Arizona state miner., 1923-07-14
MINING ENGINEERS
Registration Law No Hardship
to Eastern Investors

&. M. Butler, dean of the state uni
versity, regarding a recent comment in
the Miner on registering of state en-
gineers, writes:
The law does not require that men
must be members of the Association of
Engineers in order to be registered,
does not mention the Association of
Engineers any place and membership
in that association does not necessarily
qualify man for registration. Thelaw
permits any nonresident of Arizona,
who is registered in any state in the
Union where qualifications forregistra
tion are similar to those in force in Ar
izona to practice for not over 80 days
in any calendar year without being reg
lstered in this state, or having applied
for registration in this state. Nearly a
score of states in the Union have some
such laws in force, including New York
and most of the eastern engineers who
might be sent in to Arizona are resi-
dents of and are registered in N. Y.
Any examination made by them would
rarely require over 80 days, so our law
puts no hardship on eastern investors
Pennsylvania. New Jersey, North Car
Olina, Virginia and West Virginia are
all eastern states that have registra-
tion laws similar to ours.
The law was not passed to create a
monopoly for any group of engineers,
but solely to protect the public and to
place the profession of engineering on
the same basis that legal and medical
professions occupy. No one would urge
that lawyers and doctors should be per-
mitted to practice without registering,
yet incompetent work done by engin-
eers is a menace to a far greater num-
Der of people than work done by doc
tors or lawyers. AS exofficio chairman
of the state board of registration, am
sure that our requirements for regis
tration are so low that only the utterly
incompetent or untrustworthy men are
excluded from registration. If when
the opportunity presents itself, you Il
read our law. you will see that what /
have said is true and that some one
has misrepresented the facts to you.
You and both know that hundreds
of thousands and millions of dollars are
taken from the pockets of working peo-
pie who could i'll afford to lose the
money because dishonest and incompe-
tent men miscalling themselves mining
engineers have reported in glowing
terms upon prospect that has been
acquired by some promoter for the sole
purpose of selling stock therein to the
public. So many times have such things
been done that the pnblic as whole is
skeptical of mining investments, and it
is extremely difficult for US to obtain
money for development of legitimate
and worthy enterprises. Certainly Ari-
Zona needs, perhaps. more than any
other state in the Union, a law that
will prevent to some extent at least,
the activities of such men, which have
brought disgrace upon the profession
of mine engineering, and terribly re-
tarded the development of our state.
| wish to assure you that | do not
blame you at all for writing as you did
for should have done likewise in your
position. if the facts had been as you
evidently were told they were know
that We are both working unselfishly
towards the same end, namely, the de-
velopment of onr great state and the
protection of her people, We are both
members of professions that in them
selves yield comparatively little except
satisfaction of service to others, and
e must wOrk together if there is any
probability that the results We seek are
to be secured at an early date
With kindest personal regards, am
very sincerely, G. M. BUTLER,
Dean and Director.