Public Opinion and the Chemical Industry: A bad trend is more likely to be relieved by giving it attention than by ignoring it

There are indications that industry is likely to be subjected to increasing investigation by various branches of the U.S. Government. The drug hearings aroused lively public interest. The chemical industry is suggested as a ripe target by a recent speech ( C&EN, March 26, page 27 ) by Paul Rand Dixon, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and former chief counsel to the Kefauver committee. The speech, before the Economic Club of Detroit, was devoted predominantly to the chemical process industries. While Mr. Dixon has stated directly to C&EN that no inference should be drawn, one might suggest that implications had been clearly made as to matters on his mind. What is on his mind has been and will continue to be very important to the chemical industry. In a recent symposium (C&EN, April 2, page 25) a university professor—who in the past had appeared before a Congressional Committee hearing on relationships of prices to ...