PROCEEDINGS OF THE

Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting

HELD AT

Grand Rapids, Michigan

January 18, 19, 20, 1916

THE FIRST SESSION

of the thirty-seventh annual meeting of the Michigan Engineering Society was called to order by President Delmar E. Teed, in the Association of Commerce Rooms on Tuesday, January 18th, 1916.

President's Address

There has been a remarkable awakening among engineers during the past year to a desire for better relations with the public and with each other. This has been brought about by the changed conditions effecting nearly all lines of business which have occurred during the past ten or fifteen years.

The number of engineers in the country is increasing faster than any other profession; and there are very few lines of work today with which the engineer is not associated in some manner.

But with all this increase in numbers and variety of work, there are no accepted standards and the public is puzzled to know what an engineer is. As the field of engineering widens, it becomes impracticable for each engineer to cover the entire field and it is rapidly being broken up into smaller divisions or specialties. Some of these divisions are so radically different from others that it is hard to get a definition that will cover more than one; and a specialist in one line knows very little of

the work of the others. This makes any form of registration or system of licensing impractical unless the license defines the particular kind of work the holder is qualified to perform. However it is essential to the welfare of the engineer that some method be worked out by which the public can be protected against incompetents. The Michigan Engineering Society should take up this problem and if they find the registration system is not suitable they may be able to find the solution in State Inspection or by some form of insurance.

Another form of activity which the Society might profitably undertake is the encouragement of publicity regarding engineers and their works. Accurate descriptions of engineering works are valuable not only to the public but to the engineer as well. They give the public a better conception of what engineers can do.

Publicity is indirectly one of the best forms of advertising that an engineer can make use of. The more the public know about engineering the more will they appreciate its value. They . will employ more engineers and will be better able to judge between good services and poor.

With the great increase in the number of engineers and in the complexity of their operations there has come a need for greater co-operation. There are a large number of organizations in the country which are doing much to increase the fund of technical knowledge. But the time has now come when these societies should work together in a wider field of usefulness. The material welfare of the engineer should be improved as well. Many of the things which engineers have been accustomed to do for themselves have now become too large and complex for individual effort. In our dealings with business men, with politicians, and with the press, we need specialists who can do this work better than we have done it before.

We therefore need to combine our talents and help each other. We should make better use of business methods; encourage good legislation and oppose the unfavorable; educate the public to a better appreciation of the value of engineering; discourage the practice of incompetent persons; aid those who are qualified to utilize their services to the best advantage.

Perhaps this is a large program and you do not agree with

all of it. But if you are in favor of part of it, then work for that part. If your neighbor wants something else, then help him and he will help you. It may be that we will not find the exact solution of our problem at first. Then let us forget our mathematics and accept the nearest approach to a solution that we can get. It is better to go ahead with 100% energy even if we are 10% wrong than to have only 10% energy and be 100% right.

Meeting called to order by the President.

Report of Chairman of Committee on Land
Surveying

E. A. ROBINSON

Member M. E. S.

I had planned to prepare and present a paper on the subject of Land Surveying at this meeting, but I put the preparation off until the first of the year, and unlooked for obligations have made it impossible for me to prepare a suitable paper for the

occasion.

So I will make a few remarks on the subject of Land Surveying, calling the attention of the members to the fact that Land Surveying is the most important work done by Civil Engineers and Surveyors as it has to do with ownership through the ages to come; that a little lack of care and thoroughness in such work may result in an inconceivable amount of litigation and damage; that time must be taken for accurate work regardless of the immediate cost; that temporary or approximate surveys should never be made; and that the perpetuation of corners of the U. S. Survey, above all else, is most essential, yet perhaps the most shamefully neglected part of the surveyor's work; you may do even more good by your remarks than I could in an essay.

Every land surveyor should be so painstaking in his work that the mere fact that he did it would be a guarantee of its correctness, not for the present alone, but during all the future.

The Michigan Engineering Society can do a great deal to help the County Surveyors and settlers in the newer portions of the State if it can at the next session of the legislature, be instrumental in securing a change in the laws relative to the subdivision of sections on petition by the resident owners.

As the law now is, the County Surveyor and the men who