38 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XLI. No. 1045 



are associated with those fine men then 

 prominent here, but now mostly passed on, 

 who made this eity respected wherever 

 chemical products were concerned, and not 

 an insignificant part of my youthful en- 

 thusiasm was imbibed from them. 



Therefore, when I was asked to talk to 

 you on the subject of the war and the chem- 

 ical industry, I accepted with the hope 

 that I might add something to the general 

 knowledge on the subject, and in a modest 

 way pay a portion of an old debt. In the 

 interval which has elapsed, however, the 

 ground has been covered by many men on 

 many occasions, and I find myself in the 

 position of talking to you on a subject as 

 well understood by most of you as it is by 

 myself. There may be certain phases, how- 

 ever, which will repay further thought, 

 and possibly there may be deductions worth 

 considering. I shall therefore ask your 

 indulgence if I ramble somewhat, and talk 

 largely about what we have not done, avoid- 

 ing dry statistics as far as possible. 



Some of us may be old enough to remem- 

 ber our own civil war. Most of us re- 

 member the so-called Spanish war. Any 

 knowledge or experience gained from these 

 wars, intimate as the former was, gives 

 no data on which to base any calculation as 

 to the world-wide results of the present de- 

 vastating struggle. Even our imaginations 

 are unable to satisfy ovir judgments, which 

 are more or less consciously or uncon- 

 sciously influenced by our point of view. It 

 is simply impossible to forecast the results 

 industrial, geographical or moral. The 

 world has never seen anything like it be- 

 fore, and, therefore, reasoning from anal- 

 ogy is entirely out of the question. We 

 know this, however, that where such an 

 enormous number of men are withdrawn 

 from ordinary pursuits, many never to 

 return, and such incalculable damage is 

 done to property, the world must feel for 



many years to come the effects which this 

 impoverishment must produce. We might 

 just as well accustom ourselves to the 

 thought that before us lie years of painful 

 toil and reconstruction, so that prudence, 

 that great virtue of our forebears, may be- 

 come more and more a part of us, and drive 

 out the vice of extravagance which has be- 

 come such a prominent characteristic of 

 our people. 



Judging from M^hat we read in the 

 papers, we might conclude that the chem- 

 ical industry in the United States is in an 

 infantile condition, and hardly worthy of 

 serious consideration. Those not ac- 

 quainted with the subject are ready to 

 admit without argument that almost any 

 European country is far and away ahead 

 of us in volume and ability to produce 

 economically. A glance at the 13th United 

 States census will dispel at least some of 

 these views, and is well worth taking. It 

 includes under the heading ' ' chemicals and 

 allied products," nine principal divisions, 

 and gives the value of the output of each. 



1. Paint and varnish $125,000,000 



2. Chemicals (general) 117,000,000 



3. Fertilizers 1 04,000,000 



4. Explosives 40,000,000 



5. Dyestuffs and extracts 16,000,000 



6. Sulphuric, nitric and mixed acids. 10,000,000 



7. Wood ( except rosin and turpentine). 10,000,000 



8. Essential oils 2,000,000 



9. Bone, carbon and lamp black 2,000,000 



The above values were produced by 2,140 

 establishments, having a capital of $48.3,- 

 000,000, and employing 88,000 persons. 

 The census does not state, however, what 

 is probably the fact, that the United States 

 produces more sulphuric acid by catalysis 

 than any other country in the world, and 

 possibly more than all other countries 

 combined. This fact has a bearing on 

 what will be alluded to later, namely, the 

 possible manufacture of coal-tar dyes and 

 other products, for which fuming sulphuric 

 acid is often an absolute necessity. 



