SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 49 



The active members of the committee who prepared that Manual 

 of Land Surveying and who from the knowledge gained in its 

 preparation were enabled to criticize our supreme court with 

 such results were M. A. C. men. 



The production of this Manual practically settled all the 

 knotty questions with which the land surveyors had to deal. 

 From that time on, the papers and discussions in the society 

 took in a wider range of subjects covering nearly the whole 

 scope of civil and mechanical engineering practice. Members 

 who had been only land surveyors began to develop into en- 

 gineers. The annual conventions brought them in contact with 

 some of the brightest and best men of the profession from whom 

 they learned directly, while from the publications which they 

 received from the society they got a mass of up-to-date engineer- 

 ing literature which was an education of itself. 



The character of the subjects discussed in the society has 

 changed from time to time, but at all times the leading papers 

 and discussions have been on live topics in which both the 

 profession and the people were interested at the time. At one 

 time sanitary engineering had the lead; at another, road-making 

 was at the front; at other times mechanical topics have led; 

 but whatever the subjects discussed, the prime object and 

 underlying motive has not been individual advancement but 

 the public welfare; to learn how to give the public better service, 

 better roads, better health, better everything with which the 

 surveyor or engineer has to do. What had M. A. C. to do 

 with all this ? Professor R. C. Carpenter of M. A. C. was one 

 of the two projectors and promoters of the society. Whether 

 the conception originated with him or Mr. J. E. Sherman I am 

 not certain, but they two brought about the organization of the 

 society. After the organization Professor Carpenter was its 

 secretary and treasurer for six years and was then elected its 

 president. Following him as secretary was another alumnus 

 of M. A. C., who up to that time had been a district vice-presi- 



