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and other conditions, goods of the kind now being made in this country are being supplied by Continental manufacturers a t prices less than the actual cost of manufacture here, whereas
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Temperamentally t h a t research staff now becomes a conglomeration of incompatibles, a hybrid mixture which has in it t h e elements of failure. A t t h e outset for goods that are not yet being manufactured here prices are being of t h e building of t h e dye industry there were many charged by the Continental makers which mean to the consumer laboratories where such a mixture was found t o be aflproximately five times the pre-war price of such goods.’‘- [Italics thoroughly bad, and where t h e weeding-out process ours.] was p u t into operation and the staffs Americanized The U. S. Tariff Commission gives a new slant t o with consequent fine results. the whole question. I n its report on chemical glassIt is easy t o understand the feeling of discourageware just submitted t o t h e Ways and Means Comment which must possess t h e officials of the du Pont, mittee ( T a r i j I n f o r m a t i o n S u r v e y s , Scientific Instruas of every other American dye manufacturing comments and Apparatus, page 59), i t says: pany, over the failure of Congress t o enact definite “The great durability of domestic glassware makes it the and adequate protective legislation. However, t h e cheapest in the final analysis. Institutions which sell a t actual cost will no doubt find it to their advantage t o use this material pressure from consumers for a wider variety of dyes regardless of the price of foreign ware, because, although the has been materially lessened through t h e constant first cost is high, the replacement cost is low and smaller reserve licensing of imports by t h e War Trade Board and by stocks can be carried. Those institutions, on the other hand, t h e decreased demand for dyes during t h e present which plan on obtaining a profit from the sale of glassware to general industrial slump. Now is t h e time for destudents will find it to their advantage to use the fragile foreign veloping a n efficient research staff from among our material. In this case heavy breakage increases the turnover ablest American chemists. and therefore the profit.” It is not too late t o repair t h e damage. There are The Tariff Commission is not disposed t o joke, nor eastward-bound steamers constantly traveling across t h e t o make charges without facts on which t o base them. Atlantic. Whatever t h e ability of these two chcmFoster the American industry, then see t h a t i t plays ists, however intimate their knowledge of special lines t h e game fair! of manufacture may be-send them home and let t h e American industry proceed t o its full development i n an American way and by the force of American THE ROAD TO DEMORALIZATION brains. Two German dye chemists, Dr. Otto Runger and Dr. Joseph Flachslander, were officially released from Ellis Island and admitted into this country on JanuTHOUGHTS TRANSLATED INTO DEEDS ary 5, 1921. This action followed a thorough investiOften we discuss, and plan, and build great air gation by t h e authorities of t h e port of New York castles, and develop momentary boundless enthusiasm based, according t o press accounts, upon a protest -and then, with t h e peak of t h e curve reached, enthusifrom Germany. We don’t blame Germany for pro- asm wanes, interest subsides or becomes diverted t o testing, but with this side of t h e matter we have no other matters, and the result is nothing. Happily for concern. The herrschujtew proceeded immediately t o progress this is not always t h e case. Wilmington, Delaware, t o take positions in t h e reAt t h e meetings of t h e Interallied Conference of search laboratories of t h e du Pont Company. AcPure and Applied Chemistry which met in London cording t o t h e newspapers, $25,000 each is t h e salary and Brussels, in July 1919, i t was determined seriously of these newcomers. Rumor has i t t h a t t h e amount and comprehensively t o set about t h e task of betteris- much larger. A high official of t h e Company informs us t h a t these reports are greatly exaggerated. ment of chemical literature. The AMERICANCHEbiICAL However, t h a t matter is not important. But t h e SOCIETYundertook for its share of this work t h e prepchanged policy of this Company, hitherto always aration and publication of two series of monographs, considered 100 per cent American in every respect, is scientific and technologic, on chemical subjects. The important, and unfortunate from whatever angle viewed. announcement of t h e issuance of t h e first of t h e scientific series “The Chemistry of Enzyme Actions” by An economic battle for t h e possession of the American market is in progress between t h e American and Dr. K. George Falk is a n earnest t h a t t h e AYERICAN t h e German dye industry. I n war information is CHEMICALSOCIETYproposes t o carry out promptly obtained as far as possible from captured opponents, and t o t h e full its part of this undertaking. Congratulations t o t h e three trustees, Drs. Charles but renegades are not placed in positions of high command. Whatever tends t o demoralization in t h e L. Parsons, John E. Teeple, and Gellert Alleman, who American ranks is a matter of national concern, so quickly finished t h e business arrangements conand t h e gravest feature of this new policy is t h e nected with these publications; t o t h e editors, Drs. lowered morale of t h e du Pont research staff which W. A. Noyes and John Johnston, who already have announced progress in t h e preparation or printing of will result therefrom. It is not difficult t o imagine t h e feelings of American eleven other monographs; and t o t h e Chemical Catalog chemists who must take direction from men who Company, Inc., which has so excellently carried out t h e a short while ago were busy in those plants whence publication of this first of t h e series. Clear a new space on your book shelves, there is a came high explosives and poison gases, t h e latter accounting for a full third of our hospital casualties. lot oE fine material on the way t o you!
