July 8, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



37 



work, that Mike MeGinnis, Dan O'Leary 

 and myself were dumping stone into that 

 same pit, and dumped a load without see- 

 ing that you were below ? But as good luck 

 would have it, sir, you were not hit. And 

 what did you do, sir ? You just turned an 

 eye up to see who had dumped the stone, 

 but you said nothing, sir, and we were not 

 told to go to the ofSce for our time. And 

 now here I am, sir ; I endangered your life 

 once, and it was only fair for me to take 

 a risk for you when you needed it. ' ' Ah ! 

 how many unrecorded deeds of devotion 

 stand to the credit of the common laborers, 

 who have risked their lives, and, alas, too 

 often lost them, in carrying out some great 

 enterprise for the public. The engineer at 

 the head must be the intrepid leader of 

 intrepid men. 



The engineer who devises and executes 

 public undertakings of magnitude must 

 always be prepared for the unexpected and 

 therefore must be resourceful. It is not 

 unusual to encoimter difficulties not antici- 

 pated. These must be surmounted or fail- 

 ure is inevitable. A solution must be 

 found without delay or great interests are 

 imperiled. Swiss engineers are at present 

 constructing a short-cut railway line be- 

 tween Lake Thun and the mouth of the 

 Simplon tunnel. It includes a long tunnel 

 through a mountain range. Two years 

 ago, after this had been driven forward 

 about a third of the whole length from 

 either end, the cut from the south side was 

 unexpectedly and suddenly driven into a 

 deep cleft or fault filled with soft mud and 

 ooze and forming the underlying filled bed 

 of a mountain stream. Twenty-five men 

 were overwhelmed and lost their lives. 

 Now a tunnel could doubtless be pushed 

 through soft material of this nature, but 

 there was no foundation on which it might 

 rest. "Was the enterprise therefore aban- 

 doned? By no means. Starting back a 



short distance from the uncovered fault, 

 the engineers ran a curve into the heart 

 of the mountain behind the obstruction; 

 this will join the two straight portions 

 already completed. 



A similar fault 900 feet deep and filled 

 with sediment has been found under the 

 bed of the Hudson at the Highlands, where 

 the new aqueduct crosses the river. Since 

 this is an aqueduct and not a viaduct, a 

 different solution is possible. The tunnel 

 is to be carried under the river as an in- 

 verted siphon with the vertical legs nearly 

 1,000 feet deep. If one can not remove or 

 overcome an obstacle, one may at least go 

 around or under it. 



These enumerated qualities which make 

 an engineer fit are intellectual. There is 

 still another which is a supreme test of fit- 

 ness for public service. It is the moral 

 quality of honesty. Failing in this, there 

 is no compensation. Intellectual honesty 

 includes the characteristic of sincerity, to 

 which allusion has already been made. 

 Moral honesty is no less essential in any 

 age, but especially so in these days of un- 

 covered bribery and graft. The honest 

 engineer's opinions are not for sale to the 

 highest bidder. He is entitled to compen- 

 sation for his judgment and his decisions, 

 but they can not be purchased, a distinc- 

 tion with a marked difference. 



There has never been an age when ca- 

 pable and honest engineering talent was 

 more in demand than in this new century. 

 The present-day problems in great cities, 

 incident to the rapid introduction of new 

 methods of transportation, of lighting and 

 power, and of communication, are insistent 

 for solution. They are almost hopelessly 

 entangled with vested rights, and with 

 class privileges, which have been recklessly 

 given away in the past, or handed over for 

 a secret and vicious consideration on the 

 part of those incidentally in power. Civic 



