February 20, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



189 



Marlcets said in a recent editorial, and this 

 organ of commercial chemistry might well 

 have added that at the same time American 

 science learned the wholesome lesson that 

 American industry has problems and aims not 

 altogether ignoble. It is no longer the hall- 

 mark of the practical business man openly to 

 hold in contempt all knowledge gained from 

 books or laboratories. The man of science 

 no longer believes that the application of his 

 training and talents to practical problems is 

 prostitution. 



During the war period, the practical prob- 

 lems of the chemical industry were problems 

 of production. American chemists helped 

 solve these production problems, and, now 

 that war conditions are passing, American 

 chemical manufacturers naturally turn to 

 them for help in solving the problems of 

 distribution. This help must come finally 

 from our colleges and universities. 



It is not necessary for me to point out that 

 chemical manufacture is a "key industry," 

 nor to emphasize the fact that, if we are to 

 keep the tremendous advantages we have won 

 during the past five years in the development 

 of the American chemical industry, a bitter 

 trade war must be successfully waged. Soon 

 our manufacturers will meet, both at home 

 and abroad, the products of foreign com- 

 petitors. Then the trade war will be declared 

 in earnest, since our domestic consumption 

 of chemicals is not sufficient to support a self- 

 contained industry. Our Allies have all in- 

 creased their chemical productivity greatly, 

 and they appreciate, quite as well as we do, 

 the vital importance of this industry. Ger- 

 many has always had a nice comprehension of 

 the place of chemicals in industry and in war- 

 fare, and her chemical equipment, both men 

 and plants, is intact. 



To make chemical products in competition 

 with the world avails us nothing if we can not 

 market them successfully in world-competi- 

 tion. Chemical manufacturing is the most 

 diversified and technical of industries, and its 

 basic conditions place a premium upon tech- 

 nical training; its productive branches are 

 as complex, for the diversified products to 



be marketed are bought by many consumers 

 and their uses are various and often highly 

 technical. Men of technical, chemical train- 

 ing who can market our American-made 

 chemicals are needed to-day. 



Detailed, expert knowledge of the goods he 

 handles is an important part of the salesman's 

 equipment, for, since he can no longer sell 

 his customers by means of cigars and jokes, 

 he must render them a service. This service 

 is often expert advice. Dyes must be properly 

 applied; medicinals must be intelligently pre- 

 scribed; aromatics must be skillfully com- 

 bined. New markets must be developed for 

 old chemicals and new products must be intro- 

 duced. A smattering of chemical trade jargon 

 is poor equipment for such work, and it is 

 worth remembering that the German dye 

 trusts took pains to send out salesmen trained 

 in the chemistry of dyestuffs and speaking 

 the language of the countries they visited. 

 The haphazard supply of men who have taken 

 more or less chemistry at college and who 

 chance to become salesmen is in no way able 

 to meet this kind of selling competition. 

 Graduates in chemistry are seldom fitted by 

 temperament or experience for this work: 

 salesmen are not often equipped with tech- 

 nical training. Chemistry applied commer- 

 cially to distribution is even further removed 

 from the pure science than are industrial re- 

 search and production work. The commercial 

 instinct, however, is not to be condemned, 

 and courses in commercial chemistry would 

 attract undergraduates who, after a year's 

 course, would normally drop out of the ken of 

 the chemistry department. The training of 

 so-called chemical engineers has brought to 

 the study of chemistry many students anxious 

 to become plant executives, but quite in- 

 different to analysis, research, or teaching. 

 Courses in commercial chemistry would, in 

 like manner, open up new opportunities. 



The foundation of such courses would nat- 

 urally be a broad one of chemistry upon 

 which could be raised a working knowledge of 

 analysis and of important industrial processes. 

 The uses of chemical products in the indus- 

 tries — steel, textile, leather, rubber, paper. 



