June 15, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



607 



war orders in this country strained to the 

 breaking point our best organized chemical 

 industries. The mere request by the allied 

 countries two years ago for our soda, ben- 

 zol, toluol and our explosives for only a 

 small portion of their demands, produced 

 a state of affairs in our industries that was 

 an appalling warning against the time when 

 we would need such things ourselves, for 

 defense, and in immensely greater volume. 



It is natural, in view of the nature of these 

 defense problems, that the engineers and 

 chemists of the country have been serious in 

 the preparedness movement. Thirty thou- 

 sand engineers and chemists of the United 

 States volunteered without pay to the Na- 

 tional Consulting Board for both the navy 

 and army to work on the organization of the 

 industries of the country for national de- 

 fense. The result was much more efficient 

 than any similar organization carried out in 

 the world, for no government could afford to 

 pay for the expert services involved. This 

 consulting board and its successor the Na- 

 tional Council for Defense, have assisted 

 the country to become self-contained for de- 

 fense, arranged for speedy conversion of 

 industrial plants into munitions plants and 

 arranged during peace to prevent useless 

 waste of experienced engineers. Experi- 

 enced chemical engineers, for instance, like 

 naval officers, can not be trained in a day 

 or a year, though the analytical chemical 

 control can be taught in a few days to any 

 chemist. The mistakes made by Britain in 

 passing through the blockade materials 

 helpful in explosive manufacture demands 

 that our military authority and foreign 

 office have at its call as wide a variety of 

 chemical experience and advice as possible, 

 and every chemist as well as engineer in 

 this country is now being card indexed. 



If we, as scientists, ask ourselves individ- 

 ually what we can do to assist in the gen- 

 eral defense of our firesides and our ideals, 

 the answer is do our daily work in what- 



ever field it may be, as though it were the 

 most important single thing in the world 

 and particularly do our utmost to assist 

 production and those directly engaged in it, 

 whether manufacturing or agricultural. 

 Then when the government calls upon us 

 for special service we will be ready to at- 

 tack the problems which only the military 

 arm can formulate for us. 



We have touched on sufficient high points 

 to indicate the character of the influence of 

 the war upon chemistry in America. Still 

 other points should be discussed, were there 

 time. Hardly any branch of the science 

 but contributes an important service to the 

 national defense as well as our normal 

 benefit. 



After all, is not chemistry and science 

 itself a pretty matter in the presence of this 

 world calamity and the personal suffering 

 ever upon our minds? Have we not often 

 wondered what we had done to be spared 

 to this minute, from such things? It may 

 be proper to say we do not quarrel with the 

 German people as such, but with the ideals 

 and acts of their leaders and government. 

 Do not let that point of view toward our 

 neighbor, however, be used by us to excuse 

 our individual responsibility for this gov- 

 ernment and its every act. "We are respon- 

 sible, and we alone. "We have seen conclu- 

 sive proof in the last three years that sci- 

 ence and education are merely aids and not 

 specifics against international immortality 

 and that the devotees of science are as 

 easily misled as others when the leaders too 

 are scientific. Though this war has long 

 become evident as a war for privilege and 

 the exploitation of the weak by the strong, 

 and the doctrine that the state can do no 

 wrong rather than that the state must do 

 no wrong, let us not deceive ourselves that 

 our abolition of aristocratic government is 

 a specific for this malady, for it is not. 

 This is our constant battle still, even under 

 our form of government. 



