By Major General Lansing H. Beach, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army.

The work of our Engineers in France during the World War was something of which the whole American people have good reason to be proud. In this work the members of the engineering profession showed their great versatility and their ability to attack successfully problems previously unknown to those without military training.

There were many things to be learned and some to be unlearned. The Civil Engineer, in general, was forced to revise much that had been inculcated in him during his earliest studies in engineering, and confirmed during the course of his professional practice. Possibly the most important new lessons were that, in a military construction, time is of more importance than any other feature involved; that a structure, especially a bridge, does not have to be of uniform strength throughout, but that, like a chain, it will answer its purpose if its weakest link is just strong enough to stand the strain which will be put upon it; that architectural beauty for its own sake has no place in field operations; and that permanence is a consideration of such slight importance that frequently it does not enter the calculations at all.

The appearance and the lack of strength occasionally gave the new officers of Engineers a shock, inducing a feeling that much of their study and practice had been in vain and that much of their previous experience could help them but little in the construction of emergency bridges. It is, however, the Engineer best trained in civil practice who can build the best emergency structure, if he will but properly evaluate the conditions imposed by military exigencies.

The Engineers in the War were adaptable, but we are all the results of our education and training; and it is, therefore, not amiss to bring to the attention of the members of the profession at large certain principles which they may learn in time of peace and be prepared to apply in time of war, and thus avoid having to acquire this knowledge in the face of the enemy, when the lives of thousands of their fellow citizen-soldiers are at stake. Victory and defeat, the rise and the fall of nations, have often depended upon seeming trifles. It is conceivable that an engineering failure in war may involve the extinction of a state.

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