The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

1901.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. 79
them again with great care. The true engineer is as cautious with favorable as unfavor-
able data. If he is called upon to make a report, he should make it with the utmost
frankness, even though it may displease a client. A proper regard for his own profes-
sional standing and the dignity of the profession at large demands that the engineer
should hide nothing from his client; doubts as well as favorable facts should alike be
submitted. Honesty and truth, then, follow as a natural consequence of his ideals. He
need not make special effort to be truthful, for his work follows so closely upon the
truths of nature that departure means failure. Every hour and every minute he is
trained to truth and honesty. They form an ingredient of his daily tasks, and, uncon-
sciously to him, influence his character. The unchangeable laws under which he works,
and which he must rigorously apply, exert a constantly elevating influence upon him.
His work is to control, to resist, ©r to guide the forces of nature. If his data are correct
and his reasoning is sound, his finished work stands as permanent evidence of the fact;
but, if his data are incorrect or his reasoning is faulty, the merciless laws of nature will
discover and lay bare to every observer his own incompetence. These very qualities of
mind and character, which caused him to choose the engineering profession, and which
make his work a pleasure, combine to bring his entire work into harmony with the laws
of the universe. If his mind and character are not attuned to the laws of the universe,
if he is not guided by strict adherence to facts and logical deductions from them, and
his ethics are not in harmony with right doing and clear thinking, then he is to that
extent not skilled in the application of the forces of nature to the uses of man, and is
not an engineer.
Extravagance is a fault of which no true engineer is guilty. One of the greatest
claims the engineering profession has upon the respect of. the public is that it works
constantly and persistently to increase efficiency, to reduce cost, to convert what is
harmful or useless into sources of wealth, and to avoid waste. Numerous are the ex-
amines which might be cited to maintain this assertion, but they are needless.
One other consideration which results from fundamental principles should be
noticed, even though it is purely intellectual. The psychologist recognizes the faculty
of constructive imagination, which is not merely the reproduction of images previously
obtained, but the re-arrangement of these in new forms, adapted to new purposes. This
is the intellectual work of the engineer when he designs a new engine. His drawings
are but the language by which he communicates his ideas to the workman; they embody
the object in every detail which he has mentally formed by his power of constructive
imagination. The man who does not possess this intellectual faculty can never be a
successful engineer.
In conclusion, I am willing to grant that, in the minds of many laymen, engineering
is not regarded as a profession, but as a refined trade or a business; yet I am confident
that, if the advocate of engineering as a profession is given a fair hearing, he can easily
prove his case. I have claimed that the effect of the engineer's work upon civilization
has been very great,— greater than most 2>ersons realize; but the claim must be made
upon the reason rather than upon the feeling, and consequently is more slowly granted
but calm, dispassionate historians will place the credit where it justly belongs. The
effect upon the mind and character of the individual engineer, due to the principles
which underlie the profession, cannot be easily estimated ; but I am confident that if
the lives of our prominent engineers could be unfolded to the public gaze, they would
show in abundance those qualities of honor, honesty, integrity, and manliness which
naturally follow from intimate association with nature's inexorable laws.— Victor C.
Alderson, in The Railroad Digest.
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