Part 17 (1/2)

Mining has reached such a stage of development as a science that management proceeds upon comparatively well-known lines. It is subject to known checks through the opportunity of comparisons by which efficiency can be determined in a manner more open for the investor to learn than in any other form of industry. While in mining an estimate of a certain minimum of extension in depth, as indicated by collateral factors, may occasionally fall short, it will, in nine cases out of ten, be exceeded. If investment in mines be spread over ten cases, similarly valued as to minimum of extension, the risk has been virtually eliminated. The industry, if reduced to the above basis for financial guidance, is a more profitable business and is one of less hazards than compet.i.tive forms of commercial enterprises.

In view of what has been said before, it may be unnecessary to refer again to the subject, but the constant reiteration by wiseacres that the weak point in mining investments lies in their short life and possible loss of capital, warrants a repet.i.tion that the _A, B, C_ of proper investment in mines is to be a.s.sured, by the ”_A_”

value, of a return of the whole or major portion of the capital.

The risk of interest and profit may be deferred to the _X, Y_ value, and in such case it is on a plane with ”good-will.” It should be said at once to that cla.s.s who want large returns on investment without investigation as to merits, or a.s.surance as to the management of the business, that there is no field in this world for the employment of their money at over 4%.

Unfortunately for the reputation of the mining industry, and metal mines especially, the business is often not conducted or valued on lines which have been outlined in these chapters. There is often the desire to sell stocks beyond their value. There is always the possibility that extension in depth will reveal a glorious Eldorado.

It occasionally does, and the report echoes round the world for years, together with tributes to the great judgment of the exploiters. The volume of sound allures undue numbers of the venturesome, untrained, and ill-advised public to the business, together with a mob of camp-followers whose objective is to exploit the ignorant by preying on their gambling instincts. Thus a considerable section of metal mining industry is in the hands of these cla.s.ses, and a cloud of disrepute hangs ever in the horizon.

There has been a great educational campaign in progress during the past few years through the technical training of men for conduct of the industry, by the example of reputable companies in regularly publis.h.i.+ng the essential facts upon which the value of their mines is based, and through understandable nontechnical discussion in and by some sections of the financial and general press. The real investor is being educated to distinguish between reputable concerns and the counters of gamesters. Moreover, yearly, men of technical knowledge are taking a stronger and more influential part in mining finance and in the direction of mining and exploration companies.

The net result of these forces will be to put mining on a better plane.

CHAPTER XX.

The Character, Training, and Obligations of the Mining Engineering Profession.

In a discussion of some problems of metal mining from the point of view of the direction of mining operations it may not be amiss to discuss the character of the mining engineering profession in its bearings on training and practice, and its relations to the public.

The most dominant characteristic of the mining engineering profession is the vast preponderance of the commercial over the technical in the daily work of the engineer. For years a gradual evolution has been in progress altering the larger demands on this branch of the engineering profession from advisory to executive work. The mining engineer is no longer the technician who concocts reports and blue prints. It is demanded of him that he devise the finance, construct and manage the works which he advises. The demands of such executive work are largely commercial; although the commercial experience and executive ability thus become one pier in the foundation of training, the bridge no less requires two piers, and the second is based on technical knowledge. Far from being deprecated, these commercial phases cannot be too strongly emphasized. On the other hand, I am far from contending that our vocation is a business rather than a profession.

For many years after the dawn of modern engineering, the members of our profession were men who rose through the ranks of workmen, and as a result, we are to this day in the public mind a sort of superior artisan, for to many the engine-driver is equally an engineer with the designer of the engine, yet their real relation is but as the hand to the brain. At a later period the recruits entered by apprentices.h.i.+p to those men who had established their intellectual superiority to their fellow-workers. These men were nearly always employed in an advisory way--subjective to the executive head.

During the last few decades, the advance of science and the complication of industry have demanded a wholly broader basis of scientific and general training for its leaders. Executive heads are demanded who have technical training. This has resulted in the establishment of special technical colleges, and compelled a place for engineering in the great universities. The high intelligence demanded by the vocation itself, and the revolution in training caused by the strengthening of its foundations in general education, has finally, beyond all question, raised the work of application of science to industry to the dignity of a profession on a par with the law, medicine, and science. It demands of its members equally high mental attainments,--and a more rigorous training and experience. Despite all this, industry is conducted for commercial purposes, and leaves no room for the haughty intellectual superiority a.s.sumed by some professions over business callings.

There is now demanded of the mining specialist a wide knowledge of certain branches of civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering, geology, economics, the humanities, and what not; and in addition to all this, engineering sense, executive ability, business experience, and financial insight. Engineering sense is that fine blend of honesty, ingenuity, and intuition which is a mental endowment apart from knowledge and experience. Its possession is the test of the real engineer. It distinguishes engineering as a profession from engineering as a trade. It is this sense that elevates the possessor to the profession which is, of all others, the most difficult and the most comprehensive. Financial insight can only come by experience in the commercial world. Likewise must come the experience in technical work which gives balance to theoretical training. Executive ability is that capacity to coordinate and command the best results from other men,--it is a natural endowment. which can be cultivated only in actual use.

The practice of mine engineering being so large a mixture of business, it follows that the whole of the training of this profession cannot be had in schools and universities. The commercial and executive side of the work cannot be taught; it must be absorbed by actual partic.i.p.ation in the industry. Nor is it impossible to rise to great eminence in the profession without university training, as witness some of our greatest engineers. The university can do much; it can give a broad basis of knowledge and mental training, and can inculcate moral feeling, which ent.i.tles men to lead their fellows. It can teach the technical fundamentals of the multifold sciences which the engineer should know and must apply. But after the university must come a schooling in men and things equally thorough and more arduous.

In this predominating demand for commercial qualifications over the technical ones, the mining profession has differentiated to a great degree from its brother engineering branches. That this is true will be most apparent if we examine the course through which engineering projects march, and the demands of each stage on their road to completion.

The life of all engineering projects in a general way may be divided into five phases:[*]--

[Footnote *: These phases do not necessarily proceed step by step.

For an expanding works especially, all of them may be in process at the same time, but if each item be considered to itself, this is the usual progress, or should be when properly engineered.]

1. Determination of the value of the project.

2. Determination of the method of attack.

3. The detailed delineation of method, means, and tools.

4. The execution of the works.

5. The operation of the completed works.