Symposium on Coordination of Power and Telephone Plant, Closing Remarks

HE papers which have been presented here today bring out clearly the progress which has been made by the power and telephone companies in the study and development of methods for coordinating their facilities. It seems to me that this is an outstanding example of what can be accomplished through joint study and cooperative methods generally. This work illustrates also the way in which the field of activity of the engineer is broadening. While the main duty of the engineer may still be the application of physical laws to accomplish the most satisfactory results in the most economical manner, the very organization of society which has resulted from these applications of physical laws, requires the engineer, if he is to play his full part, more and more to include in his considerations the broad economic and human factors which govern the success of social and business enterprises. In the work described in this symposium the approach has been not only the consideration of the complicated technical questions involved, but the working out as well of these questions on the basis of good business relations between two large utilities, having in mind that both have the responsibility for providing important services to the same public. I would like to reiterate certain fundamentals which have played an important part in bringing about the present satisfactory situation. First, is that of getting together and getting acquainted, to the end that frank and friendly discussions will be promoted and misunderstandings avoided.