THE CHEMISTS' BUILDING 127 



partnership. No shareholder can receive more than 3 per 

 cent dividends, and the surplus cannot, under any circum- 

 stances, accrue to his benefit within the next fifty years. 

 This association, therefore, is not for individual profit, but 

 for the raising of the standards of chemical industry and re- 

 search in the United States. If we recognize what the Verein 

 zur Hebung der chemischen Industrie, founded by Hof mann 

 and Werner Siemens, has done for Germany, we may well 

 hope for further fruits of this initiative here. Perhaps this 

 building will house joint laboratories for the solution of 

 questions affecting all manufactures alike; or experimental 

 stations for the study of natural products not yet utilized; 

 or a cooperative bureau of standardization for analytical 

 methods; or a national welfare bureau for employees in chem- 

 ical factories. This building does not owe its erection to some 

 benevolent demigod, extending his protecting wing over 

 people unable to care for themselves; it is a building by the 

 chemists, of the chemists, and for the chemists. May it ever 

 serve as an exemplar of unselfish patriotic cooperation! 



