608 
the solutions are obvious. Our government 
has already made a tremendous stride in the 
promotion of national welfare by drafting our 
young men and sending them to colleges and 
universities for their higher mental, physical 
and moral training. If continued, this policy 
should yield a plentiful supply of well selected 
material for our higher scientific, professional, 
technical and administrative positions, imbued 
with proper habits and principles. 
In the mobilization of our man power al- 
ready developed, much could be accomplished 
by our great engineering and scientific so- 
cieties if but given a freer hand in directing 
affairs affecting national welfare and in work- 
ing our broad fundamental problems. They 
are already providing fairly well for the devel- 
opment and publication of scientific and tech- 
nical literature and could undoubtedly take 
care of this and of the writing and publica- 
tion of reference books. Many very valuable 
pieces of work have been done by individuals 
and committees for their organizations which 
would never have been undertaken by the in- 
dividual alone. The societies mentioned stand 
between our great educational institutions and 
the national welfare which is the objective of 
higher education and it is very gratifying that 
they are gaining in influence in both. 
The popularizing of organized knowledge 
and fundamental truths and vital principles 
of all kinds lies with our individuals of ac- 
complishment and refined judgment. Let 
these be given every possible encouragement 
and inducement to pass on their knowledge 
to those less fayored and less advanced. 
Finally the increase of our total output all 
along the line through greater incentives to 
achievement can only come from the habitual 
emphasizing of those factors in productive 
achievement which every individual recognizes 
in himself. Whenever the question of whether 
to undertake or not to undertake arises, let us 
put ourselves under contract to produce cer- 
tain results. To many of us the strife to in- 
crease our income or to secure the praise and 
respect of others are powerful factors. If we 
live up to but fifty per cent. of our possibilities 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIIT. No. 1251 
we shall at least double our effective output 
and as a nation, state or individual command 
the respect of others. 
P. G. Nurrine 
THE CRITERIA IN THE DECLARATION 
OF CHEMICAL INDEPENDENCE IN 
THE UNITED STATES! 
The funds and knowledge and experience of 
every branch of scientific activity, every ounce 
of our strength and every grain of our intelli- 
gence have been drawn upon in the defense of 
our firesides and our ideals. 
It was a real epoch in the history of chem- 
istry in warfare when the Chemical Warfare 
Service Section was created as one of the 
components of our military organization. By 
its inception the government acknowledged 
and proclaimed its appreciation of science— 
entirely too long withheld—for never before 
has this country realized how indispensable a 
chemist is in the fabric of our modern eco- 
nomic conditions. 
Chemistry is the criterion of a country’s 
very existence. It is the “science of the trans- 
formation of matter” underlying all the activi- 
ties of our complicated social system ever 
changing, and as well the untold wonders of 
to-morrow. This fundamental science looks 
into everything, focuses her light upon every- 
thing, directs our paths when the light of na- 
ture fails and “allures to brighter worlds” 
and leads the way. The chemist leads on— 
harnessing the forces of the universe to his 
ends, for, in the words of Kipling, “his is the 
earth and all that is in it.” Indeed, for this 
reason arises the conception that national pre- 
eminence in chemical industry means a na- 
tional world supremacy. 
The chemists of America never concerned 
themselves with the prostitution of science, but 
called upon to provide our nation with the 
new diabolic arms of modern scientific warfare 
developed by a militaristic autocracy, . they 
served ably and completely. Our eminent suc- 
cess is a cause of pride to every American. In 
1 Address delivered at the annual meeting of the 
Alabama Section of the American Chemical So- 
ciety in Birmingham, December 7, 1918. 
