This firm united with the six other leading dye companies of Germany on
January 1, 1916, to form a trust to last for fifty years. During this
time they will maintain uniform prices and uniform wage scales and hours
of labor, and exchange patents and secrets. They will divide the foreign
business _pro rata_ and share the profits. The German chemical works
made big profits during the war, mostly from munitions and medicines,
and will be, through this new combination, in a stronger position than
ever to push the export trade.

As a consequence of letting the dye business get away from her, England
found herself in a fix when war broke out. She did not have dyes for her
uniforms and flags, and she did not have drugs for her wounded. She
could not take advantage of the blockade to capture the German trade in
Asia and South America, because she could not color her textiles. A blue
cotton dyestuff that sold before the war at sixty cents a pound, brought
$34 a pound. A bright pink rhodamine formerly quoted at a dollar a pound
jumped to $48. When one keg of dye ordinarily worth $15 was put up at
forced auction sale in 1915 it was knocked down at $1500. The
Highlanders could not get the colors for their kilts until some German
dyes were smuggled into England. The textile industries of Great
Britain, that brought in a billion dollars a year and employed one and a
half million workers, were crippled for lack of dyes. The demand for
high explosives from the front could not be met because these also are
largely coal-tar products. Picric acid is both a dye and an explosive.
It is made from carbolic acid and the famous trinitrotoluene is made
from toluene, both of which you will find in the list of the ten
fundamental "crudes."

Both Great Britain and the United States realized the danger of allowing
Germany to recover her former monopoly, and both have shown a readiness