Why the engineer?

The new conditions of life brought about by the material advances of recent times, which have been achieved primarily as a result of the work of scientists and engineers, have brought with them new and pressing problems — social, economic, political, and international. In this address,^∗ Doctor Durand states that “we (engineers) cannot evade the responsibility which rests upon us to take our due share, even the lead, in the study of the problems which our own activities have, in a large measure, developed.” He urges “a quickened sense on the part of the engineer, of his responsibilities, not alone in a purely professional sense, but as a citizen of his community, of his state, of his country, of the world.”