October 6, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



481 



was convinced and accordingly struck 

 from the bill the objectionable exceptions 

 and in addition included natural indigo 

 and coal-tar medicinals and flavors, addi- 

 tions in every sense logical, and giving to 

 the classifications of the bill a thoroughly 

 comprehensive character. 



With the appearance of the printed 

 hearings and briefs an interesting exhibit 

 was made by the plea of a large consumer 

 of indigo located at Greensboro, North 

 Carolina. Not content with the discrimi- 

 nation given indigo in the measure as 

 passed by the house, he urged its complete 

 removal to the free list. No other con- 

 sumer of indigo joined in this request. 

 The subcommittee rejected his plea. 



The completed section of the revenue 

 bill was then endorsed by the full com- 

 mittee and by the majority-party confer- 

 ence, and was adopted by the senate. In 

 the last hours of the session the section 

 emerged from the joint conference of the 

 majority-party conferees from both sen- 

 ate and house with indigo and alizarin ex- 

 cluded from the special duty, and carry- 

 ing along with them, as a sort of legislative 

 by-product, medicinals and flavors. As no 

 record is published of the proceedings of 

 conference committees we are left to as- 

 sumptions as to the influence which pre- 

 vailed to give the section its final form; 

 but in the light of the history of the legis- 

 lation and the personnel of the conferees, 

 as published in the Congressional Record, 

 it is not difficult to imagine whose influence 

 was determinative in maintaining the dis- 

 criminatory feature of the original house 

 legislation, against which united protest 

 had been made save for the voice of one 

 consumer. The section in this disastrous 

 form was then adopted by both senate and 

 house and is now the law. 



Such is the answer of the present con- 

 gress to the nation-wide (with one excep- 

 tion) call for adequate protective duties 



for the encouragement and upbuilding of 

 this much needed industry. The claims of 

 this industry, upon non-partisan legisla- 

 tive aid are reasonable, because of initial 

 difficulties in manufacture and the charac- 

 ter of the competition to be met after the 

 war. These claims are also commanding, 

 through the intimate connection of the in- 

 dustry with adequate munitions for our 

 army and navy. Nevertheless, the meas- 

 ure professedly enacted for its upbuilding 

 stands to-day stamped with the evidence 

 either of the most specialized form of leg- 

 islation for special interests; or of stupid- 

 ity, as a tax placed upon the consumer 

 without the benefit of an assured home in- 

 dustry; or of stubborness in maintaining a 

 wrong position rather than admit an error 

 in judgment. I do not believe the citizens 

 of this nation will set the seal of their ap- 

 proval upon such legislation. 



RELATIONS TO NATIONAL THOUGHT 



In the light of the activities of the past 

 year let us ask ourselves frankly — what is 

 the position of chemistry to-day in the 

 thought of the nation? No one can doubt 

 that it occupies a much more prominent 

 place. This is due in part to the superb 

 response American chemists have given to 

 the sudden call upon their resources and 

 ingenuity, in part to the advertisement 

 through the press of the important role of 

 the German chemist in the industrial up- 

 building of that nation, and to the con- 

 stant repetition of the phrase that "mod- 

 ern war is largely a matter of chemistry 

 and engineering." 



Concrete evidence of increased apprecia- 

 tion of chemistry is furnished by the Sec- 

 ond National Exposition of Chemical In- 

 dustries now in progress. Its exhibitors 

 are more than double those of last year; 

 its exhibits show many new products, born 

 of the exigencies of the year: its underly- 

 ing thought has been broadened to include 



