LETTER OF SUBMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE,

BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE,

Washington, April 7, 1919. SIR: Submitted herewith is a report on chemicals and allied products imported into the United States during the last year of normal trade, to which is appended a survey of the domestic manufacture of these products, based on the census of manufactures for

1914.

A valuable feature of the report is a very complete table that lists by their commercial names all chemical and allied products imported in excess of $100 in value and shows for each the quantity and value imported and the per cent of quantity from each foreign country. This table contains the names of 2,500 products, classified alphabetically by groups, and a list of 3,000 other products imported in amounts less than $100 each is added. These import statistics were compiled from original invoices placed at the disposal of the Bureau by the Customs Service of the Treasury Department and from statistical blotters kept in the 48 customs districts of the United States. Import statistics for only a few of these commodities were ever before compiled.

This publication continues the Bureau's work for the development of the chemical industry, begun with the issuance of "Artificial Dyestuffs Used in the United States," Special Agents Series No. 121, and which will be completely rounded out by a third publication giving statistics of international trade in chemicals.

The American Chemical Society has cooperated with the Bureau in planning and compiling the data in this publication and has given much helpful advice. The statistical work was in direct charge of Dr. E. R. Pickrell, chief chemist in the Office of the Appraiser of Merchandise, New York, whose principal assistant was A. J. Bernstein, of New York. Highly valued assistance has been rendered by the customs officials in New York and other customs districts in making available thousands of invoices and records, and also by Dr. Bernhard C. Hesse, of the American Chemical Society, who supervised the plan, scope, and general arrangement.

Respectfully,

To Hon. WILLIAM C. REDFIELD,

B. S. CUTLER,

Chief of Bureau.

Secretary of Commerce.

CHEMICALS AND ALLIED PRODUCTS USED IN THE UNITED STATES.

INTRODUCTION.

The European war had not progressed many months when there was an actual dearth in the American market of chemicals and allied products necessary to the life of the American manufacturing industries. Imports from. Germany and Austria-Hungary ceased entirely early in 1915. As the months went by it became increasingly difficult to secure supplies of materials normally imported from England, France, Italy, and Russia. The energies of these nations were diverted to warfare and actual embargoes were placed on the exports from these countries. The increasing scarcity of ships and rising freight rates made it more and more difficult to secure imports from any part of the world.

The dependence of American industries for many important commodities, both raw materials and manufactured articles, was thus brought most sharply to the attention of the people and the Government of the United States. In many cases this dependence has been minimized, in others removed through the creation of new enterprises and the further development of old industries. Conspicuous examples of this development are the great expansion of the manufacture of dyes and coal-tar chemicals by private manufacturers and the construction of large ammonia and nitric acid plants by the Govern

ment.

Another factor likely to contribute to American independence from the domination of foreign manufacture in the future is the opportunity afforded by the release of materials formerly needed for war purposes. The utilization of these materials and the plants already constructed for the manufacture of articles formerly imported will help to decrease the industrial dependence of the United States and will give a further opportunity for the diversification of the American chemical industry.

In order that the diversification of the American chemical industry may be planned on sound lines, a greater knowledge of the markets is important. An earlier publication of the Department of Commerce (Special Agents Series No. 121), showing the imports of dyes for 1913-14 in great detail, has proved to be of great value in guiding the development of the new American dye industry. The usefulness of the dyestuff pamphlet has been so marked that there has been created a demand for a similar publication covering a broader field which would give far more detail in regard to the imports of chemicals and allied products than is available in the statistics of imports. already published.

It is the primary purpose of this publication to present clearly to domestic manufacturers and technical men the measure of American dependence on imported chemicals as it existed at the outbreak of the

European war. Along with this information is furnished the available statistics in regard to the production of chemicals and allied products in the United States for the same year. (See Appendix, p. 169.)

In order that the import data may achieve their maximum value, it has been thought profitable to give, in addition, the export statisties of the same classes of merchandise for which import figures are given. (See Appendix, p. 178.)

A synoptic study of the table of imports, the census of domestic manufactures, and the export statistics shows that a huge amount of the coarser chemicals produced by the American chemical industry could, by the enterprise of our own manufacturers, have been used in the creation of the finer chemicals, and the resulting products would have found a waiting market. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the information contained in this pamphlet will stimulate the domestic manufacturers to effect a greater diversification of the chemical industry and thus bring about a condition in which American industrial life shall be absolutely free of foreign production.

MOVEMENT TO SECURE A CENSUS OF CHEMICAL IMPORTS.

The advantages to be gained by a more detailed analysis of the statistics of chemical imports were first presented in a paper by Dr. Bernhard C. Hesse, read before the seventh annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers held at Philadelphia December 2-5, 1914. This subject was also discussed at a meeting of the American Chemical Society at Seattle in September, 1915, at which meeting a committee was appointed to ascertain the proper procedure to obtain such a detailed analysis and to put it into the most serviceable and effective form. The committee ultimately chosen by the American Chemical Society for this purpose consisted of Dr. Bernhard C. Hesse, chairman; Dr. William H. Nichols, War Industries Board; Col. M. T. Bogert, Chemical Warfare Service, United States Army; Dr. Grinnell Jones, United States Tariff Commission; Mr. George P. Adamson, General Chemical Co.

During the month of January, 1917, the American Chemical Society conferred with Dr. E. E. Pratt, at that time Chief of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, relative to the cooperation of that Bureau with the American Chemical Society for an amplification of chemical import statistics for 1913-14 and their publication as an official bulletin of the Bureau. As a result of that conference the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce designated Mr. C. D. Snow, Assistant Chief of the Bureau, to supervise the amplification of the import schedule as published in the statements of imported merchandise entered for consumption in the United States in such manner as to show the importation of each and every chemical, drug, medicinal, and allied chemical imported during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1914, the last year preceding the European war.

SCOPE OF THIS PUBLICATION.

This publication presents statistics for 5,500 natural and manufactured articles imported into the United States during the fiscal year 1913-14. A study of these statistics in connection with the review of domestic production given in the appendix reveals condi