502 T H E J O U R N A L O F Ih’DUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y Val. 13, NO. 6

EDITORIALS Welcome To Madame Curie!

Welcome, thrice welcome, t o our distinguished hon- orary member, Madame Curie!

Since the day of her arrival she has been over- whelmed with honors and with entertainment, almost to the detriment of her physical health. She has in- spected the plants where radium and other rare mineral salts are produced, and carries home increased facilities for continuing her research. She has come into touch with our bustling American life, and perhaps when she gets back t o the quiet of her laboratory she will tell us what she thinks of it all. Her presence has emphasized without t he necessity of words the great value of fundamental chemical research and the possi- bilities for thoroughly equipped women in chemistry. Her visit has proved a fitting and delightful means of emphasizing again the strength of the tie t ha t binds France and America.

A Tragedy Averted A new chapter in the fight for the protection of the

American coal-tar chemical industry opened on April 26, 1921, when Senator Knox introduced in the Senate Finance Committee an amendment to the Emergency Tariff Bill continuing for six months the regulations controlling the importation of coal-tar chemicals, which were in danger of immediate abrogation should the Knox peace resolution become law. This law would automatically terminate the Trading-with-the- Enemy Act, under which the War Trade Board Section of t he State Department had been functioning. Senator Knox was simply acting in good faith, t o preserve for the sole industry affected by his peace resolution the protection which he recognized was necessary for its very existence. The amendment made no change ex- cept to transfer the administrative machinery from the State Department to the Treasury Department.

The Finance Committee acceptcd the amendment and the bill was reported favorably t o the Senate. Then Khat a howl was raised! Senator bioses mas naturally the high soprano in the very limited but noisy chorus of opposition. Senator Knox disposed of the Moses objections promptly and effectually when he refused to view the matter from the “standpoint of a profit and loss account of a Dolly Varden calico mill in New England.”

The word “monopoly,” used by Senator Moses in referring to the American dye industry, fell like honey- no, rather something highly stimulative-into the wait- ing mouths of Senators King and Hitchcock. The result was a flood of oratory. All of t he familiar stock phrases which characterized the “trust-busters” of old were resurrected.

Both Senators were deeply impressed by t h e large exports of American dyes during the past few yeass, not caring t o trouble themselves about looking into the character and conditions of this export business. They could have learned tha t it represented the natural American genius for mass production where methods

have been thoroughly standardized, and tha t the prod- ucts were marketed a t a time when there were no other available sources of dyes. They could easily have learned of the tremendous drop in dye exportsduring the past six months, as shown in the following table from figures issued by the Department of Commerce.

EXPORTS O F ANILINE DYES Sovemher 1920 $2,006,534 December 1920 1,758,170 January 1021 943,595 February 1921 397,123 March 1921 574,969 April 1921 305,760

A few days later Senator King exclaimed “this vora- cious trust is determined to perpetuate in peace times war policies and fasten upon the people an obnoxious and vicious system under which i t may conceal its acts of spoliation and robbery.” But what evidence is there of a trust? No interlocking directorates were mentioned, no operating agreements were exposed, no uniform fixed prices were quoted by the Senator, nor was any tendency of large concerns to swallow up small ones reported.

There is no American dye trust , and the fact is well known. The small manufacturers are on record be- fore the Senate (Congress ional Record , June 3, 1920, pages 8306-8) in a petition urging favorable protective legislation, without which they maintain t h a t they will be the first t o go down in the struggle with the real dye trust in Germany.

There is no tendency to hold up the American people with exorbitant prices, as shown by the following schedule of prices of typical articles, obtained on the street a few days ago:

DYES P R I C E A Y E A R 4 G O P R I C E TO-DAY $0.85 $0.50

1.20 0 .75 4 .25 2 .50

Fuchsin Crystals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.50 2.75 Malachite Green Crystals.. ......... 4 .50 2 .00 Methylene Blue Technical.. . . . . . . . . 3 .75 2 .40 INTERMEDIATES USED P Aniline Oil.. .......... 0 , 3 7 0. IS Beta-Naphthol. , 0 .88 0 32 Para-Nitroaniline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 .75 0.so

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OTHER INTERMEDIATES Gamma Acid. . .................... 6.00 Benzidine, Base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.50 Dimethylaniline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 20 Para-Phenylenediamine 2 . 5 0 . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 .26 1 .oo 0 .42 1 .75

It was Senator King who, in the last Congress, rushed in a bill t o restore alien property and holdings seized during the war. This may be a mere coincidence, of course. The bill was not reported out of committee, bu t t he Senator, nothing daunted, reintroduced the the bill soon after the present Congress convened. At the conclusion of Senator Hitchcock’s address, Senator Knox commented (Congress ional Record , hf ay 11, 1921, page 1285):

I only wanted to observe that there is something entirely familiar in these lamentations of the Senator from Nebraska about the probability of the German monopoly in the most dan- gerous munitions that have ever been manufactured being inter- fered with by this bill. Weremember that during the war, when the Germans had a monopoly of munitions and the Allies could not obtain munitions to fight the Huns the Senator from Nebraska advocated a bill to prevent the people of the United States from