ing walls. The statement that "there is absolutely no analogy
between this triangle [the counterfort] and a beam" is very strong
language, and it seems risky, even for the best engineer, to make such a
statement as does the author when he characterizes his own design
(Diagram _b_ of Fig. 2) as "the only rational and the only efficient
design possible." Several assumptions can be made on which to base the
arrangement of reinforcement in the counterfort of a retaining wall,
each of which can be worked out with equal logic and with results which
will prevent failure, as has been amply demonstrated by actual
experience.

The speaker heartily concurs in the author's fourth point, with regard
to the impossibility of developing anything like actual shear in the
steel reinforcing rods of a concrete beam; but he demurs when the author
affirms, as to the possibility of so-called shear bars being stressed in
"shear or tension," that "either would be absurd and impossible without
greatly overstressing some other part."

As to the fifth point, reference can be given to more than one place in
concrete literature where explanations of the action of vertical
stirrups may be found, all of which must have been overlooked by the
author. However, the speaker heartily concurs with the author's
criticism as to the lack of proper connection which almost invariably
exists between vertical "web" members and the top and bottom chords of
the imaginary Howe truss, which holds the nearest analogy to the
conditions existing in a reinforced concrete beam with vertical "web"
reinforcement.

The author's reasoning as to the sixth point must be considered as
almost wholly facetious. He seems to be unaware of the fact that
concrete is relatively very strong in pure shear. Large numbers of tests
seem to demonstrate that, where it is possible to arrange the
reinforcing members so as to carry largely all tensile stresses
developed through shearing action, at points where such tensile stresses
cannot be carried by the concrete, reinforced concrete beams can be
designed of ample strength and be quite within the logical processes
developed by the author, as the speaker interprets them.

The author's characterization of the results secured at the University
of Illinois Experiment Station, and described in its Bulletin No. 29, is
somewhat misleading. It is true that the wording of the original
reference states in two places that "stirrups do not come into ac