THE CHEMISTS' BUILDING 1 



THE opening of the new Chemists' Building in New York 

 City is an event of national, rather than merely local signi- 

 ficance, and the committee in charge has done its duty by 

 seeking to express this fact in the programme of the opening 

 exercises. The social comforts of The Chemists' Club are but 

 an incident in the general scheme, and, in fact, the physical 

 transfer of that organization from its present quarters to the 

 splendid home now provided for it must, necessarily, await 

 the completion of its furnishings, after the building itself was 

 declared ready for occupancy. Hence, the Club's festivities 

 were subordinated to the dedication ceremonies of the build- 

 ing, when due emphasis could be laid upon the serious aims 

 of the enterprise, and to the scientific meetings, under the 

 auspices of the local sections of our Society, the American 

 Electrochemical Society and the Society of Chemical Indus- 

 try. It will not be the fault of the speakers at these meetings, 

 if the general public fails to grasp the importance of chemis- 

 try in our industrial development, and also as a branch of 

 pure science. We ourselves, and, especially, those of us who 

 do not dwell in New York itself, or its immediate vicinity, 

 might well take this occasion to reflect upon the practical 

 significance of this undertaking. 



Nobody can review the history of American progress dur- 

 ing the past twenty-five years without recognizing how much 

 more intimately chemistry is enmeshed in the general econo- 

 mic and sociological texture than a quarter century ago. 

 Then, the American student who went beyond the general 

 chemical courses prescribed for all freshmen and sopho- 



1 Editorial, reprinted from Journ. Ind. and Eng. Chem., 3, 205 (1911). 



