26 president's address — section b. 



definite and concrete achievements. The business or financial man 

 believes that hei understands them, and to some extent appreciates 

 the difficulties which have been surmounted in their erection. 

 Naturally, therefore, he respects the man who created them. Also 

 the engineer during his training has usually seen something of the 

 handling of labour, and has acquired sufficient knowledge of busi- 

 neiss to enable him to meet the purely business man en more or less 

 equal tei'ms. On the other hand, our hard-headed business man 

 is apt to regard the chemist as either of doubtful utility or as a 

 suspicious character. So far as he can see, the chemist seems to 

 be spending his time in juggling with invisible molecules and 

 atoims and electrons, which, as a business man has put it, "are so 

 small and insignificant that they haven't got any size toi them" ; 

 and it is difficult to' convince him that these insignificant things 

 make up in numbers for what they lack in size, and that he who 

 can control them will rule the world. It must be admitted that 

 the training oi the chemist has been largely to blame. More 

 often than not he has had no chance during his training to get 

 any insight into the handling of labour or into business methods, 

 or the working of technical plant, so^ that he starts his works 

 experience with a heavy handicap as compared with the engineer. 

 Hence we so often find thei management of a manufacturing con- 

 cern, even when the prccesses involved are largely of a chemical 

 nature, in the hands of purely business men, or at the most of 

 engineers. In such cases the chemistSj if employed at all, are 

 reduced toi the position of mere testers, and are discouraged from 

 acquiring tcoi much knowledge of the working of the business, let 

 alonei offering suggestions or criticisms. The idea of a chemical 

 research department is scouted as a costly fad ; and the so-called 

 "practical man," who in reality is usually the worst kind of hap- 

 hazard theorist, reigns supreme. It is not surprising that chemical 

 manufactures under such conditions tend towards stagnation. In 

 fact, a business involving chemical processes cannot be run in- 

 definitely on such lines with safety ; sooner or later it must 

 succumb to the competition of more progressive rivals. Experi- 

 ence has shown the great advantages to be derived from allowing 

 the chemists to acquire a working knowledge of every detail of the 

 business, and even toi share in the management. Above all, facili- 

 ties for research are essential if progress combined with economy 

 is to be insured. It hardly ever happens that the working out of 

 new processes or of improvements in existing processes is achieved 

 without making mistakes. And it should be obvious, even to the 

 purely business or financial man, that it is cheaper to make these 

 unavoidable mistakes on a small scale in a research laboratory 

 than on a large scale in the works. It is often contended, how- 

 ever, that the expense of a research department may be dispensed 

 with on the ground that a purely business and non-technical 

 management can always call in expert knowledge when it needs 

 it; but this is apt to be a sort of fool's paradise. In the first 



