Untechnical Addresses On Technical Subjects

of the mines, a somewhat more dignified position than that of the mere merchant who disposes of our handiwork. But when we reduce our own and his energies to a common motive, we both stand on the same plane as money-makers. It may be an inglorious position, but while we may, and should, personally work with higher aims than the sordid considerations of personal gain, as employees and representatives of capital we must make money, or the enterprises we manage will very soon become derelicts on the ocean of industry or ignorance. In trying to do so you will come face to face with many problems and perplexities which may even assume the gravity of cases of conscience. I do not speak of direct bribes, nor of the insidious bribes which are often offered under the guise of contingent fees; but of the feeling of guilt which oppresses a conscientious miner or metallurgist, when he is knowingly, and therefore willfully, wasting the treasures of nature, of which he should be the conservator. The subject is a wide one and of many phases. For certain prominent shortcomings, such as the loss of heat, and therefore waste of coal, in generating power through the agency of steam and for the waste of power in its transmission, when once generated, we can hardly be held responsible, as the remedies for these fall within the province of the mechanical engineer. But there are, unfortunately, too many wastes for which we cannot shift the blame to the shoulders of other...