Aug., 1921
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THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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WASHINGTON LETTER B y WATSONDAVIS,1418 Rhode Island Ave., Washington, D. C.
THEFORDNEY TARIFF BILL Tariff, particularly tariff on chemicals and dyestuffs, is OCcupying the attention of Congress a t the present time. The permanent tariff bill is now being considered by the House, and, under the five-minute rule, the items on dyestuffs and control of dye importations are about to be discussed, along with hides, petroleum, cotton, and asphalt. The Fordney tariff bill is the result of more than half a year’s work on the part of the Ways and Means Committee, and it is still subject t o change, both in the House during the next few days, and later in the Senate. It may be another half year before the measure is passed. Of principal chemical interest is the embargo provided for the protection of American dyes and intermediates, pharmaceuticals, and other coal-tar products. This section of the bill provides that for three years dyes and other coal-tar chemicals manufactured in this country, and which are obtainable here on reasonable terms as to quality, price and delivery, cannot be imported under any conditions, while a total of six months’ supply or less of those chemicals not available here can be brought into the country only by importers registered with the U. S. Tariff Commission. This is somewhat similar to the embargo proposed in the emergency act, but that was replaced by an extension of the licensing system now in use. Under the proposed act the United States Tariff Commission would administer the control provided. The chemical schedule is more scientific and in more exact correspondence with commercial usage than any chemical schedule of previous tariff acts, owing t o the fact that Representative Longworth of Ohio, who, with Representatives Copley of Illinois and Hadley of Washington, framed the chemical schedule, used the advice and aid of Dr. Grinnell Jones and Messrs. DeLong and Kirkpatrick, chemical experts of the Tariff Commission, and relied upon the survey of the chemical industry t h a t the commission has worked upon intensively for the past three years. “More than one hundred chemicals have been given specific enumeration for the first time in tariff history,” explains Representative Longworth. “On the other hand, many other commodities, obsolete in commerce, have been carried in various tariff bills purely as a matter of custom, and these have been dropped altogether. Generally speaking, the rates of duty in the schedule are about the same upon the articles enumerated in the Payne law as in that law. The general rate of duty throughout the schedule has been established a t a uniform level of about 25 per cent both ad valorem and specific. It is only in these particular products which represent new industries *ormaterials essential to national preparedness that the rates are higher. ’’ Comparison between the rates of the Fordney bill and the Republican Payne-Aldrich Act of 1909 and the Democratic Underwood-Simmons Act of 1913 is made difficult by the American valuation provisions of the Fordney bill. This provides that “the duties ad valorem shall be assessed upon the fair market value of the merchandise in the United States,” and it results in the fact that a slight increase in the ad valorem rates will cause a substantial increase in protection. Fertilizer materials, including ammonium sulfate and crude potash salts, become taxable for the first time in tariff history. Barytes and barium chemicals, magnesite, crude botanical drugs, synthetic camphor, and hydrogenated, vulcanized, and ,other chemically treated oils are recognized by the new tariff. Another innovation of the Fordney bill is the power that is given the President, under circumstances warranted by the trade of the United States, to impose retaliatory duties or to adjust the rates along the principles of a bargaining tariff. American surgical instruments and glassware are protected by the new tariff, and replying t o charges that the proposed duties would bring hardships to college students, physicians, and hospitals, Representative Bacharach of New Jersey has declared that American products are the equal of Germany’s and superior t o Japans. On the floor of the House, opponents of the chemical and dyestuffs provisions of the bill introduced substitute amendments and attacked the chemical schedule. Representative Frear of Wisconsin was leader of the opposition. He also introduced a resolution requesting the Attorney General to bring legal proceedings t o set aside the sale gf 4000 alien chemical d y e patents sold during the year 1919 by the Alien Property
Custodian to the Chemical Foundation, Inc., and he made the charge that there is a dyestuffs lobby. TARIFF COMMISSION REPORTON DYESAND COAL-TAR CHEMICALS IN 1920 The report of the 1920 census of dyes and coal-tar chemicals by the Tariff Commission has just been issued. The output of dyes in 1920 was anincrease of 40 per cent in both quantity and value over the preceding year, the report shows, and it is stated that “the value of the domestic output in 1920 was a t least 120 per cent of the domestic consumption.” The production for the first time of triphenyl phosphate in large quantities and of tricresyl phosphate in lesser amounts is an important development from a national standpoint, the report points out, as these two coal-tar products have been utilized as substitutes for camphor in the manufacture of pyroxylin plastics. As Japan has a monopoly on natural camphor, this is another step in chemical independence. ALCOHOL LEGISLATION The prohibition legislation that has been threatening t o affect the use of alcohol in the chemical industry has evolved another step. A third bill, H. R. 7294, has been drafted, and has been passed by the House, and is about to come up for action in the Senate. While the original provisions that alarmed chemists and the chemical industry and threatened to affect it seriously have been modified, the prohibition commissioner is still given the right to compel a change of formula of a medicine or perfume if he sees fit, and this is pointed out as dangerous to industry and autocratic in power. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Only one of the chiefs of the new industrial divisions of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Department of Commerce has been appointed as yet. W. S. Tower has been made head of the iron and steel industrial division. The chief of the chemical division that will be similarly established by Secretary Hoover to aid chemical industry in foreign trade has not yet been selected, although a decision is expected within the next few weeks. Officials of the Department of Commerce, particularly the Bureau of the Census, are inviting cooperation of the chemical industry in working out plans for a monthly statistical service that will give data on stocks and production in the various chemical industries. W. M. Steuart, director of the Census, has sent circular letters to firms dealing in sulfuric acid, nitric acid, soda ash, and caustic soda, and asked their suggestions on forms and reports as a first step in the establishment of the service. THEMUSCLESHOALS NITRATEPLANT It seems that there is a t last a possibility of the Muscle Shoals Nitrate Plant being placed into operation. Henry Ford has made a proposal for its utilization which Secretary of Commerce Hoover has forwarded t o Secretary of War Weeks. The principal points in Mr. Ford’s offer for the plant, on which the Government has spent $8,000,000 to date, are: ]-He will take a 100-year lease on the Wilson dam and No 3 dam and electric installation when completed. This work is estimated t o cost $28,000,000 After a short preliminary period, M r Ford proposes t o pay interest at the rate of 6 per cent on the sum of $28,000,000 and amortize not only this sum, but the entire cost of the two dams over a period of 100 years. 2-He will purchase all the nitrate plant and equipment, lands, steam plant, etc , for $5,000,000. 3-He will convert and operate the large nitrate plant (No 2) for the production of fertilizer compounds and as a stand-by for government explosives in case of war and keep it up-to-date in both arts 4-He will limit the profits of the fertilizer plant to 8 per cent, an independent board embodying representatives of the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Grange, and the Farmers’ Union t o certify this maximum
It is understood that a number of tentative propositions made by the du Pont Powder Co., of Delaware, and a number of large chemical industries are also being considered by the government officials. Before any action can be taken on the offers or proposals, Congress will have to act. THEFIXED NITROGEN RESEARCH LABORATORY While Mr. Ford’s offer makes it seem probable that the governmental nitrate plant will be placed into operation, an announcement of the transfer of the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory,
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THE JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEiVIXTRY
located a t American University here, from the War Department to the Department of Agriculture, has assured the continuance of the investigative work on methods of fixing nitrogen from the air. Dr. R. C. Tolman, director, will remain in' charge, and the entire personnel of 110 t o 120, including 50 of the best trained experts in the world on nitrogen, is transferred. Most of the work of the laboratory has been done on the cyanamide process that is used in the Muscle Shoals plant, but the Haber and arc processes have also been studied. The laboratory will still consider nitrogen production from a military viewpoint, but it will do intensive work on problems of nitrogen supply for agricultural purposes. The laboratory and the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture have in the past year made extensive field tests on various fertilizers produced a t the Alabama plants, and it is planned to continue and enlarge these tests. Dr. R. 0. E. Davis, in charge of the soil physical investigation of the Bureau of Soils, has been cooperating in these tests. BUDGET FOR THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR The preparation of a budget for governmental expenditures during the next fiscal year is under way by the budget committee, headed by Gen. Dawes. Before the next two weeks have passed, it is expected that the budget will be presented to Congress. The scientific branches of the Government are joining in the trimming of estimates and the elimination of activities that can be dispensed with, and it may be that some lines of scientific work will
Vol. 13, No. 8
be somewhat curtailed. But in the end it is believed that the general tightening up of the purse strings of the Federal treasury will react to the benefit of scientific work, and that the expenditure of more money for investigation and research will be possible as it is more fully realized that scientific research is the creative side of governmental expenditure. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL BIBLIOGRAPHIES The National Research Council has just begun the compilation of bibliographies of the different sciences. As in t h e tariff bill schedule, the first science of this program is chemistry. It is planned to list all published bibliographies on chemistry and as many unpublished or manuscript bibliographies as can be located. Dr. Clarence J. West is in charge of this work, and would appreciate any information on compilations of chemical works. Work on heavy clay products will be conducted during this year by the Bureau of Mines with money that has been made available by Congress and contributions from the association of brick manufacturers. The patent bill situation is just about as it was some weeks ago. The bill is still in the House, and there is a hopeful movement under way to bring it up for consideration again. July 16, 1921
LONDON LETTER By STEPHEN MIALL.28, Belsize Grove, Hampstead, N. W 3, England
The coal strike has a t last come to an end; it has been an interesting and costly experiment, not without some value. But if in some other country it is desired to repeat the experiment, all who have had actual experience of such a folly will advise friends to choose some more economical method of settling a difference of opinion. It would be far better to split the difference or spin a coin. So far as industry is concerned the last three months have been merely a blank, a gloomy interval between two periods of pretty bad trade. The dispute has been characterized by great patience and good humor on both sides; both owners and miners have watched their resources dwindling away, and our only satisfaction is that we know now that this country, and perhaps most other countries, can endure without a revolution, without rioting, without even ill temper, an industrial catastrophe of first-rate importance. In a few days coal will be coming from the pits, and by the end of July the mills which have for some months been in a state of suspended animation will again be busy. But it will take us a long while t o recover from the loss of the last three months. Not only have the pits been idle, but chemical factories and indeed all other factories. With such an unprecedented period of inactivity and such an appalling loss of money, it is not a matter of surprise that for the last few months there have been in this country no items of news in the realm of industrial chemistry of any interest outside our borders. What we have to consider here is not what new processes will be adopted but whether some of our largest enterprises can carry on during the next few years without reconstruction or drawing on reserves which have been accumulated as a precaution against a set of conditions which even the most cautious and pessimistic never expected would actually prevail.
THEINTERNATIONAL CONGRESS AT BRUSSELS It was a refreshing change to get away from our own stagnation t o attend the Congress of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry a t Brussels. The Belgian chemists were naturally present in force, and Messrs. Chavanne, Lucion, Swarts, Timmermans, and their colleagues arranged a very delightful and interesting reunion, On the question of an international committee to deal with atomic weights, the American delegates had naturally an important part to play, and I think Messrs. Conant, Cottrell, and Mackall can be congratulated on their efforts. The Americans have taken a leading part in the accurate determination of atomic weights and now that this branch of research seems likely t o come to an end we fully expect their Ohysical chemists t o take an equally prominent position in some allied field of work. This International Union is now representative of practically the whole chemical world with the exception of Germany, and the international aspects of chemistry are considered and dealt with in as prompt and as satisfactory a manner as I believe to be possible.
CHEMICALS AND PARLIAMENT Measures to give some protection to the manufacture of dyestuffs and fine chemicals still afford debating points for the attention of a jaded House of Commons. But they excite comparatively little interest; such matters sink into insignificance bycomparison with the great problems of the Irish question, t h e labor question, and the financial question. A politician cannot be bothered with the methyl violet problem in the intervals of trying t o clear up a mess which has ended in t h e Gilbertian position that Ulster which has for a century resisted Home Rule has now got it, and that the rest of Ireland which for the same period has agitated for it now refuses t o consider it. A few years hence we shall offer Ireland a Republic and she will refuse the offer with scorn. Faced by such problems, how can the British government be expected to deal in a sensible manner with such trumpery matters as a flourishing chemical industry! I imagine that even the manufacturers of dyestuffs themselves are more concerned in wondering whether the demand will ever become normal again, how long they can continue to work short time, and whether when the very bottom is reached they can win through without lightening their load by dropping a number of expensive items of plant and buildings left as a legacy by the. great war.
THELABOR SITUATION A few days ago there was a very interesting debate in Parliament on the International Labor Conference held in Washington in November 1919. This conference started before the enthusiasm created by the war had come to an end and before we realized the great changes which bad trade and poverty would' bring about. The French and Italians, the English and the Rumanians, all did their best to devise schemes which would be some improvement of the conditions of the great mass of population. Only the Americans, and t o a less extent the Canadians, seemed skeptical. It now appears that they were right and that many of the hopeful projects of the other nations cannot be fully realized. The agreement come to about the eight-hour day seems to be unworkable in the exact shape in which it was adopted, and some other agreements will require cohsiderable modification. Over here we are all hopeful of the work of the League of Nations and the International Labour Office,but we shall have t o go slow if we are t o improve industrial conditions without damaging: industry by unwise interference. July 11, 1921
