New-York tribune., 1918-11-24


for the production of sulphuric and
nitric acid, essentials in dye making,
now are plentiful in this country. Mr.
Metz thinks Germany will make a fair
ly rapid recovery in steel manufactures
on account of having plenty of coal and
iron ore, but, he says, she is short of
cotton. copper and other basic mate
rias needed by great manufacturing
nation.
"Can the United States make dyes Of
as good quality as are made in Ger
many?" WAS the question put to Mr..
Met
My answer is most cmphatically,
yes" said the former Controller. Con
timing, he said:
I've can make anything that is made
anywhere, provided we have the raw
materials. BY that mean that as soon
as the fundamentals for colors, that is,
benzol toloul, sulphuric and nitric acid,
become available for manufacturing
enable US to manufacture colors. and
sell them at such prices that will allow
the textile manufacturer to use them in
his fabrics, we will be able to make
everything that is now being made in
Germany or anywhere else.
Germans Had Advantage
Undoubtedly the German manu-
facturors had a big advantage over our
chemists through the experience they
gained from the development of their
industries. We must bear in mind that
in this country we had so-called prod
NOT Il ~
In other words, u product when once
produced, regardless OF the cost of pro
duction or the process by which it was
produced, could be patented and its
manufacture or sale would be a mo-
nopoly for seventeen years. This barred
all incentive or attempts to make the
product in a cheaper way The German
law provided for a process patent to
the discoverer of a new process.
This enabled any chemist to devise q
different process by which q product
could be made for less cost, insuring
him commercial advantage over the
urally drive the other producer from
the market.
another reason why we Jagged was
that we had duty on finished colors
of so per cent, while raw materials or
so-called intermediate products which
are really the basis of the industry.
came in free. BY buying Intermediates,
duty free in Europe, manufacturers had
80 per cent protection upon colors
made here. Manufacturing in that in
stance consisted merely of carrying out
a few further processes with the inter
mediates bought abroad. In addition
to the 80 per cent, we now have a duty
of cents a pound on most colors, and
IS per cent and an additional specific
duty upon the intermediates or raw ma
terials which insures US sufficient pro-
lection to make a great many of these
Intermediates here at a sufficient profit
in view of the fact that benzol and
toluol, which formerly were allowed to
go to waste, are now obtained auto
matically in the recovery coke ovens.
Labor. of course, has gone up ma
terally, but labor as such is not big
factor in the dyestutf business. Of
course, it must be taken into consd-
GRAFTON in competition with other coun-
tries, but it is not as vital a factor as,
for instance, in the textile business or
machinery business, where skilled labor
is more essential.
"We will undoubtedly continue to
make a great bulk of the colors used
in this country on this side. My own
experience in my plants satisfied me
that with anywhere near normal condi-
tons as to cost of raw materials and
with labor conditions settled that
does not mean the old pre-war scale of
wages must be reached-sVe can sue
cessfully compete under present tariffs
with the large number of colors that
are now being made, which constitute,
so far as quantity is concerned, the
bulk of our importations
What we must guard against is a
recurrence of the situation Of 1914
through any possible contingency The
only way TO do it is to manufacture our
essential products in this country ard
to see to 1t that the manufacturers here
Will be able to make a reasonable profit
upon their investment and continue to
exist. Competition will be keen, but in
. the last two or three years we have
made enormous strides in studying the
! foreign processes and such patents as
mad been taken out previously by the
, German manufacturers
AS to German Plants
at is, Of course, hard to say what
position the German plants are in.
They have no doubt the raw materials
available, but in the more important
raw materials, such as cotton, wool,
rubber, etc, they must be absolutely
dependent entirely upon imports. Fut-
ure competition will depend entirely
upon receipt of essential raw mate
rlals. The man power, of course. is an
unknown quantity, but undoubtedly, so
far as crude labor is concerned, a great
number of Russian prisoners will re-
main in Germany"