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National Resources Planning Board 



in schools of science and technology to apply it, obsta- 

 cles still existed to delay the application of science to 

 industry. 



When the nineteenth century oj)ened, our ancestors 

 had before them a country whose limits they did not 

 know, but one which was soon to yield them seemingly 

 inexhaustible natural resources. As the population in- 

 creased in the United States, more and more attention 

 was given to the development of manufactures, although 

 the obstacles to their introduction were numerous and 

 troublesome. In time, canals, railroads, and steam- 

 boats made available the great deposits of ore and coal 

 and widened the areas of profitable trade. This expan- 

 sion of transportation facilities was made possible by 

 feats in civil and mechanical engineering that, for the 

 age, were "gigantic." Our dependence upon foreign- 

 trained engineers was soon relieved, and in some 

 branches of engineering we began to set the example 

 for Europe. The "captains of industry" were bold and 

 capable; masters of organization and of men. Their 

 immediate problems were not those of producing effi- 

 cientl}^ and economically, but rather those of acquiring 

 control of resources, transporting materials, and finding 

 an adequate supply of labor to manufacture them into 

 products for which a greedy and growing population 

 was clamoring. Technical improvements were im- 

 ported from Europe and quickly adapted to the re- 

 quirements of industry. Until the last quarter of the 

 nineteenth century, however, teclmical progress was 

 based far more upon inventive experimentation and 

 trial-and-error methods then upon a conscious and sys- 

 tematic effort to apply the principles of science to in- 

 dustry through the medium of research. In no way 

 does this fact belittle the achievements of those who 

 utilized such methods, or serve as a criticism of indus- 

 trial leaders of that era. It simply indicates that in- 

 dustry had not yet reached the point wliere a further 

 increase in wealth depended upon the "progress of 

 scientific knowledge and the refinement of engineering 

 skill." As long as there was a large demand at a prof- 

 itable price for the products of the mill and factory, 

 owners and managers had little incentive to invest even 

 a small portion of their earnings in a search for new 

 methods and new products. When, even under such 

 generous natural conditions, problems did arise which 

 threatened profits, the industrialist's traditional attack 

 was a plea for greater tariff protection, or a "proposi- 

 tion" which would offset the wasteful methods of 

 production by eliminating the offending competitor." 



The Protective Tariff 



As late as 1913 an editorial in the Journal of Industrial 

 and Engineering Chemistry went so far as to say that 



» Duncan, U. K. Temporary industrial fellowships. North American Review, IBS, 

 M (May 3, 1907). 



probably the greatest factor in retarding the develop- 

 ment of scientific research among our industries has 

 been a high tariff; that it has caused prosperity and 

 enormous profits in si)it(' of short-sighted management; 

 and that political research has been well understood. 

 Many industrial managers have spent thousands on 

 the lobby and not a cent for placing their business 

 on a sound scientific footing . . . Only after hope of 

 increasing profits by the political route has been entirely 

 eliminated, will they turn to the scientific method.-* 



Although this is probably an overstatement of the 

 effect on research of high tariffs, it is true, particularly 

 in the early days of our development, that they fre- 

 quently deprived the United States of the opportunity 

 to share in the benefits of improvements which had 

 been made abroad. For nearly .30 years, for example, 

 the domestic producers of hammered iron were pro- 

 tected from the rolled iron which Great Britain w'as 

 producing much more cheaply under Cort's new 

 processes of puddling and rolling.^' Moreover, tariff pro- 

 tection and industrial combinations undoubtedly tended 

 to hide problems, or at least to hide the importance of 

 problems, and in so doing postponed a scientific attack 

 upon them. On the other hand, the tariff undoubtedly 

 made it easier for many industries to become estab- 

 lished, and the combination of small industrial units 

 into large corporations made it possible for the latter to 

 support costly research. 



Attitude of Industrialists and Scientists 



The industrialist's suspicion of the scientist and the 

 scientist's disdain for the man who would apply his 

 discoveries to everyday enterprises also delayed research. 

 To the manufacturers, industry was no place for the 

 impractical dreamer; he belonged in the university, 

 where he would not upset the methods that had 

 worked for many years. "Even the trained chemist," 

 said Willis R. WTiitney in 1916, "constituted in the 

 minds of most manufacturers a pure speculation." 

 This feeling was partly the result of ignorance of what 

 a properly trained man could accomplish and partly 

 the result of the numerous failures of men who were 

 employed to do research although they were wholly 

 unqualified through temperament and lack of proper 

 training and resourcefulness to undertake it. The 

 manufacturer, frequently unwilling to provide the 

 necessary conditions and equipment for research, ex- 

 pected immediate and startling results. Speaking of 

 this attitude as he observetl it in the oil industry, Mr. 

 William M. Burton said: 



It is very curious tliat from (lie early days of the industry 

 until the discovery of Lima oil, there seems to have been prejudice 

 on the part of practical oil men against the chemical fraternity. 



'* Research. Indttitriat and Kngiveering Chemistry, 6, 9fi6 (Decomber 191.3). 

 "Taussig, F. W. The tariff history of the United States. New York, London, 

 O. P. riilnam's Sons, 5th ed., 1909. p. 127. 



