LETTERS Status Revisited Sir:
I wish to respond to a letter by Joseph Stewart (March issue, page 16) concerning a recent editorial in this journal on professional standing (February issue, page 5). First of all, I regard as regrettable his use of such inflammatory terms as “idiocy” and “self-flagellation.” I feel that the controversial aspects of the editorial can yield fruitful discussion as long as the issue at hand is properly defined. As I understand it, the issue is whether scientists and engineers are accepted as professionals by thegeneral public and in the same manner as doctors, lawyers, and clergymen are accepted. Returning to J. Stewart’s letter, a legal pronouncement by the Supreme Court that chemistry is a profession does not decide the issue. Legal definitions are often made with the pragmatic goal of expediting equitable legal decisions and not expressing common usage. Certainly the general public does not regard a large corporation as a person, although the law does. Also, in the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 encompassing chemistry and chemical engineering as professions, I believe we also have a legal expedient designed to facilitate distinction between labor and management employee groups, and not an expression of public opinion. As to disciplinary control of professional standards, although professional societies of chemists and chemical engineers do require minimum standards as prerequisites for membership, such prerequisites are not uniformly established by business and industry for employment in responsible positions. I t seems to me that the essence of the special professional standing enjoyed by doctors, lawyers, and clergy among the general public, and missing from our own standing as chemists and chemical engineers, is well expressed in the following quotation from the editorial in question: “. . .
What is missing from our sociological roles, whether we be engineers or scientists, is the opportunity or the need for the individual member of society to come to us in an emergency and get immediate help through resources and techniques he does not understand.’) In other words, most people are insulated from most chemists and chemical engineers by administrative structures and the operations of a large competitive marketplace. I do feel, however, that scientists and engineers should strive to be recognized appropriateh for their high level of training and valuable contributions to society, and many of them are so recognized. I would also agree to using the term “professional” in describing the states to which we aspire. Nevertheless, I feel that there will remain a distinction in the public attitude between the roles of the scientist/engineer and the privately practicing doctor, lawyer, or clergyman. The scientist/engineer will be recognized for his valuable social service and intellectual achievements. He will also be well regarded for the skill he requires in practicing his profession. But he will not command the highest level of public respect reserved for those who directly serve the vital personal needs of individual people in a relationship of very high trust. I believe that efforts on our part to achieve such status will lead only to frustration.
E. J. Nowak Rahway, N. J. Sir : Joseph Stewart’s semantic challenge (“ [Professional] Status Neurosis”) is too juicy to pass by. Not wishing to get my own block knocked off, I prudently push the late, great Roger Williams (a past president of the Society) into the “professional status” arena. When he said, “There is no average man,)) he said a mouthful. H e could well be talking about the various mix-
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tures of stewardship, craftsmanship, and upsmanship actually found in vivo. I also. enter Humpty Dumpty, for his magnificent assertion to Alice as reported by Lewis Carroll: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean.” Not being the frivolous sort, I will not ask why our committee chairman effectually disclaims half his title as being idiotic. That is not the way to peace and enlightenment either. Nor will I ask the Editor to elucidate the conditions precedent, if any indeed exist, where he would bestow the accolade “professional” upon the engineer and/or scientist. There are significant differences in such closely allied phrases as “a prcfessional performance” and “a professional.” Some scientists and engineers differentiate their technical employment role from their lives as citizens. Some, in fact, must, as conditions of their employment. Others can integrate the roles, and some do. Might we not all agree with Williams, but recognize also that associations of men can speak with good effect to their own kind, of endeavors deemed praiseworthy or harmful by the general society of men. If we can, both gladiators have won and we have even justified the publication space. D. 0. Myatt Washington, D. C. EDITOR’SNOTE: This correspondence is now closed.
Moire is not Moray Sir: The January 1966 issue of IN& ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY, showed a cover photograph described on page 3 as a Moray effect. I have heard of an eel by that name but would suggest that the pattern shown is probably more related to a M O I R I ~effect. E. C. de Wys Los Angeles, Calif.
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