Apbil 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



569 



but a little over 210 million dollars ' worth, 

 or 17.87 per cent., of onr imports consisted 

 specifically of unmanufactured materials, 

 such as silk, hides and skins, india rubber 

 and gutta percha, wool, cotton, copper, 

 lead and iron ores, and bristles, which 

 would properly go into manufactures here. 



"We sit back gloiying in our country. 

 Its wide extent. Its rich resources. Its 

 teeming millions of independent and self- 

 respecting people. And yet after our fleet 

 has circumnavigated the globe we continue 

 to sacrifice the fertility of our soils to the 

 support of older civilizations and remain 

 content, while ranging ourselves with those 

 nations that live solely on their primary re- 

 sources, since the "balance of trade" is in 

 our favor. But we as chemists know that 

 this condition can not last. We know that 

 the average fertility of our soil has been 

 growing steadily less and that only by fol- 

 lowing sound scientific practise can the 

 fertility of the impoverished soil be re- 

 stored. 



The utilization of the soil as a chemical 

 factory is but one of the problems with 

 which the chemist has to deal. That which 

 appeals most nearly to us as chemical engi- 

 neers is the item that appears as second in 

 magnitude in the table of imports of mer- 

 chandise and which has held this second 

 place for years, namely, "chemicals, drugs 

 and dyes, ' ' for this category embraces those 

 substances commonly known as chemicals, 

 or the products of the "black art." In 

 1908, Ave imported 73,237,033 dollars worth 

 of this class of materials or 6.13 per cent, 

 of oiir total imports. While we exported 

 but 20,873,155 dollars worth, or 1.14 per 

 cent, of our total exports. There was, there- 

 fore, a balance of $52,363,878 against us 

 in this item in which the chemical engineers 

 of this country are most nearly concerned. 

 It is true that among these imports are up- 

 wards of $15,000,000 worth of crude drugs 



and dyewoods, and quantities of other 

 crude material, but there are many mil- 

 lion dollars worth of substances included 

 here that should have been manufactured 

 in this country. Attention need only to be 

 called to the acids imported to a value of 

 over $1,300,000 to emphasize this fact, for 

 while we are seeking an outlet for our saw- 

 dust, we find in this list nearly 9,000,000 

 pounds of oxalic acid. Or attention might 

 be called to the more than $7,000,000 worth 

 of coal tar products and preparations, not 

 medicinal. Had this been accomplished 

 there is little doubt that our exports of 

 such substances would also have been large. 

 And what is true of the industries com- 

 monly called chemical would equally apply 

 to those larger chemical industries not in- 

 cluded in the common category. 



Another policy we should follow is the 

 promotion of chemical manufactures 

 throughout a larger portion of our great 

 territory. For this purpose I have pre- 

 pared Table VI., showing by states the lo- 

 cations of each of the 1,786 establishments 



TABLE VI. NUMBER OF ACTIVE ESTABLISHMENTS 



FOE CHEMICALS AND ALLIED PEODUCTS, 



BY STATES, 1905 



Alabama 



Alaska 



Arizona 



California 



Colorado 



Connecticut 



Delaware 



District of Columbia, 



Florida 



Georgia 



Illinois 



Indiana 



Indian Territory 



Iowa 



Kansas 



Kentucky 



Louisiana 



Maine 



Maryland 



Massachusetts 



Michigan 



Minnesota 



1905 



Mississippi 



Missouri 



Nebraska 



Nevada 



New Hampshire. 



New Jersey 



New York 



North Carolina... 



Ohio 



Oregon 



Pennsylvania 



Rhode Island 



South Carolina... 



Tennessee 



Texas 



Vermont 



Virginia 



Washington 



West Virginia.... 



Wisconsin 



Wyoming 



1905 



7 



47 



4 



3 



1 



144 



264 



42 



128 



4 



315 



17 



26 



22 



3 



3 



62 



9 



25 



19 



1 



