NOTES ON’ THE RHINELAND CHEMICAL WORKS. 
law that the whole youth of Germany should undergo. A scientific 
examination or a certificate of maturity or educational efficiency ob- 
tained from a recognised school or university was accepted as a reason 
for the reduction of this period of service to that of one year only in the 
class of so-called volunteers. This service could be taken in any troop, 
the volunteer being trained for the position of an officer in the reserve, 
i. which class he had ail the status which is accorded to a member of 
the officer class, with only short periods of training yearly, which re- 
duced the hardship of military service to a minimum. Under these 
conditions, as well as by the national recognition of scientific attain- 
ments, the supply of. highly-trained men was always in excess of the 
demand. 
The German chemical firms were, like most of our own, begun by 
chemists, and it is to be noted that those that are great to-day have still 
prominent men in their direction whose training and habit of mind is 
essentially scientific, many of whom have been drawn from the class of 
professors and privatdocenten whose worth has already been proved by 
the close touch which has always been maintained between the factory. 
and the university. I need not go into the detail of this association, as 
it must be familiar to all; its value as a commercial asset needs no argu- 
ment. 
It was in the two great branches of industrial organic chemistry, 
dyes and fine organic chemicals, that the effect of this application of 
science to manufacture was “most evident, resulting ultimately in a 
virtual world-monopoly of these products. It is a peculiarity .of such 
manufacture that the manufactured articles are extremely numerous 
and produced in comparatively small quantities, the result being that 
small businesses have little chance in competition with larger firms 
unless they be concerned in the manufacture of highly-specialized 
articles, in the sale of which the profits are relatively large. The 
prominent firms in the business became great, and their growth pro- 
vided them with still more powerful weapons to withstand any attack 
from new commercial rivals, whether of their own or foreign nation- 
ality. As, in all industry, increased production means reduced working 
costs and consequently enhanced profits, the ever-growing output from 
these works resulted in competition of the severest kind, and internal 
working arrangements between firms were soon come to whereby group 
competed with group instead of firm with firm. The most notable of 
these amalgamations was the formation, in 1904, of the two great 
groups which included the Badische, Bayer, and Berlin firms on the one 
hand and the Hochst, Casella, and Kalle companies on the other. 
These associations, as was inevitable, gradually came more and more 
together until, in 1916, the Erweiterte Interessen-Gemeinschaft was 
formed, which involved in its composition, besides the above groups, 
such firms as Griesheim Elektron and Weilerter-Mcer, which had pre- 
viously been in the outer circle of these associations, and many others 
whose businesses were more concerned with the supply of plant and 
materials rather than the actual manufacture of chemicals, as was the 
case with the members of the earlier groups. Of the methods adopted to 
stamp out competition I shall say nothing here. They were of the most 
ruthless kind, and by many asserted to be absolutely dishonest. . It is, 
of course, arguable as to when business policy and tactics cross the line 
Tit 
