Search Documents

ROBERT VAN ARSDALE NORRIS, who died at his home at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on April 20, 1928, was born at Newark, N. J., on May 2, 1864, of parents who were direct descendants of such sterling New Eng-landers as Governor William Bradford, John Alden and Timothy Dwight. He went to the Collegiate School in New York and then to the Colum-bia School of Mines where he graduated with the class of 1885, having among class-mates A. S. Dwight, E. N. En-gelhardt, H. L. Hollis, G. B. Lee, Richard Moldenke, Wil-bur Sanders, Joseph Struth-ers, E. A. Wiltsee, and I. H. Woolson. His marked ability even among so many men of unusual ability caused him to be chosen as assistant to Pro- fessor Munroe in the summer school of mining and survey-ing immediately after gradua-tion, and he shortly after was also inspector of dredging operations on the Maurice River improvement work, Millville, N. J. The follow- ing year he worked in the chemical laboratory of Herman Behr in Brooklyn, and toward the end of 1886 he joined the staff of the Pennsylvania R. R. Coal Co. and the Susquehanna Coal Co. as assistant engineer. Six years later he was made principal assistant en- gineer and in 1900 he was made chief engineer of these companies. In 1904, he withdrew from them and estab- lished an office as a consulting engineer at Wilkes- Barre, later taking his son, Robert V., Jr., into partner- ship with him. They acted as consulting engineers for the coal department of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co., the Lehigh Valley Coal Co., Coke Bros. & Go., Inc., the coal department of the Pennsyl- vania R. R. Co., the Wilkes-Barre & Hazelton R. R. Co., the Sterling Salt Co., and others, specializing in ex- amination and appraisal of coal properties, and also matters of Federal taxation.

Jan 5, 1928

By A. C. Wallace

THE development of the natural resources of any district of any magnitude, inevitably gives rise to many problems off title, usually due to the greatly enhanced value of the land. The development of the mining industry in the Quapaw Agency has been no exception to this general rule. Our problems, how-ever, have not been many or particularly serious. The Quapaws were allotted and patents issued by the United States Government in 1895. These patents contained a restriction against alienation for a pe-riod of twenty-five years. The effect of the restric-tion was to prevent the Indian from selling, leasing, or in any way encumbering his land. The Govern-ment, in a paternalistic spirit, sought to teach the Indian thrift and industry and to insure him a place of residence. This is evidenced by the first Leasing Act passed by Congress, which permitted only incom-petents and those physically disabled to lease their land for either agricultural or mining purposes. The able-bodied Indian was denied the right to lease. It soon became apparent to the Government, how-ever, that this was a mistaken policy, and in 1897 a General Leasing Act was passed by Congress and it was under this act that the mining industry in the Quapaw Agency was developed. The act, reads as follows: "That the allottees of land within the limits of the Qua- paw Agency, Indian Territory, are hereby authorized to lease their lands, or any part thereof, for a term not ex-ceeding three years, for farming or grazing purposes, or ten years for mining or business purposes. And said al-lottees and their lessees and tenants shall have the right to employ such assistants, laborers, and help from time to time as they may deem necessary: Provided, That when-ever it shall be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior that, by reason of age or disability, any such allottee cannot improve or manage his allotment properly and with benefit to himself, the same may be leased, in the discretion of the Secretary, upon such terms and conditions as shall be prescribed by him. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this are hereby repealed." It was the interpretation of this Act that gave rise to our first serious problems. It will be noted that the Act says that "allottees of land" within the limits of the Quapaw Agency are authorized to lease their land. Thus, the first question was presented by the use of the term "allottee," and the question was as to whether or not Congress intended to limit the Quapaw Indian to the leasing of his own allotment or did Congress mean that the term "allottee" was synonym-ous with "Indian" and intend to give the Indian a right to lease both his allotment and his inherited land and was an Indian without an allotment an "allottee" even though he was a member of the Qua-paw tribe and the owner of the Quapaw land by in-heritance, and not being an allottee, could he lease his inherited Quapaw land under the authority granted in this Act?

Jan 5, 1928

By George Smith

THE discussion of production control at the Insti-tute's annual meeting was profitable in that it started some thinking. One pertinent question there raised was how the opening of new mines, whose now unneeded output would inevitably react on prices, could be postponed until the market was ready to ab-sorb their output. In transportation some restraint is being exercised on building new and unneeded fa-cilities, but in production no general solution of the problem has been offered. Yet in a special field of new development of increasing importance a quick and easy solution has been suggested. I refer to the leasing of mineral deposits on the public domain. The report of the United States Coal Commission says: "In its possession of approximately 60,000,000 acres of public coal lands the Federal Government has its own responsibility in restraining overdevelopment. The Department of the Interior, which has control of these lands under the leasing law, construes the law as giving the department no discretionary right to refuse applications for leases regularly made by qualified citizens or corporations for coal deposits on the pub-lic domain. It presumes, that the applicant believes there is a need for an additional coal mine in his local-ity and expects to find a market for the coal produced. Overdevelopment, however, is a fact in the West as well as in the East, and wherever present involves needless investment and excessive costs of operation. Plainly, the leasing law should be so amended as to give the executive department full discretion in its approval of the opening of a new coal mine on the, public domain, making that approval contingent on the showing that the new mine would serve the in-terest of the consuming public." A similar view of the Federal Government's re-sponsibility in restraining overdevelopment of its oil lands has been presented by the Federal Oil Conser-vation Board. The leasing law vests little or no dis-cretion in the Secretary of the Interior, who must grant a lease to a qualified applicant regardless of any obvious country-wide condition of surplus produc-tion. This wide-open invitation to exploit and dissi-pate the people's own oil resources could be restricted by simple legislation, although as remarked by the board, such a legislative remedy for a plain economic ailment "does not evoke popular support when its purpose is avowedly to put the brakes on development of natural resources."

Jan 5, 1928

AS provided in Article VIII, Section 4 of the By- laws, the Papers and Publications Committee has formulated the following, rules of pro-cedure and submitted them to the Board of Directors for consideration and approval. In preparing these rules the committee, and an active subcommittee con-sisting of Messrs. Norris, Sharpless; Fohs and Wither-ell, have kept in mind the desirability of codifying the practice that has grown up through the now sev-eral years of experience of the committtee, without casting them in a mold so rigid as to be hampering. The problems of the Institute change from year to year and the methods of publication must change also to meet each new situation as it arises. "The estab-lishment of divisions and special volumes devoted to the papers. read before each required certain changes from former practice. These rules have been framed with this in view. The committee suggested, however, in its letter of transmittal, that the system will be made all the more workable if the Board will, as far as practicable, in making appointments to this committee, arrange for representation from each of the professional divisions and technical committees. It is understood that the chairman of the committee will be named by the Board. The rules regarding spe-cial volumes have been framed, keeping in mind the present policy of distribution, as already approved by the Directors under which the special volumes go only to the special. groups except on request. The committee has not attempted to provide rules governing consideration of any appeal made to the Board from one of its decisions, but its services and files will necessarily be at the full service of the Board in any such event. The rules which were ap-proved by the Board at its meeting on March 30, 1928, are as follows: Signed by C. S. Witherell, Chairman. (A) The authority of. the Committee on Papers and Pub-lications, hereinafter called the Committee, is defined in Art. VIII, Sec. 4 of the By-laws of the Institute, which reads as follows: "Papers and Publications: The Committee on Papers and Publications shall consist of the Secretary of the Institute, and at least twelve members of the Institute, to assist in passing on all papers offered for publication. They shall be appointed annually by the Board of Direc-tors, on recommendation of the President, and shall have authority, subject to appeal to the Board, to accept or reject papers for publication in the Transactions and Technical Publications of the Institute. The Commit-tee shall formulate a set of rules of procedure which, when approved by the Board, shall have the force of By-laws until revoked or amended." The policy of the Committee will be to uphold the ob-jects of -the Institute as set forth in the Constitution (Arti-cle 1, Sec. 2).

Jan 5, 1928

FOR the benefit of those of our members who may be asked what they know about Mr. Hoover's connec-tion with the Kaiping coal mines in China and who will naturally wish to appear thoroughly well informed on the subject, we reprint below an authoritative state-ment, recently made to the Japan Advertiser, by Tang Shao-yi, former premier of China, now retired to his country home at Tang Chia. "Information has reached me at my retreat that persons in America and China insinuate that Herbert Hoover acted dishonorably in dealings involving the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company a quarter of a century ago. I be-lieve myself the only Chinese living who was closely iden-tified with that company during Mr. Hoover's connection. My uncle founded the company and my family always has been a large shareholder and, therefore, I possess direct knowledge of its history. "I am actuated in this statement by a sense of justice and also gratitude for Mr. Hoover's acts in rescuing my family during the Boxer uprising. Mr. Hoover's record in China is clean and honorable, highly creditable and in many ways remarkable. Legal action brought in London in 1905 occurred after Mr. Hoover left the company. There were not any charges against Mr. Hoover and he was not a de-fendant in the lawsuit, but an important witness whose testimony helped the Chinese shareholders to save their property.

Jan 5, 1928

By Howard Talbot

THE history of the development of the strip in- dustry, mentioned in this paper, was covered in considerable detail by Stephen Badlam in his paper presented. before the American Iron and Steel Institute at its meeting in New York last October. The description of progress in rolling strip there out-lined will be found good reading by anyone interested in the subject. Quoting from Mr. Badlam's paper, "For practically thirty years, we find no record of the use of the backing-roll principle, until in 1916 the Lukens Steel Co., Coatesville, Pa., put in a 206-in. plate mill of the four-high type. This was a reversing mill with two 32-in. working rolls and two 50-in. backing rolls and is today making the widest and heaviest plate made anywhere in the world." The functioning of this mill, though rolling hot plate, is, on account of the extreme width and thinness of plate rolled, quite comparable to the rolling of wide strip either hot or cold and was a considerable factor in demonstrating the marked advantages available with the four-high or backing-roll mill for thin accurate rolling. As the writer has brought out, a demand for a product, the rolling of which required the character-istics of the backing-roll mill, was broached by the In-ternational Nickel Co. This resulted in an inquiry of March, 1924, for the building of a mill capable of cold-rolling wide nickel and monel metal sheets or strip, as mentioned. It may be of some interest to note, that whereas the .six-roll cluster mill with plain bearings was built for this installation, the mill designed by the United En-gineering and Foundry Co. for this inquiry was of the four-high type with roller bearings on the backing-roll necks, being essentially the same design as the four-high roller-bearing mill built in 1925 for the Rome Brass & Copper Co. This Rome mill, to quote again from Mr. Badlam's paper, "fulfilled every requirement, and was the model on which succeeding mills of this type were built."

Jan 5, 1928

By J. T. Shimmin

THE past twenty-five years has been a period of unparalleled improvement in all lines of mining and metallurgical equipment, but probably none has undergone greater refinement and development than the vacuum filter. Beginning a quarter of a century ago, there has been steady advancement in the art of vacu-um filtration until today its use has become virtually standard practice for dewatering throughout the entire metallurgical industry as well as in important parts of the chemical and industrial processing fields. The credit for the first successful application of vacuum filtration 'at the Consolidated Mercury mines in Utah in 1902 undoubtedly belongs to George Moore. There, it is said, his filter reduced the loss of gold in the slime and sand from $1.25 to 40c. per ton. Successful applications were subsequently made by Mr. Moore at the Liberty Bell mines, Telluride, Colo., the Lundberg, Dorr &Wilson mill at Terry, S. D., and elsewhere. E. L. Oliver is generally credited with, having done the most to work out the necessary continuity of op-eration exemplified in the well-known continuous vacu-um filter which bears his name. Others made improve-ments also, but in my opinion all the new ideas advanced in recent years are modifications of the fundamental principles originated by the two pioneers, Moore and Oliver. Considerable interest has been shown recently in the new type of continuous internal-type vacuum filter which is associated with my own name1. In response to frequent inquiries regarding it and the steps which led up to its invention, I am giving herewith a brief account of the early history of this development and some of the more important installations which have been made during the last year or so. A. M. Nicholas (now deceased), an Australian engi-neer, conceived the idea, several years ago, of manu-facturing a continuous vacuum filter with the filter medium applied upon the inside of the drum, as con-trasted with existing drum filters in which the medium is applied externally. Nicholas recognized that a ma-chine of this type would be simpler than one with a tank and would overcome some of the difficulties en-countered with tank filters on certain classes of pulps, and he appreciated the value of having filtration take place in the same direction as the gravitational settle-ment of the solid particles in the pulp, the pulp being retained within the drum instead of being held against the outside surface. The ease of starting up after a shut down was likewise realized by Nicholas. It was tried in the United States, but was not entirely success-ful primarily due to mechanical defects.

Jan 5, 1928

THREE-QUARTERS of the amount needed to defray the cost of the Louvain memorial clock and carillon has been subscribed by one-thirtieth of the total number of mem- bers of the engineering societies that are indorsing this memorial to the engineers who gave their lives in the Great War. Gifts of materials and services have been made, but about $20,000 is still needed to meet the total expense involved. Small contributions from the twenty-nine-thir- tieths of the total membership who have not yet subscribed should promptly provide this sum. The accompanying illus-tration shows the 48 gold stars made by the American Brass Co. for the four faces of the clock, being boxed for shipment at the works of the Dwight & Lloyd Co. at Netcong, N. J. The actual material of the stars is, of course, an aluminum bronze, which retains its gold color without tarnishing.

Jan 5, 1928

By J. A. Benell

DIOXIDE of silicon, commonly called silica, is one of the greatest single constituents of modern in-dustry. It is brought most clearly to the mind when we consider the various kinds of sand and their rela-tion to industry. The major portion of.all sand is silica, and should be its principal component part in building materials. As an abrasive for cutting, polish-ing and sand-blasting, sand serves a vital purpose in many industries. Even lumber is now being sand-blasted, to cut away the softer grains of wood, leaving the harder grains in relief. The result not only in-creases the beauty of the wood, but adds to it an ap-pearance of antiquity. The common uses of silica in industry may be classified about as follows: Chemical industries-filtering medium; manufacture of carborundum; manufacture of water-glass. Paint-inert extender. Mineral fillers-wood filler; filler in rubber, hard rubber, pressed and molded goods, phonograph records.

Jan 5, 1928

IN speaking, on the subject, "Engineer-Citizens," at the Lehigh Valley Mineral Industries Conference dinner, on April 26, at Easton, Pa., George Otis Smith, Director of the United States Geological Survey and President of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, said in part: "It would be carrying coke to Connellsville to bring to the Lehigh Valley the idea that mineral resources are the foundation of national prosperity. Unfortu-nately, however, this obvious, fact is not everywhere recognized. Too many of our economists, journalists, statesmen and other dopesters of present business con-ditions stress the human factor so strongly that they overlook the material with which men work out their destiny. To them the financial psychology of Wall Street and the political logic of Capitol Hill and the business commonplaces of Main Street all loom far larger than the geology of the Lehigh Valley or the engineering triumphs of Bethlehem, or, the creative thinking at Lehigh and Lafayette. "The present situation in the industrial and .business world is a complex of interacting causes and reacting effects not easily itemized and entered on our trial balance sheet. But, chief among the liabilities of today is the excess of production capacity in most branches of industry. The farmer has no. monopoly in his desire for relief. Whether your professional connections are with steel or cement, coal or oil, copper, or zinc, you; know too well that for, the moment America is over-engined, and you keenly realize the ever-present hazard of industry speeding up regardless of the curves or grades just around the corner.

Jan 5, 1928

By George Rice

VENTILATION of underground workings to fur-nish air of good quality to workers is now the accepted practice for all kinds of mining; but in coal mining it is also a requirement vital for safety to have systematic coursing of the air to all parts of a mine so that fire damp can be diluted and carried away. These two basic needs are recognized in the codes of every country or State where coal is mined, and each has its own system of ventilation requirements. With the same fundamental requirements, varying in degree but not in kind, the surprising thing is that these and other features of regulatory codes should vary so-wide-ly that their provisions on the same subject bear hardly any resemblance to one another. This was strikingly brought out in the paper given before this institute in 1926, on "State Coal-Mining Laws Concerning Ventila-tion1. The explanation ordinarily is that the geologic forma-tions and the mining conditions and methods differ in the various coal fields. Although that is true, in most countries and States the variations in the differ-ent mining districts within each country or state vary widely, and the respective codes must be made to apply by special provisions to meet the variations in thickness of coal, depth,. dip, character of roof, and presence or absence of gas. Evidently the great diversity in codes is due to the method of formulating them. Some are prepared by political commissions in which partisan interests are a factor; others originated in the early days of mining with meager outlines and were so amended by legisla-tive acts or administrative orders from year to year as to become complicated and ambiguous, and pro-visions in different parts of a single law are often contradictory. Such laws have therefore been difficult to interpret and to enforce adequately.

Jan 5, 1928

By Cornelius Kelley

I HAVE been asked to pay a tribute to the mining industry. It is appropriate to this occasion that a word upon this subject should be spoken to this assemblage; but to pay a tribute to the mining indus-try, one that would be worthy of its traditions and its accomplishment and that would outline what it has meant to the economic and social development of this nation, would carry me far beyond what must be the brief confines of this address. I wonder how many there are who have ever paused to reflect how different might have been the current history of the world had it not been that for nearly eighty years a never-interrupted stream of wealth has flowed from the storehouse of treasure in the mines of the West into the commercial and economic life not only of this nation but of the world. Truly it was a historic day that Marshall discovered in the runway at Sutter's mill the glistening particles that proved to be gold. That event was one of the most momentous events in its consequences that ever happened in the history of mankind. Without its occurrence this nation undoubtedly would have grown; it would have reached a position; of economic and social soundness; but certainly it could not have achieved the splendid and immediate results that have become our proudest heritage and established our unrivaled posi-tion in the industrial world. As the primal cause that led to one of the great migratory movements of man it stands alone, unequaled, without any precedent in the annals of history, comparable in its effect on the imagination, on the movement, and on the devlop-ment of a people. Nearly three-quarters of a century had passed since the banners of the Revolution had been furled and a new nation had come into existence. Beyond the boun-daries of the original colonies, and through the passes of the Alleghanies, hardy frontiersmen had cut their way, and the process of establishing what have become -great states in the Valley of the Mississippi was under way. An empire of virgin land beckoned to the home-seekers of the world; but scarcely had its occupation been begun when, true to the instinctive urge that meant the ultimate destiny of the nation, there began the movement to carry the Stars and Stripes westward to the Pacific. Within the boundaries of what was then Mexico, Americans fought and died in the Alamo, and the banner of the Texan had been raised in eager ex-pectancy that its Lone Star might be added to the grow-ing constellation on the American banner.

Jan 5, 1928

BUSTS of James Douglas and his friend, Ben Williams, placed in front of the library at Bisbee, Ariz., were unveiled there on April 8, and the connection of the two men with the development of the. Copper Queen mine was reviewed. Judge Bisbee, the brother-in-law of Ben Wil-liams, secured an option on the Copper Queen claim, financed its development and sent Ben Williams in to build the smelter, which turned out its first copper in November, 1880. Dr. Douglas, who was then superintendent of the Chemi-cal Copper Co., at Phoenixville, Pa., had a refining plant and, looking for more metal to refine, came to Bisbee early in 1881, where he negotiated a contract to refine the Copper Queen copper.

Jan 5, 1928

By Howard Eavenson

SOME time ago, in a conference considering the mechanizing of a group of mines, I was asked if I knew of any data showing the relative frequency of accidents due to the use of 275 or 550-volt current inside mines and having a recollection of seeing some in print, the answer was made that I would find what was available. Subsequent search failed to find any pub-lished records of any kind giving such figures and none of the compensation agencies of whom inquiry was made were able to supply any, excepting the Pennsyl-vania Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau, which had some data covering a few months for some companies in that State. The inquiry was confined to the three largest producing States, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois. The inspection departments of neither of the first two had any such records, and in Illinois, only 275 volts has been allowed inside the mines for many years. A laborious inquiry has resulted in the data, shown in Table 1, which on this account was confined to the years 1921 and 1925, the latter being the latest figures available. In each State, to find the mines using 275 and 550-volt current respectively, it was necessary to list the mines from the Coal Catalog, and then to complete the list by inquiries from the companies directly, from Operators' Associations and from Inspection Depart-ments. As the mines not electrified, and those using

Jan 5, 1928

By Walter Henoch

THE subject of my talk is, "What 'the college, student expects when he gets out of college." Since all of us, here tonight are engineers, I think it will be proper to limit the discussion to "What the engineering student expects when he emerges from college." It might be well to con-sider just why we chose engineering rather than some other of the many courses open to us. We certainly did not choose it because it is easy nor because we thought it would be a very pleasurable way to spend four years of our lives. The majority of students who choose this profession have a pretty well-formed idea of what an engineering course requires. They at least know that they must work to re-ceive their credits. The minority, which is no small num-ber, are soon disillusioned and as a result they either quit college entirely or they join the' Commerce School. I asked a number of my fellow students just what it was that induced them to join the engineering profession, but it was hard to obtain a clear cut statement from any of them. Some said it was due to environment; others said, they took it because they liked it, and still others said they took it because their folks wanted them to. These state-ments are rather vague and incomplete, but underlying them all is something that the fellows found hard to ex-press. I think it is this: To the layman there is something of romance and adventure about the engineering profes-sion, and this fact coupled with the reputed high salaries and high commands of certain noted engineers no doubt fired our imaginations and consequently led us to join the ranks of the engineers. No doubt many engineers have gone out into the world and have found little romance or adventure .attached to their work, but nevertheless it is an occupation of a wide diversity of interest, of constant change of scene, and of vivid and human relations.

Jan 5, 1928

The following officers and committee chairmen were elected: Honorary Chairman, Herbert Hoover; Chairman, Elmer A. Sperry, New York; Vice-Chairman and Chair-man of the Executive Committee, John W. Lieb, New York; Vice-Chairman, C. E. Grunsky (Pacific Coast), San Francisco; C. F. Kettering (Middle West), Detroit; Execu-tive Secretary, Maurice Holland; Executive Committee: Gano Dunn, George W. Fuller, Maurice Holland, Frank B. Jewett, John W. Lieb, H. J. McGraw, Calvin W. Rice, W. E. Wickenden, all of New York; Dugald C. Jackson, Cambridge, Mass.; 0. C. Merrill, Washington, D. C.; Charles F. Scott, New Haven, Conn.; Elmer A. Sperry, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Finance Committee. John W. Lieb; Technical Program Committee: D. C. Jackson; Transporta-tion Committee: F. B. Jewett; Entertainment Committee: 0. C. Merrill; Publicity: J. H. McGraw; Promotion and Attendance: George W. Fuller.

Jan 5, 1928

By Charles Janin

ONE of the most interesting features of the world's platinum situation has been the steady increase of Russian production, which had dropped to 11,000 oz. in 1920, but increased to 92,000 oz. in 1926, and to probably over 100,000 oz. for 1927. It is ex-pected that Russian production of platinum will, be-fore long, closely equal its pre-war production, or approximately 200,000 oz. annually. The world production before the war was around 250,000 oz.; that for 1925 has been estimated at 160,000 oz., and for 1926 probably 170,000 oz. The consump-tion of platinum has, however, decreased. The esti-mate of the International Selling Agency was a de-mand of 130,000 oz. new platinum against a normal pre-war demand of over 200,000 oz. The high price of platinum during the war gave an added impetus to the search for substitutes for the metal, and sev-eral were developed that are now used extensively in place of platinum. The demand for platinum for high-class jewelry, however, was not greatly affected by the high prices, but "white" gold did replace platinum in the cheaper jewelry. Colombia is the most important producer of plati-num, next to Russia, and the production has increased from around 10,000 oz. pre-war production to 55,000 oz. or more in 1927. In 1924 important discoveries of platinum were made in South Africa. Prior to these discoveries practically all platinum was recovered from alluvial deposits, and the South African opera-tions are first to work an ore profitably for the pri-mary recovery of platinum. A number of companies were formed to develop these deposits, but only a few made any real progress. Total production for 1926 was about 5000 oz. The United States production is unimportant; that in Canada has increased to around 9000 oz., principally as a by-product in nickel-copper ores.

Jan 5, 1928

By E. C. Mahan

THE text of my talk was suggested by the invita-tion of your secretary, who said that the excess productive capacity of the bituminous industry was a matter of common concern to engineers and coal operators. Cognizant of the depressed condition of the industry, he tactfully added that in common council we might find wisdom. Certainly it would seem that the application of the best engineering knowledge available would be helpful in solving mining problems. There is no doubt that clear thinking, characteristic of the engineering type of mind, is essential to untangle the shapeless pattern which increased complication, so often mistaken for progress, has developed. There is much thinking today which neither looks forward to a logical combination of ideas nor backward to simple fundamentals. The result of that sort of thinking is hopeless confusion. Lately we have heard much about excess capacity and overproduction, along with their attendant evils. Respecting the bituminous coal industry, these terms have been frequently misused. How many of us have seen them applied to the coal industry but how few of us have understood them. I am reminded of a state-ment which William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor and a former miner from the Ohio field, gave to the Associated Press last month, in which he was quoted as saying: "The coal men must realize that conditions have altered since the World War. To-day they are producing a billion tons a year, with a market for only half that tonnage." I cite this instance as a glaring example of the flood of. loose statements about the bituminous industry with which the public is being deluged. If the general public, or some of the newspapers, had any passion for the facts, this sort of misleading statement would not get very far. Unfor-tunately, in these days, opinions are more sought after than facts, and statements by such a person as Mr. Green and are promptly accepted by a credulous public.

Jan 4, 1928

By Eugene Grace

IN THE careers of the men to whom I have referred we find typified the development of the chief prob-lems of engineering. The first is to shape and direct the forces of nature and thus to bring the world's resources to add to the comfort and welfare of man-kind. That, in a word, is the problem of production. Engineers have made a supreme contribution to the solution of that problem. But I feel that we have two somewhat newer branches of engineering which must command more and more of our attention. Those are what might be termed commercial and human engineering. Of what value is all our efficiency in pro-duction if we do not distribute efficiently, economically and effectively? And of what value is any of it unless we can add to the happiness and deeper satisfaction of those engaged in industry, as well as those who enjoy its -products? I predict that the outstanding advances in business over the next ten years will be in improved merchan-dising and distributing methods. Herein lies a wide field of opportunity for the engineer. We have briefly reviewed certain qualities of engi-neers who have become successful business executives. Is it possible for us to say that the material success of all these men was due to any one characteristic com-mon to each one of them? Indeed, I venture to assert that there is one quality which, in the last analysis, is determining as to whether any roan shall realize material success in this world of ours. That quality-so notable in the character of each one of the men I have named-is sound judgment. Moments arise in every life when it is necessary to say "yes" or to say "no" to a particular proposition or to a proposed line of action. It is the man who says "yes" at the proper time and "no" at the proper time who, in the final analysis, realizes business success. The ability to do this wisely is the mark of sound judg-ment, which is necessary in a business executive. I have known many business men seemingly slow in their mental processes, possessed apparently, of little imagination and of none of the flair which gives fasci-nation to so many characters, and yet who, when crises come-be they big or be they little-are able so to steer their business courses that they move in the right direction instead of into shallow waters or upon the rocks of trouble.

Jan 4, 1928

THE Rocky MountainClub brought into the East the spirit of the West; the impulse to build, to develop, to accept unquestion-ingly the comradeship and help of any straight shooter who had it in him to accom-plish things and a will to work. That this was the spirit of the Club was due to its leaders. It was their spirit and they attracted around them men of the same stamp. Among those who made the Club what it was no one had larger in-low fluence than William Boyce Thompson, the vice-president and chief of financial staff. It was characteristic of him that the same financial genius that was employed in building up Nevada Consolidated, In-spiration, Magma, Texas Gulf, and as director of the Metro-politan Life and the Federal Reserve Bank, was freely placed at the service of the Club. It was equally char- acteristic that the generosity that financed the Red Cross Mission to Russia inspired the use of the Club funds for Belgian and war relief. "W. B.," as he is known to his many friends, was born at Virginia City in Alder Gulch, Mont., on May 13, 1869. His father, William Thompson, born at Cobourg, Ont., had drifted into the old Northwest and, hearing at Yankton of the gold strike at Bannack, crossed the plains on the Oregon trail in the summer of 1863, arriv-ing in Alder Gulch at the inception of a mining boom that lasted several years, during which something like $60,000,000 in gold was yielded by the placer diggings. His mother was a daughter of Maj. James R. Boyce, Sr., from Logan County, Ky., who had served under General Sterling Price of the Confederate Army. Major Boyce's ancestors were early settlers of the Old Dominion, and his grandfather had seen military service in the war for American independence. Major Boyce's mother was a descendant of the Marshall and Smith families of Westmoreland County, Va. When Thompson was eleven years old, the family moved to Butte, then a silver camp. He attended the public schools of Butte, but desiring a better education, entered Phillips Exeter Academy and later the Colum-bia School of Mines. Returning West, for a year or two he ran the Boulder Chief mine near Basin, Mont., which earned him a sobriquet, "Boulder Thompson." While here, some old ore sacks, oil-soaked, introduced him to flotation. He was also the first to leach some of the ore dumps of Butte.

Jan 4, 1928