PETROLEUM. 69 
tions to joint cost, there is no activating motive to give the matter 
initial impetus. 
It would appear, therefore, that by-product developments are 
under the influence of peculiar economic factors, and therefore de- 
mand treatment different from that accorded ordinary industrial 
affairs. Industrial initiative and competence face distinctive limita- 
tions in what they can do alone. These limitations lie in the field of 
industrial interrelationships, in the no-man’s land between industries. 
These limitations can not be adequately overcome by any single 
industry ; their elimination requires cooperative action, synchronized 
growth, between one industry and another, frequently, indeed, be- 
tween a large number of industries of which some may not even be 
in existence. These delicately balanced intergrowths obviously re- 
quire a guiding hand of wider sweep than any single industry 
affords. Here is a true governmental function, an untilled field for 
constructive economic policy to make productive. Upon this con- 
cept hangs the whole forward sweep of by-product development; 
and as the utilization of raw material is going forward, of necessity, 
on the basis of by-product recovery, we are here involved in a matter 
that may not wisely be overlooked. 
It need not be considered here how far a constructive economic 
policy may advantageously go in this matter. But at least it should 
accord the problem the true weight of its importance, build toward 
effecting a proportionated industrial growth, gather an accurate 
record of the so-called waste products turned out by the industries 
of the country, and encourage the development of new industries 
utilizing products now going to waste. The lack of a constructive 
economic policy in the United States has not critically retarded the 
growth of ordinary industrial activities, in which, indeed, this coun- 
try holds a foremost place ; but it has been unfavorable to the proper 
development of all those industries involving by-product principles — 
the chemically controlled industries , 1 as they may be termed for 
want of a better name — in which this country, in spite of some 
notable achievements, has fallen notoriously short of her possibilities. 
The whole matter of by-products growth has been retarded, also, 
by the general feeling that it represented a small incidental matter 
of no great moment . 2 But, as a matter of fact, the sum total of the 
possibilities embraced is of the most striking import, whether meas- 
ured in dollars or in service to society. The capability of by-products 
to lower the cost of main products is perhaps a very direct measure 
of the public’s concern in a policy competent to stimulate progress 
1 This term is intended to be broader in scope than the term “ chemical industries.” 
2 Anyone who has followed the chemical journals for the past few years would see no 
tendency to underestimate the matter, but these views, unfortunately, seldom reach the 
public broadly or the general press. Recent war-enforced interest in chemical affairs is 
changing these conditions slightly. 
