=Great Chemical Industries.= Thus it is that our Government today is giving most serious heed to the need of building up a great chemical industry in the United States. We have the raw materials. We need only the factories and the trained men that go with them. We need, of course, in addition to the development of the coal tar industry, a production of heavy chemicals such as chlorine, sulfuric acid and the like, all of which, however, are bound together by community interest in peace as well as in war. =Reserves of Chemists.= A part of the strategy of peace is the card-indexing of the manpower of a nation divided into special groups. In one great group must come those who have a knowledge of chemistry and the chemical industries. That must be so worked out that if war should come on a moment’s notice, within twenty-four hours thereafter every chemist could be given his job, jobs extending from the firing line to the research laboratory. And that is the task of the Chemical Warfare Service. And right here it is well to know that Congress, among the other features of its Army Reorganization Act of June 4, 1920, provided for a separate Chemical Warfare Service with these powers: CHEMICAL WARFARE POWERS The Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service under the authority of the Secretary of War shall be charged with the investigation, development, manufacture, or procurement and supply to the Army of all smoke and incendiary materials, all toxic gases, and all gas defense appliances; the research, design, and experimentation connected with chemical warfare and its material; and chemical projectile filling plants and proving grounds; the supervision of the training of the Army in chemical warfare, both offensive and defensive, including the necessary schools of instruction; the organization, equipment, training, and operation of special gas troops, and such other duties as the President may from time to time prescribe. =Why Power Is Needed.= These rather broad powers indicate that Congress realized the unity of effort that must be made from the research laboratory to the firing line if America was to keep pace with Germany or any other nation in chemical warfare. Some have raised the question as to whether a service should be both supply and combat. Perhaps the best answer to that question is that so organized Chemical Warfare was a success in the World War. It was a success notwithstanding it had to be developed in the field six months after our entry into the war and with no precedents, no materials, no literature and no personnel. Through its officers on the staffs of commanding generals of armies, corps and divisions, and through its fighting gas troops in the front line, it was enabled to direct its research, development and manufacture more quickly along lines shown to be necessary by every change in battle conditions, than any other service.