April 26, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



403 



facture of dyes and associated chemicals. 

 The especial amount of capital to be set 

 aside for this purpose does not seem to be 

 stated. It is perhaps sufficient to know 

 however, that the capitalization of the Du- 

 pont Company amounts to $240,000,000. 

 As for legislation, that matter has been 

 fairly well attended to, so that piracy and 

 financial submarine v.arfare would seem to 

 be eliminated. 



And now what about the chemical part 

 of it? Previous to 1914 the importation of 

 dycstuffs into this country amounted to a 

 little over 10 millions dollars per year. 

 The home production was insignificant even 

 for our ovm use and the exportations were 

 conspicuous by their absence. During the 

 year 1917 we had caught up with the pro- 

 duction of dyestuff to such an extent that 

 the output was sufSeient to meet all home 

 demands with possibly one exception, 

 namely, the manufacture of indigo blue 

 which had been so largely contracted for to 

 meet the needs of the United States Navy 

 that there was as yet no surplus for the 

 general trade. This does not mean that all 

 of the possible 1,000 formulas representing 

 that number of different dyes and which 

 were available before the war are now made 

 in this country. It does mean, however, 

 that the possible 100 dyes called for by the 

 everyday work of the dyer and meeting 

 substantially all of his needs are at hand. 



Such an accomplishment would not have 

 been thought possible even by the wildest 

 dreamer two and a half years ago and in 

 itself would be quite sufficient cause for 

 profound congratulation to all concerned, 

 chemists, capitalists, the ribbon counters 

 and the ladies, but that is only half and less 

 than half the story. In addition to being 

 able to supply our own needs the exporta- 

 tions to other countries for the first ten 

 months of 1917 amounted to a total of 

 $12,500,000 and if the exports for Decem- 



ber last are an index for the current year, 

 the dyestuffs sent abroad from this country 

 in 1918 will reach a total value of over 

 .$16,000,000. 



Permit me further in this connection, to 

 paraphrase an old exclamation, "That beats 

 the Dutch!" by saying "This beats the 

 British," becau.se early in 1916 it was an- 

 nounced that there had been formed in 

 England and British Dye-stuff Syndicate, 

 backed financially to the extent of about 

 $15,000,000 by the manufacturers of dyes, 

 the textile indu.stries and the government, 

 with the avowed purpose of making them- 

 selves self-contained and independent of 

 foreign supplies. Of course the English 

 people are tremendously busy with other 

 things and there is no thought whatever of 

 reflecting on their ability to accomplish 

 what they set out to do in this or any other 

 undertaking, but it is interesting to know 

 that our largest customer last year was 

 Great Britain, whose purchases of dyes ex- 

 ceeded a value of $3,000,000. 



Before leaving the subject of dyes, it 

 may not be out of place to mention a cir- 

 cumstance, involving, perhaps, too much of 

 detail or possibly of personal interest to 

 be included in this discussion. However 

 this is the item : About eighteen months ago 

 a chemical graduate from one of these land- 

 grant colleges which we now dignify with 

 the title of state universities, one of my 

 own students in fact, completed his investi- 

 gations in a government laboratory upon 

 the possibilities of a dye which he had 

 developed from the wood of the osage 

 orange. The results of this work are now 

 almost everywhere in evidence, because of 

 the utilization of this dye as the coloring 

 matter for the khaki uniform cloth of the 

 American army. I wonder if his acquaint- 

 ance with the osage orange does not result 

 directly from its introduction, throughout 

 the upper Mississippi Valley, some fifty 



