is no more effective." The proposed method is Fig. 2, at _b_,
where an angle is provided as a shelf on which this slab rests. The
angle is supported, with thread and nut, on rods which reach up to the
front slab, from which a horizontal force, acting about the toe of the
wall as a fulcrum, results in the lifting force on the slab. There is
positively no way in which this wall could fail (as far as the
counterfort is concerned) but by the pulling apart of the rods or the
tearing out of this anchoring angle. Compare this method of failure with
the mere pulling out of a few ends of rods, in the design which Mr.
Thacher says is just as effective. This is another example of the kind
of logic that is brought into requisition in order to justify absurd
systems of design.

Mr. Thacher states that shear would govern in a bridge pin where there
is a wide bar or bolster or a similar condition. The writer takes issue
with him in this. While in such a case the center of bearing need not be
taken to find the bending moment, shear would not be the correct
governing element. There is no reason why a wide bar or a wide bolster
should take a smaller pin than a narrow one, simply because the rule
that uses the center of bearing would give too large a pin. Bending can
be taken in this, as in other cases, with a reasonable assumption for a
proper bearing depth in the wide bar or bolster. The rest of Mr.
Thacher's comment on the fourth point avoids the issue. What does he
mean by "stress" in a shear rod? Is it shear or tension? Mr. Thacher's
statement, that the "stress" in the shear rods is less than that in the
bottom bars, comes close to saying that it is shear, as the shearing
unit in steel is less than the tensile unit. This vague way of referring
to the "stress" in a shear member, without specifically stating whether
this "stress" is shear or tension, as was done in the Joint Committee
Report, is, in itself, a confession of the impossibility of analyzing
the "stress" in these members. It gives the designer the option of using
tension or shear, both of which are absurd in the ordinary method of
design. Writers of books are not bold enough, as a rule, to state that
these rods are in shear, and yet their writings are so indefinite as to
allow this very interpretation.

Mr. Thacher criticises the fifth point as follows:

"Vertical stirrups are designed to act like the vertical rods in a
Howe truss. Special literature is not req