NOTEMBEE 3, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



579 



is necessarily an embodiment of the useful 

 application of knowledge and learning. 

 Engineering, relating, as it does, to the 

 application of the powers of nature to use- 

 ful purposes, must necessarily bring its fol- 

 lowers into intimate contact with commer- 

 cial affairs in an age when, as in ours, the 

 industries dominate commerce, and the 

 abatement of war has reduced the impor- 

 tance of military engineering. The tenets 

 which I advocate do not tend to entangle 

 the engineers in the depths of "commer- 

 cialism" with which they may come in 

 contact; but, on the contrary, those tenets 

 propose that engineers should safeguard 

 and nourish their professional spirit by 

 assuming a part in public affairs in a spirit 

 of disinterest, for the purpose of guiding 

 the useful applications of natural forces to 

 the greatest practicable service to society. 

 A true engineer is a devoted follower after 

 truth. He differs diametrically from the 

 devotees of pure "commercialism," who 

 are strictly opportunists. He also differs 

 from pure idealists, who are often notable 

 for refusing to accept any advance unless 

 it wholly meets their personal ideals. The 

 spirit of the engineer rejoices in obtaining 

 any move toward the truth, but is always 

 seeking farther advance. This character- 

 istic spirit has been manifested in men of 

 great achievement in many walks of life. 

 It is a part of the life of such men as 

 Martin Luther, Gladstone and Lincoln. 



Those who accept even in part the usual 

 evolutionary doctrines which are summed 

 up by Herbert Spencer in his view that 

 progress occurs by successive differentia- 

 tions and integrations producing develop- 

 ment from the homogeneous to definite, 

 coherent heterogeneity, will assent to the 

 proposition that the modern giant corpora- 

 tion follows in the wake of the one-man 

 business and the simple partnership in re- 

 sponse to an inextinguishable natural law. 



This is a case of natural selection. The 

 progress of corporation development can 

 not be prevented. It is one of the mani- 

 festations accompanying improved means 

 of speedy transportation and inter-com- 

 munieation. Of the influence of the latter 

 agencies, a learned and distinguished his- 

 torian says, "Of all inventions, the alpha- 

 bet and the printing press alone excepted, 

 those inventions which abridge distance 

 have done most for the civilization of our 

 species. Every improvement of the means 

 of locomotion benefits mankind morally and 

 intellectually as well as materially. ..." 

 The possibility of, and indeed a necessity 

 for, great corporate organizations came in 

 the train of leading improvements in the 

 means of locomotion and other beneficial 

 inventions which abridge distance and sub- 

 jugate time. Men of this age do not desire 

 to relinquish the benefits of the improve- 

 ments. "We must, therefore, adjust our 

 mental attitude to dealing properly with 

 the situation; and in making the adjust- 

 ment we must return to the old and ap- 

 proved recognition that a misdeed is a per- 

 sonal thing, and remember that responsi- 

 bility for it can not be shifted from the 

 personality of the man in responsibility to 

 an impersonal aggregation entitled a cor- 

 poration which he manages. In early days 

 when English kings had great prerogatives 

 in the government, and the doctrine of 

 divine right, associated with the doctrine 

 that the king can do no wrong, were still 

 extant, the king was nevertheless limited 

 to an administration of the affairs of the 

 realm conducted, history tells us, in accord- 

 ance with the laws, and, in case he broke 

 those laws his advisers and agents were 

 held responsible, and they were made per- 

 sonally answerable to the courts. History 

 also indicates that this personal answer- 

 ability of the advisers and agents had a 

 tremendous influence on the conduct of 



