THE RETORT CHEMICAL

Once more the bogey of German dye competition stares us in the face. During the past year the Germans have turned out 145,000 tons of dye-stuffs, 10,000 tons more than in any previous twelve months. Production is further expanding at the rate of 15,000 tons per annum, and the manufacturers are planning an intensive campaign for the conquest of the British and American markets. Before the War, German competition had completely ruined our native dye industry; it looks now as if it were about to do so again.

Here, it seems, is an opportunity for the chemical departments of our universities, as well as our industrial chemists, to do the country a great service. Our research workers are second to none; surely, among them, they can find means to cheapen the production of our present dyes to a point that will enable us to fight off our German rivals. Then, too, there is always the possibility of stumbling on some new compound that will revolutionize the industry. The prizes in the chemical field are large no one who works out a first-class process will ever go hungry. Today, patriotism offers yet another inducement. The news of the German dye invasion should send every chemist in the country scurrying to his flasks and crucibles. In that case, it will not be long before we can meet the German beaker to beaker and vanquish them in a fair fight. Not Tariffs but Test-tubes is the permanent answer.