The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-11-03
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Special Training For Highway En-
gineerS.

Special Training For Highway En-
gineers.
The demand for practical business
sense in both the system of s~upervis-
ion and the work Of construction OF
road building grows apace.
From the New Orleans Item, of re-
cent date, is this excerpt: $50 long
as we continue to dissipate our money
and time on roads and levees and
similar public works, through many
channels, and thus divide the re-
sponsibility for it, and encourage it's
dispersion into utterly unfit and in
competent hands on a vicious scheme
of political preference, we shall mere
ly continue to pour out u money,
like water into the great river,
through so many pipes"
And from the Portland, Ore, Ore
gonian, this paragraph is taken, IL
Illustrating a similar demand for re-
form in the road building system of
that State: THE principal element
in a good road is brains. Sir Joshua
Reynolds used them to mix his paint
with. The lack of them Is the chief
fault in our highways. Consider the
myriads of idiots who have be-7 tink-.
ering at American roads for 800
years and then wonder, If you can,
that the work has been foolish and
the money wasted"
Why is it that the idea that any
one who could lift n end Of a dump
board could build a road came to be
so generally accepted in the past any
more than that anyone who could
throw a plank across a stream could
build a bridge, or that anyone who
could carry a bod could build a house,
is difficult to conceive. It is an idea
that has cost the people of this oun
try an immense amount of money. :
Road building Is a branch of n
cheering as much as land surveying
Or railroad construction, or bridge
building, or mining, OF any Of the 9TH
er c%pecialties of the profession. 1t
requires training and field experience
al luS' ChSklSOl dAu oil ~ 6cAIHoIiOu
with a responsible head and efficient
subordinates for the department
work.
How little the necessity for special
education for road work is under
stood even at the present is illustra-
ted in the recent remark of an engi-
neer, who has stood for years II the
front rank Of highway builders, to
the effect that one of his most trying
experiences has been to secure field
assistants who could comprehend a
cross section. It is believed that this
is a condition common in all the
States where improved roads are be-
ing constructed on an extended scale.
It is not just, however, to class all
these men as "iiio!s," for they are
intelligent enough in other direc-
tons; they have undertaken work for
which they have not been trained and
they go into it imbued with the old
time idea that they do not need any
-Tecial knowledge about it.
Road builders must be educated
in the theory and trained in the prac-
tice OF road building to be successful.
and to this end special instruction in
highway engineering as a branch by
itself is required, and is already be.
ing introduced in some colleges and
agricultural schools.
AS the demand for highway engi-
neers increases the same question of
fitness will intrude itself that is being
agitated in other branches of the pro.
fession-that' of eliminating the
quacks through a system Of State IL
censes. AS doctors and lawyers are
required by statute to satisfy the
State of their fitness to practice, it is
being demanded that civil engineers
be similarly required to attain a more
uniform standard of efficiency than is
indicated BY a mere degree from
some of the technical schools. This
eligibility test should be extended to
highway engineers.
Road building is public work
there is but n employer in the bust
ness. A man in seeking a position in
this line has no choice, except as to
locality, as to whether he will work
for this man or that and NO oppor-
tunity to change from n business
concern to another, such as prevails
in other occupations. The people
have a monopoly Of the highway i'm
provement business. To induce,
therefore, intelligent and efficient men
to enter this service it is essential
not only to make the pay liberal but
to offer a reasonable guarantee that
the position shall be permanent. The
best talent cannot be secured for road
engineering . long as a man is likely
to lose his position as the. result of
the next election.-Good Roads Mag
aZine.