VOLUME25 NUMBER 4
Industrial AND ENGINEERING Chemistry
APRIL 1933
HARRISONE. Horn, EDITOR
The Editor’s Point of View
R
ESEARCH--A BULWARK. A great change has occurred in the attitude of many industries toward research in the decade between the relatively minor depression in the early 20‘s and the serious one from which we now have begun to recover. We have had occasion t o illustrate the point by referring to the experience of firms which then disbanded their research stail‘s, only to find that competitors who had not followed the example quickly gained an advantage which has not yet been fully overcome. True, it has been necessary in many cases for research organizations to be greatly reduced, but instead of’ being one of the first departments to suffer, as before, the w-ellorganized scientific staff has been the last. It is heartening, furthermore, to find the progress of research in the United States sufficiently worthy of note to attract the attention of our German contemporaries in the way shown by Professor Walden, whose article we reprinted in English in the NEWSEDITION of >larch 20. In Chemistry and Industry for February 10, 1933, we find that “at the annual meeting of Lloyds Bank on February 3 the chairman, Mr. J. Beaumont Pease, announced that an organization was being formed to enable industries to finance research work. It was urged that industry must realize that an efficient and well-equipped research organization was an essential element of good management.” I n the past too often those industries which found themselves in bankers’ hands straightway began to suffer from the elimination of scientific work, particularly research. I n some quarters this attitude is changing and the forwardlooking banker is finding that often a business cannot be put on a sound basis without the service which the scientist can render in so many ways. Through its president, The Xational Oil Products Company in a recent news release attributed its present satisfactory position to scientific research. Expansion has been possible because of diversification in the application of the company’s products, the volume of business has increased, and net earnings have been uninterrupted during the past three years. The key to the whole situation has been science. 361
The report of the directors of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company issued under date of February 10, 1933, includes this paragraph: “While the depressed business conditions have reduced the volume of work in the Bell Telephone Laboratories, the fundamental research is being fully maintained. Research work is a long-time activity and one that requires years for full fruition. In its continuance lies the greatest assurance of further progress and economy in the telephone art.” All these instances, which are but a few of the many that might be cited, are heartening indeed, especially to those who have chosen research as their career. Who shall not say that the future belongs to that industry which is thoroughly grounded in scientific information and which sees to it that it is not excelled by any competitor in the fundamental knowledge which it constantly acquires through researchp
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ARIFF TANGLES. Tariff, usually condemned by the theoretical economist and blamed in many quarters as an element in world business depression, is assuming new importance everywhere. England, which de\reloped her industrial system on a free-trade basis, has taken up tariff with a vengeance and bargaining tariffs, with which we have had little experience, are in favor in Continental Europe. From the American point of view the situation is vastly complicated by the depreciated currency in some forty countries no longer on a gold basis. In the long run such money means a real loss to the wage earner, but until domestic prices rise to compensate for the cheapened currency, production costs are lower. Hence the manufacturer obtains a distinct, though temporary, advantage when he sells to a country such as the United States which remains on a sound gold basis. It is very doubtful whether any flexible tariff plan can provide machinery with which to cope with depreciation subject to constant fluctuation. Some investigations are now under way to get at the facts.
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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING
To many it seems that the quota system or provision for an outright embargo, as employed abroad, offers the only solution. The legislative machinery through which such action must be taken in the United States is slow and cumbersome, as compared with orders in council, edicts, and other quick methods frequently applied in other lands. Meanwhile the tariff question is continually agitated, if for no other reason than because it has a bearing upon the war debt problems. Direct, full debt payment in the customary goods and services is incompatible with an adequate protective tariff. Other means of payment have been proposed and it is to be hoped that some way may be found, rather than choose a course that would seem so certain to be detrimental to the American wage earner and the industry which employs him. And there is a growing sentiment that the diminishing likelihood of substantial debt payment dictates the desirability of leaving the question out of tariff considerations and that procedures should be followed which will save to the American workman the largest possible part of his present standard of living under economic conditions as the world now knows them. But why should the chemist be concerned in tariff questions? Sooner or later he is vitally interested in the economic stability of our commerce. By far the greatest number of our chemists are employed in some capacity in industry and to a large extent the remainder depend for their support on what business contributes through taxation, endowment, or other means. The chemist is concerned with a proper tariff not only for the protection of the chemical industry, but for others which consume its products. To a very large extent ours is purveyor to other industries and therein lies a part of the difficulty which we face in any tariff debate. The average man, including our lawmakers, knows something of the textile industry, but too seldom realizes that it could not operate \T-ithout the products of the chemical industry. And so it is with practically everything that is manufactured. The finished products, with the exception of medicinals, pharmaceuticals, and a certain few others, are not directly purchased by the ultimate consumer, but come to him as a part of some item of merchandise. Obviously, if tariffs are lowered to the point where there is a general increase in imported goods, the chemical industry would suffer in its direct sales to the public, and even more largely through a decreased demand for its products used in other manufacturing processes. This very circumstance subjects the chemical industry to the special attack of those abroad who longingly look a t the American market. It has been said that foreign manufacturers would doubtless be willing to make any other arrangement regarding tariff if only chemicals could be admitted free of duty. That should suffice to indicate how important is the industry and how necessary is its protection.
CHEMISTRY
Vol. 25, No. 4
Chemicals are also likely to suffer in any drastic tariff revision from their mere position on the list, where they come early and consequently must bear the brunt of the attack. However, there are many advantages. People generally have come to realize that a chemical industry is essential in our country and that under no circumstances must it be allowed to recede to the lowly position it occupied a generation ago. It is beginning to be better understood also that a long list of items is already free of duty and that, in comparison with most products, the rates are indeed reasonable. Then, too, some sections of the country which have been traditionally free trade or low tariff in their politics have awakened to find that their own industrial development depends upon what chemistry and the chemical industry can offer. Chemical activity is no longer sectionalized. Some of the most interesting developments have taken place in the South and the future promises much when the abundant raw materials of the region shall feel the touch of chemistry. The chemical industry is a national necessity and as such deserves that reasonable tariff protection which will foster its continual development and growth. We are persuaded that those in authority, with our country’s welfare uppermost in their minds, will avoid any contrary course.
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ONNE MEDAL. The research chemist finds few fields more attractive for his energies than those which contribute to the art and science of medicine. The physician and surgeon recognizing that life processes are chemical, are coming more and more to appreciate the possibilities of coBperative effort in which their chemical colleagues share. However, a great deal has not been done to emphasize publicly how important are these borderlands and how greatly needed are increasing numbers of trained minds to work them. It is significant, therefore, that a medal has now been established to advance human medicine through its association with chemistry. The ConnQmedal has been endowed in perpetuity by Mrs. Madelyn Con& of New York and New Orleans, in memory of her late husband, Philip A. ConnQ,and it will be awarded under the auspices of The Chemists’ Club, aided by a committee appointed to represent, in addition to the club, the medical profession and the profession of chemistry. As has been announced, John J. Abel was the recipient of the first medal. The work for which this honor was awarded to Doctor Abel is indicative of the kind of activity that needs to be encouraged and multiplied. In addition to stimulating public interest in such work, as awards invariably do, it should also prove a potent incentive to increasing numbers of scientists to lend their talents to the solution of the vast number of remaining difficult problems.
