Brown and White Vol. 18 no. 33

              dr drinker's letter quoted in j canal debate j . t â–  ! lehigh men will be interested in the fact that during the recent de bate in congress on the proposed fortification of the panama canal dr drinker's letter of november bth to the brown and white was cited and published in the congres sional record as part of the pro ceedings on the conclusion of an exhaus tive address and analysis by mr kopp of wisconsin of the treaties between great britain and the united states relative to the canal and particularly on the question of fortification the report in the con gressional record of jan 24th pro ceeds as follows mr gardner of michigan mr chairman i yield five minutes to the gentleman from pennsylvania mr olmsted mr olmsted mr chairman it is not my intention to make a speech but since the gentleman who has just preceded me mr kopp has discussed the subject of fortification of the pan ama canal it seems an opportune time to present some documents which i think will prove of great interest touch ing the panama canal the first is a letter written from the canal zone un der date of november 8 1910 by dr henry sturgis drinker who was there on a visit of inspection along with oth er members of the american institute of mining engineers dr drinker is well qualified to speak as an expert in such matters he is not only a skilled engineer but a man of great learning and of wide experience in large affairs before he was called to his present po sition as president of lehigh univer sity that great institution which has sent forth so many practical and suc cessful engineers and prominent men in different avocations of life the next matter i desire to present is a series of resolutions adopted by the members of the american institute of mining engineers who visited and in spected the panama canal in november 1910 these resolutions were adopted on the steamer on their way home these resolutions express the views of experts fresh from an examination of that great work in which this whole country is now so much interested they are signed by 77 men very promi nent and covering iff their activities nearly every section of the country sev eral of them besides dr drinker are from my own state such men for in stanco as mr w a lathrop now pres ident of the lehigh coal and naviga ion co a gentleman of very wide ex perience in mining as well as in con struction and in the management of great enterprises the list is headed by the president of the american institute of mining engineers when 77 such men as these agree touching such a mat ter their report can not fail to be of very great importance and interest mr chairman i ask unanimous con sent to extend my remarks so as to in elude these papers in the record the chairman the gentleman from pennsylvania asks unanimous con sent to extend his remarks in the rec ord in the manner indicated is there continued on second page the brown and white lehigh university s()l til iikthlehem pa friday february 24 1911 no 33 february meeting of e e society juniors contest in oratory alumni dinner at scranton brown and white in congress vol xviii annual dinner of lehigh club of n e perm a largely attended and enthusias tic meeting and dinner of the le high club of northeastern penn sylvania was held at the hotel ca sey scranton tuesday evening about seventy-live members of the club were present after the an nual business meeting at which elmer h lawall c e 82 was elected president of the club for the following year after dinner speech es were made by the following members and guests of the club eben l bevan 87 of scranton acting as toast-master dr henry s drinker president of the uni versity charles m schwab trus tee of the university william griffith 76 of scranton n m emery vice-president of the uni versity eugene g grace 99 who spoke on the athletic situation ed ward j lynett proprietor of the scranton times the right rev ethelbert talbot trustee of the university edwin f ferris editor of the scranton truth ; c d simp son of scranton the well known and leading coal operator and capi talist ; a b jessup 95 of wilkes barre chief engineer of the le high valley coal co a e lister 92 of scranton and charles en zian 01 who has served for seven years as the efficient secretary and promoter of the club the presence of mr schwab at the banquet was highly appreciated by all present since assuming a trusteeship at the university mr continued on third page banquet of lehigh-her mon club h j williams wins the coveted prize the annual oratorical contest open to members of the junior class was held on wednesday morn ing in the packer memorial chapel after a few preliminary remarks by dr drinker on the necessity of any man's being able to express himself well in public he intro duced the first speaker mr ernest shaffer colling whose subject was industrial efficiency mr colling has evidently been giving careful attention to the gen eral question of economics and his address showed thoughtful study and careful preparation it is a good sign of the practical value of the training given our young men of today in our schools and colleges that they are led to study and rea son on these great questions with which they are to practically cope in the exercise of the professions for which they are being fitted the second speaker was mr da vid davies who chose for his sub ject was napoleon great mr davies described the phenomenal military sagacity of napoleon which enabled him for fifteen years to carry on almost continuous war against the combined powers of europe and to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands of men in the attempt to satisfy his insatia ble ambition for power to the furtherance of this ambition he sacrificed personal feeling and do mestic happiness by divorcing the unfortunate josephine and elevat ing to her place the daughter of the austrian emperor in conclusion the speaker said that the answer to the question was napolean great depends upon our ideas of the meaning of the word greatness and if great ness is natural power then assured ly napoleon was great mr harold jacob williams next spoke on the subject the new standard of living and high prices mr williams offered as causes of the present period of high prices the two following con ditions : the demand of the people for luxuries and the influence of the trusts he deplored the lack of thrift among americans of the present generation increase of wa ges and regulation of the trusts can not alone bring prices back to their former level a feat which can be accomplished only by increase of capital the last speaker was mr robert hall woods his subject being robert fulton engineer and in ventor fulton was born in lan continued on fourth page continued on third page prominent engineer talks on car lighting the postponed february meeting i of the e e society was held mon day night in the physics lab at this meeting the freshmen were admitted as members as the so ciety deems this action mutually beneficial to the older members and to the freshmen the first paper was read by j w milnor 12 on d c power transmission after stating the advantages and disadvantages of d c over a c for transmission lines he took up as an example the thury system of d c trans mission used between the swiss towns of st maurice and laus anne a distance of 34 miles ten generators are driven by five tur bines two generators to a turbine and these are connected in series this system is by no means a new one as it has been in successful op eration for 10 years being chosen because it was cheaper than a c installation of the same efficiency mr d j cartwright past sec ond vice president of the associa tion of railway electrical engin eers and electrical engineer of the l v r r followed with a com j prehensive talk on electric car i lighting he opened with the statement that probably more gray matter is used up in perfecting a system of car lighting than in power house troubles since in most systems no attendant is present to watch the i apparatus and consequently all reg ulation must be of a simple enough nature that the trainmen can attend to it the simplest method of car lighting is by storage battery ne cessitating outside cell charging there are now 1341 cars operated | by this method in the u s the head end system re quiring an attendant is used only for through trains on a long run and there are 1692 cars operated by this system in the country . mr cartwright dwelt in particu lar on the latest and perhaps the best system of car lighting the axle system which is employed on 4377 cans the superiority of this system lies in the fact that each car is an independent light produc er since it has its own generator belted to the axle of the coach when the car is stationary and when running at a speed less than 20 miles an hour the lighting is done by storage cells charged by the generator when the car is in motion at a speed greater than ; this the generator itself does the on monday evening february | 20 the lehigh-mt hermon club held its first annual banquet at the new merchants house former students of the mt hermon club were in attendance from lehigh lafayette and muhlenberg and the guests included dr drinker and prof l l drury of mt her mon e s foster 07 prof c e dickerson 89 vice principal of the school was unable to be present after a pleasing menu h a j hass 11 who acted as toastmaster called on the following to speak : address dr h s drinker the faculty e s foster lafay ette e r barnard l c 11 lehigh r c fuller 12 the old boys prof l l drury ;;! the ladies p m thomas l c.lj 13 the committee in charge were : r c fuller 12 a e olson 13 and c e castellanos 14