REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1918. 81 



lay the chief opportunity to render service. Some two years ago, 

 when the country's deficiency in fixed nitrogen came up for con- 

 sideration, occasion was taken to point out x that a nitrogen situation 

 as a thing apart and to itself did not and could not exist; that it was 

 inextricably involved with the coal product situation and fertilizer 

 situation, and that the only practicable remedy lay in giving due 

 heed to this interrelationship. The course of action thus pointed to, 

 as it proved, was the course of action finally adopted, more than a 

 year later. 



So it is with the work of mobilizing the various other chemically 

 conducted industries on a war-time basis. The need of giving 

 advance heed to this question was appreciated among our enemies, 

 and Germany entered on the war prepared in this field fully as well 

 as in the military branches. It was inadequately appreciated by 

 those who eventually came to be our allies, however; and in the 

 United States, up to the actual outbreak of hostilities, it was entirely 

 disregarded as a national issue. Looming largest among the prob- 

 lems thus entailed are those presented by the industrial groups 

 having to do with the fertilizer materials necessary to an adequacy 

 of foodstuffs, and with the energy resources requisite to the work of 

 manufacture. It was in the hope of contributing to the solution of 

 these two basic problems that the investigations comprising fer- 

 tilizer materials, sulphur, coal products, power, and petroleum were 

 projected by the curator of mineral technology, Mr. Chester G. 

 Gilbert. These resulted in the publication of a series of pamphlets 

 during the year, as follows : " Fertilizers : An interpretation of the 

 situation in the United States," and " Sulphur : An example of in- 

 dustrial independence," by Joseph E. Pogue; "Coal Products: An 

 object lesson in resource administration," by Chester G. Gilbert; 

 and " Coal : The resource and its full utilization," by Messrs. Gilbert 

 and Pogue." Papers by these authors jointly on "Power: Its sig- 

 nificance and needs," and " Petroleum : A resource interpretation," 

 were also completed, though not published. 



It is worthy of special note that these bulletins present informa- 

 tion in process of accumulation some years before the first war cloud 

 manifested itself. The whole purpose set for the division from its 

 inception five years ago has been that of providing a demonstration 

 of the important part played by mineral derivatives through the 

 medium of chemically conducted industries, and of the need for a 

 constructive economic policy formulated with a view to promoting 

 their coordinated development. Year after year the needs in this di- 

 rection have been emphasized. In a democracy results are attainable 

 only through the education of the public opinion, and it is earnestly 



1 Sources of nitrogen compounds in the United States, by Chester G. Gilbert, Smith- 

 sonian Inst. Special Pub. No. 2421, June 30, 191 G. 

 91933° — NAT MCS 1918 6 



