ORGANIC CHEMICAL INDUSTRY — STINE 181 



showed important price reductions during this period. Sulfuric 

 acid, for example, declined about 31 percent, and caustic soda nearly 

 45 percent.^" 



Even during the period 1927-37, after much of the necessary 

 pioneering research had been done, we still find marked reductions 

 in the price of organic chemicals. During this decade acetic acid 

 dropped from $3.38 to $2.43 per hundred pounds; methanol, from 

 67.5 to 33 cents a gallon ; and formaldehyde from 10.33 to 5.75 cents 

 a pound." Coal-tar chemicals likewise underwent substantial price 

 reductions during this more recent period. Phenol, for example, 

 widely used in the manufacture of plastics, dropped from 17.5 to 

 13.25 cents a pound," and coal-tar medicinals from $1.92 to 96 cents 

 a pound,^2 ^ decline of exactly 50 percent. Synthetic organic chem- 

 icals of non-coal-tar origin dropped from 18 cents a pound to 10 

 cents." Likewise during this period we find marked price reductions 

 in certain inorganic chemicals widely used in the organic chemical 

 industry. Anhydrous ammonia, for example, declined from 7.5 to 

 4.5 cents a pound, and clilorine from $4 to $2.15 per hundred pounds." 

 By way of contrast, the average price of all chemicals during the 

 1927-37 period declined only about 10 percent." 



To the statistically minded, the above figures bear eloquent wit- 

 ness to the rise of our domestic organic chemical industry, but cold 

 statistics cannot portray the vital national significance of this in- 

 dustry. Wlien all is said and done, it is the broad, general sig- 

 nificance of a development that is of primary interest both to the 

 chemist and to the layman. Let us accordingly consider the rela- 

 tion of the organic chemical industry to other industries, and attempt 

 to visualize what this development means in terms of our everyday 

 existence. The complete story cannot, of course, be told here, but 

 a high-spot survey should be sufficient to show the degree of our 

 present dependence upon organic chemicals. It is not exaggerating, 

 I believe, to say they have fundamentally affected our national econ- 

 omy. They have promoted the development of other industries, 

 which in turn have provided new jobs for our increasing popula- 

 tion; greatly stimulated many of our older industries; provided the 

 farmer with improved weapons with which to combat insects and 

 plant disease; promoted comfort and health; brought to the masses 

 of the American people many of the good things of life which for- 

 merly were to be had only by the relatively well-to-do ; and promoted 

 national self-sufficiency and security. 



*<• U. S. Census of Manufactures. 



" Ind. and Eng. Chem., June 1938, p. 601. 



^ Census of Dyes and Other Synthetic Organic Chemicals. 



1" Survey of Current Business, 1938 Supplement (U. S. Department of Commerce), p. 13. 



