bsequently
earn dividends. He does not have to operate them, to find the income,
to feed the mill, or sell the product. The profit and loss does
not hound his footsteps after his construction is complete.

Although it is desirable to emphasize the commercial side of the
practice of the mining engineer's profession, there are other sides
of no less moment. There is the right of every red-blooded man to
be assured that his work will be a daily satisfaction to himself;
that it is a work which is contributing to the welfare and advance
of his country; and that it will build for him a position of dignity
and consequence among his fellows.

There are the moral and public obligations upon the profession.
There are to-day the demands upon the engineers which are the demands
upon their positions as leaders of a great industry. In an industry
that lends itself so much to speculation and chicanery, there is the
duty of every engineer to diminish the opportunity of the vulture
so far as is possible. Where he can enter these lists has been
suggested in the previous pages. Further than to the "investor"
in mines, he has a duty to his brothers in the profession. In no
profession does competition enter so obscurely, nor in no other
are men of a profession thrown into such terms of intimacy in
professional work. From these causes there has arisen a freedom of
disclosure of technical results and a comradery of members greater
than that in any other profession. No profession is so subject to
the capriciousness of fortune, and he whose position is assured
to-day is not assured to-morrow unless it be coupled with a
consideration of those members not so fortunate. Especially is
there an obligation to the younger members that they may have
opportunity of training and a right start in the work.

The very essence of the profession is that it calls upon its members
to direct men. They are the officers in the great industrial army.
From the nature of things, metal mines do not, like our cities and
settlements, lie in those regions covered deep in rich soils. Our
mines must be found in the mountains and deserts where rocks are
exposed to search. Thus they lie away from the centers of comfort
and culture,--they are the outposts of civilization. The engineer
is an officer on outpost duty, and in these places he is the camp
leader. By his position as a leader in the community he has a
chieftainship that carries a responsibility besides mere mine