Pumping Machinery Used by the Service of Supply of the Amer- 216 A National Public Works Department. At a meeting in Chicago, April 23 to 25, of delegates from all the principal engineering societies of the country, there was launched a movement of far reaching importance to the engineering profession and to business activities allied thereto. It is a movement to have established a Federal Department of Public Works. The meeting was attended by delegates from seventy-four organizations, with a membership totalling over one hundred thousand men. In addition, there were seven members from the Engineering Council and three members of the National Service Committee of the Engineering Council. The Louisiana Engineering Society sent as its delegate Major W. B. Gregory, and Mr. A. M. Lockett went also as a member of the National Service Committee. At the last meeting of the Society Major Gregory made a statement outlining the work accomplished at the Chicago meeting, the essential points of which are restated here for the benefit of our members who may not have heard the statement. The matter is of such great importance that every member of the engineering profession should be informed of the aims and plans of the men who are back of the project. The conference was called by the National Service Committee of the Engineering Council, and J. Parke Channing, as Chairman of the Engineering Council, made the introductory speech, outlining the purpose of the conference. He called attention to the fact that there have been a number of such conferences in the past, but that their plans have come to naught, principally through lack of united and consistent support from the engineers, architects, builders and constructive thinkers of the country. The last few months have created new conditions and emphasized new necessities to the extent that if we are to take our rightful place among the nations of the world and rise to the top in the great economic war which is to follow the other great war just ended, we can afford to "tolerate only those methods and policies that are most efficient, most businesslike and most purposeful, and must tear asunder from those which, however old and revered, are but the expedients of a former time inadequately expanded to render present-day service." "Our Government has become the greatest industrial plant in all history-investigating, surveying, building and operating and its various functions are being conducted with praetical independence one with another, and with so little coördination and with so complete a lack of common purpose that practically the only occasions when the various elements become conscious of each other is when they overlap and attempt to crowd each other off the map; that any private or corporate business conducted according to the methods of the Government would speedily become bankrupt, and would deserve such fate. There are twelve Federal organizations engaged in making surveys, more than a score in chemical investigations, some of them competing and quarreling for preference under the same departmental roof. In the Congressional Directory there are listed twenty-nine bureaus and agencies of the Government engaged in construction of one or another kind. Four Government departments are engaged in fuel tests, while four Government bureaus are maintaining coast fleets, each independent of the other, in the same waters, and engaged in work that has so many points of contact that not one person in twenty realizes that they are separate. These are only a few illustrations of a condition which can be tolerated by no considerate person. "We have come together, each qualified in his own line, to render service to the people, to point out the wastes and extravagances, the chaos and innefficiencies, and to offer some sane and practical solution to the country-so practical and so self-evident that it will carry its own conviction. To do this it will be necessary for each delegate to bear an open mind, and, while expressing freely the convictions that are his, to take part in that mutual concession which alone can bring concerted action among fullgrown men." The conference went into permanent organization with M. O. Leighton, Chairman, and E. S. Nethercut, Secretary. For the purpose of furthering the passage of a bill to create the Department of Public Works, three committees were named: Executive Committee, Committee on Text of Bill, and Campaign Committee. Major Gregory was named a member of the Campaign Committee. It was further resolved that the conference be known as the ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS AND CONSTRUCTORS CONFERENCE ON NATIONAL PUBLIC WORKS. A resolution was passed unanimously that the conference recommend to the public and to Congress that legislation be enacted covering the following principles; 1. That the services and bureaus of the National Government having to do chiefly with matters of engineering and architecture, be grouped in one department to be known as the Department of Public Works. 2. That the Department of Public Works comprise those works which are built and operated for the use of the public. 3. That the Department of Public Works be made available when desirable for the performance of special engineering and architectural work for the use of other Government bureaus. 4. That there be a systematic classification and organization of engineers, architects and other employees whose stsatus shall be such that they may be recruited and maintained on merit. The Committee on the Scope of a Department of Public Works reported to the effect that the establishment of the new department should be accomplished by grouping those Government bureaus, services, commissions and activities of a predominant engineering or architectural character into what is now the Department of the Interior, and thereafter designating it as "The Department of Public Works." This Committee found that among the bureaus, services and activities which logically belong to a Department of Publie Works, are the following: A Bureau of Public Roads. The United States Reclamation Service. The Alaskan Engineering Commission. The Construction Division of the U. S. Army. A Bureau of River, Harbor and Canal Work, in- A Bureau of Architecture. A Bureau of Surveys, including the Coast and Geo detic Survey. A Bureau of Mines. The Geological Survey. The Forest Service-at least until the same is di- The Bureau of Standards. The attention of the conference was also called to the very great importance of complete topographie maps of the country in the economical planning and construction of a large propor tion of engineering works. The Federal and State Governments are now entering upon a program of highway construction which constitutes the greatest engineering project ever undertaken by the Government. This highway construction, as well as many other public and private undertakings, depends for its economical accomplishment upon the type of information which is furnished by the topographical maps such as have already been made for certain sections of the country. However, these maps have been completed for only about 40% of the whole area, and the present rate of progress, if continued, will require about 80 to 100 years to complete the maps for the whole of the United States. A resolution was passed to the effect that these facts be presented to the President and Congress, and that they be urged to make adequate provision for the completion of the topographic map of the United States in the shortest possible time, compatible with requisite accuracy. The task is a large one but also one most worthy of being pushed to a successful conclusion. Quoting from an article in the Engineering News-Record of May 1: "Fortunately, the project is one on which it is easy to unite. No selfish, no local, no partisan interest is served. The public good alone is the issueand it recommends itself no less to other patriotic citizens than to engineers, architects, chemists and their allied workers. Therein, in fact, lies the solid reason for its success-that the public at large can be won to its support. The project is now at hand. There is no turning back. Success alone can be the end of the endeavor." The Country Club Supper Dance. Our new President is a firm believer in the promotion of the social side of an organization such as ours. To which spirit we are primarily indebted for the very enjoyable affair held at the Country Club the evening of May 2. We were given the exclusive use of the dining room on the west terrace, and we danced in the ball room. Dancing was the feature of the evening, for we danced between the courses of the very delectable supper spread for our enjoyment, and then, after supper, continued the dancing into the wee sma' hours. Mr. Olsen has hinted that he proposes to pull off some more social affairs before he goes out of office; it is certain that we all sympathize with the movement and if it |