Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-08-11
RECONSTRUCTION
AFTER THE war
Society For Promotion Of Engi-
sneering Education Considers
Plans
AMERICAN ENGINEERS NEEDED
Government Aid Asked For Youths Of
Ability In Technical
Lines
(Communicated.l

anything. has been said in the news
papers-hence the presentation of this
letter and with it an urgent request
for its publication in your columns
and, subsequently, for wide circula-
ton through copying by the public
press of the entire country.
refer to the depletion of the
classes in technical schools, first, by
widespread volunteering for the
army and navy. and, second, by con-
scription This subject received much
attention at the Washington meet
ing. on the 9th and 7th inst, of the
Society for the Promotion of Engi-
neering Education, an organization of
twenty five years standing and COM
posed of most of the leading American
instructors in all lines of applied
science, and also a few prominent
practicing engineers. The meeting
was addressed by such distinguished
men as the Secretary of War, the
Chief of Engineers of the U. S. Army,
and the Director of the Bureau of
Standards. The five sessions held by
the Society on those two days were
devoted almost exclusively to ques-
lions of public welfare, principally
connected with the war, its subse-
quent conditions. and its anticipated
problems.
AS | attended all of the sessions
from start to finish and took the deep
est interest in the entire proceedings,
/ feel justified in making the follow
ing statements, and in claiming that
they express the opinions of a num-
Der of the most profound thinkers of
America:
First: The larger part of the civil
lied world will have to be recon
structed after the war, not excluding
our own great railroad system, which
undoubtedly will have deteriorated on
account of over-use and lack of ade-
quate up-keep.
Second: Such reconstruction is al
most exclusively the work of en-
gineers.
Third: The European technical
men have been killed off by thousands
during the past three years; and their
slaughter will not cease until the war
ends. Moreover, it is more than prob
able that many American engineers
who serve in Europe will never re-
turn to our shores, and that large
number of those who do come back
will be more or less incapacitated
from active professional work
Fourth: The technical schools of
all the other warning countries than
ours have practically been out of
commission for three years, thus cut
ting down there. almost to zero, the
supply of new men for the engineer
ing profession.
Fifth: The call to arms in this
country by both volunteering and con-
scription it is feared will soon have
reduced to about one-half the attend
ance at the technical schools of the
halved it ought properly to be
doubled.
Sixth: In spite of the present
paralyzation of many lines of engi-
neering work, due to the cessation of
large constructions and to the abso-
lutte lack of capital for important new
projects of peaceful character, the
demand for young graduates of tech
nical schools by the manufacturers of
war supplies is so great that there is
already a marked dearth of such as
sistance, which dearth will be more
and more accentuated as the war pro-
crosses, and as the call for ships,
guns, ammunition, aeroplanes, auto
mobiles, and other war paraphernalia
increases
Seventh Until the United States
entered the war, it was almost certain
that most of the reconstruction work
of the world would be done by Ameri-
can engineers, nd in any csc they are
sure to get fair share of it; but it
seems a shame that this country
should miss such a golden opportun-
ity as that which lies before it for Sc
curing the lions share
Eighth: The capacity of the old,
experienced, and well-established
American engineers for doing work is
practically unlimited, provided that
there be no shortage of young, proper
ly educated assistants; because most
technical men of mature years have
developed highly the faculty of man
agement. On that account the aver
age total annual amount of work en-
gineered by such men in this country
could readily be increased five fold,
or, possibly even ten fold, without
causing undue overstress either physi-
cal or mental; and, consequently. the
great mass of the work of world-re-
construction could emanate from the
United States and be handled abroad
by American engineers.
Ninth: 1t is beyond question that,
for the next ten vars or more, engi-
neering is everywhere going TO be the
most lucrative of all the professions
From these nine premises what is
the important deduction to be drawn?
Evidently it is that. by some means
or other. we must manage not only
to prevent any falling of in the at
tendance at our technical schools
DO thduring and directly after the
war, but also greatly to increase it.
And how can this be done?
The answer to this question is not
difficult 1t is as follows:
First: By urging more young men
to 90 to college, and by persuading