CHEMISTRY IN NEW YORK 95 



While we can, therefore, congratulate ourselves upon the 

 great strides that have been made, during the past two dec- 

 ades, it behooves us to inquire whether there are not still 

 some drawbacks to our progress, not by way of carping criti- 

 cism, but for the purpose of seeking such effective remedies 

 that future progress may be made absolutely certain. 



For obvious reasons, we need not ask whether the internal 

 conditions in the chemical factories are satisfactory; since 

 there the managers must know that their success depends 

 upon the scientific abilities of their chemists. It is doubtful 

 whether the same can be said of the establishments which 

 employ a chemist or two to apply specific tests; and it is cer- 

 tain that there are still many factories which conduct, by 

 rule of thumb, operations that should be continually con- 

 trolled by scientific tests, if shameful waste is to be avoided. 



The American people are but slowly learning the importance 

 of the educated banker and the expert accountant alongside 

 the brilliant financier and the bold speculator; similarly, 

 while they acclaim the clever inventor and the skillful engineer, 

 they have yet to recognize the worth of that expert account- 

 ant of material economy, the industrial chemist. Quite aside, 

 therefore, from any wish for greater profits to our associates 

 who are gaining their daily bread as commercial or analytical 

 chemists, patriotic motives lead us to the earnest hope that 

 closer watch upon the economy of production may bring 

 about that conservation of natural resources of which the 

 politicians prate, but for which the chemist works. How, then, 

 can the status of the independent commercial chemist be 

 raised in our city? By giving him a central rally-point; a 

 home that proves to the layman that his is a skilled profes- 

 sion, not a mere job-hunting trade; a place where the manu- 

 facturer or merchant can find the man he wants without a 

 rambling search through the city directory. Doubtless, some 



