Alden Emery* Executive Secretary, ACS; James T. Grady; Walter J. Murphy, editor, C&EN, and W. Albert IWoyes, Jr., immediate past president, ACS

Robert Potter, feature science writer; IFOtson Davis, director. Science Service; and IFmlliant L. Laurence, science writer, New Vork T i m e s

Grady Leaves ACS News Service Post Jt ROMixEXT men in the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and leading science writers of the nation's press met for lunch on Dec. 17 at New York's Hotel Com­modore to honor James T. Grady, who has been managing editor of the ACS News Service for the past 25 years. Mr. Grady, who retired on Dec. 31, will be retained by the Society on a consultant basis while his assistant, James H. Stack, succeeds him as managing editor of the News Service.

For more than 25 years Mr. Grady has been an outstanding figure in the profes­sion of public relations. A journalist by training, he has won distinction as a masterful interpreter o f science and engineering, education, architecture, and other major fields of American life. Throughout his career a s a publicist, Mr. Grady has been permanently identified with Columbia University, where from 1918 until 1946 he was director of public information, a post which he assumed upon leaving the editorial staff of the New York Tribune. He has also served as a member of the faculty of the Columbia School of Journalism. A principal ac­tivity of Mr. Grady during the past quarter century, and one with which notably constructive achievement in inter­preting science has been associated, has been his service as managing editor of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SO-CIETT News Serv­ice.

Twenty years ago M r . Grady's unique position in public relations was drama­tized by Stanley Walker, then city editor of the New York Herald Tribune, in a survey entitled "Men o f Vision/' appear­ing in the A merican Mercury of January 1927. Mr. Walker, after a critical study of the vast amounts of publicity material flowing into the city desk of the Tribune over a long period, ranked Mr. Grady a t the top of the nation's publicity experts. Critical of many publicity counselors whose names were familiar t o the public,

Mr. Walker had the following to say about Mr. Grady:

Out of the welter of shysters, shirt-stuffers, fakers, liars, and brassy quacks whose living depends upon getting free newspaper space, there is one» man who deserves to be allowed to live» as long as he can. He is .James T. Grady, who handles publicity for Columbia University, the New York Botanical Garden, and a long list of engineering and scientific bodies. His stuff is honest, readable, and he gets more space in the papers than any other dozen press agents combined.

Success in Other Fields

Mr. Grady's exploits in publicizing chemistry and education are familiar to newspaper men and to the public. Not so well known are his successes in other fields. For example, Mr. Grady publicized the report of the Hoover Committee on the elimination of waste in industry, which created a profound impression in the ranks of labor and management and attracted widespread and serious public interest.

Mr. Grady also publicized the move­ment by the nation's engineers to create a department of public works in the Federal Government to bring about efficiency and economy in the conduct of the nation's business. He also was secretary of the New York Committee of the National Public Works Department Association.

In his publicity effort Mr. Grady func­tioned as publicist of the American Engi­neering Council, of wrhich the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was a member society. Harrison E. Howe, then editor of Industrial and # Engineering Chemistry, was the representative of the institute on the council. Impressed by Mr. Grady's competence in publicizing the public service activities of the engineering profession, Dr. Howe in 1923 induced Mr. Grady to take over the managing editor­ship of the newly organized AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY News Service.

David Dietz, Scripps-IIoward science editor, in a rovie-w of "two decades of chemical news," htas sri<i :

"No history of the relations between science and the press would be complete unless it paid tribute !o t h e wisdom of the AMERICAN CHBMII<:AL SOCIETY in seeing the necessity of closer understanding be­tween these two important sections of American life."

One of the better knoxvn aspects of Mr. Grady's career is fais close and productive association with tîae laie Nicholas Murray Butler. In a "profile" o f Dr. Butler, The New Yoiker of NCKV. 15, 1930, said:

Those who travel with Dr. Butler are likely to travel far. Thve career of James T. Grady, the Columbia, publicity wizard, is an instance. IFinding - Grady capable and a glutton for work, Nicholas Murray Butler practically be-carne the press agent's press agenrt (in sounding) Grady's praises.. . . The volume of Columbia news in the press of the country vindicates the Butler policy.

I n 1929 King Victor Emmanuel III conferred upon M r . Grxady the rank of Cavalier of the Order of the Crown of Italy for distinguished service to the Italian art and culture in the United States. Mr. Grady w a s active in the development of the C a s a I tali ana of Columbia University,

Early Career

Mr. Grady was born in Winsted, Litch­field County, COEUI., NXarch 6, 1879. He is an alumnus of Harvard College in the class of 1906 and of Columbia University Law School, 191-S. Ite began his news­paper career on t l i e Wzzistcd Citizen, later becoming state a n d telegraph editor of the Hartford Post. KEe voxked as a reporter on the Boston Advertiser and the Boston Record and was, a ware editor in the Boston office of tfae Associated Press. He served in the Spanish-American War as a

100 C H E M I C A L A N D ENGI INIEEE! N G N E W S

member of Company M of th«· Third Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Grady held several editorial posts on the New York Tribune, where he was cable and telegraph editor, chief copy editor, night city editor, and head of the Tribune news service. While on the» Tribune he was lecturer and associate in journalism at Columbia and finally in 1918 succeeded Franklin T. Matthews, associate professor of journalism. Mr. Grady was third incumbent of this professorship.

Mr. Grady is a former fellow of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., a life member and former publicist of the American Historical Association, 'and a former

J. WENTY-FIVE years of unveiling new things in chemistry have made this coun­t y chemically conscious. This is the rich return which the chemical profession reaps from its modest investment in educational propaganda for the masses, made in the wake of World War I.

While throughout this period I have functioned uninterruptedly as the publi­cist of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY,

the effective force in building a deep and enduring public interest in the chemist and his world was a science-minded journalism, reinforced and invigorated by the emer­gence of a group of science writers of strik­ing intellectual competence and courage. Creative journalism and creative chemis­try have opened wide the door of enlight­enment, for the chemist is in the forefront of the forces of science which are trans­forming life on earth.

A nation chemically conscious is a na­tion psychologically readied for the Atomic Age. The American public, James Bryant Conant warns us, must learn to live with the problem of the atomic bomb. It must

" learn, too, to live with the less fearsome problems of atomic power, whose peaceful use will revolutionize the art of living.

It has been said that three fourths of all history is the story of the entanglements of religion and politics. An internation­ally minded science, we may believe, will bring lucidity and tolerance to relation­ships among nations now mired in the prejudices of the past.

The chemist has made notable progress in developing an international mind, as shown by his active participation in the work of the International Union of Chemistry, headed by Marston T. Bogert, a past president of the AMERICAN CHEMI­CAL SOCIETY, and in UNESCO, t o which Albert Noyes, the 1947 president of the Society, is contributing important and de­voted service. The Society's recent gif t of

editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, of which for twenty years he acted as publicist.

Two weeks ago, during the meeting of the American Association for the Ad­vancement of Science at Chicago, the Na­tional Science Writers' Association unani­mously elected Mr. Grady an honorary member in recognition of his contributions.

In acknowledging the plaudits of the press and of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL

SOCIETY at the luncheon in his honor, Mr. Grady replied with an address which summarized his objectives and accom­plishments as chief publicist of the Society. His address follows.

$25,000 to UNESCO is evidence of the chemist's confidence in the usefulness of this organization.

Creative chemistry, though its achieve­ments are already prodigious, is still in its infancy. I t is not fanciful to assume that the chemist will bring abundance to all peoples and by removing want will de­stroy one of the most powerful incentives to war. The chemist is the ultimate answer to production and to inflation, which as chemical science and industry lead a vast industrial expansion, will cease to blight the economy. A $28 billion American chemical industry, with a limit­less domain of research yet unexplored, is a promise of prosperity such as the world has never known. America m a y safely entrust its industrial future to the chemist, who with his fellow scientists and tech­nologists are a trustworthy defense against a "melancholy decline" in our standards of

life such as Winston Churchill fears for Britain.

A chemically conscious—a science con­scious—nation presents a stupendous task for the educational system. A science-minded press has wrought a significant change in the cultural interests of the masses, who are turning t o science for en­lightenment. Scientific curiosity has be­come widespread, creating new heeds, which the educational system, beginning in the elementary schools, must meet. Basic knowledge of the sciences must be the possession of every citizen. Ignorance of the principles, methods, and meaning of science must be driven from every level of American life. "Children of darkness," as Matthew Arnold chose to regard the middle class of the nineteenth century, are alien to our free society. Fresh intellec­tual direction which befits the times is de­manded in this chemically conscious land.

The arresting lines of the Grande Char­treuse, "Wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless t o be born," are of doubtful validity in our time. A new world has been born. It came into existence a t Los Alamos under the anxious watch of men of science. . It is a world of men and atoms, a world

uneasy ye t courageous as it shakes off the chains which for ages have fettered science and progress. It is a world in which the peaceful use of atomic power promises plenty. I t is one world and is inherently hostile to disunity and war. In short, it is a world of science—a chemical world—in which spiritual values persist unimpaired and one in which science teamed with humanism will exert a dominant influence.

In the pursuit of science, culture does not détériorât e. N o loss of cultural values should be feared by a people among whom adequate understanding of science is com­mon to all ranks. Science is a humanizing force.

We may turn with profit to the essay of Matthew Arnold on "Science and Cul­ture." H e says: "I hold very strongly by two convictions. The first is that neither the discipline or subject matter of classical education is of such direct value to the student of physical science as t o justify the expenditure of valuable time upon either; and the second is, that for the purpose of attaining real culture, an ex­clusively scientific education is at least a s effectual a s an exclusively literary educa­tion."

Chemists will derive encouragement from Matthew Arnold, though they may feel that he has dealt too harshly with the classics, for science education in the schools and colleges, and science informa­tion for the masses, is a major activity of the chemical profession. To the AMERI­CAN CHBMICAL· SOCIETY'S Division of

Chemical Education i t offers an opportu­nity and a, challenge. The convictions of Matthew Arnold, proclaimed in the last century, should command the serious thought of our educators of today. They

Twenty-five Years of Publicizing Chemistry

JAMES T. GRADY

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