Leslie H. Lampitty
SCI president,
and F. J. Curtis? vice president
of
Monsanto
"Speed-Up" for Science Held Impractical A STAFF R E P O R T
JLN the midst of England's economic diffi culties there is a tendency on the part of organic and physical chemists to give in creased attention to natural products, said Leslie TL Lampitt, president of the Society of Chemical Industry, in addressing a joint meeting and dinner of the SCI and the
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY,
New
York Section, in New York on Sept. 12. This movement is perhaps more marked than in any other country, and the "Robinsons, the Heilbrons, the Howarths, and the Hinshelwoods have, in fact, de serted the study of pure chemical com pounds and are now concerned with living matter," he declared. Dr. Lampitt spoke before a representa tive gathering of American chemical sci ence and industry which filled the Geor gian Room of the Hotel Pennsylvania. Among those who flanked him at the speaker's table were a number of past presidents of the SCI ; also W. A. Noyes, Jr., and Roger Adams, ACS president and board chairman, respectively; Marston T. Bogert, head of the International Union of Chemistry; and Foster D. Snell, presi dent, American Institute of Chemists. Francis J. Curtis, vice president, Mon
santo Chemical Co., then read his address, "Values," which he had delivered a few weeks before as the SCI Jubilee Memorial Lecture in London. Dr. Lampitt departed from his prepared address, which was devoted to the position of the scientist in totalitarian planning and present-da}^ materialism, to commend the spirit shown at that chemical conference. It is a· spirit which pervades the whole chemical community, he said, and it should be an example to the politicians of the world. The International Union of Chemistry, which staged its XlVth Conference at the same time in London, might be cited as a marvelous example of how . we should agree among ourselves, he added. In Britain's present economic chaos, Lampitt continued, the Society of Chemi cal Industry is still a very successful move ment, and no better example of this could be found than in the New York Section. There is no more need of fearing for the future of SCI than for Great Britain itself. As to the effect of England's present con dition upon its chemical industry, Lampitt said this is a difficult question. The gov ernment, however, has not interfered with
C. L. Parsons, Past Secretary of ACS; Roger Adams, Univ. of Illinois, and Chairman of the Board, ACS; M. T. Bogert, Columbia Univ., and president, Interna
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a trend which started long before it came into power—the allocation of funds to the training of scientists. Never before has a government been so lavish in its allocations of money to "training establishments," and never have scientific departments been so free of monetary difficulties. Referring to Prime Minister Clement Attlee's plea before the International Con gress for a faster translation of laboratory work to "practical ends," Dr. Lampitt said he did not subscribe to the idea that you can run before you can walk. There are no schemes in England to put testtube experiments on the production lines, nor are they discarding pilot-plant testing. The obsolescence of equipment, magni fied by the war, necessai^ for technological processes, is a factor which retards their return to competitive production, and under the present economic conditions of austerity, it is difficult to see how the modernization of these units could be accomplished. Lampitt deplored the emphasis upon directed research, or research undertaken with a definite, practical objective. "The innate curiosity of man to explore the un known should remain the mainspring of investigation." Penicillin, vitamins, hor mones, atomic fission, were the result of that curiosity and spirit of adventure. Mr. Curtis, introduced by Cyril S. Kimball, who presided, also urged aban donment of a materialistic view of life in his address. The former chairman of the SCI American Section asked business to show more social consciousness, and greater responsibility for the protection of its workers against technological unem ployment. When labor-saving or laborshifting projects are undertaken, retraining or new placement of workers should be considered an integral part of the cost. The Monsanto executive also thought that industry should go in for a broader educational program, that it train em ployees in the details of industrial chem istry, and that on-the-job training be sup plemented with class instruction. Col leges and universities were urged to ''stick to fundamentals" in the physical sciences, with some basic studies in social sciences and religion added.
tional Union ofChemistry ; Hugh Cameron^ chairman, Canadian Section* SCI; II. T. Clarke, chairman, Ν. Υ. Section, ACS; W. J. Baeza, honorary chairman, SCI
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