Columbia University School of Engineering - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 38 text:

The 1933 COLUMBIA ENGINEER The Department of lndustrial Engineering is endeavoring to find certain facts concerning the processes of production, distribution, and consumption, and to define those procedures in the organization and management of business institutions founded upon these processes, which will result in maximum accomplishment at minimum social cost. . Our studies to date indicate that some of our basic industries have passed the inflection point in growth and are approaching a growth in proportion to population. If the relative claims of labor and capital in both manufacture and agriculture are altered in favor of lowering the fixed debt burden, it is not at all unlikely that industry may experience a healthysecond growth, limited, of course, by the avail- able resources upon which such growth also depends. If We are to avoid the serious consequences of depressions in the future, we must also avoid those periods of expansion which precede depressions. This may be done if We inform ourselves of the natural laws of social growth and are guided by them. Cooperative action must take the place of competitive action as we enter the era of public enterprise. ln this new social era which seems to be demanded, the engineer will find abundant opportunities for social usefulness if he will equip himself properly. Not only must he be informed on machinery and devices, but he must also have an understanding of the economic and social forces which condition the Well-being of society. He must view his problems in broader perspective and enlarge his horizon of interest. He must not only concern himself with building the machine but also with gearing the machine to the whole social mechanism. He must be prepared to do his part in preparing the designs and specifications for more durable and more stable economic and social orders. TPIE NEW' LIBR.-IRY Thirfy-ffue

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The 1933 COLUIVIBIA ENGINEER INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS AND FACULTY Wand Reilly Nlitclzell deScianni Vom Saal Fixher Hendry King 0'Neill Ayarr Rautensirauch Olstad Eoyang THE ERA POF PUBLIC ENTERPRISE WALTER RAUTENSTRAUCH T MUST be apparent to any observer of social phenomena that we are passing through a period of changing concepts with respect to industrial enterprise. We are gradually emerging from the period of private enterprise to enter the era of public enterprise Centerprise in the public interestj. This change is forced upon us because we have altered the methods of converting the natural resources into commodities and services, and by this change have altered the relative claims of labor and capital to share in the goods produced. Coincident with the changes in processing through which manpower is being displaced by machine power, and interest charges seem to be increasing over wages, we have built up an aggregate of specialized functions in the business process and have operated them as independent functions without regard to their interdependent relationships. Our credit-capital systems-our manufacturing industries-our distributing agencies have grown up as institutions competitive among themselves and Without due regard to the foundations of social well-being upon which their existence de- pends. We are learning that an aggregate of operations is not an orderly system and cannot be maintained in balanced harmony. The social wastes of our present practices cannot be corrected by waiting for what many believe to be natural eco- nomic laws to have their effect. Social conditions result from social practices and when these practices are changed there follows a change in social conditions. Our minds have been conditioned to accept the recurrence of periods of depres- sion, misery, and want as natural and inevitable. People once looked upon devas- tating plagues as phenomena of the same character. Thirty-four

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The 1033 COLUJMBIJ ENGINEER IWECHXINICAL ENGINEERS KIND FACULTY Raun, Hammond, Hfppenheirner, Goldman, Sfl6l'7'07I,PEfL'l'.S'271, Rieonda, Pegrzzrn, Gross Fofwler, IVIcGough, BZf12fl0lll, Illalzer, Hildebrandt, Greafues, Geoghegan, Smith, Sflleel, Kindermann, Hawkins, Goodale, B!llI7l1Ei5fl'7', Guernsey, Bunbury, Kisselejf, Brofwn, Slzriro, Wilson, Rosen, Tirknor, Illelirhar, Kayan, Parr, Lucke, Dllffflgf, Ford, Eidmann, Hicks. INTROSPECTION XV. A. SHOUDY F WE HUNT with care, we can find not a few blessings resulting from these years of financial distress. One of these is the time given us to study the past, and to carefully scrutinize all those practices which have become our daily habit. Some of these are founded on sound principles, but many have their sole basis in custom, and when we are busy, we are prone to accept custom without careful scrutiny. One of these practices is that of giving advice to graduating classes, but it is doubtful whether a representative of a passing generation can advise the members of a gen- eration whose future offers accomplishments not yet dreamed of. The best that we of the faculty can do is to relate the accomplishments of our generation, and the steps that led to these accomplishments, and to hope that you will avoid the errors that we have committed. ' lt has been the privilege of the engineer to have been the pioneer in improving the physical condition of the human race. He has not always been known by that name but his accomplishments have been essentially engineering accomplishments. Sometimes he has been merely the lceenest mind in the tribe, as was the man who first appreciated the relationship to the heat of friction and the production of fire. Sometimes he has been called the architect, who recognized the engineering prin- ciples that permitted the piling of stones into an arch, or a dome, for a roof. Some- times, the priest whose only outlet for an inquiring mind was the mystification of the people. Today it is the habit to criticize the machine age. It is no new age. It began when the Hrst savage used a piece of broken flint to shape his arrow, or used a round stone to grind his corn. Since that time man has been actively hunting for Thirty-six