The Penn's Grove record., 1919-08-22
How Germany Killed American Dye
Industry
Continued from page 1

United States at the time OF Ine out-
break of the war did not exceed $780,
DOC, 900 a veal in cost to the consum-
ing industries, nor to the fact that
these dives were absolute essentials to
industries producing perhaps $2,OO0,-
100000 of good annually, but most OF
all to the fact that the technical skill
and equipment provided by a success
full dye industry furnished the means,
and almost the sole means, to which
every nation must look for advances
in the application of chemical science
to practical undertakings. No other
industry offers "a livelihood to any
such large numbers of highly-trained
scientific chemists nor any such 1ncen-
tive to continuous and extended re-
search.
AS has been stated, the opening OF
the year 1914 formd nine-tenths of the
dyes used in our industries supplleo
by German houses and the great bulk
of these by the largest six German
houses. At this time each of these
six giants was represented in this
country by a subsidiary American
corporation. The agent of Bayer was
Bayer & Co. Qnc.), a New York cor
poration, while In the synthetic patent
Co. (Inc.), another subsidiary, was
vested the ownership of the LOO
American patents taken out by the
parent house. This New York COM
pany also owned other subsidiaries, in
GLIDING the Hudson River Anime
Works, through which it had estab-
lished it's Albany factory. Berlin was
represented by the Berlin Aniline
Works, also a New York corporation.
Kalle & Co. were operating through
a third New York corporation, also
called Kalle & Co. In these three
cases all of the stock of the American
house was admittedly owned outright
by the parent organization. All three
were accordingly taken over at the
outset. The great Badische Co. acted
through the Badische Co. of New
York, the stock of which appeared on
the books to be owned by Messrs.
Adolph Kuttroff, Carl Pickhardt and
their chief employees. Leopold Cas-
sella & Co. were represented by the
Cassella Co., also a New York cor
poration, the stock of which appeared
to be owned by its president, Mr..
William J. Matheson, and its vice
president, Mr.. Shaw. Hoecht operated
through a New York company known
as Farbwerke Hoechst, of which the
stock stood in the name of its presi-
dent, Mr.. Herman \. Metz. Of these
gentlemen Messrs. huttrof and Pick
hardt were Germans by birth and
Americans by naturalization, Messrs.
Matheso1 and Shaw by birth and ira
dition ana Mr.. Metz American by
birth. An extensive investigation
was instituted by my bureau Of in
~yestigation under the direction OF Mr..
Francis T: GarYiH, and as the result
- Z leaa=cantiAaiAd and -t"na
effort it was at last shown that the
ostensible ownership Of the stock Of
these three branches was not genuine
but that each remained in fact owned
by its German progenitor. As will
hereinafter appear in the detailed &C
counts OF these proceedings, each OF
these three companies has also been
taken over.
The outbreak of the war cut off the
importation of dyes from Germany.
There Immediately sprang up a mum
Der Of American companies, mostly
small, organized to embark / n the
manufacturing business. By strenu-
Gus efforts these companies contrlved to
avert the threatened dye famine which
the curtailment of the German supply
apparently rendered inevitable. Com
mencing with those dyes which were
easiest to produce, and gradually ex-
tending to a limited number of the
more essential and w~ell-known OF the
non-patented c%olors, the production IN
creased until at the time when l took
office the requirements of the textile
trade were being met and a consider
able export business had sprung up.
The qualities of the dyes produced
were, except in the matter of stand
a~rdization, comparable with the Ger
nan dyes of similar character, but
the fast alizarin and anthracine colors
were not being produced, nor was
synthetic indigo, the consumption of
which is larger than that of any other
dye. The largest of the existing pro-
ducers, that is to say, Schoellkopf
Aniline & Chemical Works, w.
Beckers Aniline Co., and the Standard
Aniline Co. of Wappingers Falls, have
been combined with the aniline works
of the Benzol Products Co., and the
Barrett Co. into a single large corpor-
alton known as the National Aniline
& Chemical Co. This combination has
since produced considerably more than
half of the dyes consumed in America
During the same period the dupont Co
had begun to construct an enormous
plant at Deepwater, N. j., established
an immense laboratory employing ap'
proximately 200 chemists, and hac
bought the plant of the United Piece
Dye Works in which the latter com
pany had succeeded in producing {
number of the most valuable dyes ap
plicable to silk. Among other import
ant concerns the Dow Chemical Co.
and the Newport Chemical Work.
were preparing for the production o
colors on a large scale, while man.
other companies were turning out ap
preciable quantities. The prices o
course rose enormously and the re
suits for a time were correspondence,
profitable.
In the meantime the German agen
cies had been making every effort t
retain their organization and thei
customers. They had on hand, i