670 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1063 



swer this question I will use the official 

 classification of the German government as 

 to what constitutes products of and for 

 chemical industry and also the same gov- 

 ernment's corresponding figures for 1913. 



No two countries, speaking through their 

 statistical departments, have the same work- 

 ing definition of chemical industry. None 

 of the official classifications is as compre- 

 hensive as is the official German classifica- 

 tion. So far as the exchange of products 

 and commodities involved in chemical pur- 

 suits is concerned, the German classifica- 

 tion shows a total of 442 items of which 229 

 are involved in international trade between 

 Germany and the United States. Accord- 

 ing to these figures and this classification, 

 the United States imported from Germany 

 in 1913, $60,860,880, and exported to Ger- 

 many $156,036,090, or a total business of 

 $216,896,970, with a balance in favor of 

 the United States of $95,175,210. I have 

 selected from this 1913 list of items of busi- 

 ness between Germany and this country 

 those whose gross is $400,000 per annum 

 or over (Table 11). 



It is interesting to note that we sell Ger- 

 many more lard than Germany sells us of 

 potash and aniline and other coal-tar dyes 

 put together; that we sell Germany half 

 again as much refined petroleum as it sells 

 us aniline and other coal-tar dyes ; that we 

 sell Germany practically the same amount 

 of pig and scrap lead as Germany sells us 

 of alizarin and anthracene dyes; that we 

 sell Germany almost as much paraffine as 

 Germany sells us of indigo; and so on 

 through the list. 



RELATIVE QUALITIES OF IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 



Of course, it will be contended that the 

 things that we sell Germany are, from a 

 chemical point of view, less refined, i. e., 

 involve less hard chemical intellectual work 

 than do our imports from Germany. But, 



is most of the potash, which is practically 

 mined from the ground in Germany, any 

 more of a refined product than the phos- 

 phate rock we sell them? Does it not in- 

 volve quite as much chemical ingenuity to 

 produce good illuminating oil from petro- 

 leum as it does to produce many of the 

 coal-tar dyes? There is no question that 

 the general position above outlined is cor- 

 rect, namely, that our products, as a whole, 

 are less refined than those that we get, as a 

 whole, from Germany, but is that not true 

 practically throughout our entire export 

 and import business ? Are not the textiles 

 we export of a lower grade than those we 

 import ? Are not our leather products less 

 refined than those we buy? And so on 

 down the list. That being so, why pick out 

 the chemist as a special mark for criticism 

 when he is at least up to the average of his 

 surroundings ? 



In 1913 the total foreign business of the 

 United States amounted to $4,277,348,909, 

 and the excess of exports of all kinds over 

 imports of all kinds amounted to $691,- 

 271,949. 



The trade in chemicals and products of 

 and for chemical industry between the 

 United States and Germany in 1913 fur- 

 nished 5 per cent, of that total of inter- 

 national business and provided 13.8 per 

 cent, of the balance of trade. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHEMIST 



The symposiiun of papers presented to- 

 day constitutes a record of proud achieve- 

 ment, of solid accomplishment in nineteen 

 different branches of American industrial 

 activity, to which advance the application 

 of chemical knowledge, chemical principles 

 and chemical experience by American 

 chemists, has contributed a noble share and 

 an effective part. It is perhaps true that 

 much of that progress would have come 

 without the American chemist, but it is 



