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Show SffflS EX boiihi epartment of Public CiVorks Would Coordinate Many U. S. Boards. "''ill Plans to Cut Construction Construc-tion Costs and to In-C In-C crease Efficiency. '' American engineers have put their i3'to the pVw," said Philip N". Moore the Utah Society of Engineers last M at the Commercial club. "They not look backwards; they will li-Ofl-no crooked furrows; they will not their endeavors until the ground has 'Unprepared and a harvest reaped that .' A bring increased efficiency, happiness ' ' ,d prosperity to the nation. -For past generations, engineers as a - d have been less politically potent Vn s best for the nation. In several c I. nofeS, committees of engineers, who ivVe'-ne to Washington to advise heads h. -eaus in regard to certain situations id to ive the eovernment the. advantage t-eir skill and learning, have been po-snubbed. po-snubbed. It is doubtful if eom-nc'itts eom-nc'itts representing other organizations UC' ,.jid have been so treated. "T'ie reason for this political impo-hre impo-hre of the engineer can be ascribed to feral conditions. The inevitable nature Whe engineer's work, which takes him : rr om one place to another and which al-' al-' its him permanent residence for only - short time in any one community,. Iher detracts from interest i ?i affairs ot ht-r l ban those i in mediately related to hischosen profession." Tin- time- for passive acquiescence on the part of t be ontlivor to conditions has passivi, according to Mr. .Moore. Cou-fcrt'-d a.'! ion on the p;i rt of the various eni; nu'oi "in- organizations for the best interest s ut the nation is beginning to take form. At a meeting of delegates representing the various engineering organizations or-ganizations of the I'm ted States held last spring in ( 'hk-ago pla ns were formulated for a determined elfort on the part of ad enMiK'-rs to have congress create a national department of publ'ic works. This department, it is planned, will have supervision super-vision of all bureaus pertaining to en-glneerlng en-glneerlng work and will have asits head an engineer who will be a member of the president's cabinet. A bill providing for the above changes already has iievii introduced into congress. con-gress. Specifically, it provides that all of the engineering departments of the government, with the exception of those purely military, will be grouped into one department, the proposed department of public works. To compensate various government departments for the loss of some of their engineering bureaus, this bill provides that the various bureaus of the department of the interior shall be' apportioned ap-portioned to the various departments to offset the loss of engineering bureaus. Engineering En-gineering bureaus of the department of the interior, of which at present there ai e at least ni ne, will form the nucleus of the new department of public works, and the department of the interior will, cease to exist, inasmuch, under the provisions pro-visions of the hill, the other bureaus, such as pensions, internal revenue and many others, will be absorbed by other depart- menty. Advantages Set Forth. Advantages of such a system would be numerous. At present, there are no less than twelve federal organizations making 1 surveys, according to Mr. Moore, and each j survey working independent "of the other, j As many as twenty federal organizations ! are carrying on chemical research and four are making fuel tests. An instance ! is known where the same stream of water I has been measured by representatives of 1 the three different bureaus, each meas- i urement being taken for the purpose of furnishing different bureaus of the same i government with the same information. This lack of co-ordination of effort upon the part of the various engineering bureaus bu-reaus of the government hampers efficiency effi-ciency and increases construction costs, according to Mr. Moore. That this system may be replaced by one more economical, the various eng-i- neering societies of the country have organized or-ganized to work for the creatio'n of a department de-partment of public works. A corps of workers with offices in Washington are working for the passage of the bill and at the same time keeping engineers of the country in touch with developments. W. w. De Herard, western editor of the Eng!neering-."ews Record, addressed the meeting on engineering publicitv. He showed the need of publicity for engineering engineer-ing projects and then pointed out the best methods of securing this publicity. A. C. Watts, president of the Utah Society of Engineers, presided over the meeting. |