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diff --git a/18795.txt b/18795.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b57dcdb --- /dev/null +++ b/18795.txt @@ -0,0 +1,629 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Transactions of the American Society of +Civil Engineers, Vol. LXX, Dec. 1910, by John A. Bensel + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 + Address at the 42d Annual Convention, Chicago, Illinois, + June 21st, 1910, Paper No. 1178 + +Author: John A. Bensel + +Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18795] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sigal Alon and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS + +INSTITUTED 1852 + + +TRANSACTIONS + +Paper No. 1178 + + +ADDRESS AT THE 42D ANNUAL CONVENTION, +CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, JUNE 21ST, 1910. + +BY JOHN A. BENSEL, PRESIDENT, AM. SOC. C. E. + + + + +I know that to some of my audience a satisfactory address at a summer +convention would be like that which many people regard as a satisfactory +sermon--something soothing and convincing, to the effect that you are +not as other men are, but better. While I appreciate very fully, +however, the honor of being able to address you, I am going to look +trouble in the face in an effort to convince you that, in spite of great +individual achievements, engineers are behind other professional men in +professional spirit, and particularly in collective effort. + +Whether this, if true, is due to our extreme youth as a profession, or +our extreme age, is dependent upon the point of view; but I think it is +a fact that will be admitted by all that engineers have not as yet done +much for their profession, even if they have done considerable for the +world at large. + +Looking backward, our calling may properly be considered the oldest in +the world. It is older, in fact, than history itself, for man did not +begin to separate from the main part of animal creation, until he began +to direct the sources of power in Nature for the benefit, if not always +for the improvement, of his particular kind. In Bible history, we find +early mention of the first builder of a pontoon. This creditable +performance is especially noted, and the name of the party principally +concerned prominently mentioned. The same thing cannot be said of the +unsuccessful attempt at the building of the first sky-scraper, for here +the architect, with unusual modesty, has not given history his name, +this omission being possibly due to the fact that the building was +unsuccessful. If an engineer was employed on this particular +undertaking, the architect had, even at that early stage of his +profession, learned the lesson of keeping all except his own end of the +work in the background. + +The distinctive naming of our profession does not seem, however, to go +back any farther than the period of 1761, when that Father of the +Profession, John Smeaton, first made use of the term, "engineer," and +later, "civil engineer," applying it both to others and to himself, as +descriptive of a certain class of men working along professional lines +now existing and described by that term. + +Remarkable progress has certainly been made in actual achievements since +that time, and I know of nothing more impressive than to contemplate the +tremendous changes that have been made in the material world by the +achievements of engineers, particularly in the last hundred years. This +was forcibly impressed upon me a short time ago, while in the company of +the late Charles Haswell, then the oldest member of this Society, who, +seeing one of the recently built men-of-war coming up the harbor, +remarked that he had designed the first steamship for the United States +Navy. The evolution of this intricate mass of mechanism, which, from the +very beginning of its departure from the sailing type of vessel, has +taken place entirely within the working period of one man's life, is as +graphic a showing of engineering activity as I think can be found. + +Our activities are forcibly shown in many other lines of invention and +in the utilization of the forces of Nature, particularly in the +development of this country. We, although young in years, have become +the greatest railroad builders in history, and have put into use +mechanical machines like the harvester, the sewing machine, the +telephone, the wireless telegraph, and almost numberless applications of +electricity. Ships have been built of late years greatly departing from +those immediately preceding them, so that at the present time they might +be compared to floating cities with nearly all a city's conveniences and +comforts. We have done away with the former isolation of the largest +city in the country, and have made it a part of the main land by the +building of tunnels and bridges. In all our work it might be said that +we are hastening, with feverish energy, from one problem to another, +for the so-called purpose of saving time, or for the enjoyment of some +new sensation; and we have also made possible the creation of that which +might be deemed of doubtful benefit to the human race, that huge +conglomerate, the modern city. + +There has been no hesitancy in grappling with the problems of Nature by +engineers, but they seem to be diffident and neglectful of human nature +in their calculations, leaving it out of their equations, greatly to +their own detriment and the world's loss. We can say that matters +outside of the known are not our concern, and we can look with pride at +our individual achievements, and of course, if this satisfies, there is +nothing more to be said. But it is because I feel that engineers of +to-day are not satisfied with their position, that I wonder whether we +have either fulfilled our obligations to the community, or secured +proper recognition from it; whether, in fact, the engineer can become +the force that he should be, until he brings something into his +equations besides frozen figures, however diverting an occupation this +may be. + +One may wonder whether this state of affairs is caused from a fear of +injecting uncertain elements into our calculations, or whether it is our +education or training which makes us conservative to the point of +operating to our own disadvantage. We may read the requirements of our +membership and learn from them that in our accomplishments we are not to +be measured as skilled artisans, but the fact remains that, to a great +extent, society at large does so rate us, and it would seem that we must +ourselves be responsible for this state of affairs. Our colleges and +technical schools are partly to blame for the existence of this idea, on +account of the different degrees which they give. We have a degree of +civil engineer, regarded in its narrowest sense, of mining engineer, +mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and by necessity it would seem +as if we should shortly add some particular title to designate the +engineer who flies. In reality there should be but two classes of +engineers, and the distinction should be drawn only between civil +engineers and military engineers. As a matter of fact, fate and +inclination determine the specialty that a man takes up after his +preliminary training, and so far as the degrees are concerned, the only +one that has any right to carry weight, because it is a measure of +accomplishment, is that which is granted by this Society to its +corporate members. The schools, in their general mix-up of titles, +certainly befog the public mind. It is as if the medical schools, for +instance, should issue degrees at graduation for brain doctors, stomach +doctors, eye and ear doctors, etc. Very wisely, it seems to me, the +medical profession and the legal profession, with histories far older +than ours, and with as wide variations in practice as we have, leave the +variations in name to the individual taste of the practitioner, in a +manner which we would do well to copy. The Society itself has adopted +very broad lines in admission to membership, classing as civil engineers +all who are properly such; and there is good reason for the serious +consideration of the term at this time, as we cannot fail to recognize a +tendency in State and other governments to legislate as to the right to +practice engineering. It was owing to the introduction of a bill +limiting and prescribing the right to practice in the State of New York, +that a committee was recently appointed to look into this matter and +report to the Society. This report will be before you for action at this +meeting. + +As to the manner in which engineers individually perform their work, no +criticism would properly lie, and in fact it is fortunate that our work +speaks for itself, for, as a body, we say nothing. We are no longer, +however, found working for the greater part of the time on the outskirts +of civilization, and it becomes necessary, therefore, for us to change +with changing conditions, and to use our Society not only for the +benefit of the profession as a whole, but for the benefit of the members +individually. Whether one of our first steps in this direction should be +along legislative lines is for you to determine. For myself, having been +confronted with legislation recently attempted in New York, I am +convinced that we shall have legislation affecting our members, and this +legislation should properly be moulded by some responsible body like our +own Society. If we do not take the matter up ourselves it is likely to +be taken up by other associations, and from past experience, it would +seem as though it might be carried on along lines that would tend to +ridicule our desire for professional standing. + +The Society is to be congratulated on its present satisfactory status. +The reports show a very satisfactory financial condition, and you may +note a continuing increase in membership that is extremely gratifying. +This, after having nearly doubled in the last seven years, still shows +no sign of diminishing in its rate of increase. It may be said, also, +that we have in the Society an excellent publishing house, where the +members have an opportunity to secure technical papers published in the +highest style of the art. We have in general in the officers, a number +of men, who, within the prescribed limits, labor for the benefit of the +members, but we also have constitutional limitations to the activity of +our governing body, so that the voice of the Society is never heard, or, +at least, might be compared to that still, small voice we call +"conscience," which is not audible outside of the body that possesses +it. + +Now, in these days, when the statement that two and two make four is +accepted from its latest originator as a newly discovered truth, a +little extension of our mathematics, to take into our estimate people as +well as things, is what we principally need, and it would be a good +thing, regarded either from the point of view of what the world needs or +the more selfish view of our own particular gains. At the present time +it would seem as though our world had thrown away the old gods without +taking hold of any new ones. Private ownership as it formerly existed is +no longer recognized; individual action in almost any large field is +to-day hampered and curtailed in a manner undreamed of twenty years ago. +In fact, our whole scheme of government seems to be passing from the +representative form on which it was founded, to some new form as yet +undetermined. Whether all this is, in our opinion, for good or for evil, +is of no particular concern. The matter that concerns us is, that we +have left our old moorings, and that, to secure new ones, new limits are +to be set to the activities of men along lines which concern us, and +that, therefore, it is necessary that those who by education and +training are best fitted to consider facts and not desires, should guide +society as much as possible along its new lines. I consider that we as a +profession are particularly trained to do this by our consideration of +facts as they exist, and I think it will be recognized by all that we +are not in our work or activities bound by any precedent, even if we do +learn all that we can from the past; and that we are by nature and +training of a cool and calculating disposition, which is surely a thing +that is needed in this time of many suggested experiments. + +To be effective, however, we must be cohesive, and thus be able to take +our part not as the led, but as leaders, convincing the people, if +possible, that all the ills of our social system cannot be cured by +remedies which neglect the forces of creation, and that the best doctors +for our troubles are not necessarily those whose sympathies are most +audibly expressed. + +In the recent discoveries of science our ideas as to the forces of +Nature must be greatly enlarged and our theories amplified. Recent +discovery of radium and radio-active substances shows at least that much +of our old knowledge needs re-writing along the lines of our greater +knowledge of to-day. + +With this increase of knowledge it would seem as though those who devote +their lives to the exploitation of natural forces should take a position +in the future even more prominent than in the past, and it will +undoubtedly become our function to help the world to that ideal state +described by our greatest living poet of action, when he speaks of the +time to come, as follows: + + "And no one shall work for money, + And no one shall work for fame; + But each for the joy of working, + And each in his separate star; + Shall draw the thing as he sees it, + For the God of the things as they are." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Transactions of the American Society +of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXX, Dec. 1910, by John A. 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