The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-13
The "Emcineer-in-Chi Fetish

An engineer remarked, in letter to
THE SCN yesterday, that after all, en-
cheering is largely a matter Of common
sense" The inference is that engineer
ing questions, so far as concerns obvious
results accomplished and practical i'm
possibilities to be undertaken, come
within the range Of the intelligence de-
rived from experience and observation,
though it is only the common sense of
laymen.
The remark is very pertinent to the
situation in which New York is now.
Criticism of the method of digging the
subway is treated by the engineering
advice on which the Rapid Transit Com
mission relies as If it was presumptuous
questioning Of infallible professional
authority; yet this advice, so far as it
comes from the official head of the COM
missions engineering department, is
without the weight with the engineering
profession which long and brilliant expe-
rience and accomplishment in great en-
cheering constructions give.
The intelligent lay observer needs no
other tuition than that Of his common
sense to discover that the building of the
subway haa been marked by defects,
haltngs, reversals, carelessness and
wanton disregard Of the public interests.
1t was not a great engineering problem
the solution of which must be original
1t was comparatively plain and simple
piece of work, for which there were
models we'll known to the engineering
professional Budapest, for instance,
and also in Boston, in Baltimore, in Chi
cago, in London, in Paris and in tunnel
ling, generally. Details involved in the
handling of the underground pipe and
sewage systems presented difficulties,
but there was nothing novel about them,
and, moreover. they were all foreseen
particularly before the first shovelful of
earth was thrown up.
Undoubtedly. our engineering corre-
spondent also represents the feeling of
his profession in expressing something
savoring Of contempt for the grand
stand methods" which have been en-
ployed in celebration of the New York
subway az if it was a unique and
supreme exhibition of engineering gen.
JUS Actually, engineers over whose
work there is no horn blowing are all
the time and in many places successfully
surrounding Sraver difficulties than
those encountered in this subway con-
structon yet, as he says, newspapers
and magazines are not extolling them
and printing their portraits "as the great
est modern exemplars Of engineering
science and skill"
The engineer 10 whom the Rapid
Transit Commission gives dictatorial
Authority over the most congested streets
of New York may rise to supreme emf
hence in his profession, eventually, but
as yet, he Is far from it. He was I'M
known to the public and little known to
engineers when he was appointed to his
place. This we do not say in his dis
arrangement, but only to record fact
which should be borne in mind when
outglvinGs from the Rapid Transit Com
mission seem to imply that he is an in
fallible engineering authority, doubt Of
whose ability to exercise the despotic
power it has given him, in his first expo
rlencc of capital engineering CONSTITUTE
ZION, is rank heresy.
We read in papers daily that this Off
cial engineer says this and that in COM
plant or derision of criticisms made of
The subway work promises this and that
in the f9rthcr construction to be pur-