MSM ALUMNUS Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy ROLLA. MO .
SPRING,1944
VOLUME 18
CHIEF BUEHLER DIES
THE YEAR OF JUBILO by ':'P AUL GREER
The arrival of a scientific and l'ational age req uires not on ly . a change of method, but new spirit a nd vision. The central fact of our times is that technologIcal development has outstripped our social system. The great manifestations of avia tion and electricity, the marriage of physIcs and chemIstry, are offering the promise of ab undance to a world in which there has never been enough light and warmth and food. Between this bountiful field a nd its harvest lies the myth of over-production. Yet abundance fin ally can be made a blessing instead of a menace, once our instinctive distrust of a better world has been dispelled. . . W e may depend upon it, things will not snap back l11to thelr old shapes at war's end. A conflict that in its beginmng seemed nothing more than a defense of the traditional way of life in the democracies has, in its later stages, become a p lanetary revolutlOn with the objective of security and economic advancement for all mankind. . The task of leadership from here on calls less for force and emotionalism than for a direct appeal to the reasonableness of man . If there is to come out of this war a wider life, the unfolding of the winas of the human spirit, this w ill not be by any physical overturr~ but by an internal stirring in the hearts and minds of the , people as individuals. N ature still is rich, but man by his own lack of forethought has disinherited himself. It is not that we are without some immensely wealthy families in America, but I like to toy with the idea that even the richest among them, controlling this or that natural resource or industry, may be considered poorer than any peasant of Russia, where each citiz,e n is co-owner of all the riches, developed or undeveloped, of his country. Such criticism as I would make of the system of our Russian . ally is that it is based on a producer interest rather than a consumer right. T o possess great resources, and to be equipped with technical skill, are of small benefit until out of them come goods for our more adeq uate living. This recognition of the consumer is a basic postulate of a more reasoned world. The bottleneck of distribution will hamper our best efforts a t production under present conditions, for it now costs more to move goods into the hands of the consumer than to produce them. In 60 years from 1870, while the population of the United States trebled, the volume of production of goods increased ninefold. While only three and one-half times as many workers were able to multiply production nine times, those employed in distribution increased almost ninefold. A s consumers we have paid every cost, industrial and commercial, in our economic system. The problem of living, once per sonal a nd physical, now calls for group economic p lanning. It was an able engineer , Sidney A. R eeve, who wrote in that amaz,ing book, " Modern Economic T endencies": " Man has never passed through a hideous social crisis which could not have been foreseen and prevented by a conservative, but courageous and timely, reliance upon wisdom which had been basic for centuries before. The irritating causes lie in fixed institutions, which remain unchanged while the needs of the times alter. It is neither the snobbish indifference at the top nor the ignorant bitterness at the bottom which causes crises, but intellectual timidity '1>
Ed itor, Complete Edit io n, St. Loui s P ost- Di spatch. Abstract of COll1ll1enCemeJ~l Addre ss, J a nu ary 25, 1944. (Co n tinued to Page 3)
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Dr. H. A. Buehler , for 36 yea rs State G eologist of Missouri and active in every phase of Missouri's ¡mineral industr y and many other phases of governmental and industrial activities in the state, died at his hotel room in Jefferson City on M arch 14 of a heart attack. Dr. Buehler had gone to Jefferson City to at tend a meeting ot the Missouri State High way C ommission of which he was an ex-offi cio member. H e h ad c0l11plained of not feeling well fOf some time, but h ad decided to make the trip to Jefferson City to attend the meeting. H e had h ad dinner w ith Carl Brown , Chief Highway Engineer , and left Mr. and Mrs. Brow n at the hotel about 10 p.m. About 3 a. m. he called his p er H. sonal friend , Dr.L. D avid Enloe, but died soon after Dr. Enloe arri ved. Chief h as been a familiar figure on the campus of the School of Mines and M etallurgy for 43 years, first coming w ith the Missouri G eological Survey in 190 1. In 1908 he was appointed State G eo- 'logist. In addition he h as held numerous other appointments -Co various boards and commissions that has brought him into a more intimat e touch with Missouri life than p erhaps any other person and he has left the imprint of his personality upon more phases of Missouri history than perhaps any other individual. H e was particularly beloved by students and alumni of the School of Mines. M any of these Alumni and students here have worked for the Chief, frequently when there wasn 't a great deal for them to do, but the Chief found them a job because they needed work. The Chief h as lent money to many of the Alumni to allow them to finish their education . In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the mineral resources of Missouri, the School of Mines and M etallurgy, 11l 192 5', conferred upon Dr. Buehler the honorary degree of D octor of Science. Dr. Buehler's funeral was held in the auditorium in Parker H all at 2 :30 p. m. on March 16. Gov . Forrest C. Donnell delivered the principal eulogy, and related the Chief's many accomplish ments during his long term of service to Missouri and paid high tribute to the Chief as a man as well as a p ublic ser vant. Following the Governor's add ress, R. C . Allen , vice-president of the Oglebay, Norton Mining Company, Cleveland , Ohio, a lifelong friend of Dr. Buehler who knew him even in high school days, delivered a short eulogy paying high tribute to the Chief - or " Aj ax" as he was known in high school days- as a friend and an outstanding scientist. The stage and the orchestra pit of Parker H all were banked wi th floral tributes from friends from all over Missouri and many from outside of the state. D elegations from the Missouri H ouse :tnd the Missouri Senate, now in session, attended the f uneral and these bodies adop ted resolutions of sympathy. The auditorium was filled to capacity wi th mai1Y prominent citiz,e ns from Missouri an d by people from all walks of life in R olla who had known and * P hoLo
Courte ~ y
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