NATURE 



[September 6, 191 



paid than hitherto to proved abiUty of this char- 

 acter; that the staffs of technical institutions 

 should be not merely allowed, but expected, 

 to undertake original research ; and that 

 they should not be so overburdened with other 

 duties as to leave them little time and energy for 

 such work. 



NATIONAL WORTH OF CHEMICAL* 

 LABORATORIES. 



WE have on several occasions during the past 

 few months directed attention in these 

 columns to the strenuous efforts America is now 

 making to take the fullest advantage of the oppor- 

 tunity afforded by the present condition of things 

 in Europe to improve and enlarge such of her 

 industries as ar.e directly dependent upon chemis- 

 try. On all sides we see the evidence of her 

 determination to render herself independent of 

 the hold which Germany, by means fair or foul, 

 has sought to obtain over her, to the detriment 

 of her commercial development. But- energetic 

 and far-sighted American manufacturers have even 

 a wider outlook than the supply of their home 

 markets. They are out for wresting from Ger- 

 many the pre-eminence she has hitherto been able 

 to secure by combinations and financial arrange- 

 ments of a shady complexion in the markets of 

 the world, and there is no question that the 

 industrial magnates of Germany are now seriously 

 alarmed at the prospect. The recent political 

 crisis in Germany is a sure sign of this fact, and 

 the industrial and miUtary autocracies have still 

 further cemented their union in the effort to meet 

 it. The present struggle will inevitably develop 

 into an economic warfare of the most bitter and 

 relentless character. All this is clearly foreseen 

 by all the more important industrial communities. 

 The very method by which Germany is conducting 

 her share of the war is an indication of what she 

 intends her economic policy to be in the immediate 

 future. 



In an address delivered at the dedication of the 

 chemical laboratory of the University of Okla- 

 homa, reproduced in our contemporary. Science 

 (July 6), Prof. W. A. Noyes, of the University of 

 Illinois, has admirably defined the relation of the 

 research laboratories of the American universities 

 to the coming struggle. They are the training 

 schools in which the prospective combatants must 

 receive the equipment upon which success alone 

 depends. Economic warfare, in the long run, is 

 a far more complicated business than a military 

 campaign, and its ultimate and permanent triumph 

 rests upon many factors. But, under modern con- 

 ditions, it fundamentally depends upon the efficient 

 application of scientific principles and upon the 

 aptitude to turn the knowledge gained by scientific 

 research to practical account. 



Prof. Noyes illustrates these facts by examples, 



. familiar enough to all who are cognisant of the 



course of Industrial development during the past 



six or seven decades, but which cannot be too 



NO. 2497, VOL. 100] 



often dwelt upon. They are lessons to be in- 

 stilled into each succeeding generation, and whicl 

 they must never be allowed to forget. He begin- 

 with the creation of the Giessen laboratory, and 

 traces its influence upon the growth of scientiln 

 chemistry all the world over, and its special in- 

 fluence upon the development of applied chemistr\ 

 in Germany. Incidentally he contrasts the dif- 

 ference in the trend of events in England. Wi 

 had an enthusiastic and inspiring teacher in Hot- 

 mann, actuated by the spirit and example oi 

 Liebig, who had unquestionably a powerful stimu- 

 I lating effect here; but much of the good seed fell 

 upon stony groilnd so far as it permanently affected 

 the character of our chemical industries, and 

 the stimulus of Hofmann died with his recall to 

 Berlin. The manner in which we threw away our 

 opportunity in discarding the new industry which 

 Hofmann and the associates he gathered round 

 him created is one of the saddest stories in our 

 economic history. We are now reaUsing only too 

 bitterly what the loss of that industry has meant, 

 not only to our manufacturing supremacy, but also 

 to the rapid and successful prosecution of the war. 

 The moral of this lesson will, we may hope, not be 

 lost upon the young community to which it is 

 addressed. 



Prof. Noyes then rapidly deals with these ques- ^ 

 tions as they affect his own countrymen. He { 

 points to the extraordinary development In the 

 means of instruction in chemistry which the United 

 States has witnessed in the course of a generation, , 

 to the spread of admirably equipped schools for | 

 higher instruction and research, and to the grow- .; 

 ing recognition on the part of the industrial com- 

 munity of the Importance of scientific training In 

 the conduct of manufacturing operations. But the 

 full fruition of such efforts is, as with us, occa- 

 sionally Impeded by unwise legislative action, and 

 Prof. Noyes gives examples of such action on the 

 part of Congress, apparently at the Instigation of 

 persons acting in the interests of foreign firms. 

 The practices, of these firms are In direct contra- 

 vention of the principles of the Sherman law, 

 which forbids combinations Intended to prevent 

 real competition in the manufacture of staple pro- 

 ducts. But these combinations are deliberately 

 fostered by the German Government, and branch 

 establishments of powerful German firms settled 

 in America are avowedly working against the 

 spirit of the law in the effort to strangle the 

 rapidly growing development of American 

 chemical industry. There is an amusing story of 

 how a characteristic instance of Teutonic bullying 

 was effectually checked by a manufacturer who 

 was largely concerned In the production of 

 American bromine. The proverbial astuteness 

 of our American cousins is frequently 

 more than a match for the somewhat clumsy 

 j blundering of their German competitors. Show 

 I a firm front to the bully and he speedily collapses. 

 ] But America wiselv learns what she can from her 

 ! enemies, assimilating the good and rejecting the 

 ' bad, in her determination to organise the world 

 ' on the basis of justice Instead of force. 



