in the first and second paragraphs of his discussion, would
convey the impression that the writer was in doubt as to his "personal
opinions" and wanted some free advice. He intimates that he is too busy
to go fully into a treatise in order to set them right. He further tries
to throw discredit on the paper by saying that the writer has adduced no
clean-cut statement of fact or tests in support of his views. If Mr.
Turner had read the paper carefully, he would not have had the idea that
in it the hooped column is condemned. As to this more will be said
later. The paper is simply and solely a collection of statements of
facts and tests, whereas his discussion teems with his "personal
opinion," and such statements as "These values * * * are regarded by the
writer as having at least double the factor of safety used in ordinary
designs of structural steel"; "On a basis not far from that which the
writer considers reasonable practice." Do these sound like clean-cut
statements of fact, or are they personal opinions? It is a fact, pure
and simple, that a sharp bend in a reinforcing rod in concrete violates
the simplest principles of mechanics; also that the queen-post and Pratt
and Howe truss analogies applied to reinforcing steel in concrete are
fallacies; that a few inches of embedment will not anchor a rod for its
value; that concrete shrinks in setting in air and puts initial stress
in both the concrete and the steel, making assumed unstressed initial
conditions non-existent. It is a fact that longitudinal rods alone
cannot be relied on to reinforce a concrete column. Contrary to Mr.
Turner's statement, tests have been adduced to demonstrate this fact.
Further, it is a fact that the faults and errors in reinforced concrete
design to which attention is called, are very common in current design,
and are held up as models in nearly all books on the subject.

The writer has not asked any one to believe a single thing because he
thinks it is so, or to change a single feature of design because in his
judgment that feature is faulty. The facts given are exemplifications of
elementary mechanical principles overlooked by other writers, just as
early bridge designers and writers on bridge design overlooked the
importance of calculating bridge pins and other details which would
carry the stress of the members.

A careful reading of the paper will show that the writer does not accept
the opinions of others, when they are not backed by