not to carry out
some system, this is just what would be done in many cases; but some
minds are so constructed that they take pleasure in such boasts as this:
"There is not a pound of structural steel in that building." A
broad-minded engineer will use reinforced concrete where it is most
appropriate, and structural steel or cast iron where these are most
appropriate, instead of using his clients' funds to carry out some
cherished ideas.

Mr. Wright appreciates the writer's idea, for the paper was not intended
to criticize something which is "good enough" or which "answers the
purpose," but to systematize or standardize reinforced concrete and put
it on a basis of rational analysis and common sense, such a basis as
structural designing has been or is being placed on, by a careful
weeding out of all that is irrational, senseless, and weak.

Mr. Chapman says that the practical engineer has never used such methods
of construction as those which the writer condemns. The methods are
common enough; whether or not those who use them are practical engineers
is beside the question.

As to the ability of the end connection of a stringer carrying flange
stress or bending moments, it is not uncommon to see brackets carrying
considerable overhanging loads with no better connection. Even wide
sidewalks of bridges sometimes have tension connections on rivet heads.
While this is not to be commended, it is a demonstration of the ability
to take bending which might be relied on, if structural design were on
as loose a basis as reinforced concrete.

Mr. Chapman assumes that stirrups are anchored at each end, and Fig. 3
shows a small hook to effect this anchorage. He does not show how
vertical stirrups can relieve a beam of the shear between two of these
stirrups.

The criticism the writer would make of Figs. 5 and 6, is that there is
not enough concrete in the stem of the T to grip the amount of steel
used, and the steel must be gripped in that stem, because it does not
run to the support or beyond it for anchorage. Steel members in a bridge
may be designed in violation of many of the requirements of
specifications, such as the maximum spacing of rivets, size of lattice
bars, etc.; the bridge will not necessarily fail or show weakness as
soon as it is put into service, but it is faulty and weak just the same.

Mr. Chapman says: "The practical engineer does not find * * * that the
negative moment is double the positive moment, becau