June 16, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



841 



and praised unstintingly the individual 

 wherever he may be who has taken a dis- 

 tinct step forward, for we firmly believe 

 this is an important help in advancing the 

 progress of the science. 



These general developments are naturally 

 not a matter of public information, except 

 attention is called to them. The chemist 

 works almost entirely beneath the surface 

 of things and only in a few spectacular 

 cases is public attention drawn to his work. 

 It is quite natural, therefore, that apprecia- 

 tion and praise of foreign chemical achieve- 

 ment and particularly our consistent praise 

 of German achievement to our students by 

 our university teachers of chemistry have 

 been misunderstood, and have prepared a 

 fertile field for foreign propagandas to 

 establish a false impression of the superior- 

 ity of certain groups of foreign chemists. 

 We should scarcely object to a good-natured 

 adulation of any one's fatherland and its 

 achievements. Such things always contain 

 good and are stimulating to every one, and 

 it is a pleasure to hear them when free 

 from arrogance, even when the adulation 

 contains little that is new or even strictly 

 true. "When, however, this privilege is 

 abused so that the point of superiority 

 must be made by depreciating American 

 efforts it has a vicious positive result upon 

 the minds of the uninformed, and at times 

 causes great financial loss to them. 



If the shortcomings of American chemis- 

 try were frankly discussed and compared 

 with foreign successes in a chemical pub- 

 lication, some help might thereby be given 

 to those who could derive benefit from it. 

 "When this is not frankly done, but simply 

 issued as an incidental depreciation of 

 American chemistry, particularly when dis- 

 cussing foreign chemical achievement, and 

 still worse when in a non-chemical publica- 

 tion, the object can scarcely be rated as 

 creditable. 



A good illustration of this is an article 

 published by the Review of Reviews for 

 August, 1915, upon ""What German Chem- 

 ists are Doing to make Germany Self-sus- 

 taining," by Hugo Schweitzer, who, the 

 editor humanely states, is an American 

 chemist. Considering the avowed piirpose 

 of the article as attempting to influence 

 American public opinion to stop "all ex- 

 ports to all belligerent nations," the article 

 gives an interesting appreciation of the 

 German chemist's efforts to meet their pres- 

 ent problem, but commences to wind up as 

 follows. 



Thus the horrors of war, through the ingenuity 

 of the German chemists, are promoting the legiti- 

 mate industry of the nation, rendering it more and 

 more independent of foreign conditions, and keep- 

 ing in the country vast sums formerly spent for 

 imports. Unfortunately and unexpectedly we can 

 not record similar advantages for the United 

 States, although we are enjoying peace. 



The inaccuracy of the last statement we 

 hope is no measure of the truthfulness of 

 the article as a whole. If the myth of the 

 overwhelming industrial chemical superior- 

 ity of German chemists ever was really be- 

 lieved, in that country, the military forces 

 of the Central Powers at least must marvel 

 at the reason the supposedly inferior for- 

 eign industrial chemists have been able to 

 display such astounding ability and speed 

 in meeting the problems of munitions pro- 

 duction, particularly too in countries where 

 governmental mobilization of industries 

 was unknown before the war and, in Amer- 

 ica at least, still is unknown. At any rate, 

 it has become evident that lack of advertise- 

 ment is no sign of lack of ability or activity, 

 and that ability to handle science skillfully 

 and powerfully is not confined to any race 

 or nation. "We do not feel that there is 

 much to be gained by confuting claims of 

 the chemical superiority of foreign coun- 

 tries in this and other similar articles, for 

 it is curious how this war has developed 



