They often knew more than medicine or law, they understood human relations, they used their spare time. And
Vol. 13, No. 11
it is by carpentering on the side, or by pruning rose tushes, or by long tramps through the woods, by hunting game, that you develop otherwise dormant senses and those senses, once aroused, gather for you information that would otherwise have passed you by, and give to you pleasures that make you human. Let Mr. Sprague’s philosophy of life rule; will any higher ideal then be conceivable than that of the beehive? Every bee knows its duty and attends to that alone. No bee individually is of any importance, in fact one might say that there is no meaning attached to the word “bee” and that only “bees” can be understood. Is it exhilarating t o think that the time may come when this world will be a huge beehive, in which each one of us is held to one specific task, be it cobbling or chemistry, by an inexorable power, which will mete out to us rationed supplies, in quantity and quality just sufficient to keep us in our predetermined space? Does not all evidence tend to show that some unless we study such goal will most probably be ours, unless Social Industrial Relations besides our own chosen profession and bring a well-directed, conscious effort to bear upon future developments? We differ, I believe it is agreed, from animals, only in that we have power over our future. Fathoming the mysteries inherent in all branches of knowledge helps us to the tools we use, but we must at the same time also learn how to use those tools and to what purpose. Therefore I wish to record here my most emphatic vote for a continuance of such articles as Dr. Jordan’s “Spare Time.”
. .. .
C. DEDLOW CIA. SWIFT DE LA PLATA G R A ND O C KLA PLATA,ARGENTINE July 15, 1921
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES Adoption by the Colleges of Standard Metric Units By Eugene C. Bingham CHAIRMAN, METRICSYSTEM COMMITTEE
In accordance with the resolution of the Council a t its Rochester Meeting, we have written to the colleges and universities of the United States asking that the purchase of chemicals and supplies be made hereafter in units of the metric system. Onehundred and ninety-four colleges and universities, given in Table I, have signified by letter their intention of codperating in this movement. Doubtless many others will join in but have failed to notify the Committee in time for this report. Only one institution, the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, is definitely opposed to the movement so far as we have been able to learn and their reasons do not affect the general situation. It seems clear then that an overwhelming majority of the American colleges will in a short time be purchasing in metric units. We have the written statement of twenty-seven different manufacturers and dealers (Table 11)who are prepared to supply chemicals on metric specification. Several others, not on this list, are prepared to quote on metric specifications for apparatus only. It is perfectly clear that if American chemists desire chemicals and apparatus in metric units exclusively, it is only necessary to say so for the manufacturers and dealers to meet the demand. This is proved by the fact that the Eastman Kodak Co., Special Chemicals Co., National Stain & Reagent Co., U. S. Industrial Chemical Co., and the Digestive Ferments Co. already sell their products regularly on a metric basis. The Synthetical Laboratories of Chicago “are making preparations to change to the metric system as soon as containers, labels, etc., can be secured.” Powers-Weightman-Rosengarten Com-
pany has just now brought out a line of analyzed chemicals put up in standard metric packages exclusively. Their catalog gives metric prices only, entirely ignoring the existence of English units. The Will Corporation “will publish by September 1, a list of chemicals and chemical apparatus in which the metric system is used.” Baker & Adamson “are preparing a new price list at the present moment and have issued instructions to the effect that quotations be made in metric as well as avoirdupois units.” J. T. Baker Chemical Company devote a page in their catalog of August 1921 to a very simple method for obtaining equivalent metric prices for the prices per pound or ounce, 500 g. being 10 per cent above 1 Ib., etc. It is to be especially noted that the price is the same whether specifications are in pounds or grams. Several firms have plans to use their readiness to handle business in metric units as a feature in their advertising. There is a noticeable diffidence on the part of those who are using metrics for the first time. One writes, “We are venturing to place our order this summer in metric units, probably to the annoyance of the dealer.” The dealer, on the other hand, fears to “venture” until there is a strong demand for metrics from the consumer. One writes, “We are at the mercy of the customers. We need one system or i t runs up packing charges.” The president of another firm writes, “Some years ago we adopted the metric system in both the measurements of our apparatus and the weights in selling chemicals, and carried it out for about a year. At the end of this time we learned that it was impossible to force our system on our customers, * * * and that our humble efforts made very little progress in educating the country, so we went back to selling chemicals by pounds as asked for.” We are thoroughly convinced that i t is necessary for the consumers to take the lead and there is every advantage in oltr
