Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/66



has, perhaps, in the United States, been so much demand for the services of the engineer in the immediate task of making available for human habitation our great areas of land, that he has left the field of Economics largely to those who have not been trained in the art of measurement. If he now venture into this field, it is with a consciousness that certain professional economists, whether of the ecclesiastic or evangelic type, may be inclined to resent what they are likely to regard as an intrusion; and if some acerbity creep into the normally downright and impersonal diction of the engineer, it should not be regarded as a pretension to any special qualifications justifying his participation in politico-economic controversy, but rather as a belligerent reaction arising from his natural trepidation. Nevertheless, since so-called economists claim for their dicta the full rank of scientific truth they must permit these dicta to be examined with instruments of greater precision than a crystal, with its generally admitted possibility of varying interpretations. Such an examination cannot do any harm.

The engineer, no less than the economist, has faults peculiar to his profession. He is likely to be quite uncompromising when it comes to the necessity of brushing out a rose-garden for the sake of a clear sight, and is inclined to grow a little peevish over the drifting of Polaris; but he must always work out his last crucial course and close his survey.

The engineer will be the first to acknowledge that much work has been done in the way of courageous classification of multitudinous data, and the first to look for some tangible product which may be worth examination after the crucibles of controversy have cooled off. He has, of course, the definite