Brown and White Vol. 19 no. 24

              prof frank p mckibben of the civil engineering department is the author of an article on state supervision of dams and reser voirs the article was published in the last number of the engi neering record and follows in part if state supervision of the con struction and operation of privately owned dams and reservoirs be dis cussed by a body of engineers it soon becomes apparent that the views expressed cover a very wide range sorie opinions would be almost socialistic while others would be almost anarchistic some engineers believe that the state should go to the extreme in con trolling and supervising such works as dams and bridges because fail ures of these structures endanger life as well as property on the other hand the view that the gov ernment or state should exercise no control whatever over these works of engineering is held by not a few men who have to do with their con struction and operation state ownership or control does not pre vent accidents as has been frequent ly illustrated only recently by a very sad catastrophe at a railroad bridge in france nevertheless the state that is the people acting through certain officials should ex ercise some control over structures which involves potential danger from the fact that they confine great forces of nature which if not re strained would cause loss of life and property in other words it is a function of the state to exercise some control over powerful forces which because of their magnitude and peculiar nature have inherent danger as population becomes more dense state restrictions are the more necessary it would seem therefore that between the two ex treme views the proper one must lie state supervision properly ad ministered is simply an additional safeguard to life and property and if of such a nature as to be an ad ditional factor of safety or to re duce the possibility of disaster while not relieving the owner of his res ponsibility it is certainly a very de sirable thing to have no one fa miliar with the action of state de partments or government control or even government ownership be lieves that these are infallible agen cies of preventing disaster but the safe and sane position to take is that they will simply serve as an other means of seeing that the en gineer's ideas as embodied in his plans and structures are correct in such matters therefore as the con out of 310 football games which yale has played since 1884 only 13 have been defeats the annual meeting of the na tional collegiate athletic associa tion according to a recent an nouncement will be held at the hotel astor new york on de cember 28 the gathering this year is expected to be of the utmost im portance as the association is con sidering some radical recommenda tions in regard to professional base ball coaching the national collegiate associa tion as its name implies is an or ganization for the general control and supervision of intercollegiate athletics its membership has grown so as to include some eighty colleges and universities whose students number one hundred thousand the asociation has influenced the foot ball rule makers very largely in their work ever since 1905 while their suggestions about non-profes sional coaching are already making headway this is evidenced by the abolishment of the professional sys tem in crew and baseball at yale the conference this year will ex tend over three sessions the morning one will be devoted to the following three addresses : the military value of athletics to a nation by major general leonard wood chief-of-staff in the united states army ; college ath letics from the view-point of the president of a university by chancellor mccormick of the uni versity of pittsburgh ; and the in fluence of collegiate athletics upon preparatory schools by professor scudder of rutgers preparatory school in the afternoon reports will be read from the football rules com mittee the central board of football officials the committee on track athletics and the committee on am ateur law the evening session will be de voted to an open discussion of im portant topics in anticipation of this the following questions on col lege baseball have been sent to all members of the association : 1 in your opinion is college baseball as now played a benefit to your institution 2 in what way may college baseball be im proved 3 do you enforce the amateur law in baseball ? 4 is the conduct of student spectators satis factory and sportsmanlike 5 do you consider baseball to have been professionalized at your institution ? 6 what per cent of the students take part in any way in this sport 7 do you believe it possible to abol ish gate receipts in all collegiate contests ? please give your reasons 8 if you believe that gate receipts continued on third page continued on fourth page the br own and white lehigh university bethlehem pa friday december 22 1911 vol xix mining society meeting state supervision of dams politics club meeting no 24 collegiate a a meeting in williams hall regular december meeting held vise building of dams prof mckibben's plan to super is baseball beneficial to our universities " to be discussed sion of recall keen interest shown in discus a talk by mr estabrook of the geology department on the lead and zinc deposits of wisconsin and a description of the copper de posits of cape d'or nova scotia by speed 12 constituted the main part of the program of the mining and geological society which held its meeting in williams hall last monday evening otto 12 urged the members of the body to cooperate with the pro gram committee in getting speakers from the undergraduate body ter ser 12 appealed to the men to bring about a deepened interest in and a larger attendance at the regu lar meetings of the society the lead and zinc deposits dis cussed by mr estabrook are lo cated in the south-western part of wisconsin and have been known for almost three-quarters of a cen tury but were not worked exten sively until about ten years ago mr estabrook prefaced his talk with an interesting account of some of his actual mining experience which ultimately led him into the wisconsin field during the course of his talk he explained the geolo gy of the wisconsin lead and zinc district the early as well as the present-day methods of mining the ore and the milling processes em ployed speed's talk was based on data taken by him on a trip to the cape d'or deposits last summer and he covered in a rather thorough man ner the features of interest to a geologist as well as to the general public this deposit was discover ed early in the sixteenth century but did not become conspicuous in the market until three years ago cliffs from 200 to 400 feet high at the water's edge on the bay of fun day make the region rather inacces sible from the standpoint of the shipper although recently a harbor was built and the shipping facilities improved the ore is found chief ly in tra-p rock and rests on car bonaceous rock consisting of sholes and small amounts of coal the ore occurs as native copper both in the form of nuggets and in fis sure fillings the former being the richer of the two at the close of his talk speed dis played numerous samples which he collected while in nova scotia and also a series of interesting photo graphs of the bay of funday coast line and the copper formations of the cape d'or deposit the maryland club is planning to have a theatre party in baltimore for thursday december 28th to attend the fascinating widow the second regular monthly meet ing of the politics club was held in drown hall tuesday evening presided over by president yake about sixty men were present and as all showed keen interest in the proceedings the meeting was quite a profitable one considerable business was trans acted before the debate was begun dr drinker prof stewart and prof wilson were elected as mem bers of a faculty advisory board campbell and chu fuh were elect ed as junior members of the ex ecutive committee it was decided that a suitable epitome insert be prepared and that a pamphlet of the constitution be printed for the convenience of the members the membership of the club was closed after the meeting and from now on all applicants for admission will have their names placed on a wait ing list the question up for discussion before the club was resolved that judges elected by popular vote should be subject to the recall h s rowland 13 opened the debate for the affirmative attempting to show that the recall was but a logi cal outcome of a sane and well based tendency in that direction p w janeway 13 replied with a forceful plea for conservative sup port of the present system r c fuller 12 next spoke for the affirmative placing the recall in the light of a business proposi tion and as a step toward more perfect democracy h h otto 12 closed the debate by showing the practical abuses and evil results which might come about if the recall were put in general use while the judges were consult ing a short general discussion of the question was opened to all mem bers the judges committee con sisting of prof stewart morton sultzer and harold williams final ly decided by a vote of two to one in favor of the affirmative mr walters 08 now instructor in the english department spoke briefly complimenting the men on their papers and very highly com mending the earnest spirit display ed by the club prof stewart gave an admirable historical review of the recall ques tion enriching his talk by many per tinent incidents and keen observan ces after this talk the meeting adjourned