Los Banos Rotary Club History
Du Pont Chemist Is Speaker Here

Praising our industrial science as the new creative force in human affairs that has been responsible for more material progress than any mechanism ever developed in the history of man, Dr. Walter A. Dew of San Francisco, Pacific district manager of the Du Pont Company Extension Division, told members of the Rotary Club here Tuesday noon something of the varied contributions that science and chemistry has made toward a better standard of living for the American people, and of the importance of free enterprise to our way of life.
Dew said in his talk, "Progress In Better Living," That we have the things we want because we have an industrial system that is greater than any in the world. The United States is strong, he declared, "because it is based on freedom to imagine and create, freedom to act and distribute products in a competitive market."

Stating that industry is made up of people who work together to produce goods and services for the people at a fair profit, he pointed out that the team comprising the investor, research, management and labor spells production. The sales force insures distribution. That, he declared, "is the real strength in our way of life and it is the envy of all other countries."

In discussing a few of the many Du Pont products, Dew pointed out that all of the major man-made materials now being made are available to the public only because they are produced at low cost in large amounts in plants which are very costly. Du Pont, for instance, sells some 88 per cent of its basic production to other companies, most of them small, for processing into consumer items.

In the rayon industry, he pointed out, Du Pont and 14 other major companies produce the yarn, competing with each other to serve some 13,000 smaller businesses which are engaged in converting it into finished articles for consumers. Last year, he said the rayon industry employed well over a million people in the handling of a billion pounds of this man-made fiber.
Nylon, which was developed by Du Pont after ten years of research, is today the basic material for a whole team of industries that work on it and transform it into finished products such as hosiery, woven fabrics, and plastic articles.
Briefly mentioning some of the newer of the Du Pont products still in the experimental or evaluation stage, Dew told specifically of titanium and of orlon. Titanium is a newly developed metal that is half the weight of stainless steel but just as strong and better in resisting corrosion. Orlon is a new man-made fiber which has great promise for making a new and useful fabric. It mixes well with other yarns, is practically wear-proof, fade-proof and rot-proof.
Dew, a research chemist of long experience, joined the Du Pont Co. in 1924 after receiving is Ph.D. from Princeton University. He has been manager of the Pacific district since 1948.

The speaker was introduced by program chairman George Nickel.
President Louis Castellucci reminded Rotarians of the Ladies' Night program planned for Tuesday evening, April 3; and of a joint meeting with the Lions Club sometime next month, when the Lions will honor the high school basketball teams.

March 23, 1951

---