ISO SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



' most efficient speed,' which was considerably higher than that recom- 

 mended in their catalogue. Those results have never been, and I suppose 

 never will be, published. The catalogue speeds have not been changed. 

 For it was evident that, if the customers once realised the facts, no 

 extensions of their works would be needed for some time. 



In none of these examples were the engineers in need of money. In 

 the first two, the standard of values that should have been absorbed at 

 home, school, and college was abandoned for an increase of income that 

 was trifling. In the third case, the university had inculcated a spirit of 

 scientific inquiry, but the firm would not sacrifice private profit to the 

 advancement of science. In all three cases, the serious consequence is 

 that once a man slips so far, he is ripe to take his part in questionable 

 collective action. A small blot on a single page may soak through the 

 leaves of a large volume. 



Engineering Associations. 



It is an aphorism of political life that trusts and combines grow well in 

 the shelter of tariff walls, and the protection afforded to various sections 

 of the Engineering industry by the war and since 191 8 has certainly 

 confirmed this dictum. Cement, tubes, steel, cables, instruments, 

 electric lamps and, to some extent, electric motors, are now controlled by 

 Associations of manufacturers, of which probably the Cable Makers' 

 Association and the Electric Lamp Manufacturers' Association are the 

 most powerful. The purchaser may not now buy where he likes, nor is 

 there any competition to regulate prices automatically. The individual 

 firms have little control over prices, and I have known instances where 

 goods ordered from one firm have been supplied by another without the 

 courtesy of a reference to the purchaser's wishes. 



The avowed object of these Associations is to standardise and to maintain 

 the quality of the goods, and to eliminate unnecessary duplication of 

 administrative work, wasteful tendering and unfair price-cutting. It is 

 asserted that such co-operation must benefit the buyer by reducing over- 

 head charges, thus enabling the maker to supply as good an article at a 

 lower price, with a fair margin for research, for development, and for 

 profit. 



It may be argued that such organisations are the work of financiers and 

 commercial men, and have nothing to do with engineering. But that is 

 not always true ; for in some instances engineers are largely responsible 

 both for their formation and management ; and where it is true, the 

 engineer suffers from their mistakes. The subject also has a special 

 interest for this Association, since in his Presidential Address to Section G 

 at York, Professor Miles Walker insisted that a cure for the present 

 economic chaos could be found in a world governed by engineers. The 

 Associations are a test of that theory. 



It will be agreed that the objects in view (as expressed above) are both 

 laudable and logical, but it is fair to ask whether those objects are in fact 

 achieved without detriment to the community as a whole. In two 



