July 21, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



69 



by ballot by the membership at large, after 

 the candidates have passed the scrutiny 

 of the board or an examining committee. 

 A yoimg society covering a branch of en- 

 gineering that has but recently become 

 specialized can not in the beginning impose 

 rigorous requirements as to age limits or 

 time of professional service and the branch 

 of engineering may be such as to make it 

 difficult to impose severe technical require- 

 ments. 



In the case of the Civil Engineers the 

 accepted definition is sufficiently broad to 

 cover applicants who are professionally 

 engaged in any of the other branches of 

 engineering; the Mechanical Engineers' 

 definition is somewhat less comprehensive, 

 the Mining Engineers' still less so, and the 

 Electrical Engineers' really restrictive to 

 professional electrical engineers. Under 

 our institute's constitution, however emi- 

 nent a man may be as a civil, mechanical 

 or mining engineer, he may not fulfil the 

 qualifications of an electrical engineer. It 

 will thus be seen that anything like stand- 

 ardization in the matter of requirements is 

 wholly out of the question, although a 

 greater uniformity in requirements and 

 procedure for election would be advisable. 

 It is very difficult for an applicant in every 

 respect qualified for full membership in 

 our institute to understand why it should 

 be necessary for him to pass through the 

 preliminary, or, as it were, probationary 

 grade of associate, and then be transferred 

 to full membership, but the constitution is 

 clear. Applicants whose superior qualifi- 

 cations would entitle them to immediate 

 election to full membership after their elec- 

 tion to the preliminary grade of associate, 

 which takes some time — several months at 

 least— are apt to fail to make application 

 for transfer, with the result that many 

 remain in the associate grade who should 

 certainly be transferred, and when they 



find the cause of the delay are apt to criti- 

 cize the administration. 



We now come to the consideration of the 

 other grades of membership, associate mem- 

 bership, associates, juniors, etc. It would 

 lead us too far afield to treat each grade in 

 full and we shall confine ourselves to some 

 general observations. It is necessary to 

 provide one or more grades for young men 

 just entering professional life and through 

 which they can rise as they acquire experi- 

 ence to the dignity of full membership ; 

 but it is necessary to provide also for an- 

 other class of men who, while they are not 

 professional engineers, yet cooperate with 

 them and conduct engineering works, act- 

 ing as the executive heads or business man- 

 agers. To such men eminent in their par- 

 ticular branch of activity it is humiliating 

 to be placed permanently in an inferior 

 grade of membership with the beginners in 

 professional service, and the situation can 

 be satisfactorily met by the establishment 

 of the grade of associate; junior and asso- 

 ciate membership then to represent success- 

 ive steps in the advancement to full mem- 

 bership, the associates forming a class by 

 themselves. 



We now come to the question of the dues 

 and at the same time we may, with advan- 

 tage, consider the general question of the 

 income and expenditures or the cost of con- 

 ducting the business of the societies. 



The expense of membership in the sev- 

 eral societies is as follows : 



Entrance 

 F'ees. 



Annual Dues. 



Amer. Society Civil 

 Engineers g;iO S20-2 



Amer Institute 

 Mining Engineers — 10 



Amer. Society Me- 

 ch anicalEngi- 

 neers 1.5 25 



Amer. Institute 

 Electrical Engi- 

 neers — 5 



For- 

 eign. 



< S 



SlO-15 SlO-15 

 10 



10 — 



25 10 



315-25 

 10 



15 



15 



