The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-10-12
THE CHEMICAL EXPOSITION
AND THE SOUTH'S FAILURE
To be Adequately Represented at The
New York Meeting

New 1Ofk MEETING
The Chemical Exposition and the
annual meeting of the American Chem
zeal Society, held jointly in New York
last week, proved a revelation to
thousands, and marked a revolution
in American history. Mems yes were
opened and their ears were unstop-
ped. Men who had been unable to
draw aside the curtain which wells
from the average man the mysteries
Of the creative work of the chemist
had a new vision of what chemistry
means in all human affairs. Men up
on whose hull ears the call of chem
istry had made no impression heard
with a clearness which had never be-
fore been theirs the call of chemistry
to an awakening world.
AS the thousands of chemists and
metallurgists and business men gen
orally thronged the EXPOSITION hall
they, too, found inspiration and men
tai illumination in the things seen
and the things heard.
Here was a wonderful display OF
the raw materials of chemistry.
There was a marvellous illustration OF
the utilization of hes "a materials
through the production of the finish
ed product. Here was the machin-
cry needed in the manufacture OF
chemicals covering a wide range OF
activities. Here were things spotless
ly white produced from the blackness
OF coal. Here men met for study nj
investigation, some to speak and somt
to hear. Some told ofthe marvels
that chemistry is working, marvels
which are creating new worlds
which are giving to mankind thing
undreamed of in the past. In the at.
triton of mind>against mind the sparl
of intellectual activity was stuck or
many an anvil.
No man who attended that exposi
ton can go back to the humdrum at
fairs of his own business OF his Owl
life, for he has been awakened te
new things; his thoughts have been
b%roadened; his horizon has been eX-
tended. He is thinking as perchanct
he never thought before. Like the
astronomer whose telescope vision
sweeps the heavens for new worlds,
so the men who attended that EXPOSE
ton are seeing new worlds. No long
Ell will the layman think of the chem
list as he has done in the past. Nc
longer viii he feel hat the chemist
is some far away man who's ework is
of no particular value to his indi-
vidual enterprise or interest. Every
man who attended that exposition and
heard the addresses made at the an
nual meeting will see that the chemist
is diving hitherto apparently unsolv-
able problems; that he is opening a
vista of marvellous beauty and limit
less opportunities.
1t was a great exposition. 1t was
a great meeting. They more than
fulfilled all the predictions which the
Manufactures Record had made for
them. Our only regret is that the
South had not sufficiently walked up
TO the Importance of the situation to
make the most of this opportunity.
Only one Southern railroad met the
opportunity with an exhibit, and the
president of that road, who credited
the fact that his road was on hand
to the work of he Manufactures Rec
ord, was boundless in his praise of
what had been achieved and of the in
fluence of the xposition upon the
country, and especially upon his ter
rltory. The railroads of the South
missed the greatest opportunity which
was ever presented to them to show
the of this section. They
were not awake to the situation.
Evidently they had not grasped its
Importance, and it would seem that
most of them had thought of chemis-
try as some alien thing which did not
concern them. Indeed, from promi-
nent officials i'm two leading South
arn railYnadS the Manufacturer Rec
ord had letters indicating an entire
lack of comprehension OF chemistry.
One official wrote that there was moth
ing produced along his line of inn
portance to chemistry, and yet in the
very same letter he told of the vast
hydro electric developments that had
been established from one end of his
road TO the other. An official of an
other road, covering several thousand
miles, cutting through the very heart
of gas and oil and salt regions, stated
that he no data that would be of
service in showing the possibilities of
chemistry.
Notwithstanding this situation, the
South will reap a great benefit.
Those of its people who were there
went home with a quickened sense of
their own responsibility to stir their
people mp TO greater things. and
ousands from other sections stopped