"Several years ago at the regular annual meeting of one of the major engineering societies the president of the society in the formal address with which he opened the meeting gave expression to a thought so startling that the few laymen who were seated in the auditorium fairly gasped. What the president said in effect was that since engineers had got the world into war it was the duty of engineers to get the world out of war. As a thought it probably reflected the secret opinion of every engineer present for however innocent of intended wrong-doing engineers assuredly are as a group in their work of scientific investigation and development the statement that engineers were responsible for the conflict then raging in Europe was absolute truth."