PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 615 
and dispensing of greater numbers, putting exceptional 
demands upon all the requirements of the building. 
2. Cost.—It should be scarcely necessary for me to say 
that, consistently with the proper attainment of its objects, 
our aim is necessarily to attain those objects with the 
greatest economy, but I take the opportunity of making 
this statement here publicly on behalf of both professions, 
because we are often so misunderstood and suspected of an 
unworthy ambition to glorify ourselves and save ourselves 
time and thought at the expense of our clients. It is often 
forgotten that we have to look for true economy under the 
two heads of “first cost’ and subsequent “ wear and tear 
and cost of working,” and that what may seem a saving in 
first cost may be absolutely a loss when the reduction in 
durability and the increased cost of maintenance and work- 
ing are considered. 
3. Access.—It would swell this paper beyond all proper 
limit were I to more than glance at the requirements which 
may be included under even the first subdivision of this 
heading, ‘“‘ access from without,’’ but I will just refer to 
them in order to justify my contention that all engineering, 
as well as all architecture, centres round the idea of the 
“ slorified roof.” The'road, the rail, the tramway, the 
waterway, the various agencies for propulsion and _ trac- 
tion—wind, water, steam, electricity—all are feeding agen- 
cies which become necessary to the existence of the modern 
city or great building. 
And so with access from within, re from one part of the 
edifice to another. The lofty building of the present day 
would be an impossibility but for the use of the modern 
elevator, both for passengers and goods. I do not know 
what papers are going to be contributed to our section this 
Session, but it would be interesting to have one on the com- 
parative merits of the various forms of elevators now 
competing for public favour, more especially a dispassionate 
comparison between the hydraulic and the electric types. 
I have referred here to lofty buildings. In passing, let 
me say here, that the instinct of imitation is sometimes 
liable to make us overlook the different conditions which 
prevail in different communities. The restricted area of a 
certain business portion of New York, confined by rivers on 
either side, has rendered the 10 to 25-storey building a 
necessity there; but it by no means follows that where 
lateral extension is possible any such growth skywards is 
advisable. If equal pains and money be expended in pro- 
viding means of horizontal transmission as are absorbed by 
