Industrial Research 



89 



tion executive, is the establishment and maintenance 

 of a ground of common interest in research activity 

 that is acceptable to a majority of the members. 



That which benefits the producer benefits the con- 

 sumer. The producer may be enabled through teclmi- 

 cal research to reduce costs or to manufacture a superior 

 article at the same price. In the latter case the 

 customer benefits directly by receiving better value 

 for his money. In the former, the customer will even- 

 tually receive the benefit of cost reduction, and com- 

 petition will probably operate to make reasonably 

 certain that he receives it promptly. Unless the 

 consmner benefits from the result of teclmical research, 

 an incentive to increase consumption is laclcing, and 

 this is one of the main objectives of trade association 

 activities. 



While trade association technical research must 

 always be designed to render its greatest benefits to the 

 members of the association, and to their consumer 

 customers, other members of the particular industry 

 involved almost always benefit to some degree. Any 

 new, better, or cheaper method of production can at 

 best be restricted to association members only in part. 

 Even if the exact product or process caimot be dupU- 

 cated legally by nonmembers, for whatever reason, 

 such competitors are stimulated to substitution or 

 imitation. Oftentimes the substitute or imitation 

 equals or sm-passes the original. The general plane of 

 quality is raised and the Nation benefits. 



Technical research carried on by one industry may 

 vitally affect other apparently entirely um-elated indus- 

 tries. Substitutes for standard commodities produced 



by one industry may be developed through tecluucal 

 research in another. Stainless steels, for uistance, have 

 almost completely supplanted some nonferrous metals 

 and alloys for many uses where ordmary corrosion is an 

 important factor. An industry may suddenly find 

 that the entire outlet for its product has been captured 

 by some other industry that it did not previously 

 regard as in any sense competitive. The partly sup- 

 planted industry must find other outlets, better its 

 methods or its products sufficiently to compete, or lose 

 its market. Its entire economic existence may be at 

 stake. The balance is upset and must be reestablished. 

 Often such an industry must turn to cooperative asso- 

 ciation research of one kind or another in order to solve 

 its new problems and continue its operations. This 

 situation is evidenced in the relation the artificial 

 refrigeration industry bears to the natural and artificial 

 ice industries. The expense of individual research 

 effort is often prohibitive; a pooling of the laiowlcdge, 

 the experience, and the resources of an entire industry 

 may be essential to the maintenance of its research 

 activities. 



Types of Research 



Any research project that has for its object the devel- 

 opment of a new source of a raw material important to 

 an industry, or of a new raw material usable by all 

 members of the association, presents an acceptable 

 undertaking. It might well be that an individual 

 association member would not elect to avail himself of 

 such a new source or new material and would thus 

 seem not to reap a benefit. In such case, however, 



I 

 Figure 14. — Laboratory and Headquarters of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Washington, D C. 



