While general sales manager of the Bakelite Co., he conceived the idea of a plastics society, and proceeded with the organization of a group that later became known as the SPI. Ever since then, SPI has been one of the most important factors in the success of the plastics industry.

Left alone, the plastics industry will go on growing as it has in the past, with each new use suggesting more uses. But the plastics industry is not being left alone nor will it be. The ecological zealots who are delaying the construction of increased power facilities have their counterparts in all sorts of anti-business groups -- from the committees formed to stop the phone company from getting rate increases for any purpose, to the professors who would tear General Motors limb from limb because the professors hate success.

Our industry must learn to be active politically. And I don't mean by spending a lot of money. We, too, can use the television medium for free, as did the chicken farmer who showed the destruction of baby chicks. Likewise, we can see a local effort grow into a national broadcast. The supply of basic raw materials for the entire plastics industry today is threatened not simply by lack of national policy, but also because the competition, like gasoline and other fuels, is politically palatable. We have plenty of newsworthy stories to tell about plastics and most of them can be constructive. With everyone in on the act, we too can become politically palatable.