PACIFIC SOUTHWEST ASSOCIATION OF CHEMISTRY TEACHERS WILLETT L. HARDIN' WALTER A. SCHMIDT Western Precipitation Corporation, Los Angeles
NORMAN KHARASCH University of Southern California, Los Angeles
note of those members of its community who have contributed in outstanding ways to the science of chemistry as well as to the development of the Pacific Southwest. The careers of Willett I,. Hardiri are worthy of such notice. As he turns into his ninetieth year, Dr. Hardin, still youthful, is the patriarch of Southern California chemists. He is hale and hearty and his mind is brilliantly active. His interest in chemistry has not waned and he has also reached full maturity as an editor and interpreter of trends in world affairs. His career as a chemist shows clearly as the foundation for his second career in the study of human relationships. Willett Hardin received his B.S. from Buchtel College, now the University of Akron, in 1893, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. In 1951 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Univer~it~y of Akron. He taught chemistry and physics at the University of Akron for two years, then was called to the University of Pennsylvania where he organized and headed the Department of Physical Chemistry for six years, during one of which he was also in charge of the Department of Technical and Industrial Chemistry. At the turn of the century Hardin turned to industrial chemistry. After serving four years with the Symes Valley Coal Company of Ohio, he joined the Doheuy oil interests, devoting his efforts primarily to their activities in Mexico. He was later transferred to Los Angeles where he continued his activit,ies with this company as technical consultant. Los Angeles has been his residence ever since. His scientific knowledge, his ability t,o pick the important from the trivial, and his sincerity and ability to work with people in every walk of life made him a consultant of admirable repute. Dr. Hardin was a pioneer contributor to the chemical literature. On the basis of his studies at Pennsylvania, he published a comprehensive article on atomic masses of silver, mercury. and cadmium, numerous references to the dat,a of which are made in the 1897 publication of the Smithsonian Institute. He also wrote the treatise, "The Rise and Development of the Liquefaction of Gases," a book which played an important part in stimulating the development of the gas-lique1 This article was read before the Southern Seotion of the Pacific Southwest Association of Cherni~tryTeachers.
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faction industry in this country. IIis rontrihutions have appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Science, and Radium. Dr. Hardin also translated Traube's "Physico-Chemical Methods," ~vhiah was used midely as a textbook in this country. Other writings and activities show his later interest in horticultural developments in the Southwest, His scientific work and broad interest in science was midely recognized, both in this country and abroad. He was well acquainted with the leaders of the scientific world, even in those earlier days, and his name appears together with other leading American scientists as one of those which were starred in the first edition of "American Men of Science." I n retiring, formally, from his active scientific work, Dr. Hardin turned his interests to writing on science, philosophy, and world affairs. During the past twentyfive years of his second active career (ca. 1931-56) he edited and established The World Affairs Interpreter, which was published and received its main support from the University of Southern California. Under Dr. Hardin's guidance this journal gained national and international preeminence and was an important link in the building of a strong school of international relations a t the University. Recently, Dr. Hardin passed the reins of active editorship to historian Richard JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
W. van Alstyne, and with the change of editorship the name of the journal was altered to The World Affairs Quarterly. As editor emeritus, Dr. Hardin still maintains a lively interest in the ever-expanding work of the journal. I n his years as editor, Hardin wrote a succession of remarkable editorials which constantly display his dual interests as scientist and sociologist. On the occasion of his retirement from active editorship, the University published a selection of these in book form? "A Scientist Looks a t World Affairs," as a tribute to his years of service. Something of Dr. Hardin's spirit and philosophy can be gained even from a few isolated quotations from his book: I t is the very essence of education in a. democracy that it should enable the citizens to reason far themselves ahout moral responsibility and judge the rightness of social, economic and political practices, not by their conformity with the past, but by a HARDIN, W. L., "A S ~ i e n t i Looks ~t a t World Affairs," University of Southern California Press, Los Angeles, California, 1956; xvii 281 pp.
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their influence on the general welfare and human relationshipe. Ideologies should be judged solely on their merit, regardless of whence they came or by whom they were f i s t advanced.. . . The first essential for a euccessful democracy is that i t shall be a living, growing institution. Rigid fixity in a free government is not only undesimhle but impossible. Like everything else in evolution, government is an unfalding-a perpetual struggle for right adjustment. The law of change can never be annulled by conservatism. The very spirit of science is itself a great educator. It keeps the human mind open to new truths, ready to remold opinion in accordance with increased knowledge and develops a full realization that the human mind has the capacity for endless growth and that the sources of knowledge can never he exhausted. The progress of any people and of any generation is determined by their ability and willingness t o explore and utilize frontiers in the material, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of nature.
I n the complex-for the hour-bewildered society of the spaee age it is helpful to study Willett Hardin's careers and ideals. The examples he has set can help us to gain the courage, initiative, and wisdom for the tasks ahead.
