The Sanitary Engineer and the Public Health. 
55 
one. In addition to the execution of projects entrusted to him the 
engineer should do his part towards convincing the public that certain 
processes are necessary in certain cases. He should be a leader in such 
cases, not a follower. As a class engineers are slow to force their opin- 
ions upon the public, and there are several reasons for this. For one 
thing, they are, if they are really competent, very busy men and have 
little time to spare from their professional duties in order to bring their 
views before the public. Then, too, as a class, they are modest in their 
claims and are governed by a strict, though unwritten, code of ethics. 
Moreover, the public has no right to expect of them professional advice 
involving considerable study and research without compensation, any 
more than they would expect professional advice from a lawyer without 
a fee. In our state there is, apparently, an inherent dislike to expend 
a few dollars for professional services in this line when some practical 
workman is ready to give his advice or opinion for nothing. I do not 
mean to undervalue any knowledge derived from practice, for I believe 
that theory and practice should go hand in hand, but I do mean that a 
practical knowledge in a single line of work, however valuable it may be 
in that line, will not justify a man in drawing general conclusions about 
an entirely different line of work. There are times when an engineer 
is just as much needed as a physician is in a critical case, but while one 
would not think of dickering with a physician about his probable charges 
the majority of men entrusted with our public works will hunt around 
for the lowest priced man they can get — and if he is not an engineer of 
established reputation so much the better — and in the end they usually 
pay many times more than the right kind of professional advice would 
have cost thbm. In our sanitary works, particularly, has this pernicious 
habit been followed in Texas, with the result that many inefficient sys- 
tems have been constructed and an unknowable loss and damage done to 
many communities in consequence. 
