The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-07-06
CHOATE WARNS
 AGAINST GERMANS

was not directly benefited by the knowledge accumulated by the dye chemists, and there is not an indus try in the world which has not bene- fitted directly by the knowledge which has leaked out of Germany against the will of its producers, the plodding workers in the German dye labora- tories.
 Now, only a word or two as to the economic consequences of this indus try. Of course, the textile industry and the leather and paint and paper makers, and all the other people who use dyes directly, are dependent absolutely on the supply of dyes. They can't get on without them, and they make about 100000 worth of goods a year. But that is not half of it.,
 The importance of that fact is merely that if we leave the Germans with a world monopoly such as they had before the war, so that we have to buy our dyes of Germany all those industries are at the mercy of the German dye industry, which is one with the German government. And as the Germans, by cutting off the dyes in 1915, tried, as was disclosed by the Bernstoff correspondence, to force our government to compel the British to relax the blockade, so working under the easier conditions of peace they could at any time com pei our textile and leather and paint and paper industries to do any thing they pleased including going ou+ of business, if our industries were compelled to go to Germany for their dyes.
 The vital importance of the indus try is due to the fact that it is an absolute essential to national defense, and to the world disarmament hope of this army. The reason it is es- sential to national defense is because every dye works is a potential arsen- al All the great explosives are coa1-tar chemicals.
 In making many dyes you come within an ace of making INT, ana Tn others picric acid. Picric acid, in deed is itself, a. valuable dye, and also a disinfectant. When you start out to make sulphur black, with which most of our stockings are dyed, you can turn the last of the stages of this
 manufacture by a handsoraath Tn either of two ways, and switch the product at will into either sulphur black or picric acid. Thus any great dye works can be turned into an ex- plosive factory over night. And the nation that has a great dye industry doesn't need reserve explosive fac tories. It is all ready to turn out at body could want But even that is not the most important thing.
 The last great war began as a | 1o0%o explosive war, and finished as a 55%o chemical war. F1fty-hVe per | cent. of the shells of the last fighting | were loaded with poison gases. Now, | all those poison gases also are either | coal-tar products or organic pro, ducts, directly Or indirectly derived | from coal-tar.
 The first two that were used -l chlorine and phosgene-were regular materials of dye manufacture, pre- sent in every dye works. You V-ob- l ably read the other day how in the | little dye works at Bound Brook | phosgene got loose and killed lot | of people. Every dye works has to | have people perfectly familiar with | these materials of dye manufacture. | and with their handling and appH- cation. A great dye industry is in stantly ready to. manufacture in any | quantity that may be desired all such products. The Germans made every | ounce, with the exception of one in the dye factories without chang ing the works in any way
 The most skilled chemists with the best labor force ever collected in any other industry would be utterly help less to make in quantity, as a real manufacturing proposition, any of these poison gases whatever They wouldn't know how to handle them; wretched product in very tnade- | quate quantity.
 A real dye industry is always | ready for this vitally important io5. Not only that, but the research | which has been going on constantly | in the dye works provides in advance | the latest knowledge of all those | substances which again is indispensi- ble.
 What are we going to do about it 7? | There is no difference of opinion as to the fundamental proposition that the dye-industry ought to be pro- tected. Even the most violent op- ponents of the proposed legislation admit this and pretend to be the or iginal friends of the dye industry. They assert that the necessary pro- lection can be given by a traiff, but | want to give you the reasons why, l in my view, as in the view of the | British and French, that cannot be done.
 The primary reason why a tariff | would not succeed is this: Owing to | the losses on new dyes. and owing to | made by lots of different people, so | that the great bulk colorS which con stitute most of the business are the | source of infinite competition, and | are therefore sold at prices on which | nobody makes money, every Ameri- | can dye maker makes money on only | a few dyes-those which we make l better than any other, or which come | naturally in his processes of Enanu- | facture as by-products to him. The | Germans know perfectly well which | those are; any by concentrating at | tack on those products, selecting the | eight or ten things on which, we will | say, the du Pont Company makes its | money eff it makes any, which I | doubt) they could put that company | out of the dye business in jig-time by | simply importing into this country a | few hundred thousand pounds. It must be remembered that most of those profitable products are not pro l duced in large quantities, and that the | entire consumption of all dyes in the l United States, for year, could be | brought in in three shiploads.
 There has been a great deal of loose l talk on the subject of monopoly. For l some reason other VariOnS nl- l bers of our legislatures and Congress | have been willing day after day, week | after week, and month after month, | to talk about an American dye mon | opoly. On the word of one who | knows "there ain't no such anima1.'
 But if there were monopoly (and | if for that reason we should deny it | such protection as would save it) what | is the alternative? The alternative is | to let the Germans in. And when you | let them in, they will kill the indus |