Vol. 19, No. 5
'
MAY 1 , 1927
Tear Gas in China
tariffs as again to permit Gerinany to doniiiiate the world's chemical market. It is well known that there arc many ways of classifying industries and by accepting certain tlrfi'1' l \ ' O l ~ I Jbe difficult to imagine a n occasion where harmless tear gas could have been used to greater advantage nitions i t would be possible to bring together statistics which than at the beginning of the present disturbances in China, would so group American industries under chemistry as t u \rliich have reached serious proportions. Instead of con- show our export business to be of orerwhelniing size. Ohtrolling mobs and effectively chastising that part of the viously, it ~vouldbe improper t o include in st,atistics wliicli ('hinese population vhich sought to do violence to foreigners, are to be applied to the synthetic organic r1iemic.al industry those ill coinniand chose to use shot and shell. The result figures derived from the refining of petroleum. is a number of dead and wounded, the sacrifice of practically The Economic Conference may take on the aspects of :i all the good results achieved through conatrueti\-e work over battle front where without question the chemical industjries several decades, and the laying of a foundation for revenge of European countries will be ably represented, n-ell organand hatred which will handicap even the most' unselfish ized, and alert. I t is understood t,hat replies to the C;ermaii work which tlie white race niay untlert'ake in China for Monograph have been prepared by the British and 1-, t h c years to come. Frenrh chemical manufacturers. Announcements contain Why are such blunder:: continually repeat,ed 7 Tear gas nothing to indicat,e the representatiori of American clicinhw been shown to inflict no injury. It's manufacture and ical industry in a degree adequate under the circumstances. use arc well kriown. I t s efficiency in producing both physical We may not feel the force of the conflict until Congress reand psychological effects has been demonstrated. I t is convenes. T h e AJIERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY, which has clifficnlt to see why, with all our talk of humanit,arianism, performed similiar sen-ice in the past, niay be depended upon when the crucial nionieiit arrives we choose t o kill and weep in future, should nccasion demand, to present to Congress afterward, rather than to cause weeping first with its con- facts which economists may not bring out a t Geneva. sequent diveraion of attent'ion and effort. Our sentimentalists seem to prefer to weep a t the prospect of nontoxic tear gas rather than over gunshot casualties. There is litt,le excuse for failure to have used tear gas in China. It may still be employed effectively, but powder and sfeel h a r e alrcatly nrought much perinanent, damage. HE Sews Edition and &her iriedimis for n ( x h l i a i ~ aiinouncetl the first American manufacture of syiitlietic methanol on a commercial basis, this accomplishnieiit being to the credit of Laaote, Inc., a company affiliated with E. I . €€E c'oiuicil of the League of Xations has iiiritecl and du Pont de Semours and Company, whose plant is located the L n i t e i States has accepted the invitation to par- at Belle, near Charleston, W.T a . Having had some h o w l ticaipte in an Econoinic Conference t'o be held in Geneva edge of the difficulties connected with the purification of begiiiiiiiig M a y 4. This conference is to be "a general hydrogen for the synthesis of ammonia at the T;. P. Xittratc: (~onsiiltationin the course of which * * * the vnrioux argu- Plant To. 1, Muscle Slioa,ls, and likewise being informed as iimits and doctrines niay be freely expressed without the to the method Lazote employs for the manufacture of metlifreedoin of discussions being restricted b y any immediate anol, we iiaturally remembered a recent definition of optimiiccessity to transform the conclusions of t h e conference into ism and pessimism. The pessimist is onr who sees insuperable iiitc~rriational agreements." Liberty of t'rade, tariffs, com- difficulties in every opportunity. The optimist' sees opportuinrrrial t'reaties, and indirect ways of protecting the coni- nit,iesin every difficulty. The application of t'hese definitions ~ i i o r c (and ~ shippings of a nation are the mosf: important t'o the manufacture of synthetic methanol lies in the fact that topicas for discuwion from the viewpoint of the United States. Lazote cleverly combines the piirification of hydrogen for aliiIt will be remembered that last auturnn a group of American monia synthesis with the production of methanol. The carbon hankers joined with European colleagues in publishing it monoxide, always a serious matter in t h e old days of RIusclc declaration which called for the lowering of cust'oms barriers Shoals experiments, here becomes a positive advantage. for the heuefit of certain countries which. under existing Could there he a better example of practical optimism arid of tariffs such a s those of tlie Vriited States, have difficulty in following the old precept that one mho turiis stuinbling r(~Iia1)ilitNting thenisel\-ea. Whrn called to t,asB, some of blocks into stepping stones is .mre of advanceinentl t 1 1 .~iiiericaup ~ tlisc.lainied :my itlea of incliidiiig the United I n this new all-American process. Ch&Jp
