THE AMERICAN CHEMIST AND THE WAR'S 



PROBLEMS.* 



James R. Withrow. 



A volume could be written upon this subject if one possessed 

 the power to assemble the material. The new problems which 

 have arisen; the old ones which have become acute because of 

 changed conditions; the splendid way in which the problems 

 have been met where they were a matter of invention or skill; 

 the new methods and processes which have sprung up as though 

 born fullgrown ; the many old ones which have been improved, 

 altered and utilized in new connections; the way in which the 

 chemists of the country have risen to emergencies which have 

 compelled them to manufacture products in whose manufacture 

 they had had no prior experience, would easily fill entire chapters 

 in such a volume. Even so, no earthly progress, achievement or 

 consideration can lift the pall which settles over us when we 

 permit our minds to dwell upon the spectacle of this war. And 

 whose mind can be diverted from it for any length of time? He 

 must indeed exist far below the kindling-point who does not 

 resent and despise with all his soul, the philosophy and ideals 

 which made it possible. It would be out of place therefore, to 

 consider our subject from the point of view of achievement, or 

 felicitation, on any alleged good which has come to the science 

 of chemistry because of the war. Surely no one would want 

 progress at such a cost to his fellow man. We approach the 

 subject rather in a spirit of thankfulness that we have been 

 enabled to save something out of the wreck, and that our 

 experience had prepared us in advance so that we have been 

 enabled to prevent the collateral business and economic trag- 

 edies of the war from spreading universally. It is not in any 

 spirit of gladness, therefore, at the evil providence which has 

 fallen upon our European neighbors, that we recognize that 

 this war has exalted the importance of chemistry in the minds 

 of those who had not much opportunity hitherto to appreciate 

 its value, nor is it with any jubilation that we take pleasure as 

 chemists in meeting our new problems and emergencies arising 

 from the war. 



* Address before Section C, American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Columbus Meeting, Dec. 30, 1915. 



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