[Untitled]

To the Diplomatic Officers of the United States.

Gentlemen: By a provision of law contained in the Diplomatic and Consular Appropriation Act approved March 4, 1915, the President is authorized to extend invitation to foreign governments to appoint delegates or representatives to attend the International Engineering Congress to be held at San Francisco, Cal., from September 20 to September 25, 1915.

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You will accordingly extend to the governments to which you are respectively accredited a cordial invitation to be represented by delegates or representatives at the Congress mentioned. In doing so you will add an expression of the pleasure with which the Government of the United States will learn of the acceptance of the invitation.

The Congress is to be conducted under the auspices of five national engineering societies. The American Society of Civil Engineers; the American Institute of Mining Engineers; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.

Maj. Gen. George W. Goethals, U.S. Army, has consented to act as Honorary President of the Congress, and it is expected that he will preside over the general sessions of the Congress, which will be held in the Memorial Auditorium, San Francisco, Cal.

The Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Congress is Prof. W. F. Durand, of Leland Stanford, jr., University, California.

The general field of engineering to be covered by the Congress has been divided into ten groups which with the special field of the Panama Canal will constitute the program during the Congress.

Each of the following-named eleven sections will hold independent sessions, with general sessions to consider matters of world-wide importance:

  • Panama Canal.
  • Waterways and Irrigation.
  • Railways.
  • Municipal Engineering.
  • Materials of Engineering Construction.
  • Mechanical Engineering.
  • Electrical Engineering.
  • Mining Engineering.
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  • Military Engineering.
  • Miscellaneous.

The proceedings of this Congress will be printed in eight or ten volumes covering all of the important phases of engineering work.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Robert Lansing.