Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1885 — Chemistry as a Profession. [ARTICLE]

Chemistry as a Profession.

Chemists as a rule receive from SI,OOO to SI2OO a year. This seems small when wo consider to what expense a young man has been put to obtain the necessary education. Sometimes, however, in a manufacturing house where he has made himself particularly useful, a chemist may receive SIBOO or $2,000, and, as superintendent of works, he might get $5,000 or $10,000; but such cases are very ‘-exceptional. One reason why salaries are smaller in our large cities is said to be found in the number of competent chemists who have come from Germany, and who are willing to work for lower wages than their American brethren demand. When a chemist has, after years of 1 study and long practice, thoroughly qualified himself in his profession, he can give what is called “an expert opinion.” This, as Sum Weller might say, “is an opinion as is much more valu’ble than an opinion as is not expert.” In a lawsuit, for example, chemists would be employed by both sides, and an expert would receive from SSO a day to $25 an hour. If an expert examined a mine, made a report on the the formation, and gave his views on; the likelihood of its paying the people who intended to purchase it, he would be paid perhaps SSOO or SOOO and all expenses. But, remember, there are very few “experts,” and that those who enjoy that reputation have paid the price of long-continued study, of hard 1 and enthusiastic labor, for the reputation they have made.—George J. Manson, in St. Nicholas. f