AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

INSTITUTED 1852


TRANSACTIONS

Paper No. 1178


ADDRESS AT THE 42D ANNUAL CONVENTION,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, JUNE 21ST, 1910.

BY JOHN A. BENSEL, PRESIDENT, AM. SOC. C. E.




I know that to some of my audience a satisfactory address at a summer
convention would be like that which many people regard as a satisfactory
sermon--something soothing and convincing, to the effect that you are
not as other men are, but better. While I appreciate very fully,
however, the honor of being able to address you, I am going to look
trouble in the face in an effort to convince you that, in spite of great
individual achievements, engineers are behind other professional men in
professional spirit, and particularly in collective effort.

Whether this, if true, is due to our extreme youth as a profession, or
our extreme age, is dependent upon the point of view; but I think it is
a fact that will be admitted by all that engineers have not as yet done