Ethics and the Engineering Profession

of conduct of any or group are very largely the reflection in action of its ideals. The moment ideals become fixed or static they are dead. This is the law of life. When we clothe a code of ethics as a guide to conduct with the quality of finality, it becomes as futile as sounding brass. Whether for the individual or the group it is in the light of our living, vibrant aspirations that all question of conduct must be tested. This is the constitution which rectifies the quibbles of language and the conflicts of interests. Someone has said that an artist is one who holds ideals up before the people. If there is to be any significance in the term profession surely all professional men must qualify in this respect as artists. And engineers seem to be moving in this direction. One of the engineering societies, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was founded about forty years ago very largely on the ideal that there was a sufficient content in the science of mechanical engineering to warrant a national society devoted to its development. We have been told by the founders that among the majority of the charter members the view was strongly held that if all commercial considerations were to be excluded the residue would not be sufficient to warrant the attention of a large national group. Of course, these doubts have long since been dissipated and today it seems like a platitude to say that the science connected with the mechanical arts is limitless in extent. This bit of history is cited here as affording a very concrete example of the way in which we progress through weaving i to the fabric of the future materials which may not even be available today. The long look ahead-a point of view denied to those who are wholly engaged with present necessities-seems inherent in the equipment of the professional man

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