The American Engineering Council: An outline of some of the problems, policies, and activities of this jointly sponsored engineering agency

I INTEREST in co-operation among different engineering groups and the need for an agency to provide, on behalf of our profession, tangible service to public agencies, prompted, in 1920, the organization of the American Engineering Council with Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, as its first president. From its very beginning it has been an organization of organizations intended to aid the engineering profession in presenting a united front in matters of interest to our government and to the public. While the Founder and other major engineering societies have been aiding in professional development of the engineer, the American Engineering Council has been supplementing their efforts by relating the engineering profession to public welfare and by making our government, as well as the public at large, conscious of the value of the engineers' services and contributions. It has served during the past 16 years as a clearing house for questions of public nature which require technological knowledge and engineering experience, and it has acted as an advisory body for the various engineering societies in connection with problems of government. At the same time the American Engineering Council has been an agency of inquiry into economic and social problems as affected by technology.