Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/177

Rh after the Russian communistic and Italian syndicalist experiences there are those who are still preaching in the United States: “Put the capitalists into overalls.”

It did not take the leaders of the workmen of Russia long to find that by themselves they did not know what to do and that they had to implore the engineers to come back. It took them much longer to learn that even if the engineers came back they could not function properly if they were subject to foolish economic and political restrictions. The great fabric of civilization that we have constructed is a fragile thing. Even with the greatest care in upkeep such an apparently solid thing as a railway wears out and has to be replaced every 20 years. A municipal office building becomes obsolescent in 30 years. The obligation that rests upon the engineers is not only to lead the way in further progress, but also to preserve that which we have gained. Dismiss management from its control of mines, factories and railways, the workers in them would promptly begin to starve to death, just as they did in Russia, for they would know not what to do. Engineers understand this best of all, and while the owners of capital may be timid and compromising toward the forces of ignorance, the engineers must of necessity stand firmly upon a platform of sound economic principles, substantially like the following.

The engineers of the United States feel it their duty to advise the American people respecting the present state of economic affairs in the nation, just as an individual engineer would his client. The people of the United States constitute a great corporation, whose business affairs are analogous to those of a commercial company multiplied many times. The engineers feel constrained