April 29, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



399 



to the hardy mariner. He must obtain his 

 domestic charts from the Department of Com- 

 merce, his forei^ charts from the Navy De- 

 partment, and his nautical aknanac from the 

 Naval Observatory — and he will in some cir- 

 cumstances get sailing directions from the 

 Army. In a fog he may get radio signals 

 from both the Navy and Commerce, and listen 

 to fog horns and look for lights and buoys 

 provided him by Commerce; if he sinks his 

 life is saved by the Treasury. He will anchor 

 at the direction of the Army, who rely upon 

 the Treasury to enforce their will. His boil- 

 ers and lifeboats are inspected by the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce; his crew is certified by 

 one bureau in commerce, signed off in the 

 presence of another, and inspected at sailing 

 by the Treasury, and on arrival by the Depart- 

 ment of Labor. 



It is possible to relate the same sort of story 

 in our governmental relations to industry to 

 our domestic and foreign commerce. 



The moral of all this is that economy could 

 be made by placing most of these functions 

 under one head, not only economy to the gov- 

 ernment but toi the mariner. Congress would 

 know what it spends in aid to navigation and 

 the government could develop definite policies 

 in giving proper assistance and lastly could 

 remove from the hardy mariner's mind his 

 well-founded contempt for the government as 

 a business organization. 



The economic changes in the world, grow- 

 ing out of the war, and their reflex upon our 

 trade and industry make it vital if we are to 

 maintain our standards of living against in- 

 creasing ferocity of competition that we shall 

 concentrate and enlarge our national efliort 

 in the aid, protection, stimulation and per- 

 fection of our industrial and commercial life. 

 There can be no real Department of Com- 

 merce or commercial policies to these broad 

 purposes so long as the instrumentalities of 

 the government bearing on these questions 

 lie in haK a dozen departments. 



We want no paternalism in government. 

 We do need in government aid to business in 

 a collective sense. In a department we do 

 not want to either engage in business or to 



regulate business. We need a department 

 that can give prompt and accurate diagnosis 

 from both a foreign and domestic point of 

 view of economic events, of economic tend- 

 encies; of economic ills; that can promptly 

 and accurately survey economic opportunity, 

 economic discrimination and opiwsition; that 

 can give scientific advice and assistance and 

 stability to industry in furnishing it with 

 prompt and accurate data upon production, 

 supplies and consumption; that can cooperate 

 with it in finding standards and simplifica- 

 tions; that can by broad study promote na- 

 tional conversation in industry and the elimi- 

 nation of waste; that can study and ventilate 

 the commercial side of our power possibili- 

 ties; that can study and advise national 

 policies in development of rail, water and 

 overseas transportation; that, in fact covers, 

 so far as government functions can cover, the 

 broad commercial problems of trade, industry 

 and transportation. This can be accomplished 

 more by coordination of existing govern- 

 mental facilities than by increased expen- 

 ditures. 



THE AMERICAN ENGINEERING 

 COUNCILi 



In these days when societies multiply and 

 increase it is a fair question to ask whether 

 there is need for such an organization as the 

 Federated American Engineering Societies. 

 That many believe there is such a need is 

 attested by the large number of societies that 

 have already joined the organization and by 

 the promise that others will come in. Aside 

 from this, however, it is well to clear our 

 minds as to just what the aims of this organi- 

 zation may be and what it may hope to ac- 

 complish. I am not unmindful of the vast 

 amount of useful work that has been done by 

 individual engineering societies in this coun- 

 try, not only in the somewhat varied lines for 



1 Address by Dexter S. Kim'ball, dean of the 

 college of engineeruLg of Cornell University and 

 viee-presidenlt of the American Engineering Coun- 

 cil, at the dimier given by the Engineers' Club 

 of PhUad'elphia, April 16, in honor of Mr. Her- 

 bert Hoover. 



