76 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XVIII, No. 3, 



universal distribution of the ability to use it promptly and 

 effectively, as against the old idea, that this power and this 

 ability is possessed by a chosen few. An illustration or two 

 will perhaps show that this latter idea is still too prevalent. 



I have met manufacturers since the war whose operations 

 were brought to a full stop by lack of some raw material or 

 other who complacently accepted their fate on the ground that 

 they could not get a German chemist. They had no bias in 

 favor of Germany at all. They just thought it was a matter of 

 common information that chemists were domestic animals 

 imported from the Black Forest. Would you believe that some 

 of these manufacturers were engineers graduated from some of 

 our large colleges of engineering and not men without education? 



In such a time as this we see that our keeping quiet about 

 the progress and development of American chemistry in years 

 gone by, was criminal, for much harm results from lack of 

 information as well as from misinformation. There are always 

 patriotic Germans and others who praise their country's 

 achievements to us and as I pointed out last year in your Ohio 

 Journal of Science, we are glad to see this and our University 

 teachers of chemistry have been lavish in their praise, partic- 

 ularly of German chemistry. They, however, are not rendering 

 very good service to the community when, as they should, they 

 give such praise if they fail to make a real effort to find out also 

 what is going on in their own country. We university professors 

 feel abused if it is inferred that we are not well informed, yet 

 we innocently assume as the only modern development in 

 chemistry the latest tale of achievement from a German dye 

 advertisement and these lads know how to use the educated 

 public and university chemistry professors as well, in furthering 

 their advertising propaganda. Much good work has been done 

 by the "Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry" in 

 publishing a series of articles by authorities, on what the 

 American Chemist has done for the individual industries. 

 Time only will eradicate the evil. Only a short time ago I was 

 at a banquet of a society of engineers in an eastern city. The 

 professor of chemistry from a nearby university was an invited 

 speaker. He was a revered and respected man among American 

 chemists and a man of affairs, too, but he lived in the dark ages 

 of chemical achievement. He spent half of his time telling how 

 wonderful chemistry was and how great the achievements of 



