The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

1901.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. 77
men are subject only to varying human laws and human notions, and so get along with-
out ever having before them an absolute standard but the engineer is forced to be in
harmony with natural laws ; his work must be absolutely truthful ; his logic must be
without flaw. Sophistry and ignorance are not for him. He must know, and know
accurately; he must reason, and reason logically. If he does not know the stresses in
his bridge, the endurance of his material, or the details of his dynamo, he cannot rank
as an engineer. Nature, calmly and dispassionately, is always on guard over him. No
other man in the world, I believe, unless it is the chemist or the physicist, is subject to
such rigid and unceasing discipline; no man's errors are so glaringly brought to light as
his. The lawyer can fall back on the plea that the judge was biased, or the jury packed;
the doctor may, perchance, bury his mistakes ; but the mistakes of the engineer bury
him. We accept his success as natural, because it is in harmony with nature's laws ;
his errors are glaring, because they are out of harmony with nature. All the world sees
his failures. A mere tyro can recognize a poor roadbed, defective machinery, or a
dangerous bridge. The engineer has, then, for his ethics the most dignified and exalted
standard ; he has an absolute and unvarying criterion for truth and error; he has over
him a judge who will decide with unerring swiftness that his work is a failure if he
violates the law. We have found, then, the ultimate lines of distinction between the
engineering profession and all other professions.
Recognizing, therefore, that the judgment of the engineer's work rests upon harmony
with nature's laws, and that she is merciless in showing his weakness, that this is
the most nearly absolute criterion of which we know, we can draw some deductions
from these principles and see what effect such a standard has upon the profession as a
whole and upon the mind and character of the individuals. Who is the final arbiter of
professional eminence? In the case of the lawyer, the doctor and the minister, reputa-
tion is made and success determined by the public at large — by clients, who know, as
a rule, little of real professional worth. Since the ultimate standards of judgment rest
on human models, quackery is possible and all too common. In the case of medicine
and law, legislation defines who shall practice, but the requirements are far too low.
Legislation, however, recognizes no such profession as engineering, consequently, the
entire burden of maintaining professional standing rests solely upon the profession itself.
Presumably, then, quackery should be more common, but the facts show that it is less
(Jbramoa in engineering than elsewhere, for this reason — the final judgment of the suc-
cess of the lawyer, the doctor, or the minister, rests with his clients, while in the case
of the engineer judgment is rendered by his peers. In no other profession is this judgment
so pronounced, in no other profession is quackery so quickly discovered and held
up to criticism. As a result, the engineering profession is the best educated for its
work of any of the professions. True, there may not be so many stars of the first magnitude
in the engineering firmament, but more emit a strong, steady light, and very few
show a false light. From the nature of his work the engineer does not have an oppor-
tunity to pose before the public; he cannot be the idol of the forum. His success or
failure is determined by the judgment of a most competent board of critics — his pro-
fessional associates.
Every field of activity in the whole realm of nature may yield something of value to
the engineer. His interests are world-wide. As man has climbed slowly up the rugged
pathway we call civilization, he has needed more and more the service of the engineer.
What was yesterday a theory, becomes a demonstration to-day, and to-morrow we
expect the engineer to apply it for our comfort or convenience. As agencies for civili-
zation, engineering works have been given far too little prominence. True it is that