JRInns for the ACS

JL HE 75th anniversary meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY will be held in New York City Sept. 2 to 8,1951. The XVIth conference of the Inter­national Union of Chemistry will convene in New York City Sept. 8 and 9, 1951, and again in the nation's capital, Sept. 15 and 16, and the X l l t h International Congress of Pure and Applied Chem­istry will hold forth in New York City Sept. 10 to 14, 1951. Unquestionably these three events will attract from all parts of the world the largest gathering of chemists and chemical engineers in the history of the profession.

Events of such magnitude require careful and elabo­rate planning well in advance of 1951. The Board of Directors of the ACS has appointed a committee, with President Linus Pauling as chairman, to implement plans for the anniversary meeting, and the National Research Council has a similar committee for the union meeting and the congress. Purposely there is considerable overlapping in the make-up of both committees in order to integrate the arrangements for all three affairs.

The 75th anniversary meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and the subsequent meetings of the International Union of Chemistry and the Inter­national Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry will provide an unprecedented opportunity to build better relations between the public and the world's chemists and chemical engineers. In view of the tremendous potential interest these meetings will hold for the American public, as well as for scientists and laymen throughout the world, it is imperative that a compre­hensive and carefully considered public relations pro­gram be implemented now.

This program should have as its immediate ob­jectives the dissemination of scientific information and the development of greater public appreciation of the work of chemists and chemical engineers. If these object ires are attained, much valuable progress will be made toward the Society's goals set forth in its national charter—"The advancement of chemistry in all irs branches." The program should be designed to gain maximum public attention for the chemists and chemical engineers, 4

The gathering, of chemists and chemical engineers from many lands will point up the international natiiro of science, and the power of science to build international understanding and friendship will re­ceive full attention in the publicity. The fact that science thrives in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy will be stressed whenever feasible.

Nor :\\\ the plans for the three meetings can be disclosed at the moment, but one or two suggestions

WALTER J. MUKPHY, Editor

TSth Anniversary

should be acted upon immediately, if they are to be highly successful.

One of these proposals is a history detailing the advances in the various branches of chemistry in the past 75 years, to be prepared by the divisions of the ACS in cooperation with the staffs of the Society's journals and the ACS News Service. The history of each division should be interwoven in its account of the scientific advances in its particular field, stress­ing, of course, the influence that the ACS and the divisions have exerted in the advancement of science down through the years.

Generally speaking, the 19 divisions cover the whole gamut of chemistry and chemical engineering so that the combined histories of the Society's divisions will present a composite picture of pure and applied chemistry and chemical engineering over the past 75 years. It is also hoped that the authors of these articles will do a little crystal-gazing into the next 25 to 75 years. While the authors may be running considerable risk in so doing, our members 25 to 75 years hence will find such prognostications of great interest.

In a few instances it will be necessary to ask certain divisions to cover more than one field; for example, it seems desirable and necessary for the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry to cover the dyes and metallurgical fields. Such details will be arranged in consultation with divisional officers.

We hope to publish serially in CHEMICAL AND ENGI­NEERING N E W S or Industrial and Engineering Chem­istry the histories prepared by the divisions and to make them available in brochure or book form for sale at the time of the anniversary meeting.

If this extensive undertaking is to be successful, steps must be taken now by the divisions to select authors or committees to prepare the material for publication. A great deal of research must be done and the actual writing assignment represents a time-consuming effort.

The opportunity is also present for the local sec­tions to prepare their histories for presentation in the local section publications. These articles might be combined in brochure or book form for sale at the 1951 meeting.

For the Society, its divisions, and sections a 75th anniversary aptly can be described as a state of virile maturity. A great deal of the history of the ACS organization and its component parts will be lost forever if we do not take advantage of the personal knowledge of many of our older members about the major events in the history of the Society, the profession, and the chemical field generally.

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