The Industrial Relations Section was created to care for the interests
of the industrial plants which were considered as essential war
industries. Through its activity many vitally important industries
were enabled to retain, on deferred classification or on indefinite
furlough, those skilled chemists without which they could not have
maintained a maximum output of war munitions.
In the same way the University Relations Section cared for the
educational and research institutions. In this way our recruiting
stations for chemists were kept in as active operation as war
conditions permitted.
Another important achievement of the Administration Section was to
secure the order from The Adjutant General, dated May 28, 1918, that
read:
“Owing to the needs of the military service for a
great many men trained in chemistry, it is considered
most important that all enlisted men who are graduate
chemists should be assigned to duty where their
special knowledge and training can be fully utilized.
* * * * *
“Enlisted men who are graduate chemists will not
be sent overseas unless they are to be employed on
chemical duties....”
While this undoubtedly created a great deal of feeling among the men
who naturally were anxious to see actual fighting in France, it was
very important that this order be carried out in order to conserve our
chemical strength. The following clipping from the September, 1918,
issue of _The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry_ shows
the result of this order.
“CHEMISTS IN CAMP
“As the result of the letter from The Adjutant General
of the Army, dated May 28, 1918, 1,749 chemists have
been reported on. Of these the report of action to
August 1, 1918, shows that 281 were ordered to remain
with their military organization because they were
already performing chemical duties, 34 were requested
to remain with their military organization because they
were more useful in the military work which they were
doing, 12 were furloughed back to industry, 165 were
not chemists in the true sense of the word and were,
therefore, ordered back to the line, and 1,294 now
placed in actual chemical work. There were being held
for further investigation of their qualifications on
August 1, 1918, 432 men. The remaining 23 men were
unavailable for transfer, because they had already
received their overseas orders.
“The 1,294 men, who would otherwise be serving in a
purely military capacity and whose chemical training is
now being utilized in chemical work, have, therefore,
been saved from waste.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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