WSP01790

• File Number: 8027
• Description: Section D General Correspondence-Federal Agencies
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 6/18/1954
• Author: W A Dexheimer
• Title: Statements of Commissioner of Reclamation W A Dexheimer Before Various Public Gatherings - June 1954 through December 1955
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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stature the engineering profession has attained in ilie last tHO centuries with
si.milar growth and world leacership of our Nation.

The United States has attained world leadership as a nation on its reputation
for freedom, vision, and the ability to do things. "The American Way" is Dlore ilian
a political slogan. It is a beacon light offering to tile world a future of peace,
prosperity and freedom. Thj.s ")JIlerican Hay" we talk about has, as one of its
foundation stones, progressive economy, an ability to get things done. And no one
has been in the va.')gUard of this parade of progress more than the engineer.

To compare our lives in America today with those of a few generations back,
even to the turn of tile century, offers a startling contrast and story of progress
in fields in uhi~~ engineers are partict1larly involved.

One exanple might lIell be automobile transportation. It was hardly more than
50 years ago th~t the first few horseless carriag~s were chugging and sputtering
along on city streets anu country lanes th~t lIere either quagpires of mud or choked
1.lith dust. Constantly impl'oved desiQ;n and construction methods, which were wor:,ed
out by research engineers, have transformed those riel,ety cars into the. sleek
vehicles Iffi are nOli producing at the rate of six to eight million per year. Some
of you may reruer.1ber ilie Auto Shows of 1910 or II when tile Model or advertiseraent Has
a record repeating "It gets you iliere and brings you heelc".

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Production engineers desirned the marvels of the assembly line and the latest
production magic, automation, that have brought automobiles wiiliin ilie price range
of millions. Then, don't forget the co~struction engineers who laid out the smooth
ribbons of concrete and asphalt Hhic:', compose our highllay system for iliese millions
of cars. Of course, any Sunday ell"ivcr Hill tell you there aren't enough ro'ads, but
the engineers are doing semething aOollt that too, just as fast as they can get the
necessary funds.

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The same f~vorable comparison can be made in other fields of transportation.
Hho would have dared forecast, 50 years ago, that an individual Hould have been
able to leave Washington in the morning to attend a cinner meeting out here at
night1. Or that there 1I0uld be regularly scheduled nonstop cOITJIlercial airline
flights across the Nation--and across the oceans. I remember watching the altitude
and speed records fo,' airplanes being broken at Be:!Jnont Park, N., Y., in 1911. The
speed record was 65 miles per hou= on a closed course, and the altitude record was
11,OOO feet. Engineers have brought us a long way since then.

The contrast is equally startling in the field of communications. In the last
tllO decades, electronic engineers have transformed television from an impractical
dream to a virtual household necessity. You can punch a teletype here to operate a
linotJ~e in a newspaper office t~!O or three ~ousand miles allay. It won't be long
until you can dial not only your neighbor on the telephone but YOtlr former neighbor
who now lives in anotller state or e continent away.

Another important aspect of our national progress, in which I am proud to say
the engineers have had a major role, is ~e develoFffient of our natural resources.
Our country is blessed lf~th the richest supply of natural resources of any nation
on earth.

Geologists have tracked dOlm untold wealth in underground deposits of ore, oil,
and water. It has remained for the engineers to devise W2YS end means of bringing

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