May 7, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



673 



of manufacture on the part of many of our 

 manufacturers, as this meat packer dis- 

 played, and if the general chemical view- 

 point of the managers of many of our chem- 

 ical industries is as Bonfused and un- 

 founded as was the view of this metal- 

 lurgist, then it is no wonder that American 

 chemical enterprises are behind some other 

 countries ; the real wonder is that we have 

 any chemical industry at all. Nor is there 

 any dearth in this country of properly 

 trained chemists. There are almost ten 

 thousand of them now in the United States, 

 and they are being turned out by our tech- 

 nical and other schools with great regularity 

 and with increasing volume every year. 

 The fault is not with the American chem- 

 ist, nor with his ability, nor his willingness ; 

 the fault lies principally and almost wholly 

 with those in charge of many of our indus- 

 trial enterprises, who fail absolutely in a 

 chemical understanding of their own prod- 

 ucts and are devoid of any sympathetic 

 contact with chemistry and with chemical 

 points of view and therefore are incapable 

 of, and unable to appreciate the value of 

 chemical work or to have a wholesome 

 understanding of the snares, the pit-falls 

 and the tedium of chemical research. 



CHEMISTS IN MANAGEEIAX. POSITIONS 



This plea for the wider introduction of 

 chemists in positions of managerial respon- 

 sibility is, however, not to be interpreted 

 into a statement that any kind of a chemist 

 can do any kind of a chemical job. Just 

 because a man can swing a scythe and cut 

 wheat rapidly is no reason why he should 

 be entrusted with the job of giving a man 

 a shave ; therefore, if you have a cotton oil 

 problem, do not give it to a man whose spe- 

 cialty and training is in iron and steel only. 

 The non-chemical managers of chemical 

 enterprises will have their hands full pick- 

 ing out the right chemist for the right job 



and training promising chemical material 

 for managerial positions. To do this suc- 

 cessfully is quite an undertaking and will 

 not be accomplished without many trials 

 and many failures. Why should there not 

 be failures? Not every man who is sent 

 out on the road makes a successful traveling 

 salesman, nor is every man put in as a 

 superintendent a success as a superin- 

 tendent. 



In selecting your chemist for a respon- 

 sible position, you must look out that you 

 do not get a square peg for a round hole, 

 just as you would when engaging a man for 

 any other position, but the trouble seems 

 to be with many of those who have engaged 

 chemists, that they have not appreciated 

 that there are chemists and chemists ; they 

 seem to have some sort of an idea that there 

 is a magic about what a chemist does. 

 Now, there is no magic at all. It is all 

 plain, hard work, that calls for a lot of 

 intellectual effort, and above all, the appli- 

 cation of common sense, which, as every 

 one knows, is a very rare article. 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OP THE PUBLIC 



With this record of solid achievement 

 placed before you to-day, together with 

 what I have just said, I hope that the con- 

 viction will finally break through, and will 

 penetrate the public mind as well as the 

 minds of those in charge of many of our 

 industrial establishments, that if the Amer- 

 ican chemist is not doing as much as the 

 public expect him to do, it is because the 

 public through its industrial enterprises has 

 deliberately declined to give him a chance. 

 With this wonderful record of fruitful en- 

 deavor is the American chemist to have his 

 chance? The answer to that question is 

 largely in the hands of the American public. 



However, the public will have to acquire 

 in some dependable way an appreciation of 

 what the chemists' work stands for and 



