ortion of the
current critical literature of engineering serves any good or useful
purpose, since it has no other or higher object than to help the critics
to climb into notoriety on the shoulders of the older and wiser men with
whom they are brought into competition. I regard as unprofessional every
effort to discredit honest and intelligent work, and every form of
disguised advertising designed to give an engineer a greater prominence
than he has earned by successful and creditable work, or is entitled to
claim by virtue of fitness for more than average professional
achievements.

It is neither possible nor desirable to catalogue the unprofessional
practices which in one way or another come to the notice of those
observant of current happenings in the several departments of
engineering. It is the contention of some that right and wrong are
relative terms, applying to no action or line of conduct save as it is
considered in relation to coincident and contingent circumstances. I will
not deny that this may be true of all professional acts, but the
impossibility of an arbitrary classification under the heads right and
wrong, honorable and dishonorable, need not make it difficult for a man
to formulate a code of professional ethics by which his own conduct shall
be governed. There are certain broad ethical principles which never
change. One is that a man cannot serve two masters having conflicting
interests, and be faithful to each. Another is that, however skillfully
one may juggle words to conceal meanings or evade responsibility, if the
intent to deceive is there, he lies. Professional ethics are no different
from the ethics of the Decalogue; they are specific applications of the
rules of conduct which have governed enlightened and honorable men in all
ages and in all walks of life. It is only when the moral sense is blunted
or temptation presents itself in some new and unrecognized form that it
is difficult to draw the line between right and wrong. I am aware that a
delicate sense of honor often comes between a man and his opportunities
of profit, and that a fine sensitiveness is rarely appreciated at its
value by those who employ professional service. I know that in this busy
world men of affairs do not always stop to weigh motives, and that
confident assurance always commands respect, while modest merit is
distrusted. But I do not know that a man can sell his honor for a price,
and retain thereafter the right to sta