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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 629 



cism related to omissions. It was held that 

 probably the majority of the society mem- 

 bership followed the technical industries 

 and, therefore, should receive an even share 

 of consideration in the make-up of the 

 Journal, whereas by far the larger space 

 was devoted to contributions from, or of 

 chief interest to, those outside the technical 

 branches. 



As a corollary to this criticism, it was 

 maintained that the technical side of the 

 profession was inadequately represented in 

 the governing body of the society, and 

 quite as much, if not more so, in the con- 

 trol of the Journal. 



It would seem that the remedy for this 

 alleged lack of due representation in the 

 council lies largely in the hands of the com- 

 plainants. It is well known that a suffi- 

 cient number of votes in nomination of 

 councilors from local sections or of coun- 

 cilors at large to entitle the candidates to 

 recognition in the final ballot, can be pro- 

 cured only by prior agreement among a 

 considerable number of members to unite 

 upon certain suitable persons. As this 

 agreement is most readily reached where 

 many members live in close proximity, it 

 follows that the larger sections can and do 

 exercise a controlling influence in the choice 

 of councilors at large. Most of the larger 

 sections are located at centers of great in- 

 dustrial activity, and industrial chemists 

 doubtless constitute a majority of their 

 membership. The remedy is, therefore, 

 apparent, if unison in choice is attainable. 

 It must be borne in mind, however, that in 

 order that good ultimate results should fol- 

 low concerted action of this kind, no spirit 

 of class feeling should be allowed to dom- 

 inate in selections made either on the part 

 of teclmical members or of those following 

 science in the fields of education or pure 

 research. The spirit of broad fraternity 

 should have free play and both sides should 

 be willing to recognize the rights of the 



other and to select from the ranks of either 

 the most deserving, irrespective of their 

 particular fields of work and without seek- 

 ing merely numerical preponderance. It 

 goes without saying that the present dom- 

 inating influence of one side in the council, 

 so far as numbers go, has not been the 

 result of intention, but has come about 

 mainly from natural conditions. Several 

 of the local sections are located at centers 

 of educational activity where relatively 

 few members are industrially engaged, the 

 result being that educators naturally rep- 

 resent those sections in the council. In this 

 connection, the policy should in general be 

 consistently followed of electing as coun- 

 cilors at large those who through their 

 works have become widely and favorably 

 known to the profession, thus reserving 

 these positions as rewards for repeated 

 achievements of a high order. 



The written discussion brought about by 

 the above reference to the paucity of 

 original contributions from technical chem- 

 ists deserves some consideration by itself. 



The original critic asserts that the con- 

 trolling class, composed of professors and 

 government and experiment station chem- 

 ists, finds its needs fully met by a journal 

 of the "type of that of the London Chemi- 

 cal Society and feels that the admission 

 of most other matter would be lowering 

 the grade of the journal, while the other 

 class needs a journal like that of the So- 

 ciety of Chemical Industry," and that 

 'the only way to retain the two classes 

 of members is to give the publication a 

 diial character' with separate editorial 

 boards. Coupled with this latter sugges- 

 tion is the question whether a somewhat 

 different standard should not be applied 

 in the consideration of papers submitted 

 for publication, in order to meet the wants 

 of a class of chemists doing routine work, 

 to whom chemistry, in the words of several 

 high in technical circles, is a 'trade, not a 



