RELATIONS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 569 



would not take long to make apparent the impress of their indi- 

 viduality and knowledge upon the development of civil engineer- 

 ing in all its branches, with a resulting betterment to all kinds of 

 constructions and the evolution of many new and important types. 



"When one considers that the true progress of the entire civil- 

 ized world is due almost entirely to the work of its engineers, the 

 importance of providing the engineering profession with the highest 

 possible education in both theoretical and practical lines cannot 

 be exaggerated. 



"What greater or more worthy use for his accumulated wealth 

 could an American multi-millionaire conceive than the endowment 

 and establishment of a post-graduate school of civil engineering.'' 



Another extremely practical and effective means for affiliating 

 civil engineering and the other sciences is for engineers and pro- 

 fessors of both pure science and technics to establish the custom 

 of associating themselves for the purpose of solving problems that 

 occur in the engineers' practice. Funds should be made available 

 by millionaires and the richer institutions of learning for the pro- 

 secution of such investigations. 



Another possible (but in the past not always a successful) method 

 is the appointment by technical societies of special committees 

 to investigate important questions. The main trouble experienced 

 by such committees has been the lack of funds for carrying out the 

 necessary investigations, and the fact that in nearly every case 

 the members of the committees were unpaid except by the possible 

 honor and glory resulting from a satisfactory conclusion of their 

 work. 



Finally, an ideal but still practicable means is the evolution of 

 a high standard of professional ethics, applicable to all branches 

 of engineering, and governing the relations of engineers to each 

 other, to their fellow workers in the allied sciences, and to man- 

 kind in general. 



As an example of what may be accomplished by an alliance of 

 engineering and the pure sciences, the construction of the proposed 

 Panama Canal might be mentioned. Some years ago the French 

 attempted to build this waterway and failed, largely on account 

 of the deadly fevers which attacked the workmen. It is said that 

 at times the annual death-rate on the work ran as high as six hun- 

 dred per thousand. Since the efforts of the French on the project 

 practically ceased, the sciences of medicine and biology have dis- 

 covered how to combat with good chances for success the fatal 

 malarial and yellow fevers, as was instanced by the success of the 

 Americans in dealing with these scourges in the city of Havana 

 after the conclusion of the Spanish-American war. 



The success of the American engineers in consummating the 



