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' ADDRESSES 
 
 TO 
 
 ENGINEERING -STUDENTS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WADDELL & HARRINGTON, 
 
 CONSULTING ENGINEERS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 WADDELL & HARRINGTON, 
 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. 
 1911. 
 
Engineering 
 Library 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1911 
 
 BY 
 WADDELL & HARRINGTON. 
 
 The Schooley Stationery Co. 
 
 Printers & Lithographers 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 For some time the compilers of this work have been considering 
 the advisability of editing and publishing the papers of which it is 
 composed, although from the very start they were firmly convinced 
 of both its necessity and the great amount of good that it is capable 
 
 -nary, 
 
 ERRATA r to 
 
 iian 
 I to 
 
 Please paste this Errata Slip in e.^ copy of "Addresses to Engineering :ach 
 Students" recently sent to you. but 
 
 low 
 
 Page 136, line 34: For "little opportunities for emotion that the student ;ses . 
 instinctively looks for" read "spider. We are apt to condemn students for reat 
 going to trashy shows, for" the 
 
 Page 423, line 23: For "engineers in the opinion of writers and society 
 people; nevertheless" read "engineers, hence the young engineer there has not 
 had to obtain" -far 
 
 WADDELL & HARRINGTON, r ork 
 
 Publisher*. cost 
 
 ;>ook 
 
 ~r- , x-iper, 
 
 press-work, binding, and distribution, the latter being reduced to an 
 absolute rninimum by cutting out all possible profit thereon. This 
 has permitted of the book being sold to students of engineering, 
 when ordered in large quantities, at seventy-five cents per copy and 
 to the general public in single copies at one dollar. The Editors 
 were guided in this action by the following reasons: 
 
 First. They want the book not only to be widely read but also 
 to remain permanently for reference in the libraries of those who 
 read it. 
 
 Second. As the compelling of students to purchase an additional 
 text book is looked upon by some persons to be in the nature of an 
 imposition, it appeared advisable to minimize to the utmost the 
 gravity of such imposition. 
 
 In preparing the book the Editors have been governed by no 
 sordid nor selfish motives, but solely by their desire to aid the stu- 
 
 785399 
 
The Schooley Stationery Co. 
 
 Printers & Lithographers 
 
 Kansas City. Mo. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 For some time the compilers of this work have been considering 
 the advisability of editing and publishing the papers of which it is 
 composed, although from the very start they were firmly convinced 
 of both its necessity and the great amount of good that it is capable 
 of accomplishing for the engineering profession. Finally, in February, 
 1911, in order to settle the question, they sent a circular letter to 
 some six hundred and fifty instructors in American and Canadian 
 engineering schools requesting their opinions, which later proved to 
 be almost unanimously favorable. This letter asked not only each 
 professor's idea concerning the advisability of the publication; but 
 also whether he would use the work as a text book and, if so, how 
 many copies per annum would probably be required for his classes. 
 While the number thus ascertained to be needed was not as great 
 as might have been desired, it was large enough to warrant the 
 Editors in undertaking the work. 
 
 Just here it is pertinent to mention that the compilation has not 
 by any means been undertaken as a money-making venture far 
 from it ! because the Editors have not only done gratis all the work 
 involved in its preparation, but also have themselves paid the cost 
 of typesetting and providing the plates, in order that the book 
 may be sold to engineering students at the actual cost of paper, 
 press-work, binding, and distribution, the latter being reduced to an 
 absolute minimum by cutting out all possible profit thereon. This 
 has permitted of the book being sold to students of engineering, 
 when ordered in large quantities, at seventy-five cents per copy and 
 to the general public in single copies at one dollar. The Editors 
 were guided in this action by the following reasons: 
 
 First. They want the book not only to be widely read but also 
 to remain permanently for reference in the libraries of those who 
 read it. 
 
 Second. As the compelling of students to purchase an additional 
 text book is looked upon by some persons to be in the nature of an 
 imposition, it appeared advisable to minimize to the utmost the 
 gravity of such imposition. 
 
 In preparing the book the Editors have been governed by no 
 sordid nor selfish motives, but solely by their desire to aid the stu- 
 
 785399 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 dents of engineering and young engineers to make the best of their 
 opportunities for development and progress, and thus eventually to 
 benefit the profession. 
 
 The Editors were led to the issuing of the book by the recog- 
 nition of the following facts : 
 
 "First: Most students who enter technical schools have no ade- 
 quate idea of the standing of the engineering profession nor of its 
 importance to the world; and the already excessive demands upon 
 the instructor's time make it very difficult for him to impart much 
 information along these lines. 
 
 "Second: As a rule, mainly because of the excessively large 
 classes that engineering professors have to teach, students are not 
 given sufficient friendly advice concerning how to make the most 
 of their course of instruction, and are not taught how to study to 
 best advantage. 
 
 "Third: For the same reason, students usually are not taught 
 enough about ethical matters for their guidance both at college and 
 in practical life afterwards. 
 
 "Fourth: With a few notable exceptions, students generally 
 are not instructed at all adequately in good, sound, forcible, engi- 
 neering English." 
 
 The reader will notice that many of the "Addresses" have been 
 prefaced with editorial notes telling in certain cases who the writer 
 is or was, and for what special purpose the address was prepared, 
 besides pointing out and emphasizing a few of its most salient or 
 important features. No apology is needed for this prefacing, because 
 such notes should certainly prove both interesting and valuable. 
 
 The following quotation from the Editors' before-mentioned 
 circular letter will indicate their object and the methods by which 
 they hope to attain it. 
 
 "Our desire is to catch the freshmen as they enter, tell them 
 what a great and important profession engineering is, inform them 
 as to what they must do in order to obtain the greatest amount of 
 value from their technical course, rouse their enthusiasm for study 
 and work, develop in them high ideals in respect to ethics and ac- 
 complishment, and encourage them effectively to use their utmost 
 endeavor to make themselves a credit to both the college and the 
 engineering profession. 
 
 "Please note that the book could be used as a text book through- 
 out the entire engineering course, some of the papers applying spec- 
 ially to the completion thereof and to the starting of the engineer's 
 life work. 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 "As the papers of which the book would be composed are written 
 in excellent English, the instructors in that language could employ 
 it to good advantage as a text book or book of reference. We firmly 
 believe in the importance of instructing engineering students in good, 
 modern, engineering English, instead of teaching them mainly from 
 the ancient classical literature." 
 
 No apology is needed for the omission of portions of certain 
 papers, for the parts thus elided either were not of special interest 
 to students or dealt with matter treated fully elsewhere. 
 
 Anyone who reads the book from cover to cover (and the Editors 
 earnestly hope that there will be many of its readers who will do so) 
 will undoubtedly find that some points have been discussed by more 
 than one of the writers, thus involving more or less repetition; but 
 this is not objectionable, because such points are generally of great 
 importance, and their reiteration simply adds emphasis to the state- 
 ments. An agreement of authorities on any subject will tend to con- 
 vince the reader of the correctness of their opinion and to impress 
 it forcibly on his mind. 
 
 Occasionally it may be found that the authorities disagree; and 
 in such cases it will be necessary for the reader to form for himself 
 his own opinion. However, on all essential matters the various writers 
 will generally be found perfectly in accord. 
 
 The numerous addresses composing this volume are arranged 
 in the order in which the Editors deem they may most advantage- 
 ously be read by students of engineering. If the book were used 
 as a text, the first eleven addresses might pertain to the work of the 
 freshman year, the next seven to that of the sophomore, the next 
 seven to that of the junior, and the remainder to that of the senior. 
 Such a division is merely suggestive and need not be followed. The 
 earnest freshman student who desires to obtain the greatest possible 
 benefit from his course of instruction and who has ambition to suc- 
 ceed later in the profession and make a name and a position for him- 
 self therein, will probably read the book from Preface to Finis, 
 then will begin to study it anew, and will continue to review it 
 during his entire course. If he does so, he cannot fail to be greatly 
 and materially benefited by its perusal and study. In fact, the 
 Editors feel confident that such a use of the book will often eventu- 
 ally prove to be the determining factor between success and failure 
 or mediocrity in the reader's professional career. 
 
 Recapitulating, the Editors beg to express the hope, and even 
 the conviction, that this compilation of addresses will result to an 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 eminent degree in the following benefits to students of engineering 
 and young engineers : 
 
 A. Directing students into right lines of thought and action 
 during their college course. 
 
 B. Encouraging students toward the ethical life both before 
 and after graduation. 
 
 C. Development among students of a love for the engineering 
 profession. 
 
 D. Giving to students a true and adequate conception of the 
 scope and dignity of the engineering profession. 
 
 E. Enabling students to obtain the most profit from their tech- 
 nical course. 
 
 F. Improvement in students' and young engineers' knowledge 
 and command of the English language. 
 
 G. Enabling graduates to develop themselves rapidly, thorough- 
 ly, and successfully in their professional careers. 
 
 H. Finally, though perhaps indirectly, benefiting the engineer- 
 ing profession ethically and in many other ways. 
 
 If these results ever be accomplished, even in a minor degree, 
 the Editors will feel amply repaid for all the work which they have 
 done in thus resurrecting (oftentimes from oblivion) the valuable 
 and interesting papers of which this volume is composed. 
 
 J. A. L. Waddell, 
 John Lyle Harrington. 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 April, 1911. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 THE PROFESSION OF ENGINEER. 
 
 By the Editors .................... 1 
 
 ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 By Professor Francis C. Shenehon ...... 5 
 
 Two KINDS OF EDUCATION FOR ENGINEERS. 
 By Dean J. B. Johnson-- 
 
 THE DURABLE SATISFACTIONS OF LIFE. 
 By Charles W. Eliot- 
 
 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 By Professor Frank P. McKibben-. - 43 
 
 THE VALUE OF ENGLISH TO THE TECHNICAL MAN. 
 
 By John Lyle Harrington, C. E - 49 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOR INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES AND FOR CONTINUING 
 STUDY AFTER GRADUATION. 
 
 By John Lyle Harrington, C. E-. - 69 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE TECHNICAL PRESS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 
 TO ENGINEERING NEWS. 
 
 By Harwood Frost, B. A. Sc. 
 
 BUSINESS TRAINING FOR THE ENGINEER. 
 
 By Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys ...... - in 
 
 RECORDS. 
 
 By E. E. Howard, C. E 
 
 SOME EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN A LARGE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 By Professor Vladimir Karapetoff .................... 
 
 HINTS TO STUDENTS ON THE EDUCATION OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By Dr. Ira O. Baker .................................................................................... 141 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 By Onward Bates, C. E 149 
 
 SOME RELATIONS OF THE ENGINEER TO SOCIETY. 
 
 By Colonel H. G. Prout 159 
 
 THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AS AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys 173 
 
 THE STUDY OF ENGINEERING. 
 
 By Professor William H. Burr 189 
 
 THE MAKING OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By M. J. Riggs, C. E 197 
 
 AMBITION. 
 
 By Winder Elwell Goldsborough, M. E. 203 
 
 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 By Professor Henry S. Carhart 207 
 
 ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 By Professor Frank H. Constant 219 
 
 LIMITATIONS OF EFFICIENCY IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 By Dr. George Fillmore Swain 229 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING TO OTHER BRANCHES OF SCIENCE. 
 
 By Dr. J. A. L. Waddell 253 
 
 COLLEGE TRAINING OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 By Professor Arthur C. Scott - 271 
 
 THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION AND How IT MAY BE 
 IMPROVED. 
 
 By Dr. J. A. L. Waddell 279 
 
 THE ENGINEER'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 By Rear Admiral Geo. W. Melville, U. S. N., Ret. 291 
 
 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 By Walter C. Kerr, M. E - 299 
 
 KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION. 
 
 By Walter C. Kerr, M. E 309 
 
 THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 By Walter C. Kerr, M. E 319 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 
 
 By Dr. Julian Kennedy 329 
 
 STUDY MEN. 
 
 By John F. Hayford, C. E : 339 
 
 CRITICISM OF THE ENGINEERING SCHOOLS. 
 
 By Professor Dugald C. Jackson 349 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERS AT THE UNI- 
 VERSITY OF KANSAS. 
 
 By Dr. J. A. L. Waddell 355 
 
 LAST WORDS TO THE CIVIL ENGINEERING SENIORS. 
 
 By Dr. Ira O. Baker 373 
 
 THE ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 By Nelson Peter Lewis, C. E 379 
 
 THE ENGINEER AND THE COMMUNITY. 
 
 By Dr. William McClellan 391 
 
 THE HUMAN SIDE OF A MINING ENGINEER'S LIFE. 
 
 By Edmund B. Kirby, E. M. 395 
 
 SUCCESS. 
 
 By Dr. M. E. Cooley 403 
 
 SOME OF THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 By Dr. Chas. Sumner Howe 411 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE ROSE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 
 
 By Dr. J. A. L. Waddell 417 
 
 GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH. 
 
 By Professor Chas. H. Benjamin 437 
 
 THE NEED OF GRADUATE COURSES IN ENGINEERING. 
 
 By Hon. Willard A. Smith --443 
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 By Dr. J. A. L. Waddell - - 449 
 
 CLOSING LECTURE TO SENIOR CLASS. 
 
 By Professor Vladimir Karapetoff-- 469 
 
 THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 By Professor Vladimir Karapetoff - 473 
 
THE PROFESSION OF ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 The Editors. 
 
 Most young men when entering technical schools have no ade- 
 quate conception of what the engineering profession really is. Many 
 of them undertake the course either because their parents desire 
 them to receive a useful education or because they think that engi- 
 neering is a good calling in which to make a living; but very few 
 of them enter on account of a heartfelt admiration of engineering 
 as the profession of progress, to which are due practically all the 
 wonderful developments of the world during the last one hundred 
 years developments that have so added to the comforts and con- 
 veniences of man as to make life truly worth living instead of a 
 burden grievous to be borne. 
 
 A perusal of the succeeding addresses, of which this book is com- 
 posed, will certainly acquaint the reader with the vast extent, the 
 magnificence, the great achievements, and the wonderful possibili- 
 ties of the engineering profession; but such perusal would require 
 considerable time, and it is important that each entering freshman 
 in technical schools obtain with the least possible delay some con- 
 ception of the profession in which he is about to engage, hence the 
 Editors have prepared this short paper for that purpose. 
 
 The most widely accepted definition of engineering is that of 
 Tredgold made nearly a century ago, viz. : "The art of directing the 
 great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man," 
 and it is difficult to improve upon it, though numerous writers from 
 time to time have made the attempt. Dr. J. James R. Croes wrote 
 that "engineering treats of the intelligent direction of the laws gov- 
 erning matter, so as to produce effects which will reduce to a mini- 
 mum the time and physical labor required to supply all the demands 
 of the body of man and leave more opportunity for the exercise of 
 the mental and spiritual faculties." This, too, is a good definition of 
 engineering; but it is incomplete. 
 
 Another definition might be given thus: "Modern engineering 
 is a combination of science and art by which all strictly material pro- 
 ductions that involve construction, either directly or indirectly, and 
 which are serviceable to mankind, are evolved, designed, and material- 
 ized." 
 
2 THE PROFESSION OF ENGINEER. 
 
 To prepare a complete detailed statement of what constitutes the 
 entire field of engineering would be a Herculean task that it does not 
 appear wise to attempt in writing this paper; nevertheless an en- 
 deavor will be made to list as thoroughly as practicable the principal 
 types of construction and activity which pertain to the different 
 branches of the profession. 
 
 Half a century ago there were only two divisions of engineering 
 civil and military, but later the former was divided into four groups, 
 and during the last two decades the tendency has been to divide and 
 subdivide the profession until the representatives of each little craft 
 now claim a specialty of their own. The four groups referred to are 
 civil, mechanical, electrical, and mining engineering; but no one of 
 them is totally distinct or separate from the others, because many 
 constructions involve two or more branches of engineering. For in- 
 stance, the modern bridge with movable span, which most people 
 would consider as belonging to the realm of civil engineering, in- 
 volves mechanical engineering in the design and construction of its 
 operating machinery and often electrical engineering in the pro- 
 duction and use of the power required for operation. Again, in the 
 development of a mine, which is generally conceded to pertain en- 
 tirely to the line of mining engineering, civil engineering is needed 
 in making the surveys both above and below ground, in the trans- 
 portation of materials by intra-mural railways, and in many other 
 ways; mechanical engineering is involved in designing the pumps 
 and other machinery; and electrical engineering is applied in the 
 production of their operating power. In truth, all the divisions of 
 engineering are so closely allied that it is impossible to disassociate 
 them; and, on this account, a really up-to-date engineer, while 
 trained thoroughly in all that relates to his special line of work, 
 must have a broad, general knowledge of all the other lines. 
 
 Civil engineering, as understood today, includes all kinds of sur- 
 veying from the simplest land surveying to the complicated and ac- 
 curate Coast and Geodetic work; the design and construction of 
 bridges; extensive and difficult foundations; tunneling; retaining 
 walls, sea-walls, and other heavy masonry ; viaducts ; ocean piers ; 
 lighthouses ; wharves ; docks ; river improvement ; irrigation ; harbors, 
 jetties, and other waterways; levees; water-supply; sewerage; fil- 
 tration; treatment of refuse; highway construction, including roads, 
 streets, and pavements ; canals ; dams ; ordinary railways (both steam 
 and electric); inclined cable railways; gas-works; the general design 
 and construction of all plants (steam, electric, hydraulic, and gas- 
 eous) ; the general design and construction of cranes ; cableways, break- 
 
THE EDITORS. 3 
 
 ers, and other mining structures; the heavier structural features of 
 office buildings and other large buildings that carry heavy loads ; mill 
 buildings ; the general problems of transportation, quarrying, and 
 handling of heavy materials; reinforced concrete constructions of 
 all kinds; and the testing of nearly all the materials used in engi- 
 neering practice. 
 
 In contradistinction, mechanical engineering includes the design 
 and construction of steam engines; gas and gasoline engines; auto- 
 mobiles; locomotives; aeroplanes; steamboats; machine tools; hoist- 
 ing and conveying machinery; pumps; turbines; the machinery of 
 movable bridges; elevators; cranes of the usual types; rolling mill 
 machinery; blast-furnace machinery; and all other machinery for 
 purely manufacturing purposes. 
 
 Electrical engineering includes all kinds of electrical work, such 
 as the designing, construction, and operation of telegraph and tele- 
 phone lines ; the electrical portion of railways ; electric light plants ; 
 dynamos; motors; switch-boards; wiring; electric devices of all 
 kinds ; transmission lines ; cables (both marine and land) ; and stor- 
 age batteries. 
 
 Mining engineering includes shaft-sinking and all other under- 
 ground mining work; means for handling the products of mines; 
 roasting, smelting, milling, stamping, and concentrating of ores; 
 drainage and ventilation of mines; disposal and utilization of mine 
 refuse; and similar problems. 
 
 If these items are not sufficiently numerous, it may be mentioned 
 that the engineer is beginning to monopolize some of the work of 
 the architect and of the chemist, such, for instance, as the design 
 and construction of the main features of large buildings and the prac- 
 tical chemical work of important manufactories. 
 
 A perusal of the foregoing list of engineering works (which is 
 by no means complete) ought to convince anyone concerning the 
 vastness, grandeur, and importance of the engineering profession. 
 Can its votaries be blamed for claiming that it is by far the most 
 important of all the learned professions, that it is also the most 
 scientific of them all, and that the wonderful progress of mankind 
 during the last half century or more is due essentially to the energy 
 and ability of engineers? 
 
 If each freshman student as he enters his technical course will 
 recognize and consider the wide field which his chosen life-work 
 covers and its importance to the human race, one of two things will 
 happen either he will be so discouraged as utterly to lose heart, or 
 he will be aroused to enthusiasm and, in consequence, will courage- 
 
4 THE PROFESSION OF ENGINEER, 
 
 ously and firmly determine to do his best to make himself a worthy 
 member of the engineering profession. In the first eventuality he 
 will do well to drop out of the race at once, because every successful 
 engineer is of necessity a man of courage, and because weaklings are 
 not wanted in engineering; but in the second, if he continue firm in 
 his resolve, his studies and work will soon become a true pleasure 
 to him, and, barring accident, he will be practically certain eventually 
 to attain as great a professional success as his personal ability and 
 limitations will permit. 
 
ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 By 
 
 Francis C. Shenehon. 
 
 Dean Shenehon, of the College of Engineering of the Uni- 
 versity of Minnesota, very kindly offered the following paper, pre- 
 viously given by him as a lecture to the Freshmen of that institution ; 
 and the Editors feel truly grateful to him for his courtesy and valuable 
 assistance. This is one of the most important papers of the book for 
 the entering Freshmen, as it tells them what they may wisely do 
 and what they should not do during their course. Any student who 
 follows Dean Shenehon's advice is certain to profit greatly thereby, hence, 
 it is hoped that our readers will pay special attention to this paper. 
 
 Editors. 
 
ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 By 
 
 Francis C. Shenehon, 
 
 Dean of the College of Engineering, 
 
 University of Minnesota. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Freshman Class: 
 
 A custom has become established here which makes it the duty 
 of the Dean of the College of Engineering to call together the fresh- 
 men early in the year, in order that matters which are vital to 
 success in college work may be clearly presented to them at the out- 
 set. 
 
 In compliance with this custom we are together to-day, and it 
 is my great pleasure to welcome you and to begin to know you. Prim- 
 arily, I want to congratulate you upon your choice of a profession and 
 upon your great chance in life. It is only a chance, an opportunity, 
 thus far. You have won entrance to this College that means up to 
 now work well done. Undertaking work in the College of Engineer- 
 ing shows courage, for only strong men knowingly enter here where the 
 portion is man's work. No mollycoddles may hope to prosper here. 
 You have entered a course so strenuous that success in it will call for 
 every fiber of manliness you possess all your pluck and endurance. 
 You are, therefore, a body of picked men, each one of whom has the 
 rare opportunity of completing the course and of taking up the prac- 
 tice of the most virile of the professions that of Engineer. 
 
 I do not hesitate to tell you frankly at the outset that the task be- 
 fore you is not child's play or boy's work, because if any one of you 
 does not thrill at the prospect of a stiff fight or of a swift race, he is 
 not of such stuff as Engineers are made of he is not in the right group. 
 It is fine to be strong enough to conquer and swift enough to win; 
 but the strength needed -is not all brute strength far from that and 
 the swiftness is not all speed. There is an element of persistence in 
 winning a race, and an element of skill in conquering. You have al- 
 ready given evidence of your ability to conquer and to win, and you 
 will succeed, provided your path trends aright, and provided you keep 
 eternally moving. 
 
 A college education is the privilege of but few men. About one 
 man is college-bred to eight hundred who are not. This makes the 
 distinction a high distinction, and I trust each man here will resolve to 
 
8 AD V ICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 go on unswervingly to the commencement day that will place him in this 
 privileged class of college-bred men. It is a long distance through 
 life. Many of you have fifty years of the journey yet before you. 
 Do you not think these many years will be sweeter and fuller to you if 
 you carry the consciousness of adequate educational training? Do 
 you not think you will be better citizens, more helpful to your own kin, 
 to your community, and to your country? Do you not think that trained 
 hands and minds will enable you to raise in some measure the well- 
 being of the many who have not the training which the present prom- 
 ises you? 
 
 I wish to place much stress upon the value of the chance now 
 yours, because I want you to make the most of it. You must make 
 good, you must realize the hopes for you of those at home, you 
 must make worth while the sacrifice made by your people for you. Do 
 not disappoint the mother and father. Live up to what the neighbors 
 expect of you, and graduate with honor. Do you know that out of 
 a freshman class of a hundred men, on an average only forty graduate 
 while sixty drop out for one reason or another? Resolve that you are 
 in the game to the end, and that you will not quit. 
 
 You have doubtless heard that Minnesota plays football. The 
 Maroon and Gold has a splendid chain of victories on the gridiron. The 
 games will be on soon, and you will glory in the wonderful work, 
 the speed, skill, and endurance of the team. Each man is working like 
 a tiger to maintain the prestige and honor of the University. The rally- 
 ing cry of our athletics is "Minnesota never quits!" Make that 
 your own battle cry as you proceed in your college work, not in the 
 field alone, but in your studies, in the class room, and in life. When 
 you feel disheartened and weary of the eternal grind of human en- 
 deavor, grit your teeth and say "Minnesota never quits." The world 
 cannot defeat a man who lives up to that obligation. 
 
 I wish you would note the fact that I am addressing you, 
 not as boys but as men. You are treated here as men. You 
 have been passing through various stages of evolution, but now for the 
 first time, so far as your schooling is concerned, the obligations and 
 responsibility of manhood rest squarely on your shoulders. The first 
 stage of the educational journey is upon the low level plain of the 
 grade schools, and the peculiarity about the travel across this plain is 
 that it is compulsory. The law compels parents to give their children 
 this part. The state wants her people to have at least that amount of 
 education, the rudimentary part, to avoid gross ignorance and the result- 
 ing evils to the social structure. You are compelled to go on with it 
 whether you wish or not. If you do not behave yourselves, if you do 
 
SHENEHON. 9 
 
 not study, you are disciplined, but you have got to go on just the same. 
 Now, the second stage is somewhat higher. You are on ground that 
 overlooks the first low plain. This is the High School, and here 
 also it is desirable that you go on and graduate. It is desirable that 
 you graduate from High School whether you have the distinctive mental 
 characteristics or character that will give you the highest success in 
 life as a professional man, or not. The average citizen and any citi- 
 zen is better off for his High School course, and therefore the policy 
 of the state and of the city is to urge men to go on with this part of 
 their educational training. After you have passed over this plain and 
 have entered the University, you have stepped up to a high tableland 
 where the conditions are very unlike those in the two thickly populated 
 plains which you see spread out below you. On the two lower plains 
 you were first the child and then the boy, and now you have reached this 
 splendid tableland where the air is clear and invigorating, and you are 
 the man. Most of your school mates of the earlier school days are not 
 here. The wage-earning activities of life have absorbed them. They 
 have taken up the burden of men, but have missed your special privilege 
 of dwelling for some years in the rare atmosphere of the academic 
 plateau. 
 
 Now, whenever anyone has a privilege, he has something which 
 exists only at the expense of others. We have heard much of the 
 special privileges enjoyed by manufacturers, who are favored by tariff 
 schedules which enrich them but leave the masses poor indeed ; we 
 have heard of corporations whose special privileges in the form of 
 municipal franchises for gas or street car traffic make great dividends 
 for them at the expense of the people. Your special privilege is that you 
 are becoming mentally enriched and equipped with professional training 
 at the expense of the state. Well, the state, so far as its money is con- 
 cerned, is made up of people; and all the people of the state who are 
 property owners are paying your expenses. Your townspeople, your 
 neighbors, are paying good serviceable, sacrificial dollars, that you may 
 have the special privilege of these years of training to make you abler 
 citizens. It does not follow that there is any immorality or unfairness 
 in the special privilege which the state has conferred upon you. That 
 depends upon whether you do your work and accomplish the results 
 aimed at in conferring upon you the privilege. For example, a street 
 car company in a great city holding a valuable franchise for the use 
 of the city streets, may give such excellent service at minimum rates 
 that the special privilege (which another company might use to loot 
 the public) becomes a special blessing. The tax is returned to the 
 people with interest. If you regard your special privilege to expend 
 
10 ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 the money of the people of the state for your education as a trust im- 
 posed upon you, and if you return at the end a capable, serviceable, 
 educated Engineer, the investment has been worth while, and your 
 special privilege has been transmuted to a special blessing. 
 
 Your relation to the state is, therefore, such that an implied con- 
 tract exists. The state says: "In consideration of John Doe's doing 
 each year certain work in accordance with the specifications of the 
 University of Minnesota, which will convert him into a competently 
 trained Engineer, the state will expend upon him three hundred 
 dollars per annum for the term of five years, etc." If you fail to do 
 your part in this contract, of course the state cancels the agreement, 
 you lose your special privilege and leave the University. You must 
 understand that the petty fees paid by you do not care for a fifth part 
 of the cost of your education. 
 
 I am stating this business relation between you and the state in 
 considerable detail, because you are men, and will feel the obligation 
 of a business agreement. Your professional life will be made up of 
 agreements and fulfillments, and you will wish to begin your life as an 
 honorable business man by meeting your obligations squarely here at the 
 outset. Where a man receives money from his people for his living and 
 other expenses, a second implied contract exists with his people, to per- 
 form his work so as to do credit to them. 
 
 You must understand that while our Engineers on the Campus are 
 earnest, strenuous workers for the most part, now and again men appear 
 without the business perception to live up to their contract. For these 
 we have a pneumatic gun into which they are gently loaded and tossed 
 into the uttermost realms of thin air. Do you remember the projectile 
 which Jules Verne conceived for the trip from the earth to the moon? 
 That had water compartments, as I recollect it, with collapsing bulk- 
 heads to absorb the starting shock. Well, our projectile has no col- 
 lapsing bulkheads. 
 
 It will be well for you to understand the organization of the Uni- 
 versity, its parts and their relations, its administration, and the attitude 
 of the members of the faculty toward you. The University is now a 
 complex organization of ten colleges. In the beginning the whole 
 University was made up of a single college, with a President but no 
 Deans. As it grew larger it separated into Colleges, each college or- 
 ganized much like the original unit. The Deans are the executive heads 
 of the Colleges, while the President is the 'Chief Executive of the 
 University. Of course there is a business department for the handling 
 of moneys, the purchase of supplies, and for keeping the accounts ; 
 then there is the Registrar who keeps the student records ; and a Super- 
 
SEEN EH ON. 11 
 
 intendent of Buildings and Grounds. Above all are the Regents, who 
 meet about once a month and act as the Directors. 
 
 The College of Arts ranks first in seniority and the College of En- 
 gineering second. Within the College of Engineering are the various 
 departments, as the Civil Department, the Mechanical Department, the 
 Drawing Department; and each department has its head and its asso- 
 ciates. Now the Faculty exists to direct you, to instruct you, and to 
 serve you in every way it may, to the end which the state has in 
 view in educating you. It may astonish you to find out how kindly each 
 member of the Faculty feels toward you. Each member is a friend and 
 an older brother. You will have every consideration as men; you will 
 be treated with justice always, patience generally, and malice never. 
 You must reciprocate and be kindly and considerate, just in your judg- 
 ments always, vindictive and revengeful never. Sometimes you will not 
 view things as your instructor does. In such cases you must be open- 
 minded enough to feel that when your judgment conflicts with that of 
 your instructor, the chances are that the older man is right and that the 
 younger man is wrong. This is not always so. Age does not make 
 men infallible. When you feel certain you are right, discuss your case 
 good temperedly and fairly with your instructor, showing him the re- 
 spect that is paid a judge in a con^t of law. You always have the right 
 of appeal to the Dean of the College. 
 
 The Dean is your special counselor. He expects you to bring your 
 troubles and perplexities to him for advice and untangling. In mat- 
 ters of College affairs or of life you may expect a sympathetic hearing. 
 I am aware 'that life sometimes takes on a somber tone with young men, 
 things go awry, conduct sometimes goes wrong, the threads get badly 
 snarled. Sometimes a profound gloom invades a man's mind. Youth is 
 not wholly blithe and shot with sunshine. But those who have passed 
 through periods of depression know that things eventually prove not 
 ^so irretrievable as they seemed. After a mistake it is well to remember i 
 "That men may rise on stepping-stones 
 Of their dead selves to higher things." 
 
 Should a midnight fog settle down upon any one of you, grope 
 your way to my office and let me try a few rays of sense and sanity. 
 
 A story is told of a man who was stopping in a country hotel where 
 the partitions were thin and the floors uncarpeted, and he was kept 
 awake up to mid-night by a man in the next room who was pacing up 
 and down. The annoyance finally became so great that he got up and 
 knocked on the stranger's door and said to him, "My friend, you seem 
 to be in some trouble." And the reply came in an agitated voice "Yes, 
 I am; I owe a man, due tomorrow, one hundred dollars and I cannot 
 
12 ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 pay him." "Well," said the man, "you would better go to bed and let 
 the other man walk" Now, while that was not a full solution of the 
 stranger's difficulty, it let a little sane sunlight in upon the situation. 
 The man to whom the money was due, perhaps, was the proper man 
 to worry under those conditions, although I do not wish you to infer 
 from this that the obligation did not have its worriment. 
 
 The Faculty of the College is a legislative body made up of 
 all professors and instructors. It deals with the construction of 
 the curriculum, the formulation of rules and regulations, student dis- 
 cipline, and many other matters. Its decisions are wise in the main, and 
 it gives full hearings in cases of importance. The Faculty has its com- 
 mittees like all legislative bodies, the Enrollment Committee which you 
 have met, the Student Work Committee which you are likely to meet, 
 and several others. 
 
 Remember that the Faculty is anxious to keep here and graduate 
 every worthy man of you. Our College is stronger, more impor- 
 tant, when we have greater numbers. Growth indicates a successful 
 college in the eyes of those who judge us. But we are more inter- 
 ested in putting the brand of Engineer and Minnesota only on men 
 whose work and character are such that they will reflect credit upon us. 
 We must stand for quality honor and competence first, numbers af- 
 terward. 
 
 We all, and the Student Work Committee in particular, are 
 anxious to keep every man in his class shoulder-to-shoulder with his 
 mates. If you get behind in a subject, you are a cripple, you are not 
 keeping step with the procession. It gives us trouble. We must con- 
 sider you and doctor you. For this reason you may see that we pre- 
 fer to give you a passing mark it is easier for the Faculty. But we 
 are charged by the state with the obligation to give no credits, except 
 as they are fairly earned. You may rest assured of one thing. We will 
 not cripple you, to penalize you. Our penalties will be constructive, 
 not destructive. Since this corps must march in a body, it would not 
 be good generalship to shoot a man's leg off when he flags. We will 
 prod him with a bayonet and urge him to keep up. If, however, 
 he does not keep up, he must join the troublesome crippled squad. 
 This squad is a burden on the College ; and our constructive policy is 
 to keep it as small as possible. Do you know that in war time the 
 wounded are a greater burden than the dead? The dead may be 
 buried, but the wounded must have medical attention, nursing, and 
 protection. Keep out of the crippled squad. 
 
 Now, I am going to give you a term to express the kind of men we 
 desire as a product of this college. We want "thorough-breds," and I 
 
SHENEHON. 13 
 
 wish to tell you what a thorough-bred is as I mean it. Perhaps I can 
 do this most quickly by telling a story. Governor Odell of New York 
 related it. He said he was out hunting with his father one day, and 
 they had with them an Irish setter which was a thorough-bred, and 
 had also a yellow dog. His father picked up the yellow dog by the 
 nape of the neck and held it out at arm's length, and the yellow dog 
 whined piteously. He dropped it and picked up the Irish setter. The 
 setter hung there with never a whimper. He said, "My son, that 
 is the difference between a thorough-bred and a yellow cur." Now, 
 what the thorough-bred had was courage, self-control. It certainly hurt 
 him just as much as it did the yellow cur, but he did not whimper; and 
 self-control is the one thing that will let a man win out in life. 
 
 You are all familiar with the fact that each one of us, each man, 
 is made up of two personalities. You probably have all, or most of 
 you, read Stevenson's story of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Each of us 
 is made up of the fundamental instinctive animal part which wishes to 
 do things whether they are fair or not, and the regulative controlling 
 part or personality, which we really think of as the "I". When you did 
 not mean to do a thing, but you did it just the same, you were con- 
 trolled by the beast, the brutal part of your make-up. The man who 
 has himself in control is simply the man whose higher personality, the 
 actual ego, rules the lower personality, rules the beast. It is a good 
 thing to have a strong beast in you. That may be an element of strength 
 in your character. The beast is the motive power. It is the thing 
 that drives, but the higher personality must have this beast by the throat, 
 absolutely control him, and make him do his work. In controlling 
 your primal power you are first learning the work of the engineer. 
 Now the engineer by definition is one who directs the forces of nature 
 to the uses of man, and this powerful primative physical endowment 
 is one of the forces of nature which every engineer must learn to con- 
 trol and direct early in his career, else his career will not carry him 
 to great usefulness in life. 
 
 Now, you young men have come from the rural districts, pos- 
 sibly the farm, or else from the city. From whichever of these 
 two places you have come, you have an element of strength in 
 that fact. The man who comes from the farm brings with him the 
 strong skeleton, the brawny muscles, the sound nerve, and the sane 
 view of things which is characteristic of those not too many genera- 
 tions removed from the soil. On the other hand, the man from the 
 city has the strength of finesse which comes from the urban life with 
 its more complex relations and higher conveniences, and he comes also 
 possibly from a generation or two of men who have used their brains 
 
14 ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 rather more than their hands for a livelihood. A generation of brain- 
 workers makes furrows in the brain that help the generation which 
 follows. To have had in the background of your ancestry some pro- 
 fessional men may make your college work easier, and if you carry 
 yourself aright you have on that account higher chances of ultimate 
 success; but I want to warn the man who comes from the city, with 
 his possibly smoother ways and more urbane manners, that unless he 
 absorbs the strength, the good health, and the calm poise which the man 
 from the farm brings with him, he is not going to compete successfully 
 with the man from the farm. And, on the other hand, I want to warn 
 the man who comes from the farm that unless he can gather to him- 
 self something of the urbane characteristics of the man I have been 
 speaking about, in the competition of professional life he may not win 
 the highest rewards. It follows that of the two classes of men, farm 
 bred or city bred, each has an advantage of his own at the outset; 
 and in the end the successful man, the man who will win our highest 
 admiration, is the one who can blend strength and polish. It is the 
 mailed fist under the glove of velvet. 
 
 Returning to the use of the word "thorough-bred" which I wish to 
 be thickly strewn throughout this talk, I want to say that the kind of 
 thorough-bred I am talking about is not of distinguished lineage. I do 
 not mean men whose ancestors came over on . the Mayflower, be- 
 cause it has been pointed out that the ocean liners of to-day offer better 
 facilities for crossing to our shores, but I mean men who, when they 
 leave our institution, have this combination of strength and urbanity. 
 
 Now, there are certain things in your college course which I wish 
 to bring into high prominence. An engineer in his direction of the 
 forces of nature is an expert mathematician, applying to useful ends 
 his mathematical attainments. The backbone of the engineer is mathe- 
 matics ; and you men, if you are going to succeed in your college course, 
 must get a firm grip on your mathematics, and clear up everything as 
 you go along. To get behind in mathematics is fatal. Other 
 courses depend on it. Your Physics of the Sophomore year and your 
 Mechanics which comes later require higher mathematics as a pre- 
 requisite. If you have failed to pass or are conditioned in your mathe- 
 matics, you are at a serious disadvantage; and I advise you in the 
 strongest terms to get your mathematics right. You are building a 
 pyramid, and in the first course of masonry lies your Freshman Mathe- 
 matics. You cannot lay your second course of masonry until the first 
 course is completed. The Sophomore Mathematics is in the second 
 course of masonry, and on top of this comes Physics, and another course 
 is Mechanics. Bye and bye you get to the upper levels of the pyramid 
 
SHENEHON. 15 
 
 wherein your structural work, your bridge design, your machine design, 
 are the masonry courses. But you cannot lay these upper courses, and 
 you cannot do your work in life as an Engineer, unless the bottom 
 courses form a safe and adequate foundation. If by chance you should 
 be conditioned in mathematics, and quite a few men are make it your 
 first duty in life to get that condition off. Do not let the thing run on. 
 Do not let it stand. One of the delightful characteristics of youth is 
 to put off unpleasant things, but the thorough-bred we have been talk- 
 ing about does the thing, and does it now. In case you should be so 
 unfortunate as to get a condition hi mathematics, work it off as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 Now, I have spoken first of mathematics because it is of preemi- 
 nent importance, but I want you to consider that the maintenance of the 
 highest scholarship is incumbent upon you in all your studies. 
 
 It is incumbent on Engineers to become versatile, cultivated men. 
 If we cheapen ourselves by avoiding or slurring those subjects which 
 educate us as men, because we cannot see that they aid us as bread- 
 winners, our profession is but little more than a trade. We will receive 
 lower money returns than lawyers and surgeons, and our opportunity 
 for high service will be lessened. 
 
 Because our profession has so recently emerged from the trades, 
 our culture is questioned. Many people do not distinguish between a 
 locomotive engineer, and a Mechanical Engineer. If you are satis- 
 fied with the wages of a trade, you will not need to speak and write 
 clearly and effectively, you do not need to study English and German 
 or French but you cannot graduate at Minnesota! This is not a 
 trade school but a professional school. You will need to do just as 
 conscientious work in Rhetoric and Language as in your technical 
 studies. We want Minnesota Engineers to reach the high ranks of the 
 profession, and not pass through life as subordinates. You will be 
 useful men as subordinates, but there is something more useful 
 and better. You find it hard to believe that language studies will help 
 you as Engineers, but take this on faith now, and make your scholar- 
 ship excellent in them. That these will count, accept as expert judgment. 
 
 Your studies come first in importance but there are outside activities 
 which are alluring and useful. I shall advise you to have some part in 
 them, but always under the limitation that you have kept your scholar- 
 ship high. But this high scholarship that I. ask of you will not be 
 realized unless you have a clear comprehension of yourself as a cutting 
 mechanism. You cannot expect a dull tool to do keen cutting, and you 
 cannot expect a dull mind to do easily and rapidly the scholastic work 
 presented to you young men. You should find out early in the day how 
 
16 ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 to keep this beast that I have spoken of in high, vigorous condition, and 
 how to keep this controlling will in high, fine condition also. 
 
 First of all, keep yourself in good physical trim. You must 
 have enough to eat. You must eat wholesome things. You can 
 not expect such an engine as you are to do work without the 
 proper fuel. Then you must get the proper sleep. Do not let any fairy 
 tales about Napoleon's capacity for work on six hours' sleep lead you 
 to burn too much midnight oil, because the more accurate historical fact 
 is that Napoleon needed his eight hours' sleep the same as the rest of 
 us men. Consequently, get your regulation sleep, and your brains will 
 be sharp like cutting instruments. I read in a magazine not long ago 
 that there is a physiological reason why a man must have his eight 
 hours' sleep as a minimum. I will not vouch for its scientific accuracy, 
 but I give you the statement as I read it. During the waking hours the 
 high activities of body and brain create certain impurities in the blood 
 which act as narcotics, or drugs on the brain. In the end this pro- 
 duces sleep. Before the sleeping condition comes there ensues a tired 
 feeling, and that tired feeling simply means that you have an excess 
 of poison in your system. Your brain will not work well under this 
 condition, and you should not expect it to, any more than if you had 
 taken a drug, and the drug was influencing you toward weariness and 
 sleep. During the night time, the brain being at rest and the muscles. 
 at rest, the lungs go on pumping and the blood taking on oxygen, the 
 poisoned condition disappears, and the man awakens full of vigor with 
 a keen-edged mind. You gentlemen will be just as foolish if you do 
 not get this full amount of sleep as you would be to work and ex- 
 pect to accomplish good results with a dull tool. 
 
 You need some exercise, and that has been provided for the 
 most part, in your drill ; but you ought to get out and breathe the open 
 air some minutes or an hour daily; and you ought to absorb the sun- 
 shine into your blood and get the wind into your pulses, in order to 
 keep yourself in the best possible condition. If, however, you overdo 
 tli is matter of physical exercise, you use up the energy which you need 
 for proper study. Therefore, the rule for exercise is "Not in excess, 
 just in moderation." Now, the beast in us would wish to carry exer- 
 cise to excess because it is sweet to the physical sensation, but the con- 
 trolling power which marks the thorough-bred will not permit this, as 
 it will not permit any excess. Even in matters of eating, things taste 
 so good that it is pretty difficult to eat with the moderation that is 
 best, and here again the controlling personality of the thorough-bred 
 will regulate. A man can be just as much of a sot in his eating as some 
 men are in their drinking. 
 
S HEN EH ON. 17 
 
 I am not going to say much to you young men about drinking, be- 
 cause I am certain it is not necessary. We business men look upon a 
 man who drinks as a fool, as a yellow cur. The "whiskey breath" 
 warrants discharge from a man's position in many corporations in this 
 country, and it discredits a man almost everywhere. As you young 
 men by coming to this University have g^ven evidence of intelligence, 
 I trust you have no illusions as to there being anything manly about 
 drinking. I give you my full assurance that, acting as the employer of 
 many young civil engineers, I never advanced a man in salary or posi- 
 tion who I knew had any drinking tendencies whatever. Having under 
 my direction several steamers, I have not permitted on any of those 
 vessels liquor anywhere; and I have done this not from any fanatical 
 dread of liquor but simply because it was good business to exclude it. 
 The intelligence of the man who uses liquor is questionable. We do 
 not expect much from a man of that kind. Drinking is simply stupidity. 
 A man whose brain is active does not need alcoholic stimulation. 
 
 Gambling is another thing which reveals a pauper mind. Men 
 gamble for excitement. A dull brain which cannot find interest in the 
 normal wholesome games and contests of life, must needs accent the 
 excitement by money venture. Surely for young men full of the en- 
 thusiasm of youth, with young pulses and minds keen for interest in the 
 kaleidoscopic life of the Campus, it is not necessary to indulge in vic- 
 ious things, or things that would make them less worthy in the 
 eyes of their townsmen and townswomen, in the eyes of the mothers 
 and fathers. Get your pleasure in wholesome ways that refresh but 
 do not demoralize. 
 
 In my life as an Engineer on the frontier, at the end of a railroad 
 line under construction, where all sorts of adventurers preyed on 
 the wages of the laborers, I have seen professional gamblers at work. 
 I know how dishonest the games are and how degrading and pauperizing 
 the practice is. In a railroad terminal I have seen men cheat in a 
 game where detection would have meant death. I have seen adven- 
 turous young men leave their money there. I have never seen any 
 consecutive winnings. 
 
 I am not going to do more than to touch on the social evil. It is 
 a loathsome thing, repellant to clean men. I hope you will attend 
 the special lectures on this subject to inform yourselves of the danger 
 of any dalliance whatsoever. I trust the daintiness of healthy youth 
 will steer you clear of the pest houses which are sometimes a lure to 
 unintelligent inquisitive young men. 
 
18 AD V ICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 As for tobacco, I would advise you to defer smoking until the 
 Post Senior year. You will be older then, possibly wiser also, and 
 may decide the matter for yourself with maturer judgment. 
 
 Many good men smoke, many better men do not; some of the best 
 men smoke, and some do not. Many bad men smoke, many worse 
 men do not ; some of the worst men smoke, and some do not. 
 
 The mature man who smokes in fine moderation is not condemned 
 by his fellows. Any man young or old who smokes to excess is an 
 object of pity to clear-sighted men. 
 
 Smoking costs money, can you not spend that money to better ad- 
 vantage, during your undergraduate days? Smoking takes the keen 
 edge off the mind, do you not need that keen edge to cut your way 
 through the manifold problems of your college work? Smoking some- 
 times dims the eyes, you need all the strength of your vision for in- 
 cessant application to your work. 
 
 Smoking is prohibited in many of the best offices of Engineers, 
 because it lessens a man's output, and vitiates the air for others who 
 do not smoke. It is prohibited here on the Campus. 
 
 Of the American Members of the Board of Consulting Engineers 
 for the Isthmian Canal, not one smoked, and these were most eminent 
 men. 
 
 Smoking in moderation is not very bad, but for you it is not now 
 worth while.. The disadvantages are real, the advantages in good 
 fellowship and relaxation are intangible. A man may be splendidly 
 virile, and yet not smoke. Mollycoddles smoke cigarettes, but some 
 strong men also smoke them. Smoking is really in the "twilight zone," 
 between good and bad. The clear daylight is better for young men. 
 
 Now, it has been called to my attention that some young men 
 coming to this institution have not taken the proper manly view regard- 
 ing cheating cheating in quizzes and examinations. If this is so, I 
 apprehend that it represents nothing vicious in intent but a wrong con- 
 ception of what is a good joke. Some men probably think that, if they 
 get through an examination by means other than knowing the sub- 
 ject, it is a good grind on the professor ; but I believe that a young man 
 who takes this view of it would better think about it a little more ser- 
 iously and wonder whether a habit of this kind, which endangers 
 his reputation in his college life, is not likely to become a fixed habit 
 in his later years, and whether he may not join the group which contains 
 the yellow curs and not the thorough-breds. I do not think young men 
 appreciate very fully the fact that character, known honesty and jus- 
 tice and kindliness, bring the highest money returns in our profession, 
 but they do. The man who is known as the Dean of American Engi- 
 
SHENEHON. 19 
 
 neers, Alfred Noble of New York, past-president of the American 
 Society of Civil Engineers, Chief Engineer of the Pennsylvania Roads' 
 East River Tunnel, earns his great salary and his great esteem no less 
 by his known probity and justice than by his high administrative and 
 technical ability. 
 
 At Ann Arbor a few years ago, at the University of Michigan, a 
 man was found cheating. He was tried by a jury of his fellow stu- 
 dents, adjudged guilty with a recommendation that he be suspended for 
 a year; and I believe the offense committed fully warranted a humilia- 
 tion as great as this young man received, provided of course the of- 
 fense were clearly understood. Let me make this matter entirely clear. 
 In any of your exercises which is a test of your work, whether it is an 
 examination, a quiz, or a theme, do not take help or give it. Do not take 
 it because that is dishonorable, do not give it because that degrades your 
 classmate, and in his dishonorable act you become an accomplice and 
 are liable to the same treatment meted out to the culprit who received 
 your aid. Do not be a good fellow to the extent of aiding and abet- 
 ting a counterfeiter in passing spurious coin. You may be in doubt 
 sometimes as to how far this applies. When in doubt do the franker 
 thing. Err if at all on the safe side. Remember the adage, "If an 
 egg is doubtful, it is bad." 
 
 I expect you have already chosen your boarding houses, and that 
 you have rooms which have good air in them and excellent light. Do 
 not attempt to drive your mind at its best pace and with its highest 
 power in a badly ventilated room. Your lamp for night work should 
 be a good one. I myself when at work like to be flooded with light. 
 It appears to keep the brain cells active. You know light is wakening 
 and darkness induces sleep. Poor light is less vivifying to the mental 
 faculties than brilliant light. 
 
 You must assure yourself of reasonable quiet and freedom from in- 
 terruption, if you would study effectively. Form the habit of 
 absolute attention to the task in hand. Keep parallel all the forces 
 of your mind in the direction toward which your work tends. Be 
 master of your study hours, and do not permit any one to interrupt 
 you. In "Tom Brown at Oxford" I remember they had a special 
 oak door to close when a man was at study and was not to be inter- 
 rupted. He was said to be "sporting the oak" and it was bad form to 
 interrupt him then. When you have work to be done, do not hesitate 
 so to inform your caller. Be courteous, but do not permit your study 
 hours to be encroached upon. Be systematic. Keep your room, your 
 books, and your papers in business-like order. Disorder in your en- 
 vironment will put disorder into your brain, and into your work. 
 
20 ADVICE TO FRESHMEN. 
 
 Form the habit of the card index and the document file. Make 
 of your room your office, and have it a business office. More time is 
 lost in hunting up mislaid letters, papers, and documents than you can 
 imagine. Special lectures will be given to you on "How to Study." In 
 this you have an opportunity to prove yourself an efficiency Engineer. 
 For five years now your task is to study. By bad methods you can 
 accomplish too little to win high scholarship. By orderly, systematic, 
 consecutive, incisive, effective work you may rank high and have time 
 for some of the Campus activities that make the University life so de- 
 lightful and inspiring. 
 
 Some of you have already pledged yourselves to Fraternities. Pro- 
 vided you are a thorough-bred, you may live in a Fraternity house and 
 do good work. The good fellowship there is charming and valuable. 
 You will be knit close to friends and brothers, who will endure through 
 life. The friends you make in College stand apart, no others will be 
 like them. But as fraternity men you will have diversions and activi- 
 ties which are likely to lower your scholarship below that of men 
 who are not of the fraternities. You must not go into a fratern- 
 ity unless you are financially able to do some things which outside 
 men do not have to do. You will have to bear your share of the expense 
 and this is sometimes not inconsiderable. Above all keep your friendships 
 open. Do not tie yourself exclusively to a little coterie. Have your 
 friendships as broad as the University. The fraternity men are gen- 
 erally a well-set-up, clean, personable lot of fellows, who wear good 
 clothes and cultivate courtesy and good form. These things are well, 
 and are the ways of the city bred. You must conform as far as you 
 may. In some fraternities the upper classmen exercise the prerogative 
 of elder brothers, they advise you, admonish you, and see to it that you 
 do your work. In this element there is hope of great good. 
 
 We look for not only courtesy and kindliness in you men, but also 
 for chivalry and good citizenship. You are in a way the guardians 
 of our property here on the Campus. You wish to keep things fresh 
 and presentable. The child of the grade school and the boy of the High 
 School were sometimes young vandals, they delighted in breaking and 
 marring things. They cut their initials wherever it was safe, they 
 broke down the school fence, and carried away the gate. They broke 
 the panes in the windows of the country school house. They did all 
 sorts of boyish pranks and mischief. Now you are conservators and 
 guardians playing the part of men. Foolish pranks in a College are 
 to-day evidence of provincialism and low grade. When College men 
 descend to mischief, they hurt the good name of the University, and 
 make their own prestige less valuable. 
 
SHENEHON. 21 
 
 As for chivalry and courtesy, treat each girl you know as a pro- 
 tective elder brother would. The most contemptible thing on earth is 
 to degrade a woman. Let the College be known for its strong men and 
 their fine courtesy. Touch your caps always to all professors. Never 
 permit a woman to stand in a street car while you have a seat. There 
 are only four reasons why a young man in a street car permits a woman 
 to stand while he remains seated. 
 
 First He is ill. 
 
 Second He is a mollycoddle. 
 
 Third He is a boor. 
 
 Fourth He is not an Engineer. 
 
 President Taft was called the most courteous man in Washington, 
 because he once gave his seat to three women. 
 
 As to what are known as College activities, do not hasten to get 
 into too many things. No man can take part in half of the things going 
 on and make good in the College of Engineering. You must choose 
 with deliberation the things you may have a part in. Let me advise you 
 when in doubt. It is your duty, and it will be to your profit to become a 
 member of the Engineers' Society. Do that immediately. 
 
 You should organize as a Class a little later. Elect officers, and 
 have a get-together banquet. Wait a little while, however, until you 
 know your classmates well enough to bestow the honor of President 
 wisely and worthily. 
 
 I want to speak in closing of the profession of Engineer. It is 
 such a splendid profession. Its horizon is so wide. It is so modern as 
 to be full of the spirit of youth, and yet it is as old as the pyramids. 
 It is vibrating with new life, new applications of old laws. It is so help- 
 ful. It builds, and old earth becomes a better place. It gives to the poor 
 ways of travel that the rich of old knew not of. It takes the brutal part 
 away from human labor, and floods the night with light. It is creative. 
 The Engineer is a partner of the gods, and the master of gravitation. 
 
TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION FOR ENGINEERS. 
 
 By 
 
 Professor J. B. Johnson. 
 
 The following masterly treatment of the subject of certain phases 
 of engineering education is by the late Prof. J. B. Johnson, a technical 
 instructor and author of the highest rank. In his early death, which 
 was accidental, the engineering profession in America suffered a 
 severe loss that is felt to this day. 
 
 Prof. Johnson was a deep, clear thinker and a technical writer 
 of wide scope and great vigor. His English, as exemplified in the 
 following address, may well serve as a model to engineering students, 
 and the advice that he gave is of the soundest. 
 
 This paper will bear several close perusals. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 23 
 
TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION FOR ENGINEERS. 
 
 By 
 
 Professor J. B. Johnson. 
 
 Education may be defined as a means of gradual emancipation 
 from the thraldom of incompetence. Since incompetence leads of 
 necessity to failure, and since competence alone leads to certain suc- 
 cess, in any line of human endeavor, and since the natural or un- 
 educated man is but incompetence personified, it is of supreme im- 
 portance that this thraldom, or this enslaved condition in which we 
 are all born, should be removed in some way. While unaided in- 
 dividual effort has worked, and will continue to work marvels, in 
 rare instances in our so-called self-made men, these recognized ex- 
 ceptions acknowledge the rule that mankind in general must be aided 
 in acquiring this complete mastery over the latent powers of head, 
 heart, and hand. These formal aids in this process of emancipation 
 are found in the grades of schools and colleges with which the chil- 
 dren of this country are now blessed beyond those of almost any 
 other country or time. The boys or girls who fail to embrace these 
 emancipating opportunities to the fullest extent practicable, are there- 
 by consenting to degrees of incompetence and their corresponding 
 and resulting failures in life, which they have had it in their power 
 to prevent. This they will ultimately discover to their chagrin and 
 even grief, when it is too late to regain the lost opportunities. 
 
 There are, however, two general classes of competency which I 
 wish to discuss to-day, and which are generated in the schools. These 
 are, Competency to Serve, and Competency to Appreciate and Enjoy. 
 
 By competency to serve is meant that ability to perform one's 
 due proportion of the world's work which brings to society a common 
 benefit, which makes of this world a continually better home for the 
 race; and which tends to fit the race for that immortal life in which 
 it puts its trust. 
 
 By competency to appreciate and enjoy is meant that ability to 
 understand, to appropriate, and to assimilate those great personal 
 achievements of the past and present in the fields of the true, the 
 beautiful, and the good, which brings into our lives a kind of peace, 
 and joy, and gratitude which can be found in no other way. 
 
 It is true that all kinds of elementary education contribute alike 
 to both of these ends, but in the so-called higher education it is too 
 common to choose between them rather than to include them both. 
 Since it is only service which the world is willing to pay for, it is 
 
 25 
 
26 TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 only those competent and willing to serve a public or private utility 
 who are compensated in a financial way. It is the education which 
 brings a competency to serve, therefore, which is often called the 
 utilitarian, and sometimes spoken of contemptuously as the bread- 
 and-butter education. On the other hand the education which gives 
 a competency to appreciate and to enjoy is commonly spoken of as a 
 cultured education. As to which kind of education is the higher and 
 nobler, if they must be contrasted, it all depends on the point of view. 
 If personal pleasure and happiness are the chief end and aim in life, 
 then for that class of persons who have no disposition to serve, the 
 cultural education is the more worthy of admiration and selection 
 (conditioned of course on the bodily comforts being so far provided 
 for as to make all financial compensations of no object to the indi- 
 vidual). If, however, service to others is the most worthy purpose in 
 life, and if in addition such service brings the greatest happiness, then 
 that education which develops the ability to serve, in some, capacity, 
 should be regarded as the higher and more worthy. This kind of 
 education has the further advantage that the money consideration 
 it brings makes its possessor a self-supporting member of society 
 instead of a drone or parasite, which those people must be who can 
 not serve. I never could see the force of the statement that "they also 
 serve who only stand and wait." It is possible they may serve their 
 own pleasures, but if this is all, the statement should be so qualified. 
 
 The higher education which leads to a life of service has been 
 known as a professional education, as law, medicine, the ministry, 
 teaching, and the like. These have long been known as the learned 
 professions. A learned profession may be defined as a vocation in 
 which scholarly accomplishments are used in the service of society 
 or of other individuals, for a valuable consideration. Under such a 
 definition every new vocation in which a very considerable amount 
 of scholarship is required for its successful prosecution, and which is 
 placed in the service of others, must be held as a learned profession. 
 And as engineering now demands fully as great an amount of learn- 
 ing, or scholarship, as any other, it has already taken a high rank 
 among these professions, although as a learned profession it is scarce- 
 ly half a century old. Engineering differs from all other learned 
 professions, however, in this, that its learning has to do only with 
 the inanimate world, the world of dead matter and force. The ma- 
 terials, the laws, and the forces of nature, and scarcely to any extent 
 its life, are the peculiar field of the engineer. Not only is the engineer 
 pretty thoroughly divorced from life in general, but even with that 
 society of which he is a part his professional life has little in common. 
 
JOHNSON. 27 
 
 His profession is so new it practically has no past, either of history 
 or of literature, which merits his consideration, much less his labor- 
 ious study. Neither do the ordinary social or political problems 
 enter in any way into his sphere of operations. Natural law, dead 
 matter, and lifeless force make. up his working world, and in these 
 he lives and moves and has his professional being. Professionally 
 regarded, what to him is the history of his own or of other races? 
 What have the languages and the literatures of the world of value 
 to him? What interest has he in domestic or foreign politics, or in 
 the various social and religious problems of the day? In short what 
 interest is there for him in what we now commonly include in the 
 term ''the humanities?" It must be confessed that in a professional 
 way they have little or none. Except perhaps two other modern 
 languages by wjiich he obtains access to the current progress in 
 applied science, he has practically no professional interest in any 
 of these things. His structures are made no safer or more economical; 
 his prime-movers are no more powerful or efficient; his electrical 
 wonders no more occult or useful ; his tools no more ingenious or 
 effective, because of a knowledge of all these humanistic affairs. As 
 a mere server of society, therefore, an engineer is about as good a tool, 
 without all this cultural knowledge as with it. But as a citizen, as 
 a husband and father, as a companion, and more than all, as one's 
 own constant, perpetual, unavoidable personality, the taking into one's 
 life of a large knowledge of the life and thought of the world, both 
 past and present, is a very important matter indeed, and of these 
 two kinds of education, as they affect the life-work, the professional 
 success, -and the personal happiness of the engineer, I will speak more 
 in detail. 
 
 . * . v* .'* J 
 
 I am here using the term engineer as including that large class 
 of modern industrial' workers who make the new application of 
 science to the needs of modern life their peculiar business and pro- 
 fession: A man of this class may also be called an applied- scientist. 
 Evidently he must have a large acquaintance with such practical 
 sciences as surveying, physics, chemistry, geology, metallurgy, elec- 
 tricity, applied mechanics, kinematics, machine design, power genera- 
 tion and transmission, structural designing, land and water trans- 
 portation, etc., etc. And as a common solvent of all the problems 
 arising in these various subjects he must have acquired an extended 
 knowledge of mathematics, without which he would be like a sailor 
 with -neither compass nor rudder. To the engineer mathematics is 
 a tool of investigation, a means to an end, and not the end itself. 
 The same may be said of his physics, his chemistry, and of all his 
 
28 TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 other scientific studies. They are all to be made tributary to the 
 solution of problems which may arise in his professional career. His 
 entire technical education, in fact, is presumably of the useful charac- 
 ter, and acquired for specific useful ends. Similarly he needs a free 
 and correct use of his mother tongue, that he may express himself 
 clearly and forcibly both in speech and composition, and an ability 
 to read both French and German, that he may read the current 
 technical literature in the two other languages which are most fruit- 
 ful in new and original technical matter. 
 
 It is quite true that the mental development, the growth of one's 
 mental powers and the command over the same, which comes in- 
 cidentally in the acquisition of all this technical knowledge, is of far 
 more value than the knowledge itself, and hence great care is given 
 in all good technical schools to the mental processes of the students, 
 and to a thorough and logical method of presentation and of acquisi- 
 tion. In other words, while you are under our instruction it is much 
 more important that you should think consecutively, rationally, and 
 logically, than that your conclusions should be numerically correct. 
 But as soon as you leave the school the exact reverse will hold. 
 Your employer is not concerned with your mental development, or 
 with your mental processes, so long as your results are correct, and 
 hence we must pay some attention to numerical accuracy in the 
 school, especially in the upper classes. We must remember, however, 
 that the mind of the engineer is primarily a workshop and not a ware- 
 house or lumber-room of mere information. Your facts are better 
 stored in your library. Room there is not so valuable as it is in the 
 mind, and the information, furthermore, is better preserved. Memory 
 is as poor a reliance to the engineer as to the accountant. Both alike 
 should consult their books when they want the exact facts. Knowl- 
 edge alone is not power. The ability to use knowledge is a latent 
 power, and the actual use of it is a power. Instead of storing your 
 minds with useful knowledge, therefore, I will say to you, store your 
 minds with useful tools, and with a knowledge only of how to use 
 such tools. Then your minds will become mental workshops, well 
 fitted for turning out products of untold value to your day and gen- 
 eration. Everything you acquire in your course in this college, there- 
 fore, you should look upon as mental tools with which you are 
 equipping yourselves for your future careers. It may well be that 
 some of your work will be useful rather for the sharpening of your 
 wits and for the development of mental grasp, just as gymnastic 
 exercise is of use only in developing your physical system. In this 
 case it has served as a tool of development instead of one for subse- 
 
JOHNSON. 29 
 
 quent use. Because all your knowledge here gained is to serve you 
 as tools it must be acquired quantitatively rather than qualitatively. 
 First, last, and all the time, you are required to know not how simply, 
 but how much, how far, how fast, to what extent, at what cost, with 
 what certainty, and with what factor of safety. In the cultural educa- 
 tion where one is learning only to appreciate and to enjoy, it may 
 satisfy the average mind to know that coal burned under a boiler 
 generates steam which entering a cylinder moves a piston which 
 turns the engine, and stop with that. But the engineer must know 
 how many heat units there are in a pound of coal burned, how many 
 of these are generated in the furnace, how many of them pass into 
 the water, how much steam is consumed by the engine per horse- 
 power per hour, and finally how much effective work is done by the 
 engine per pound of coal fed to the furnace. Merely qualitative knowl- 
 edge leads to the grossest errors of judgment and is of that kind of 
 little learning which is a dangerous thing. At my summer home I 
 have a hydraulic ram set below a dam, for furnishing a water supply. 
 Nearby is an old abandoned water-power grist mill. A man and his 
 wife were looking at the ram last summer and the lady was over- 
 heard to ask what it was for. The man looked about, saw the idle 
 water-wheel of the old mill, and ventured the opinion that it must 
 be used to run the mill ! He knew a hydraulic ram when he saw it 
 and he knew it was used to generate power, and that power would 
 run a mill. Ergo, a hydraulic ram will run a mill. This is on a par 
 with thousands of similar errors of judgment where one's knowledge 
 is qualitative only. All engineering problems are purely quantitative 
 from the beginning to the end, and so are all other problems, in fact, 
 whether material, or moral, or financial, or commercial, or social, or 
 political, or religious. All judgments passed on such problems, there- 
 fore, must be quantitative judgments. How poorly prepared to pass 
 such judgments are those whose knowledge is qualitative only! 
 Success in all fields depends very largely on the accuracy of one's 
 judgment in foreseeing events, and in engineering it depends wholly 
 on such accuracy. An engineer must see all around his problems, 
 and take account of every contingency which can happen in the 
 ordinary course of events. When all such contingencies have been 
 foreseen and provided against, then the unexpected cannot happen, 
 as everything has been foreseen. It is customary to say, "The un- 
 expected always happens." This of course is untrue. What is meant 
 is "It is only the unexpected which happens," for the very good reason 
 that what has been anticipated has been provided against. 
 
 In order that knowledge may be used as a tool in investigations 
 
30 TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 and in the solution of problems, it must be so used constantly during 
 the period of its acquisition. Hence the large amount of drawing- 
 room, field, laboratory, and shop practice introduced into our engi- 
 neering courses. We try to make theory and practice go hand in 
 hand. In fact we teach that theory is only generalized practice. 
 From the necessary facts, observed in special experiments or in actual 
 practice, and which cover a sufficiently wide range of conditions, 
 general principles are deduced from which effects of given like causes 
 can be foreseen or derived, for new cases arising in practice. This is 
 like saying, in surveying, that with a true and accurate hind-sight 
 an equally true and accurate forward course can be run. Nearly all 
 engineering knowledge, outside the pure mathematics, is of this ex- 
 perimental or empirical character, and we generally know who made 
 the experiments, under what conditions, over what range of varying 
 conditions, how accordant his results were, and hence what weight 
 can be given to his conclusions. When we can find in our engineer- 
 ing literature no sufficiently accurate data, or none exactly covering 
 the case in hand, we must set to work to make a set of experiments 
 which will cover the given conditions, so as to obtain numerical fact- 
 ors, or possibly new laws, which will serve to make our calculations 
 prove true in the completed structure or scheme. The ability to 
 plan and carry out such crucial tests and experiments is one of the 
 most important objects of an engineering college training, and we 
 give our students a large amount of such laboratory practice. In 
 all such work it is the absolute truth we are seeking and hence any 
 guessing at data or falsifying of records, or "doctoring" of the com- 
 putations is of the nature of a professional crime. Any copying of 
 records from other observers, when students are supposed to make 
 their own observations, is both a fraud upon tlvemselves as well as 
 dishonest to their instructor, and indicates a disposition of mind 
 which has nothing in common with that of the engineer, who is al- 
 ways and everywhere a truth-seeker and truth-tester. The sooner 
 such a person leaves the college of engineering the better for him 
 and for the engineering profession. Men in other professions may 
 blunder or play false with more or less impunity. Thus the lawyer 
 may advocate a bad cause without losjng caste; a physician may 
 blunder at will, but his mistakes are soon buried out of sight; a 
 minister may advocate what he no longer believes himself, and feel 
 that the cause justifies his course; but the mistakes of the engineer 
 are quick to find him out and to proclaim aloud his incompetence. 
 He is the one professional man who is obliged to be right, and for 
 whom sophistry and self-deception are a fatal poison. But the en- 
 
JOHNSON. 31 
 
 gineer must be more than honest, he must be able to discern the 
 truth. With him an honest motive is no justification. He must 
 not only believe he is right; he must know he is right. And it is one 
 of the greatest elements of satisfaction in this profession, that it is 
 commonly possible to secure in advance this almost absolute cer- 
 tainty of results. We deal with fixed laws and forces, and only so 
 far as the materials used may be faulty, or of unknown character, 
 or as contingencies could not be foreseen or anticipated, does a 
 necessary ignorance enter into the problem. 
 
 It must not be understood, however, that with all of both the theory 
 and practice we are able to give our students in their four- or five- 
 year course, they will be full-fledged engineers when they leave 
 us. They ought to be excellent material out of which, with a few 
 years' actual practice, they would become engineers of the first order. 
 Just as a young physician must have experience with actual patients, 
 and as a young lawyer must have actual experience in the courts, so 
 must an engineer have experience with real problems before he can 
 rightfully lay claim to the title of engineer. And in seeking this pro- 
 fessional practice they must not be too choice. As a rule the higher 
 up one begins the sooner his promotion stops, and the lower down 
 he begins the higher will he ultimately climb. The man at the top 
 should know in a practical way all the work over which he is called 
 upon to preside, and this means beginning at the bottom. Too many 
 of our graduates refuse to do this, and so they stop in a middle posi- 
 tion, instead of coming into the management of the business, which 
 position is reserved for a man who knows it all from the bottom up. 
 Please understand that no position is too menial in the learning of a 
 business. But as your college training has enabled you to learn a 
 new thing rapidly, you should rapidly master these minor details of 
 any business, and in a few years you should be far ahead of the 
 ordinary apprentice who went to work from the grammar school or 
 from the high school. The great opportunity for the engineer of the 
 future is in the direction and management of our various manufac- 
 turing industries. We are about to become the world's workshop, 
 and as competition grows sharper and as greater economies become 
 necessary, the technically trained man will become an absolute neces- 
 sity in the leading positions in all our industrial works. These are 
 the positions hitherto held by men who have grown up with the 
 business, but without technical training. They are being rapidly 
 supplanted by technical men, who, however, must serve their appren- 
 ticeship in the business, from the bottom up. With this combination 
 of theory and practice, and with the American genius for invention. 
 
32 TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 ' 
 
 ; 
 
 and with our superb spirit of initiative and of independence, we are 
 already setting a pace industrially which no other nation can keep, 
 
 and which will soon leave all others hopelessly behind. 
 
 , ' . 
 
 In the foregoing description of the technical education and work 
 of the engineer, the engineer himself has been considered as a kind 
 of human tool to be used in the interest of society. His service to 
 society alone has been in contemplation. But as the engineer has 
 also a personality which is capable of appreciation and enjoyment 
 of the best this world has produced in the way of literature and art; 
 as he is to be a citizen and a man of family; and moreover, since 
 he has a conscious self with which he must always commune and 
 from which he cannot escape, it is well worth his while to see to it 
 that this self, this husband and father, this citizen and neighbor, is 
 something more than a tool to be worked in other men's interests, 
 and that his mind shall contain a library, a parlor, and a drawing- 
 room, as well as a work-shop. And yet how many engineers' minds 
 are all shops and out of which only shop-talk can be drawn ! Such 
 men are little more than animated tools, worked in the interest of 
 society. They are liable to be something of a bore to their families 
 and friends, almost a cipher in the social and religious life of the 
 community, and a weariness to the flesh to their more liberal minded 
 professional brethren. Their lives are one continuous grind, which 
 has for them doubtless a certain grim satisfaction, but which is 
 monotonous and tedious in comparison with what they might have 
 been. Even when valued by the low standard of money-making, they 
 are not nearly so likely to secure lucrative incomes as they would 
 be with a greater breadth of information and worldly interest. They 
 are likely to stop in snug professional berths which they find ready- 
 made for them, under some sort of fixed administration, and main- 
 tain through life a subordinate relation to directing heads who, witli 
 a tithe of their technical ability, are yet able, with their worldly 
 knowledge, their breadth of interests, and their fellowship with men, 
 to dictate to these narrower technical subordinates, and to fix for 
 them their fields of operation. 
 
 In order, therefore, that the technical man, who in material 
 things knows what to do and how to do it, may be able to get the 
 thing done and to direct the doing of it, he must be an engineer of 
 men and of capital as well as of the materials and forces of nature. 
 In other words he must cultivate human interests, human learning, 
 human associations, and avail himself of every opportunity to further 
 these personal and business relations. If he can make himself a good 
 business man, or as good a manager of men, as he usually makes of 
 
JOHNSON. 33 
 
 himself in the field of engineering he has chosen, there is no place 
 too great, and no salary too high for him to aspire to. Of such men 
 are our greatest railroad presidents and general managers and the 
 directors of bur largest industrial establishments. While most of 
 this kind of knowledge must also be acquired in actual practice, yet 
 some of it can best be obtained in college. I shall continue to urge 
 upon all young men who can afford it either to take the combined six- 
 year college and engineering course, described in our catalogue, or the 
 five-year course in the College of Engineering, taking as extra studies 
 many things now taught in our School of Commerce. The one cry- 
 ing weakness of our engineering graduates is ignorance of the busi- 
 ness, the social, and the political world, and of human interests in 
 general. They have little knowledge in common with the graduates 
 of our literary colleges, and hence often find little pleasure in such 
 associations. They become clannish, run mostly with men of their 
 class, take little interest in the commercial or business departments 
 of the establishments with which they are connected, and so become 
 more and more fixed in their inanimate worlds of matter and force. 
 I beseech you, therefore, while yet students, to try to broaden your 
 interests, extend your horizons now into other fields, even but for a 
 bird's-eye view, and profit, so far as possible, by the atmosphere of 
 universal knowledge which you can breathe here through the entire 
 period of your college course. Try to find a chum who is in another 
 department; go to literary societies; haunt the library; attend the 
 available lectures in literature, science, and art, attend the meetings 
 of the Science Club ; and in every way possible, with a peep here 
 and a word there, improve to the utmost these marvelous oppor- 
 tunities which will never come to you again. Think not of tasks; 
 call no assignments by such a name. Call them opportunities, and 
 cultivate a hunger and thirst for all kinds of humanistic knowledge 
 outside your particular world of dead matter, for you will never 
 again have such an opportunity, and you will be always thankful that 
 you made good use of this, your one chance in a lifetime. 
 
 For your own personal happiness, and that of your immediate 
 associates, secure in some way, either in college or after leaving the 
 same, an acquaintance with the world's best literature, with the lead- 
 ing facts of history, and with the biographies of many of the great- 
 est men in pure and applied science, as well as of statesmen and lead- 
 ers in many fields. With this knowledge of great men, great thoughts, 
 and great deeds, will come that lively interest in men and affairs 
 which is held by educated men generally, and which will put you on 
 an even footing with them in your daily intercourse. This kind of 
 
34 TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 knowledge also elevates and sweetens the intellectual life, leads to 
 the formation of lofty ideals, helps one to a command of good English, 
 and in a hundred ways refines, and inspires to high and noble en- 
 deavor. This is the cultural education leading to that appreciation 
 and enjoyment man is assumed to possess. 
 
 Think not, however, that I depreciate the peculiar work of the 
 engineering college. It is by this kind of education alone that America 
 has already become supreme in nearly all lines of material advance- 
 ment. I am only anxious that the men who have made these things 
 possible shall reap their full share of the benefits. 
 
 In conclusion let me congratulate you on having selected courses 
 of study which will bring you into the most intimate relations with 
 the world's work of your generation. All life to-day is one endless 
 round of scientific applications of means to ends, but such applications 
 are still in their infancy. A decade now sees more material progress 
 than a century did in the past. Not to be scientifically trained in 
 these matters is equivalent to-day to a practical exclusion from all 
 part and share in the industrial world. The entire direction of the 
 world's industry and commerce is to be in your hands. You are also 
 charged with making the innumerable new discoveries and inventions 
 which will come in your generation and almost wholly through men 
 of your cfass. The day of the inventor, ignorant of science and of 
 nature's laws, has gone by. The mere mechanical contrivances have 
 been pretty well exhausted. Henceforth profitable invention must 
 include the use or embodiment of scientific principles with which the 
 untrained artisan is unacquainted. More and more will invention be 
 but the scientific application of means to ends, and this is what we 
 teach in the engineering schools. Already our patent office is much 
 puzzled to distinguish between engineering and invention. Since en- 
 gineering proper consists in the solution of new problems in the ma- 
 terial world, and invention is likewise the discovery of new ways of 
 doing things, they cover the same field. But an invention is patent- 
 able, while an engineering solution is not. Invention is supposed in 
 law to be an inborn faculty by which new truth is , conceived by no 
 definable way of approach. If it had not been reached by this par- 
 ticular individual, it is assumed that it might never have been known. 
 An engineering solution is supposed, and rightly, to have been reached 
 by logical processes through known laws of matter, and force, and 
 .motion, so that another engineer, given the same problem, would 
 probably have reached the same or an equivalent result. And this is 
 .not patentable. Already a very large proportion of the patents issued 
 cotald be nullified on this ground, if the attorneys only knew enough 
 
JOHNSON. 35 
 
 to make their case. More and more, therefore, are the men of your 
 class to be charged with the responsibility and to be credited with 
 the honor of the world's progress, and more and more is the world's 
 work to be placed under your direction. The world will be remade 
 by every succeeding generation, and all by the technically educated 
 class. These are your responsibilities and your honors. The tasks are 
 great and great will be your rewards. That you may fitly prepare 
 yourself for them is the hope and trust of your teachers in this college 
 of engineering. 
 
 I will close this address by quoting Professor Huxley's definition 
 of a liberal education. Says Huxley: "That man, I think, has had a 
 liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is 
 the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the 
 work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of ; whose intellect is a clear, 
 cold, logic-engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth 
 working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of 
 work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the 
 mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fund- 
 amental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, 
 no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are 
 trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender 
 conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or 
 of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. 
 
 "Such a one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education ; 
 for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. 
 He will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on 
 together rarely ; she as his ever beneficient mother ; he as her mouth- 
 piece, her conscious self, her minister and interpreter." 
 
THE DURABLE SATISFACTIONS 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 Dr. Eliot, who for many years was President of Harvard Uni- 
 versity, treats in this paper of matters of prime importance to all 
 young men who desire sound education; hence it should be read with 
 care and attention by engineering students. The principle of mens 
 sana in corpore sano is one that was long ago established; but, un- 
 fortunately, it is still too often ignored, especially in student life. 
 Young men are prone to go to either one extreme or the other; and, 
 especially in engineering schools, earnest students are given to de- 
 veloping the mind at the expense of the body. This is a practice 
 which cannot be too forcibly condemned; for, (to misquote holy writ) 
 "what profiteth a man if he gain the whole of knowledge and lose 
 his own body?" 
 
 Dr. Eliot's remarks concerning "trained capacity for mental labor" 
 are words of wisdom and should be heeded, and what he says about 
 honor and reputation should be the very gospel of engineering students. 
 
 It is through the courtesy of Messrs. Thomas Y.- Crowell and 
 Company, Publishers, that permission has been obtained to reproduce 
 this paper from their book entitled "Durable Satisfactions of Life" 
 by Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 Editors. 
 
THE DURABLE SATISFACTIONS OF LIFE. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 For educated men what are the sources of the solid and durable 
 satisfactions of life? I hope you are all aiming at the solid, durable 
 satisfactions of life, not primarily the gratifications of this moment 
 or of to-morrow, but the satisfactions that are going to last and 
 grow r . So far as I have seen, there is one indispensable foundation for 
 the satisfactions, of life health. A young man ought to be a clean 
 wholesome, vigorous animal. That is the foundation for everything 
 else, and I hope you will all be that, if you are nothing more. We 
 have to build everything in this world of domestic joy and profes- 
 sional success, everything of a useful, honorable career, on bodily 
 wholesomeness and vitality. 
 
 This being a clean, wholesome, vigorous animal involves a good 
 deal. It involves not condescending to the ordinary barbaric vices. 
 One must avoid drunkenness, gluttony, licentiousness, and getting into 
 dirt of any kind, in order to be a clean, wholesome, vigorous animal. 
 Still, none of you would be content with this achievement as the 
 total outcome of your lives. It is a happy thing to have in youth 
 what are called animal spirits a 'very descriptive phrase; but animal 
 spirits do not last even in animals; they belong to the kitten or puppy 
 stage. It is a wholesome thing to enjoy for a time, or for a time 
 each day all through life, sports and active bodily exercise. These are 
 legitimate enjoyments, but if made the main object of life, they tire. 
 They cease to be a source of durable satisfaction. Play must be in- 
 cidental in a satisfactory life. 
 
 What is the next thing, then, that we want in order to make 
 sure of durable satisfaction in life? We need a strong mental grip, 
 a wholesome capacity for hard work. It is intellectual power and 
 aims that we need. In all the professions learned, scientific, or in- 
 dustrial large mental enjoyments should come to educated men. 
 The great distinction between the privileged class to which you be- 
 long, the class that has opportunity for prolonged education, and the 
 much larger class that has not that opportunity, is that the educated 
 class lives mainly by the exercise of intellectual powers and gets, there- 
 fore, much greater enjoyment out of life than the much larger class 
 that earns a livelihood chiefly by the exercise of bodily powers. You 
 ought to obtain here, therefore, the trained capacity for mental labor, 
 rapid, intense, and sustained. That is the great thing to get in 
 college, long before the professional school is entered. Get it now. 
 
 39 
 
40 DURABLE SATISFACTIONS OF LIFE. 
 
 Get it in the years of college life. It is the main achievement of college 
 life to win this mental force, this capacity for keen observation just 
 inference, and sustained thought, for everything that we mean by 
 the reasoning power of man. That capacity will be the main source 
 of intellectual joys and of happiness and content throughout a long 
 and busy life. 
 
 But there is something more, something beyond this acquired 
 power of intellectual labor. As Shakespeare puts it, "the purest 
 treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation." How is that 
 treasure won? It comes by living with honor, on honor. Most of 
 you have begun already to live honorably and honored, for the life 
 of honor begins early. Some things the honorable man cannot do, 
 never does. He never wrongs or degrades a woman. He never op- 
 presses or cheats a person weaker or poorer than himself. He never 
 betrays a trust. He is honest, sincere, candid, and generous. It 
 is not enough to be honest. An honorable man must be generous, 
 and I do not mean generous with money only. I mean generous in 
 his judgments of men and women, and of the nature and prospects 
 of mankind. Such generosity is a beautiful attribute of the man of 
 honor. 
 
 How does honor come to a man? What is the evidence of the 
 honorable life? What is the tribunal which declares at last, "This 
 was an honorable man"? You look now for the favorable judgment 
 of your elders, of parents and teachers and older students ; but these 
 elders will not be your final judges, and you had better get ready 
 now in college to appear before the ultimate tribunal, the tribunal of 
 your contemporaries and the younger generations. It is the judg- 
 ment of your contemporaries that is most important to you ; and you 
 will find that the judgment of your contemporaries is made up alarm- 
 ingly early, it may be made up this year in a way that sometimes lasts 
 for life and beyond. It is made up in part by persons to whom 
 you have never spoken, by persons who in your view do not know 
 you, and who get only a general impression of you; but always it is 
 contemporaries whose judgment is formidable and unavoidable. Live 
 now in the fear of that tribunal, not an abject fear, because inde- 
 pendence is an indispensable quality in the honorable man. There is 
 an admirable phrase in the Declaration of Independence, a document 
 which it was the good fashion of my time for boys to commit to 
 memory. I doubt if that fashion still obtains. Some of our public 
 action looks as if it did not. "When, in the course of human events, 
 it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
 which have connected them with another, and to assume among the 
 
ELIOT. 41 
 
 powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws 
 of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the 
 opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which 
 impel them .to the separation." That phrase "a decent respect" is 
 a very happy one. Cherish "a decent respect to the opinions of 
 mankind," but never let that interfere with your personal declara- 
 tion of independence. Begin now to prepare for the judgment of the 
 ultimate human tribunal. 
 
 Look forward to the important crises of your life. They are 
 nearer than you are apt to imagine. It is a very safe protective rule 
 to live to-day as if you were going to marry a pure woman within a 
 month. That rule you will find a safeguard for worthy living. It is 
 a good rule to endeavor hour by hour and week after week to learn 
 to work hard. It is not well to take four minutes to do what you can 
 accomplish in three. It is not well to take four years to do what you 
 can perfectly accomplish in three. It is well to learn to work in- 
 tensely. You will hear a good deal of advice about letting your soul grow 
 and breathing in without effort the atmosphere of a learned society or 
 place of learning. Well, you cannot help breathing and you cannot 
 help growing; those processes will take care of themselves. The 
 question for you from day to day is how to learn to work to ad- 
 vantage, and college is the place and now is the time to win mental 
 power. And, lastly, live to-day and every day like a man of honor. 
 
ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 By 
 Professor Frank P. McKibben. 
 
 This paper, which contains in condensed form much valuable ad- 
 vice to engineering 1 students, is reprinted from an editorial written for 
 the Engineering Record ; consequently the doctrine that it preaches may 
 be considered to have the official endorsement of that high authority. 
 
 Editors. 
 
ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 -'." ' V y By 
 
 Professor Frank P. McKibben. 
 
 Now that the time has arrived for engineering students to return to 
 their respective universities and technical schools, it is appropriate for 
 them, before beginning the year's work, to survey the field with a view 
 of deriving the greatest benefit from the time and money spent in the 
 undertaking ; in other words, to see the purpose of an engineering educa- 
 tion. The object which every young man should have for securing an 
 education of any kind is to learn how to live, which includes a great deal 
 more than the mere process of "making a living." The student who 
 spends four years at a school with this firmly fixed in his mind will derive 
 vastly more benefit than the one who thinks of his course as simply a 
 means of "getting a job" upon graduation. He must remember that, 
 to secure the greatest development, it is necessary to grow morally, men- 
 tally, and physically ; and if he neglects any one of these elements he has 
 not made the most of his opportunities. Students as a rule allow them- 
 selves to be too easily influenced by what is customary rather than by 
 what is best. For example, many spend no time in out-of-door sports 
 except to watch the weekly 'varsity contest, which is proper as far as 
 it goes, but which is not so effective in building up a strong body as is a 
 daily game of tennis or other similar healthy exercise. Throughout the 
 entire course some form of legitimate physical exercise should be in- 
 dulged in, with a view of improving the body rather than with a de- 
 termination of breaking an intercollegiate record, which in the break- 
 ing is very apt to overtax the powers of him who attempts it. 
 
 Next to developing a strong body the student should exert his best 
 efforts to accomplishing two things. First, he should train himself to 
 understand and to deal with his fellow students and the teaching corps, 
 and to make as many friends as possible in both these bodies. If this 
 quality of mixing with men can be acquired in college, it will not only 
 render college days more pleasant and more profitable, but it will result 
 in a breadth of view about men and things that will make the student a 
 more useful citizen throughout his after life. To accomplish this it 
 is necessary, among other things, to take part in some of the various 
 social activities which are to be found in every school, but here again 
 a middle course must be taken and the student must not become en- 
 tangled in so many of these non-scholastic activities as to allow them to 
 
 45 
 
46 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 absorb his attention to the extent that other features of his training are 
 neglected. In other words, it must not be forgotten that there are 
 several things to be gotten out of college, and no student should so 
 specialize in the social activities as to be found wanting either in the 
 physical or scholastic training. 
 
 While engaged in strengthening the physical and social sides, social 
 here being used in its broad sense, each student must constantly bear 
 in mind that the training of his mental faculties is one of the principal 
 objects of his being in college ; that while he is engaged in acquiring 
 knowledge of engineering principles he should realize that this is a matter 
 of the greatest importance and that whether he is in the class room, in 
 the laboratory, or on the athletic field, his studies should be considered a 
 serious part of his life's work. Although the mental training has here 
 been considered last it must not be assumed that it is of minor importance, 
 for the three sides of his development are of equal value both to the 
 young man himself and to the world at large. 
 
 It is essential that the function of the engineering course should be 
 clearly understood and kept in mind by students and instructors. These 
 courses should be followed in such a way that the student will not only 
 learn how to think, but how to accomplish things as well, for the world 
 gauges a man not only by what he knows, but also by what he does and 
 the manner in which he does it. The power to formulate and to solve 
 new questions which are constantly arising in industrial, in engineering, 
 and in scientific fields is what each man should strive to obtain. To 
 this end he must acquire methods of clear thinking, habits of industry, 
 accuracy, and reliability. Let not the standard be the quality of work 
 that will secure the lowest passing mark/but rather let it be of a quality 
 which creates the self-satisfaction coming from having done one's best 
 work. In other words, no man should be satisfied until he has done the 
 best that he is capable of doing, and he must remember that it is vastly 
 more important to himself that he sets and maintains a high standard in 
 his work than it is for the teacher, or later his employer, to set it for 
 him. 
 
 Few students realize the value of being accurate. Unfortunately, 
 this is not altogether the student's fault, because it is the custom in most 
 engineering schools of giving more work than students can do well, 
 and then to be satisfied if they do 60 per cent, of it. The 60 per cent, 
 represents the usual passing grade. Under this system it is difficult for 
 a young man to do his best, but he should strive to eliminate errors 
 by being constantly on guard against them. Let it not be forgotten 
 that it is results, accurate and reliable, that are wanted ; that to under- 
 stand the principles involved and to make numerous arithmetical or 
 other mistakes in their application is even more serious than not to have 
 
McKIBBEN. 47 
 
 the principles at all. In this connection it is desirable to emphasize the 
 importance of self-training. The very best teacher can only point out 
 the way, and it is for the student then to assume the responsibility of 
 following it. Each man should cultivate self-reliance, and should close- 
 ly scrutinize his own work in order that mistakes may be finally reduced 
 to a minimum. This question of exercising care is a very serious one, 
 and cannot be too strongly impressed upon teachers and students in 
 our engineering schools. 
 
 A thorough understanding of the underlying principles of chemistry, 
 mathematics, and physics is very necessary in engineering, and the 
 engineering school is by far the best place to get it. In addition to 
 these subjects it is essential that attention be paid to their application, 
 as exemplified in the study of hydraulics, strength of materials, and 
 various forms of design, such as bridge and machine design. Design 
 is especially useful because it trains the imagination, encourages re- 
 sourcefulness, develops ability to attack and solve _new problems, and 
 what is of paramount importance, it fixes the principles as no other 
 method of instruction can. By design is meant the application of prin- 
 ciples of mechanics to determining the size and strength of the various 
 parts of a structure without going so far into the details as to lose sight 
 of the main problem. Let no one be deceived bv thinking that he is 
 learning bridge engineering when he is really memorizing the sizes of 
 heads corresponding to certain commercial sizes of rivet shanks. De- 
 tails such as this can be much better learned in the bridge company 
 than in the college, while on the other hand, the principles of design 
 can be more quickly, though no better, mastered in college. 
 
 All students of engineering should take part in the activities of their 
 local engineering societies, and should be familiar with the principal 
 technical journals, because after graduation they will find that their 
 college courses will really be continued in a measure by preparing and 
 reading papers before the national engineering societies and by con- 
 tributing articles to the leading engineering periodicals. Furthermore, 
 by reading a good engineering paper there is seen the result of the 
 application of principles learned in the classrooms and the text-books, 
 thus adding to the interest and enthusiasm of the college work. It is 
 well, therefore, that while in college some knowledge be acquired of 
 these two branches of what may be said to constitute the post-graduate 
 course of the average engineer. 
 
 Finally, students should not attempt to specialize, but should get a 
 broad, general training in fundamental principles, together with enough 
 of their applications to fix them thoroughly. On the other hand, the 
 mistake should not be made of confusing breadth with superficiality. A 
 man can be broad and at the same time thorough. 
 
THE VALUE OF ENGLISH TO THE TECHNICAL MAN. 
 
 By 
 
 John Lyle Harrington, Consulting Engineer. 
 
 Concerning the -excellence or the reverse of this paper it behooveth 
 not the Editors to speak, as it is the work of one of them ; nevertheless 
 it may, perhaps, legitimately be stated that after it was published in 
 pamphlet form and widely distributed among engineers, professors, and 
 students, it received unanimous approval and much commendation. 
 
 It was delivered early in 1907 to the Technological Society of Kan- 
 sas City, the Engineering Society of the University of Missouri, and 
 the Civil Engineering Society of the University of Kansas. 
 
 Upon whether its teachings be followed or ignored may depend 
 the success or failure of any technical student to attain in after life 
 the highest rank in the engineering profession. Possessing a mastery 
 of the English language, he may or may not rise to eminence ; but with- 
 out it, he certainly cannot. Any engineering student who wilfully neg- 
 lects the study of his own language deserves the failure to attain emin- 
 ence which assuredly will be his fate. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 49 
 
THE VALUE OF ENGLISH TO THE TECHNICAL MAN. 
 
 By 
 
 John Lyle Harrington, Consulting Engineer. 
 
 Language is an instrument, a medium for the exchange of thought. 
 If, in individual instances, both speaker and hearer employ words in 
 the same sense and arrange them in the same manner, the expressed 
 ideas wil! be perfectly understood, whether the language be in accordance 
 with good usage or not. But, if thought is to be conveyed without 
 loss to a larger audience, the medium must be substantially perfect. 
 Words must not only be used in accordance with their accustomed and 
 generally accepted meanings, and with all the shades and niceties of 
 those meanings, but they must be arranged in accordance with the 
 accepted construction of phrase, clause, and sentence ; and the whole 
 argument or thesis must be so ordered with regard to the sequence and 
 the relations of the various ideas that the hearer shall be compelled 
 to understand. Discourses in which thoughts, though they be ever so 
 clearly expressed, are not arranged in logical order, will fail in their 
 purpose, because the argument is confused and the mind of the hearer 
 is occupied with the language instead of the substance of the thought. 
 You will recall Sam Weller's remark regarding Mr. Nupkins' eloquence 
 that "his ideas come out so fast they knock each other's heads off and 
 you can't tell what he is driving at." Like any other instrument, the 
 value of language is in direct proportion to our knowledge of it and our 
 skill in its use. If we understand it fully and use it skillfully it will 
 serve our purpose well, but if we are novices and bunglers, only dis- 
 appointment will result. 
 
 Language, though it will not supply the place of thought, is a 
 most essential instrument to every man. To him who is without im- 
 portant thought to express, it is not a very valuable tool. The laborer 
 does not require it in handling the pick and shovel; it is only in 
 his social relations that he has much need for speech. It is not im- 
 portant that the stoker speak fluently, or that the mechanic be an able 
 orator or writer. But as we proceed from the lower to the higher and 
 more intellectual occupations, the need and the value of knowledge and 
 command of language rapidly increase. The politician, we sometimes 
 think, makes skillful use of language to hide his thought, or to dis- 
 semble. Indeed, in all walks of life there are times when words are 
 well employed to obscure the thought. But the physician must be 
 
 51 
 
52 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 skillful in the use of language in order to direct and control his patients, 
 as well as to write, and to understand the writings of his fellow physic- 
 ians. The clergyman needs it to please, to inform, to convince, and to 
 persuade his auditors. But the technical man, that is, the engineer, the 
 architect, and the applied scientist of every kind, finds a sound, accurate 
 knowledge of the language essential to him in every part of his work. 
 A wide and precise knowledge of words is required in his reading as 
 well as in his general writing ; in his business and professional conversa- 
 tions even more than in those of a social nature. But, in the prepara- 
 tion and interpretation of technical correspondence, specifications, and 
 contracts, the use of perfect language reaches the highest degree of im- 
 portance. The lawyer alone needs to be so much of a precisian, and 
 he attains that end by very awkward and cumbersome means. 
 
 The technical man of the highest order is not only a cultured 
 gentleman, versed in all the amenities of polite society, familiar with the 
 best literature in his own language and probably in that of one or two 
 others, able to read many branches of learning understandingly and 
 to discuss them intelligently ; but, in addition, he has special knowledge 
 of mathematics and the applied sciences, and he is not only able to under- 
 stand what is written or spoken but can express his own thought 
 regarding them readily, accurately, and logically. The successful tech- 
 nical man, it has been well said, must know much about everything and 
 everything about something, but his ideas and knowledge are of small 
 value except in so far as he can convey them to others ; for, since he 
 does not often labor with his hands, he must instruct and direct those 
 who do. Thus, language is his most important tool, and it certainly 
 behooves him to see that it is always in good order. His reputation as 
 a gentleman and as a professional man depends very largely upon his 
 knowledge and use of English. 
 
 Perfect English is impossible, for there is no absolute standard. 
 Read any critical work on the language and you will find exhibited 
 examples of faulty construction and of erroneous use of words taken 
 from books by writers of the highest repute. Pope, a precisian him- 
 self, is frequently inaccurate. Johnson, whose chief work deals with 
 the use of language, is bombastic in his writings, "makes little fishes 
 talk like whales." Addison, whose English prose has long been con- 
 sidered the highest example of purity and elegance in style, is often 
 grossly inaccurate, sometimes positively slovenly. But the English em- 
 ployed by writers of the highest rank, such as Milton, Goldsmith, Gibbon, 
 Macaulay, Johnson, Hallam, Hume, Hawthorne, Motley, Irving, Pres- 
 cott, Ruskin, and Stevenson, is the most perfect standard attainable. The 
 usage of the best writers and speakers of the time is our highest 
 
HARRINGTON. 53 
 
 authority, but even usage is governed by precedent and reason. The 
 language grows. New words are formed as they are needed; old ones 
 become obsolete; current words acquire new meanings; and construc- 
 tions change; consequently, no permanent standard can be set up, but 
 usage must continue to change with the needs of English speaking people. 
 One must speak the English of the present time, but the right use of 
 the language demands conservatism, judgment, and taste in making 
 additions or changes. Each new dictionary offered contains, according 
 to the advertisements, a large number of words not to be found in any 
 other. This seems to indicate rapid growth of the language, but, as a 
 matter of fact, it has grown little since Shakespeare's day. The vaunted 
 new words are largely gross barbarisms, entirely out of keeping with 
 good usage, and consequently their life is short. The history of the 
 language is of great value in determining what is correct usage, but 
 reason and good taste are more perfect guides. No usage is good which 
 is not in accord with them. 
 
 Bad English generally springs from ignorance and carelessness, 
 quite as often from the one as from the other, but our newspaper- 
 writers, and often our magazine-writers, are guilty of intentional abuse 
 of the language. The newspapers reflect only the surface of life and 
 rarely treat of substantial things ; hence, they are, in the main, care- 
 lessly written; but they also deal largely in fine writing, employ large 
 words and high sounding phrases in the discussion of simple matters, 
 strive by exaggeration to excite wonder, and indulge freely in the 
 use of slang. Their style is frequently, even commonly, bombastic and 
 ridiculous, their matter stilted nonsense. This is especially true when 
 engineering and other scientific matters are the subjects under discus- 
 sion. Busy and sane men are provoked to find simple items of interest 
 which might be fully stated in a few words expanded into long, tedious 
 articles, filled with big, misused words; but the greater portion of the 
 people read little else than the newspapers and seem to like the ma- 
 terial they offer and the language they employ. When these facts are 
 taken into consideration, it is remarkable that the newspaper's style is 
 not in more general use ; it is a matter for congratulation and speaks 
 well for the common sense of the people that the newspapers have not 
 caused greater corruption of the language. 
 
 The magazines are somewhat better in the English employed, 
 but they are, as a rule, far below their professed standard. Hastily 
 written stories, "pot-boilers" that are not worth reading, fill a large 
 portion of their pages; and many of the cheaper magazines are well 
 supplied with pretentiously written descriptions of engineering works 
 and the discoveries and enterprises of applied chemistry. The maga- 
 
54 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 zines, like the newspapers, cater to the popular demand for marvels by 
 publishing ill-written, pseudo-scientific articles in which mole-hills always 
 appear as mountains. 
 
 Our technical periodicals are decidedly better, for, though much 
 of their matter is hastily and carelessly prepared and much of it gives 
 abundant evidence of the writers' ignorance of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of the language, it is written in an honest spirit and is not 
 padded or bombastic. Frequently the English is so crude, the thought 
 so ill-expressed, that the matter fails to obtain, much less hold, the 
 reader's attention. Long discussions appear in the columns which are 
 open to correspondence, because terms are so carelessly employed that 
 their import is not clear and disagreement results. It is not desirable 
 that technical articles be elegantly or entertainingly written, but it is very 
 important that their style be clear and concise and the diction accurate. 
 
 Some of the better magazines print only carefully selected matter 
 and reject everything but scholarly, well written articles. Their influence 
 upon the language is quite as good as that of the better books of the 
 day; but the well written article costs more money than the "pot- 
 boiler," hence, the magazine is more expensive, its circulation is limited, 
 and it influences a smaller number of readers than does its cheap and less 
 worthy competitor. 
 
 Periodical literature, if we may so designate the newspapers and 
 magazines, has been thus discussed because it exerts enormous influence, 
 much of it for evil, upon our language. Undoubtedly it has rendered 
 large service in aiding the foreign-born part of our people to gain a 
 working knowledge of the language quickly; and it has, probably more 
 than any other agency, broken down any tendency toward the forma- 
 tion of sectional differences in the use of English, for while we hear more 
 or less of the peculiarities of speech in the South and in New England, 
 as a matter of fact the differences in the language of educated people 
 are of small importance. Again, by no means all newspaper English is 
 bad. Many journals are ably edited and publish leaders whose English is 
 of the. best, but the language employed in the body of substantially all 
 newspapers abounds in gross errors. 
 
 The only influence which has greater sway over usage than 
 periodical literature is the ordinary language of every day life. The 
 language of childhood is exceedingly persistent. In fact some able 
 writers on the subject go so far as to insist that one's English can- 
 not be improved by study after maturity, that the usage of childhood 
 will, with very slight modification, govern through life; but it seems 
 hardly necessary to say that this view is extreme. If it were correct, 
 the increasingly large amount of instruction in English given in our 
 
HARRINGTON. 55 
 
 high schools, colleges, and universities would be almost wholly 
 wasted. To associate intimately with cultured people who speak 
 good English, and to read well written books, are undoubtedly the 
 easiest, most satisfactory, and most profitable methods of acquiring 
 and retaining good usage; but it seems irrational to question the 
 value of sound instruction in the fundamental laws of the language 
 It may be that by taking thought one cannot add one cubit to his 
 stature, but by giving the matter close attention one can certainly 
 improve one's use of the King's English. It is true that the in- 
 fluence of early habit is very strong. Men who have rooted out bad 
 habits and acquired a good command of English, often, in moments 
 of excitement, revert to the earlier usage, just as one who was foreign 
 born will often revert to his mother tongue. But there is abundant 
 reason to doubt that habits are ever so firmly fixed that they cannot 
 be altered by exercising care. Our position would be rather hope- 
 less if mental growth ceased at physical maturity. It is well known 
 that the style of even our greatest writers improves with years. 
 
 Technical men are peculiarly prone to offend in the use of their 
 mother tongue, because they have not, as a rule, read deeply in 
 classical literature nor been instructed thoroughly in the construction 
 of the language. Their higher education is generally almost entirely 
 technical. Most of the engineering schools now require for matricu- 
 lation substantially the same subjects that the colleges do, but some 
 of the best still admit students with little more than a grammar 
 school education, supplemented by the rudiments of the natural 
 sciences and elementary mathematics. Cultural subjects are never 
 required to any great extent, and they cannot be taught in the course. 
 The curriculum is already well filled with scientific, mathematical, 
 and technical subjects, and there is not room for a deep study of 
 literature and the languages. The technical man who has a thorough 
 knowledge of English has had the wisdom and patience to supple- 
 ment his technical education by an arts course, has read widely of 
 classic literature, or possesses the rare gift of language. Long con- 
 tinued and intimate association with those who employ excellent 
 English will ensure reasonably good usage, in fact such association 
 is almost essential, no matter what the education may be; but the 
 knowledge of the language so acquired generally breaks down when 
 it is applied to technical matters in which extreme accuracy is a 
 requisite and in which the terms differ much from those used in 
 ordinary conversation. There is no royal road to a knowledge of 
 technical English. 
 
 Some of our better universities are now offering a six-years' 
 
56 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 course which combines the usual arts and technical courses, each of 
 which ordinarily occupies four years, but which have many subjects 
 in common. This is a decided step in the right direction, for techni- 
 cal men generally are coming into a more complete realization of 
 their deficiencies and are insisting that young technists be more 
 liberally educated. The professional man does not always remain 
 a technist, in fact he frequently becomes a man of affairs as well, 
 where a liberal education is even more essential than in his purely 
 technical work. 
 
 Before passing to a consideration of the specific advantages 
 enjoyed by the technical man who uses good English, let us glance 
 at some of the grosser faults of which so many are guilty, for there 
 is no better way to attain a comprehension of the good than by 
 contrasting it with the bad. It has been well said that it is no 
 virtue to speak good English, but that it is a disgrace to use bad 
 English. The upright man does not feel the burden of the law, 
 but to the criminal it is oppressive. 
 
 You will say that it is absurd to state that men who have 
 graduated from any college cannot spell correctly, but many of 
 them cannot. S-e-d, said, p-e-a-r, pier are extreme but true ex- 
 amples. It is very common to find misspelled words in letters 
 written by young engineers. They consider such errors of no 
 material consequence, because they are not technical errors. The 
 mind has been so fixed upon the scientific work during the course 
 of study, and while the early experience is being acquired, that 
 such matters as language and culture seem to be of little import- 
 ance. But the recipient of the letter generally takes a different view 
 of the matter, for he justly considers the writter something of an 
 ignoramus. 
 
 Errors of orthography and orthoepy are both due to unpar- 
 donable carelessness and ignorance, for any one can learn to spell 
 and to pronounce correctly, and no man should be given a degree 
 or a diploma by any institution of learning unless he does so 
 habitually. 
 
 Grossly bad grammar is also very common. It generally arises 
 from carelessness in ordering the thought and speech rather than 
 from lack of knowledge of correct usage, but it is frequently attri- 
 buted to ignorance, and certainly the penalty is not too severe. In 
 many instances, however, ignorance is the true cause of the error. 
 The study of grammar commonly ceases when the student leaves 
 the graded schools. Thereafter, he assumes that his knowledge of 
 the subject is full and complete and that he need give it no further 
 
HARRINGTON. 57 
 
 attention, notwithstanding the fact that his capacity for thought 
 and the need of means for its expression continue to increase. His 
 vocabulary grows; but his knowledge of the fundamental principles 
 which govern its use not only does not expand as his needs require, 
 but it is allowed to become uncertain and to diminish through lack 
 of exercise. When the matter is thought of at all, it is assumed 
 that in some, vague, uncertain way habit will serve, instead of knowl- 
 edge and understanding. The grammar is put away, like other 
 childish things. 
 
 Some prominent writers state that the English language is 
 without grammar because inflection is absent and the position of 
 the words in respect to each other is depended upon to make their 
 meaning clear, but this is an extreme view. It is true that most 
 of our grammars only catalogue the rules without explaining their 
 origin and history, but the rules are none the less existent and bind- 
 ing upon us. They were developed by the English people in the 
 course of the evolution of the language, not by the grammarians 
 who formulated them ; and sentences which are not constructed in 
 accord with them will fail in their purpose. The lack of inflection, 
 however, affords a degree of flexibility not attained in any other 
 language. Because the laws of English are less frigid than those 
 of other tongues we are not only none the less obliged to observe 
 them, but we are also obliged to supplement them by a careful 
 observance of precedent and reason and to study the usage of those 
 who serve as examples. 
 
 But the highest skill in the use of language is not attained when 
 our words are properly spelled or pronounced and our sentences 
 formed in accordance with the rules of grammar. In fact these 
 are only bare and absolute essentials the skeleton of our language 
 which must still be provided with flesh and blood and nerves before 
 it will live and fulfill its mission. The whole purpose for which 
 language is employed is to impress our thought upon others in 
 such a way that they shall feel or think or act as we desire. To 
 attain this end it is essential that we make intelligent use of the 
 arts of rhetoric and oratory, that we know the laws of composition, 
 the methods of ordering and constructing our discourse so that it 
 will lead the minds of our hearers wherever we wish, and not only 
 convey our thought but induce our auditors to think along the 
 lines that will benefit our purpose. 
 
 The style of the discourse must be pleasing and suited to the 
 object. Especially for the technical man's purpose, it should be 
 crisp and clear. An elegant, showy style weakens the discourse 
 and is wholly undesirable except where immediate oratorical effect 
 
58 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 is sought. Deliberate elegance is a certain indication of pedantry 
 and affectation and is often a sign of lack of breeding. Short words 
 of English origin are invariably stronger and more rugged than their 
 longer and more elegant synonyms which are derived from the 
 Latin or Greek ; hence their use is nearly always to be preferred 
 except where the subject matter is abstruse or where nice distinctions 
 in meaning are important. Then the Greek and Latin derivatives 
 are frequently the more serviceable. But simplicity and force de- 
 mand simple, direct language. The style should be so smooth and 
 so unostentatious that the hearer's attention is not drawn to the 
 language, but is left entirely free to follow the course of the thought. 
 
 It is deplorably rare to find young technical men in possession 
 of an intimate knowledge of rhetoric. Business correspondence is 
 often annoyingly protracted because one or both of the parties con- 
 ducting it ignore the simple law of unity and fail to round out and 
 complete the subject under discussion. Errors of style and gross 
 errors of composition are quite as frequent in the correspondence 
 of the technically educated man as they are in that of the ordinary 
 clerk who went to work when he left the grammar school. It is 
 because, engineers are so little accustomed to order their thought 
 and language properly that they have so little part in the business 
 and correspondence of the corporations which employ them. It is 
 notorious that a technist is rarely a good business man. This is 
 partly because of the exaggerated importance he gives to technical 
 matters, but very largely because his thought is clumsily expressed 
 and awkwardly ordered. 
 
 The great value of the careful reading of good books lies very 
 largely in the increased vocabulary and in the deeper knowledge of 
 the nice distinctions in the meaning and the use of words. Two 
 persons using the same dictionary will read definitions differently ; 
 and definitions are, at best, only the lexicographer's opinion as to 
 what is the most general or most authoritative use of words. He 
 records not only all the words he finds in use, good and bad alike, 
 unless they are manifestly slang, but all the meanings of each, as 
 well ; and he does not attempt, except in a very general way, when 
 he advises that a word is obsolete or colloquial, to instruct regard- 
 ing usage. Good diction, however, cannot be acquired by reading 
 alone. As words new to the vocabulary suggest themselves in the 
 course of one's thought, great care must be taken to see that they 
 are good words and that they are fully understood, for half knowl- 
 edge is worse than ignorance. One has not made a word his own 
 till he can use it correctly without thought or hesitation. The mean- 
 ings of words vary widely and by nice differences, but ordinary lack of 
 
HARRINGTON. 59 
 
 energy to' study and use the words which come into the mind is 
 the chief cause of the poverty of language, which is often mis- 
 taken for poverty of thought. It is a common habit, when the 
 meaning of a word which has suggested itself is not fully under- 
 stood, to employ another which may imperfectly express the idea, 
 but the meaning of which is known. Thus the vocabulary remains 
 limited and inefficient through common laziness. 
 
 There are many gross faults of diction caused by ignorance or 
 carelessness or both, such as the misuse of prepositions; the con- 
 fusion of like and as and of lie and lay; the use of get to express 
 possession, of grow for become; and the formation of verbs from 
 nouns; but they are as nothing compared to the use of cant and 
 slang. 
 
 Rigidity of ideas and poverty of language are chiefly responsible 
 for cant, which is a fashion of using certain words in one legitimate 
 sense to the exclusion of others, as though they possess a certain 
 virtue which, because of this use, becomes peculiar to the user. It 
 is closely akin to slang, but the words used are always genuine, and 
 they are 1 soberly and honestly employed. Its use is a certain indi- 
 cation of a lack of breadth and arouses a kind of contempt for the 
 user in the minds of more liberal thinkers. 
 
 Slang consists of words, good and bad, and unmeaning jargon 
 used in an arbitrary and conventional sense, generally with humor- 
 ous purpose. But such humor is of the very cheapest kind, and it 
 at once casts suspicion upon the entire discourse. Slang is rarely, 
 if ever, permissible in writing, certainly not in business correspond- 
 ence or in formal engineering documents ; but, if good taste govern, 
 it may occasionally be used with good effect in conversation. Slang 
 that has come into general use is invariably vulgar. "Genteel" and 
 "elegant" are mere crudities, but no one of good taste and breeding 
 will employ "That's right," "Sure," "I don't think," "Nit," "Hully 
 Gee," "Drive you to drink," and similar words and expressions, for 
 they smack of the gutter. 
 
 Those who know the language so well that they use it correctly, 
 yet unconsciously, may gain ease of expression by taking liberties with 
 it in conversation ; but the grosser errors in tense, person, and number 
 are never permissible. Only the pedant will insist upon the use in 
 conversation of the dignified language of formal literature; but liberty 
 is not license ; and pedantry is preferable to vulgarity. 
 
 A grammar which was once, and, for all I know, is still in general 
 use states that "We think in words and when we lack fit words we lack- 
 fit thoughts." The statement sounds well and was generally accepted 
 
60 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 without question by both teacher and scholar, but like many another 
 plausible saying, it is only half true. When we lack fit words we 
 certainly lack fit expression for our thought; but who has not sought 
 urgently, even desperately, for a word to express the thought pre- 
 cisely and failed to find it. The sense of the idea was clear and per- 
 sisted, but the word would not come. And how much thought does 
 the Latin's shrug of the shoulders, the Jew's out-turned palms, or our 
 own facial expression convey for which no word was ever formed, even 
 in the mind. These expedients are employed to save language. They 
 are suggestive, sometimes vague, but often exceedingly effective. They, 
 like the spoken word, are liable to misinterpretation; but they are none 
 the less legitimate modes of expression. 
 
 One of my college professors used to say when he had mistaken 
 my meaning that my thought was not properly expressed or he could 
 not misunderstand it. If we all possessed a perfect knowledge of every 
 detail of the language, if laws of construction and the meanings of 
 words were absolutely fixed, this idea would be correct; but such a 
 condition is impossible, and we shall go on misunderstanding each other 
 till the end of time. But the more nearly we approach perfect knowl- 
 edge of the language, the more nearly perfect a tool will it prove to be. 
 
 If words are well chosen and the construction is in accordance 
 with good usage, it is very probable that the thought will be reasonably 
 well conveyed, no matter what may be the character of the audience. 
 At least we shall have done all that is possible by means of language to 
 make ourselves understood; but as we depart from the ordinary small 
 talk of every day life and deal with the unusual or abstruse subjects 
 of philosophy, religion, or science, the terms become more uncommon 
 and less generally known, the meaning is the more liable to be mistaken, 
 and consequently, it is all the more essential that the best usage be 
 carefully observed. 
 
 So far reaching are the effect of a difference in the meanings 
 given to words or expressions that schools of philosophy which seem 
 widely at variance often differ little except in the definitions of the 
 fundamental terms employed. Many a heated argument, many a loss 
 of temper and of friendship, many a suit at law, and many a life-long- 
 enmity would be entirely avoided if the principals would temperately 
 define the terms of their differences. 
 
 The character of the technical man's language is important in his 
 social and business intercourse ; in his business and professional cor- 
 respondence; in the promulgation of orders, rules, and regulations for 
 the guidance of those under his direction; in the preparation of specifica- 
 tions, contracts, and reports ; in writing and delivering addresses and 
 
HARRINGTON. 61 
 
 technical papers; and in writing technical books for the advancement 
 of his profession. 
 
 In conversation, earnestness and force may, in some measure, coun- 
 teract the evil influence of bad English; but, since less care is com- 
 monly given to the spoken word than to the written, the results of bad 
 habits of speech are much the same in either case ; and in moments of 
 special interest or excitement the habitual language is employed. Speech 
 is usually heard but once, therefore its errors are much more likely to 
 pass unnoticed than those which are written and may be read repeated- 
 ly; and the audience of the speaker is much more limited than that of 
 the writer; therefore it would seem less important to speak than to 
 write correctly. But it must not be forgotten that in conversation there 
 is no time, as a rule, to give thought to the form of speech; and that 
 all the errors one is accustomed to make are liable to occur. The habit 
 of using good English should be so firmly fixed that one is not conscious 
 of it. 
 
 A technical man is, presumably, an educated man; and if he do not 
 speak like one, suspicion is cast upon the entire range of his learning. 
 When a man cannot spell correctly, or use ordinarily good grammar 
 (and there are many university men who cannot) it is difficult to con- 
 vince others that he is professionally able. The great majority of tech- 
 nical men occupy salaried positions in the organizations of railways, 
 governments, constructing companies, and manufacturing corporations. 
 These positions are obtained by means of acquaintances made in a social 
 way, by interview, by correspondence, or on account of an earned 
 reputation. Yet I have granted interviews to many technical men who 
 spoke like laborers, and have received hundreds of letters from them 
 that would be a disgrace to a grammar school scholar. There are 
 technically educated men who say "I have saw," "I seen," and "I done" ; 
 and there are men in high places who require no further proof of the 
 speaker's deep ignorance, not only of English but of technical matters 
 as well. One who is thus ignorant of the language finds social pro- 
 gress substantially impossible. This may seem a trivial matter and 
 foreign to our purpose, but it is not. Matters of very large importance 
 are often settled by favor, and favor frequently follows social position. 
 Other things being equal, almost anyone will show his friend the pref- 
 erence in business or professional matters. It is even common to 
 stretch a point in favor of a friend. 
 
 Language has large weight in classifying a man, infinitely more 
 than manner or dress. It exhibits his breeding and indicates his social 
 status. I do not mean that it shows whether he belongs to the so 
 called "Smart Set," but whether he is of the educated, cultured class, 
 
62 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 whether you would care to entertain him at all, and, if so, whether you 
 would send him to your less or more select club, or whether you may 
 extend the extreme courtesy of inviting him to your home. This may 
 appear at first glance to be of small consequence ; but great things often 
 result from associations quickly formed. In fact, such social relations 
 make largely for success or failure in the business or professional world. 
 Many have received the opportunity which led to eminence through 
 the recommendation of a casual acquaintance who was favorably im- 
 pressed. 
 
 There are many vocations in which it is not essential that a man 
 be cultured and intelligent; but the technical professions are not among 
 them. Nothing so surely marks a man's secret habits of thought, his 
 real character, as the little tricks of speech which are exhibited when 
 his mind is upon the matter rather than the manner of his speech. If 
 his thought be habitually coarse, crude, or brutal, his speech will make 
 the fact manifest at times ; and the speech of a moment frequently pro- 
 duces a permanent and vital effect. 
 
 In business correspondence the value of good usage is still more 
 manifest than in conversation, since the written word is permanent, and 
 correspondence greatly extends the field of one's intercourse. A letter 
 very probably passes through many hands and multiplies the good 
 or bad impressions of the writer it produces. If its import is not 
 clear, it may cause disagreement or involve serious financial disadvan- 
 tage to the writer. Even bad punctuation will often seriously alter 
 the entire meaning of a sentence, and particularly bad grammar at 
 once stamps a writer as being more or less of an ignoramus. The 
 art of letter writing, like a knowledge of grammar, is commonly con- 
 sidered to be within the range of everyone's learning and skill ; but 
 anyone who has had large experience in business correspondence knows 
 that few men write good letters. It is so rare to find a matter which 
 is composed of more than one or two items, clearly, concisely, and 
 thoroughly discussed in a letter that favorable attention is immediately 
 attracted to its writer. Not a few men owe the opportunity for ad- 
 vancement to their ability to write a good letter. Even though one 
 be thoroughly versed in his subject and his discourse be well worth 
 the time and attention of men of affairs, bad grammar will cast such 
 suspicion over his whole equipment of learning that his argument will 
 often be put aside without substantial consideration. Bad grammar is 
 not a bar to the acquisition of money, but it substantially prohibits 
 the acquisition of high position in the scientific world. 
 
 The detrimental results of bad English in conversation or in 
 correspondence are by no means so certain as in the more formal 
 
HARRINGTON. 63 
 
 technical papers. In the preparation of articles for the technical 
 press, and papers for the learned societies, there is time to study 
 form and style and to eliminate errors due to haste; hence, when 
 such matters are ill written, it is not unfairly argued that the writer 
 is ignorant of the correct use of the language. Such an opinion, 
 widely disseminated, as it is likely to be when it originates thus, is 
 exceedingly detrimental to the writer. It weakens his arguments, 
 causes him to be misunderstood, or so detracts from the interest of 
 his readers that the matter is not read. The idea that a technical 
 paper is dry at best, and that the English employed in it is of small 
 consequence has long been proved incorrect. There is so much 
 nowadays that is well written that no busy professional man is 
 willing to spare the extra time and effort necessary to read and 
 digest an ill written paper. 
 
 A merchant may advertise his wares, a manufacturer his 
 product, but reasonable modesty and his code of ethics prevent a 
 professional man from advertising his skill. If he does not be- 
 come known by his work or his writings, he remains in comparative 
 obscurity. His ability is clearly exposed in his writings, in which 
 he gives to the profession his best thought ; and if he cannot write 
 easily and well he will probably not write at all, for the censor- 
 ship of the learned societies is now severe and is rapidly growing 
 more so. Every normal, healthy-minded technical man desires to 
 leave a permanent record of the results of his best thought and work 
 to aid his co-workers, and those who come after him. An ably 
 written description of work performed, discoveries made, or methods 
 developed accomplishes more for the advancement of science than 
 many well designed and well executed constructions. The latter 
 benefit those who see them; the former may help all who can read. 
 
 Provoking and expensive errors often arise from the misunder- 
 standing of badly expressed orders, rules, and regulations. In large 
 corporations, especially in railway, contracting, and engineering- 
 companies where employees are distributed over a wide area, it is 
 impossible for an officer to give individual instructions, or to see 
 personally that they are carried out; hence, general instructions 
 must be so clear that they cannot be misunderstood or evaded. It 
 is hardly necessary to say that the consequences of a mistake in 
 train orders, in instructions regarding breaking track for repairs or 
 renewals, or for making temporary construction to span washouts, 
 may result in expensive and fatal accidents. And even minor errors, 
 oft repeated, may prove very costly. 
 
 But the preparation of reports, specifications, and contracts is 
 
64 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 the most particular and momentuous task the technical man has to 
 perform. A misused word, a phrase whose meaning is ambiguous, 
 a paragraph that is confused, or the omission of a direction or a 
 precaution, may result in great damage, to both the client and the 
 technical man. It is not enough to be careful in a general way. 
 Every word, every phrase, every sentence, has a direct and vital 
 bearing on the work governed by the documents. I have known 
 the presence in a contract of a single word of equivocal meaning to 
 cost one of the parties many thousands of dollars, though when the 
 contract was drawn there was no question regarding the intent of 
 the parties to it. Probably the majority of the civil law suits are 
 caused not by, trickery or deceit or dishonesty, but by the use of 
 ambiguous words and phrases, bad ordering of the matter, incom- 
 pleteness, and other faults 'in the language of the correspondence, 
 specifications, and contracts. There is no more certain way for 
 the engineer to protect his own and his client's interests than to 
 prepare all documents in accordance with the best English usage 
 as well as with technical skill; and there is no surer way to lay the 
 foundation for trouble and financial loss than to neglect the charac- 
 ter of his language. 
 
 Notwithstanding the vital importance of clear, concise, and 
 full expression in such documents, it is not uncommon to find 
 specifications and contracts so bad in their construction that they 
 fail utterly in their purpose. Let me quote an illustration from the 
 specifications, prepared by an architectural firm of some repute, for 
 the construction of a building which cost nearly one hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 "Material and Workmanship. The entire frame work, columns, 
 beams, etc., as indicated by the framing plans, or as specified, is to 
 be of wrought steel, of quality hereinafter designated, all materials 
 to be provided and put in place by this contractor. All work to be 
 done in a neat and skillful manner, and is to guarantee the con- 
 struction and workmanship with a bond equal to amount of tender 
 for a term of five years, satisfactory to the proprietor and architects, 
 to properly carry or support the loads it is designated to carry, namely 
 its own weight, the weight of the several floors, roof and walls 
 resting thereon, a 10,000 gravity tank, and the pressure of any wind 
 which may not be designated a hurricane, and future three stories. 
 * * * The floor beams are to be calculated for a maximum load 
 of 150 Ibs. to the sq. ft. (using C type IV of the Clinton Fire-Proof 
 system, of Clinton, Mass.). The columns are to be calculated for 
 a vertical load above mentioned and for horizontals and wind 
 pressure and snow pressure, also roof. The whole to be calculated 
 
HARRINGTON. 65 
 
 heavy enough for three additional stories on building should they 
 be put on at any time, with connections at top columns to receive 
 future columns. The columns on ground floor supporting front to 
 be calculated in same proportion with all the rods necessary where 
 shown. The whole of the columns to be one size throughout, those 
 that carry more weight reinforced, and all columns to be kept 
 as small as possible in proper construction. Each column to have 
 %-inch holes bored or punched every 4 ft. 6 in. in height on each 
 corner (for use of other trades to fasten metal lath)." 
 
 The building was constructed under these specifications, not 
 according to them ; that would be impossible. But it is hardly 
 necessary to say that the proprietors interested were not safe- 
 guarded. The wretched paragraphs quoted are no worse than a 
 contractor finds in specifications almost every day, for they are 
 composed, as a large number of engineers and architects compose 
 their specifications, by copying and combining sentences or para- 
 graphs from various sources, instead of by writing them from 
 fundamental knowledge of the construction desired. In such in- 
 stances the client is protected infinitely more by the honesty, 
 knowledge, and skill of the contractor than by those of the architect. 
 
 Very few railway specifications for complicated structures are 
 so well written that a contractor cannot comply with them to the 
 letter, yet give the company construction far inferior to what 
 the writer of the specifications intended, and thereby gain for him- 
 self material advantage. 
 
 The lawyers and the courts are kept busy rectifying the blun- 
 ders of other professional men who do ill what they are paid to do 
 well. I know of one contractor who has grown gray in the busi- 
 ness of constructing buildings, who has never completed a contract 
 without a lawsuit, and who has never lost a lawsuit. This speaks 
 ill for the work of the architects under whom he worked, yet they 
 are probably no worse than their fellows. If it were not good 
 policy to be reasonably honest, many another contractor might 
 easily approach his record. 
 
 It would appear that we have given more attention to bad than 
 to good English. This is not illogical, for, manifestly, if the bad 
 be eliminated the good will remain; and if the evils arising from the 
 abuse of the language be fully comprehended, there will certainly 
 be serious endeavor to improve the usage. The laws of the language 
 are commonly violated from mere carelessness. Slang and pro- 
 vincialisms creep into the speech and destroy its force and elegance ; 
 the expression becomes slovenly and the thought obscure; and what 
 
66 VALUE OF ENGLISH. 
 
 constitutes good English is forgotten unless reasonable attention 
 is paid to the speech. 
 
 It is not given to every one to speak and write fluently, for 
 style of the highest order is a rare gift ; but if good, vigorous 
 English be employed, a good, clear, characteristic style will soon 
 be developed, the thought will be well impressed upon the audience, 
 and the influence of the writer will be correspondingly strengthened. 
 Facetiousness, fine writing, and poesy are rarely of service to the 
 technical man. Invective should almost never be employed. Sar- 
 casm should be used sparingly; and nothing should be written in 
 anger. Remember that "whom the gods would destroy, they first 
 make mad," and wait till your anger has cooled ; then your just in- 
 dignation may be much more effectively expressed in firm but mod- 
 erate language. This is quite as much a matter of language as of 
 policy and ethics, for violent language is always more violent than 
 the user intended it to be. 
 
 Language itself is merely an instrument. Beautiful English 
 does not constitute a meritorious discourse. The speaker or writer 
 who uses language correctly and fluently but expresses no im- 
 portant thought is a failure; for the sole service good English can 
 render is to convey the speaker's thought and purpose fully and 
 accurately to the minds of his auditors. But this service alone will 
 amply repay years of study and a life of care and attention to the 
 use of the English language. 
 
 It may not be out of place to mention here a number of books 
 which I feel certain will be found helpful. 
 
 A number of grammars published in this country set forth the 
 rules clearly and there are several good etymologies, but "Mason's 
 English Grammar," published by Bell and Son, of London, contains, 
 in addition, much historical matter which aids remarkably in com- 
 prehending the subject. 
 
 Lockwood's "Lessons in English" and "A. S. Hill's Rhetoric" 
 are very good elementary books, and "Genung's Rhetoric" is the best 
 of the more advanced works on composition. 
 
 "Every Day English" and "Words and Their Uses," by Richard 
 Grant White, are among the best written and sanest books which 
 treat of English usage. They are substantially free from pedantry, 
 a rare quality in books of this class. "What is Good English and 
 Other Essays," by Harry Thurston Peck, also treats this subject ad- 
 mirably, though it should be read only after a sound knowledge of the 
 technique of the language has been acquired. 
 
HARRINGTON. 67 
 
 There are a number of good dictionaries. "The Century" is the 
 most complete and scholarly, with the possible exception of an elabo- 
 rate work now being issued in parts from Oxford University. But 
 "Webster's International Dictionary," "Worcester's Dictionary," and the 
 "Standard Dictionary" are good, serviceable compilations. There are 
 several good books of synonyms, and "Roget's Thesaurus of English 
 Words" will also be found very helpful in rinding just the right word. 
 
 Winchester's "Principles of Literary Criticism" is not only one 
 of the most ably written works on the subject, but is itself one of the 
 finest examples of good English we have. Sidney Lanier's books, 
 "Music and Poetry" and "The English Novel," are also excellent crit- 
 ical works. 
 
 This list may be greatly extended; but a thorough study of one 
 or two good books which treat each phase of the study of English, 
 the reading of literature of the best classes, and reasonable watchful- 
 ness over one's every day writing and conversation, will inevitably 
 result in habitually correct use of the English language. 
 
THE NECESSITY FOR INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING 
 
 LIBRARIES AND FOR CONTINUING STUDY AFTER 
 
 GRADUATION. 
 
 By 
 
 John Lyle Harrington, Consulting Engineer. 
 
 As in the case of the last paper, the Editors are not at liberty to 
 comment much upon the contents of this address ; nevertheless they 
 are constrained to make the statement that any engineering student 
 who fails to follow the advice which it gives will all his life have 
 occasion to regret having done so. Consequently, both the entering 
 freshman and the recent graduate are earnestly urged to "read, mark, 
 learn, and inwardly digest" all that the author says and be governed 
 accordingly. 
 
 This address was delivered in 1908 to the engineering students of 
 the University of Missouri and of the University of Kansas, and was 
 afterwards printed in pamphlet form and widely distributed among en- 
 gineers, professors, and students. The universal endorsement which' 
 it received is a sufficient proof of the correctness of the precepts which 
 it puts forth, and an irrefutable reason for advising all engineering 
 students to be guided by them. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 69 
 
THE NECESSITY FOR INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING 
 
 LIBRARIES AND FOR CONTINUING STUDY 
 
 AFTER GRADUATION. 
 
 By 
 John Lyle Harrington, Consulting Engineer. 
 
 Substantially every engineering graduate aims to achieve success 
 along professional lines; otherwise his education is largely a mistake, 
 for an engineering course, though it supplies mental training of a high 
 order, offers very little that is cultural, while a well chosen academic 
 course affords equal mental training and, at the same time, provides 
 the broad, general culture which is so advantageous in every vocation. 
 Fame and position may be attained as a technist purely; that is by 
 confining the attention wholly to the design of engineering works ; for 
 cities, railroads, contractors, and the manufacturers of bridges, loco- 
 motives, engines, electrical apparatus, and other lines of machinery 
 need such men and value them highly. Or, with a sound knowledge 
 of the technical work for a foundation, success may be won as a sales- 
 man or as a manager of sales; as a publicity officer or advertising 
 manager for manufacturing companies ; as an engineering educator ; 
 as a manager of works and construction ; as a business or contracting 
 manager; or as an executive officer in any corporation whose business 
 is based upon engineering. 
 
 Both money and position may be gained as a contractor in the 
 construction of engineering works ; and the field of technical journal- 
 ism offers high rewards. But the highest professional position is to 
 be gained as an engineer in the broadest sense of that term. This 
 requires the greatest possible technical skill, both theoretical and prac- 
 tical, in some important specialty and its allied branches ; and sound 
 knowledge of the methods and the business features of construction, 
 of the law of contracts, of the financing of engineering projects, and 
 of accounting, including under that term not merely the bookkeeping 
 relating to construction, but the consideration of operation, repairs, re- 
 newals, sinking funds, and similar financial matters. 
 
 Many qualifications are required for a high order of success. That 
 one must have health goes without saying, for without health and 
 strength there cannot be hard and continuous labor, either mental or 
 physical ; and success of any kind demands both. Intelligence is neces- 
 
 71 
 
72 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 sary to grasp the most abstruse principles of mathematics and the pure 
 sciences and to apply them to available resources. Energy of the high- 
 est order must be employed to study principles, men, methods, and 
 materials and to bring them together so that useful works shall re- 
 sult. Integrity is absolutely essential to high professional success; for 
 the engineer's position is frequently judicial, and he must bring to his 
 work all of the spirit of fairness that is given to man. The individual- 
 ity and initiative to do original, thoughtful work is another essential 
 without which the engineer becomes a hack or a grind who, though 
 a useful cog in the machine, does little to advance his profession. But 
 all these qualifications count for little in the struggle for professional 
 success unless they are supplemented by a sound engineering education. 
 Thirty years or more ago a great many eminent engineers obtained 
 at least their technical education by their own efforts. Then the pro- 
 fession was comparatively undeveloped, technical literature was meagre, 
 and it was much easier than it is today to learn all that was most 
 important of any one branch of engineering. Self education is pos- 
 sible now, but it is rarely broad, and it generally fails at the critical 
 moment. The man who has educated himself rarely has the training 
 necessary to keep pace with the advancement of engineering science, 
 and he is much more apt to be a "rule of thumb engineer" or a copyist 
 than an original thinker. Nowadays graduation from an engineering 
 school of good standing counts for so much that only the lower posi- 
 tions are, as a rule, open to the man who is without it. Graduation 
 is a guarantee of a certain training, and employers demand it. 
 
 The technical course, however, is only the beginning of an engi- 
 neer's education, the first stretch of a long and interesting but difficult 
 road. The present requirements for admission to institutions of the 
 first grade are as high as, too often higher than, the secondary schools 
 are prepared to satisfy, and the four-year courses are crowded well 
 nigh to the limit of the capacity of the average student; yet the en- 
 gineering graduate is taught only the elements of a few important 
 branches and is left substantially without knowledge of many subjects 
 which are closely allied to any specialty he may choose. This is not 
 the fault of the schools, for it is their function to perform the greatest 
 possible service to the community which supports them, rather than 
 to maintain certain ideals; but it is due to the inability or unwilling- 
 ness of the student to spend the requisite time and energy upon his 
 education. To raise materially the requirements for admission or to 
 increase the length of the course would diminish greatly the number 
 of students; and, while the few would be better prepared, the com- 
 munity as a whole would not be so well served. 
 
HARRINGTON. 73 
 
 There is at present a strong tendency to require more work of 
 the engineering graduate. President Schurman of Cornell University 
 is advocating a five-year engineering course, as Dr. Waddell has been 
 doing for more than twenty years. Dartmouth and Cornell urge a 
 special academic course which leads to a bachelor's degree and includes 
 sound training in mathematics, languages, and the natural sciences, 
 and which is followed by a two-year course in purely technical work, 
 leading to the professional degree. Several institutions are offering 
 five-year courses, and many provide a year's graduate work for those 
 who are willing and able to prepare themselves more thoroughly than 
 usual. 
 
 Engineering educators very generally recognize that our gradu- 
 ates are lacking both in culture and in breadth of technical knowledge; 
 and they are earnestly seeking means for improvement. Some prom- 
 inent professors are beginning to demand a collegiate education in 
 preparation for the engineering study, just as such training is now 
 required in many Eastern schools in preparation for the study of law 
 and medicine; for it is evident that the engineer needs for his highest 
 development more training, more and broader knowledge, and more 
 culture than he commonly possesses. The enormous increase in the 
 number of students pursuing technical courses ensures very keen com- 
 petition in all branches of engineering; for, though the field is widen- 
 ing rapidly and during the recent period of remarkable prosperity the 
 demand for engineers was greater than the supply, the day is not far 
 distant when employers will be more at liberty than they have been to 
 select men especially suited to their needs. Then the law of the sur- 
 vival of the fittest will operate more truly; and education and train- 
 ing will count for still more than they do today. Then, even more 
 certainly than now, only the ablest and best educated men will sit in 
 high places and ordinary talent will remain in the ranks. 
 
 Now I want to state in the most emphatic terms at command .that, 
 no matter how high the standard of your school, when you graduate 
 your education is only well begun, that if you do not continue your 
 studies with as much or more vigor than you have commonly employed, 
 you will have exceedingly small chance to win fame or position. You 
 will be left standing at the post, and the races will be won by men 
 who know their deficiencies and who take prompt and energetic steps 
 to remove them. Your shortcomings are not limited to ignorance of 
 subjects you have not studied. As soon as you are called upon to apply 
 commercially the technical knowledge acquired while in school, you 
 will become painfully aware that both your best efforts and those of 
 your instructors have not given you such command of the facts and 
 
74 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 principles of engineering that you can employ them with facility ami 
 assurance. During your course there was not sufficient occasion for 
 applying the knowledge you gained to make its use a habit, and since 
 completing the study of many subjects there has been time to forget 
 much of them. 
 
 The great danger comes when you leave your alma mater and 
 go out to take your place in the world. The man whose diploma is 
 fresh is rarely given work which demands the immediate use of his 
 theoretical knowledge, even that relating to one subject. The more 
 mechanical work of drafting, inspection, or running an instrument is 
 what he can do best, and, consequently, what he will be given to do; 
 and it may be years before his duties attain such a breadth that the 
 entire range of his technical knowledge will be called into play. When 
 the demand does come it will come suddenly, and often it will be un- 
 recognized. Then woe unto him who has considered his technical 
 course all sufficient, for he will be like the foolish virgins in the parable, 
 he will lack oil for his lamp and there will be no time to get it. He 
 has not only failed to study and grow as the years passed, but he has 
 lost a large part of the knowledge he spent four years to gain; and 
 the prize is not for him. 
 
 Let me illustrate by citing a few of the many instances which 
 have come under my observation. Though each case will show only a 
 single failure, it will indicate clearly the general status of the knowl- 
 edge possessed by the engineer in question. \ . 
 
 One man, after six years in the bridge shops, could not calculate 
 the stresses in a Warren truss produced by static loads. Another, after 
 spending twelve years detailing and inspecting bridges, could not de- 
 termine the stresses produced in a beam by a locomotive. Another 
 who had spent eight years detailing bridges and structural work could 
 not find the reactions from a simple cantilever crane. Still another 
 of seven years' experience could calculate graphically with facility but 
 could do nothing analytically. One man was found to be unable to 
 make a stress sheet for a parallel-chord, Pratt-truss highway bridge, 
 though he had spent nearly three years in one of the best bridge shops 
 in the country. Another who had been employed for two years in the 
 office of the bridge engineer of one of the prominent railroads could 
 not find the position of two wheels which would produce the maximum 
 moment in a beam. An electrical engineer of four years' experience, 
 when working out some electric locomotive problems, considered the 
 grade in per cent to be numerically equal to the degrees of angle be- 
 tween the track and the horizontal. This error ultimately cost him a 
 position which afforded a salary of thirty-five hundred dollars a year. 
 
HARRINGTON. 75 
 
 An experienced mechanical graduate was astonished to find that the 
 speed with which steam will travel through a port is calculable. An- 
 other found it impossible to conceive that a steam turbine is operated 
 by the impulse instead of by the pressure of steam. And I have 
 known several experienced mechanical men who could not determine 
 what series wound motor is required to hoist a given load through a 
 fixed distance in a certain time, because they could not read the per- 
 formance curves of the motors. 
 
 Since you may say these are isolated cases and, consequently, prove 
 nothing, I shall cite one more which is so sweepingly general that it 
 seems incredible. A prominent bridge company wanted another de- 
 signing engineer. They employed about seventy men, substantially all 
 technical graduates, in the detail drawing rooms. In the course of a 
 few months the chief engineer tested every man of promise among 
 them to see if one could not, in reasonable time, be trained to fill the 
 position ; but all so lacked theoretical knowledge or facility in its 
 use that an engineer was obtained elsewhere at twice the salary re- 
 ceived by the best paid man in the drafting rooms. Probably every 
 man of the seventy would gladly have taken up the designing work 
 for less salary than he was then receiving, but not one was prepared 
 and ready. 
 
 I might cite many more such examples, but I think abundant have 
 been presented to convince you that the technical education must be 
 carried on vigorously and continuously after graduation, if positions 
 much higher than those of skilled workmen are to be attained. With- 
 out exception, the men mentioned in the individual examples I have 
 just cited were graduates of Eastern engineering schools of the high- 
 est standing. They had every advantage which you have now or 
 will have when you graduate, unless you possess the energy and fore- 
 sight to acquire and to study thoroughly and persistently a library 
 of the best books, periodicals, and technical society papers which re- 
 late to your specialty and its allied branches. If you avoid this work 
 and try to cope unaided with the many problems which will confront 
 you, you must inevitably fail and occupy through life a very subordi- 
 nate or at best a secondary position. 
 
 Let us examine the undergraduate course carefully in order to 
 determine what it accomplishes, what are its limitations, and how you 
 may, while still in school, strengthen yourselves against the day when 
 you are turned out into the world to sink or swim professionally; when 
 you no longer have within reach instructors ready to help you over the 
 rough places and to guide and direct you at need. 
 
76 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 The first two years are devoted almost exclusively to the study 
 of mathematics, languages, and the natural sciences, subjects which 
 afford culture and excellent mental training, and form the basis for 
 the technical work, but are in themselves not at all technical. During 
 this period the student's capacity for study and his ability to grasp a 
 new subject are greatly improved, but only two years are left for the 
 technical work; and it taxes the ingenuity of the faculty, and some- 
 times the strength of the student, to cover in that limited time all of 
 the more important fundamental subjects relating to any branch of 
 engineering. Many closely allied subjects must be left untouched, and 
 there is time for only the elements of many of those considered. It is 
 impossible in the time available to make a deep and comprehensive 
 study of any one branch without neglecting other important subjects. 
 
 President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton University has recently 
 argued before a meeting of teachers that our educational methods are 
 all wrong, that we teach too many subjects and no subject thoroughly 
 enough. There is a measure of truth in the statement, for it is better 
 to be well versed in some one line, so well that the knowledge is con- 
 stantly available for use, than to know something of many lines, but 
 so little of any one that the knowledge is not of much service. It is 
 always difficult so to draw the line between deep preparation and 
 broad preparation that the greatest good will result. In fact no general 
 rule will apply, but the courses must be laid down for the average stu- 
 dent in accord with the faculty's best judgment. Some men would 
 be benefited by more concentrated work, for they may tend naturally 
 to breadth ; on the other hand many men would, if possible, select 
 easy work under the guise of seeking breadth, and thus fail to obtain 
 the necessary training. 
 
 Most students desire and many engineers urge that more practice 
 be taught, and that the relations between theory and practice be made 
 clearer; but educators have wisely refused to comply with these de- 
 mands, for to do so without increasing the time required for the 
 course would crowd out essential theoretical studies which the grad- 
 uate is not likely to pursue unaided. Students generally expect to be 
 finished, practical engineers when they graduate; and many practi- 
 tioners think that the schools should leave the graduates little to learn ; 
 but thoughtful engineers realize that the schools serve their highest 
 purpose when the whole course is devoted to fundamental, theoretical 
 studies and only enough practice is taught to illustrate principles. 
 The training that results in the ability to grasp new ideas and in the 
 habit of concentrating the mind upon any matter in interest is every- 
 thing; the knowledge of a few facts more or less is nothing. Every time 
 
HARRINGTON. 77 
 
 a student leads his instructors to believe he has mastered a point when 
 he has not, he cheats himself not out of so much learning but out of 
 the ability to learn. He has handicapped himself permanently for the 
 sake of an hour of ease, left himself a little nearer the position of the 
 untaught laborer, and depreciated a little more his chance for success. 
 
 As soon as he begins his professional work, the graduate com- 
 monly renounces all thought of further study of principles and devotes 
 his whole time to the study of practice. Theoretical studies are com- 
 monly crowded out of his field of effort, and what he has not learned 
 about them while in school generally remains unknown, therefore the 
 technical courses offered nowadays are right in principle, since they 
 are composed chiefly of fundamental subjects. 
 
 Neither would it be wise for the schools to permit specialization 
 much, if any, more than they do now. It is rare for a student to know 
 positively what branch of engineering he will make his specialty. 
 Civil, mechanical, electrical, mining, chemical, and metallurgical engi- 
 neering, each has many subdivisions so important that few can prac- 
 tice successfully in more than one or two of them; and it is difficult 
 to know in advance of actual work for what branch one's taste or 
 mental attainments best fit him, or in what line opportunities will occur ; 
 therefore the education should be so broad that any specialty may be 
 chosen and practiced with success. It is not uncommon to find great 
 deviation from the intended course, men educated as civil engineers 
 practicing in mechanical lines, and mechanical engineering graduates 
 doing civil or electrical work. Even if the specialty practiced could 
 be predetermined, the advantages of special preparation for it, within 
 the limits of the four-year course, would be more than offset by the 
 narrowing effect of crowding out other important subjects; and an 
 error in choosing a specialty would probably result in mediocrity or 
 failure, for great opportunities do not occur frequently; and if they 
 cannot be seized promptly, they are generally lost. Therefore it is 
 essential that your education be both broad and thorough, if the great- 
 est success is to be obtained. 
 
 There is frequently a tendency for students to regard lightly the 
 professional ability of their instructors, to consider them theorists who 
 lack practical knowledge and whose opinions, therefore, must be ac- 
 cepted with caution. Once in a while there is reason for such an 
 attitude, for the teaching branch of the profession is as subject to 
 frailty as any other; but as a rule, these opinions spring from eager- 
 ness for practical work and the habit of regarding the theoretical 
 studies as a necessary evil, a groundwork, which it will not be essential 
 to recur to, once active practice is begun. 
 
78 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 The true value of the scholastic work is not realized. It is fre- 
 quent to hear objections on the part of the student to this or that 
 study because it is not practical; because, so far as he can discern, it 
 has no bearing upon designing and constructing engineering works, 
 which in his opinion constitute the sum total of engineering. The 
 study of English is especially subject to such criticism; just as though 
 it were not necessary to employ the language understandingly in the 
 preparation of specifications, contracts, and advertisements; in instruc- 
 tions to other engineers, to contractors, and to foremen; in technical 
 papers and books; in business correspondence, prospectuses, estimates, 
 reports, and other business papers, as well as in the social relations. 
 It is singular how prevalent is the idea that this, the instrument most 
 commonly used of all, the one upon the quality of which all others 
 depend, should be considered of little consequence. If you have neither 
 knowledge to gain nor thought to convey, the study of English is evi- 
 dently useless; but, in that event so is the study of every other subject. 
 
 An engineer, of all men, requires such knowledge of the technique 
 of the language that he can use it with accuracy and facility at all 
 times. The bad construction of a sentence, even the erroneous use of 
 a word or the misapplication of a comma, may result in costly litiga- 
 tion and heavy loss; therefore the language merits far more study than 
 the best technical courses provide. Even if you have excellent habits 
 of speech and write good English readily, you will find, upon close 
 study, that habit cannot be depended upon for satisfactory technical 
 English. Close, careful study of diction and construction is essential 
 in any case. The reading of well written technical works, of the 
 English classics, and of the best current literature will aid greatly in 
 the acquisition of correct habits; but this is not enough. Make the 
 study of the language habitual or you will find, when you have ad- 
 vanced so far in your profession that you have engineering and legal 
 papers to prepare, that you blunder grievously in your use of English. 
 I know an engineer of unusual technical ability who has twice tried 
 and twice failed to establish himself in independent practice and who 
 still occupies a secondary position, largely, in my opinion, because he 
 speaks and writes like an ignoramus. 
 
 A knowledge of chemistry is likewise universally essential to the 
 engineer, no matter what specialty he practice, for the relations of the 
 constituents of the materials employed in construction are always im- 
 portant and often vital ; and if they are not understood, the materials 
 cannot be used intelligently. 
 
 Foreign languages are not technical subjects; but they aid in keep- 
 ing one thoroughly informed ; for only the best things to be found in 
 
HARRINGTON. 79 
 
 them are translated into English, and the publication of the translation 
 is commonly far behind that of the original. 
 
 Other subjects which do not deal directly with design and con- 
 struction are required for similarly good reasons, which only active 
 practice will make clear; therefore the student's objections to the 
 subjects he is obliged to study are commonly illfounded, and if any 
 of them are slighted during the course, in all probability it will be 
 necessary to remedy the deficiency later. 
 
 As soon as possible after graduation the embryonic engineer ob- 
 tains a position and enters upon his professional career. If he has 
 a choice, he generally takes the one which pays the most money imme- 
 diately, though the ultimate compensation in any branch of engineer- 
 ing is inversely proportional to the salary paid the beginner in it. If 
 he has a well defined idea of what line of work he desires to follow, 
 and if he has been fortunate enough to obtain a position in that line, 
 he will probably employ all his energy to learn everything practical 
 about his immediate 1asks and whatever else comes directly under 
 his observation. Often the work of more experienced men is studied 
 zealously to the neglect of his own. He will, if he be energetic, drive 
 with all his strength at the practical work and begin to calculate 
 upon how soon his salary should be increased. If he is in the field, 
 he sees skilled workmen paid much more than he is; and, because he 
 knows the workmen have not his education and could not do his work, 
 he exaggerates the value of his services and often begins to have a 
 grievance. He does not realize that he knows very little about his 
 broad line of work, while the skilled mechanic is well trained in his 
 narrower line and, consequently, is better able to produce saleable 
 results. 
 
 Almost every young engineer is inclined to minimize the amount 
 he has to learn and to seek to reach the top in a few short leaps. I 
 remember one very bright young man who entered the detail drawing 
 room of a bridge company immediately after graduation. Within a 
 month he applied for transfer to the designing rooms, because, as he 
 stated, he had learned all there was to be learned about detailing. He 
 was transferred; and for some months, under the impression that he 
 was estimating, he contentedly calculated the weight of steel on lists 
 furnished him by the designers. He learned so fast, in his own opinion, 
 that it is not surprising that in eight years he has attained a very 
 mediocre position. Every man who, when he graduates, thinks he 
 knows all but a little of the practical work, which he can learn in 
 a few months, will make similar progress unless some shock opens his 
 eyes to the truth. 
 
80 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 Though this extremely comfortable idea of the graduate's equip- 
 ment is not very general, the estimate the young man usually places 
 upon the extent of his knowledge is almost universally far too high. 
 It is common to assume that the education is finished, that the text 
 books are properly put away like other childish things, and that it 
 is only necessary to go forth, learn practice, and conquer. And since 
 that course requires the least possible amount of energy, it is very 
 frequently followed for years; so long that when the need for further 
 study is finally realized, the mathematics and the elements of the 
 theoretical work obtained in school are forgotten, and the task of 
 reviewing them and acquiring further knowledge of them is so great 
 that it appalls and discourages, and the man remains for the balance 
 of his life a draftsman, an instrument man, or a secondary man of some 
 other sort. He will attribute his own failure to the malice of enemies 
 or the lack of powerful friends, and the success of his acquaintances 
 to influence or luck. He will rarely admit, even to himself, that he 
 failed because he deserved to fail, because he was unwilling to work for 
 success. Is the picture distasteful? I hope so. But do not get the 
 idea that it is exaggerated. I can call the names of many men whose 
 advancement has been imperceptibly slow because they proceeded 
 along such lines, and every engineer has watched the course of many 
 who have been left behind because they would do only the work 
 given them to do and would set and perform no tasks for themselves. 
 And I have known many others who have gone forward rapidly because 
 they think, read, and study continuously. 
 
 There are, of course, differences in the amounts and kinds of 
 ability with which nature has endowed men, and it is very easy to 
 attribute your own failure or another man's success to these qualities 
 over which the individual has no control, but I firmly -believe that by 
 far the larger influence is common industry, or the lack of it. And 
 I assure you it requires much more energy to think out a course of 
 study and pursue it than it does to perform your daily task well. 
 Energy is necessary to perform manual labor or routine mental labor, 
 but infinitely more is required to do original work or to pursue a 
 course which is not obligatory and which will result in no immediate 
 benefit. It is the custom of mankind to forfeit large but long deferred 
 benefits for the sake of small immediate ones. 
 
 When a young man takes up his first work, he gives his best 
 thought, as he should, to learning to perform the tasks which will 
 provide his living; and if he has not already a bit of a library and the 
 habit of using it and increasing it, that is about all he will do except 
 to satisfy his desire for recreation and for social pleasures. He has 
 
HARRINGTON. 81 
 
 little immediate use for his books and he forgets them and their con- 
 tents. His duties do not require knowledge of law or organization or 
 management or business or finance. These are not, he concludes, 
 engineering subjects, and, consequently, can be of no interest to him; 
 therefore, he gives them little or no thought. In the course of two 
 or three years, if he has been industrious and thoughtful in his daily 
 work, he will be given tasks which make greater demands upon his 
 technical knowledge. Then he must go back to his text books and 
 review them before he can with assurance do the work properly. This 
 takes time, for he has forgotten much, and, in order to escape criticism 
 for lack of facility, he will probably try short cuts or guess work and 
 fail. This is the usual course, because men employed by large corpora- 
 tions generally acquire such extreme respect for the organization and 
 for the opinions of their official superiors that they will adopt almost 
 any means to avoid severe criticism. In the bridge shops, for instance, 
 there is commonly a very un-American fear of "The Boss," which 
 arises partly from the superior knowledge and position of the official 
 and partly from the possibility of criticism for ignorance or, more 
 commonly, for lack of industry and attention to business. It is de- 
 plorable but undeniable that technically educated men have to be 
 watched and urged, much as the lower orders of workmen do. But 
 haste due to fear of criticism and the laziness which prevents study 
 frequently cause grievous blunders. False pride which prevents con- 
 fession of ignorance is also a fruitful source of error. It takes courage 
 and honesty to say, "I do not know," but courage and honesty are 
 among the essential characteristics of a successful engineer. 
 
 I have said before that the engineering graduate is rarely called 
 upon in the earlier stages of his professional work to use much of 
 his technical information ; and that, in consequence, he 'forgets ft. 
 This is especially true of those who take up field work. Their knowl- 
 edge of instrument work is brought into immediate service, but in a 
 very short time mechanics, the basis of all designing, will have become 
 but a name. One of my acquaintances, who has spent in the field the 
 most of his twelve years since graduation, recently told me that he 
 was re-reading his mechanics and was astonished to find how little 
 he knew of what was once thoroughly familiar to him. Undoubtedly 
 he has learned much in field work, but he has actually lost ground in 
 some lines and grown narrow. That is the usual course and the one 
 certain to result in the man becoming a cog in the wheel and a little 
 one at that. Many a technical man calls himself a bridge engineer 
 and looks upon himself as a specialist who is cheated out of his dues ; 
 yet is versed in only one narrow branch of bridge work, such as shop 
 drafting, inspection, or estimating. He probably knows little or 
 
82 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 nothing of shop work or erection or management or business or the 
 higher technique of designing; yet he would bristle with indignation 
 if you were to tell him he is narrow and that he does not know his 
 business. He has steadily followed a single phase of a single branch 
 of a single division of engineering, because up to a certain point he 
 could increase his salary most rapidly by so doing. He became pro- 
 ficient in his narrow line of work, and he refused to take up other 
 lines because he knew less about them and could earn less in them. 
 And so he reached a certain position and remained there because his 
 foundation was too narrow. 
 
 It is urgently necessary that the recent engineering graduate 
 shall at once take steps to master thoroughly every phase of the 
 specialty he means to follow, including many allied technical branches, 
 and, at the same time, to broaden his view by studying other and 
 more remote lines. There is so much to read and study, so many lines 
 to pursue, that, unless he have the wisdom and foresight to work 
 according to some plan, confusion and weakness will result. Know- 
 ledge is of value only as it is of use, and if it lack cohesion, is not 
 gathered and arranged in the mind according to some system, it is 
 almost useless. Many a man reminds me of my first shot gun. It 
 made a big noise and kicked vigorously ; whenever it went off you 
 felt sure the game must come down ; but it scattered so badly that 
 it was rather more apt to miss than to hit. The shot would strike 
 all around the bird, which would often get off unhurt. Thus many 
 a man shoots all around the mark but cannot concentrate his fire so 
 it will tell. 
 
 Notwithstanding the necessary limitations of the technical course, 
 if the student will do his part, he will, when he graduates, have the 
 best equipment obtainable in the time employed. But he who per- 
 forms his daily task and passes his examinations so well that he gets 
 fair grades and in the end receives his degree, has not necessarily done 
 his part. Good consistent work is much, but it is not all; in fact, it is 
 only what the university demands in set terms. It obtains the credits 
 and the degree, just as the ordinary laborer earns his daily wage ; 
 and it is little more likely to make the student an eminent engineer 
 than the daily wage is likely to make the laborer a millionaire. Initia- 
 tive and untiring energy to plan and carry out work which is not com- 
 pulsory are even more essential and effective during the college course 
 than they are at the height of the professional career. It is true that 
 one who is only an ordinary student may awaken when he takes up 
 his professional work and set for himself a pace which will enable 
 him to reach the top; but as a rule he will never realize that he is 
 not doing his best. He won his degree without great effort; and in 
 
HARRINGTON, 83 
 
 his opinion, it necessarily follows that success must come naturally 
 and easily. After a while when it is too late, he finds it does not; then 
 some one else or his luck is to blame, never himself. As a rule, it is 
 easier to reform a drunkard than a drone or an indifferent man. 
 
 The graduate should understand that in spite of splendid equip- 
 ment, able instructors, and rigorous discipline, the technical school 
 does not turn him out a finished engineer, but leaves him to acquire 
 the major part of the necessary technical knowledge after he has gone 
 out into the world. It has given him methods of study, trained him 
 to grasp readily the arguments of able writers, taught him the mathe- 
 matics he needs, some foreign languages and something of his own, 
 and the elements of some natural sciences, and it has made a begin- 
 ning upon his technical education ; but if he stops there, failure is 
 certainly his portion. The school has accomplished its purpose, train- 
 ed him mentally, but he must yet broaden and deepen his knowledge 
 of theory, as well as learn the practical phases of his professional work. 
 He must work alone. With rare exception his employers have neither 
 the time nor the inclination to interest themselves in any portion of his 
 life except that for which they pay. Occasionally he may be urged to 
 exert himself to learn more about the work he is employed to do, but 
 he must, of his own volition, plan and carry out the study which is 
 essential to success. 
 
 The recent engineering graduate is not fitted to do much com- 
 mercial work, and employers are loath to spend the time and patience 
 necessary to direct him and to correct his errors. No one really 
 wants to employ him, but he will be given place and work in the 
 hope that ultimately he will become proficient and then repay in 
 profitable service the time and effort spent upon him in the beginning. 
 If he be energetic, he will be encouraged to learn the things which 
 will make his services more valuable immediately, the practical phases 
 of his work. But what about the things which count so much toward 
 his ultimate success, yet have no bearing upon the work in hand? 
 Will they be pointed out to him? Will he be urged to study more deep- 
 ly the courses he pursued while in school and to take up the study of 
 the collateral subjects which have a bearing upon the work he will 
 be called upon to do five or ten years hence? Yes, in about one case 
 in a hundred. Surely not much more frequently. He will generally 
 be left to his own devices except in so far as he can be made more 
 useful now or in the very near future. In many large establishments 
 even that much pressure is not brought to bear, but he is left to 
 succeed or fail as he will. If he earn his salary and if work should 
 be plentiful, he will be retained; but much personal effort to aid the 
 novice is considered an immediate loss, for the average man will move 
 
84 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 on and deliver to another employer the benefit of such instruction as 
 soon as he can obtain more money by doing so. Some of our larger 
 manufacturers, it is true, seek recent graduates, bind them to a specific 
 term of service, and maintain a course of instruction for them. In 
 these cases the better men are selected for advancement in the com- 
 pany's service while the less competent or less energetic are retained 
 as a sort of higher grade mechanic. I know one man who has been 
 making shop drawings of plate girders for more than twenty years, 
 for a mechanic's pay. 
 
 Even when employers or officers of corporations take a personal 
 interest in the recent graduate and endeavor to advise him, they fre- 
 quently find the effort wasted, if not offensive. Too many young men 
 resent the advice to continue study as a reflection upon their intelli- 
 gence and their equipment of learning. Sometimes egotism carries 
 them so far that they think the older man is jealous of their superior 
 knowledge; and the lofty manner in which they sometimes criticise 
 the work of older men is often decidedly amusing. I well remem- 
 ber the uncomplimentary remarks two young graduates made about 
 an eminent mechanical engineer and his design of a clam-shell bucket, 
 though they did not understand even the operation of the machine. 
 
 Compare these conditions with those which obtain before gradua- 
 tion. The faculty not only urge the student to employ his best efforts 
 and suggest better methods of study, but substantially compel him to 
 acquire definite amounts of valuable information in a given time. He 
 is not obliged to take the initiative. The courses are mapped out for 
 him in detail ; even the daily task is set ; and if the ability or the energy 
 to grasp any portion of the subject be lacking, the instructor not only 
 stands ready and willing to aid when called upon, but seeks the oppor- 
 tunity to help. The student has constantly in view definite results to 
 be attained in given periods ; such as the completion, first, of the sub- 
 jects immediately in hand and, finally, of the whole course, the receipt 
 of a degree, and the entering upon a career which hope and imagina- 
 tion make brilliant. Every aid and incentive to study are offered. 
 Pride in his own strength and in his ability to achieve, and the hope 
 and encouragement of his family, his friends, and his instructors, urge 
 him forward. The way is made easy, bright, and pleasant. He has 
 only to follow the course laid down and honor and success are his. 
 
 Thus the student is aided and advised at every step, while the 
 graduate must map out his own course and pursue it with energy and 
 steady purpose, if he is to win. The transition is abrupt, the test 
 severe ; and it is little wonder that so many fail ; but the remedy lies 
 altogether with the student. He must take the initiative and so lay 
 his plans and conduct his work that when he graduates there will be 
 
HARRINGTON. . . f . 85 
 
 only a modification, not an interruption, in his course of study. He 
 must prepare himself against the day of trial which is certainly com- 
 ing, and take steps to supplement the university work. 
 
 Many ,'of you, no doubt, consider yourselves hard worked to 
 satisfy the faculty's requirements ; but, except in the rare case when 
 lack of health and strength interferes, you will find that a reasonable 
 amount of collateral work is not only pleasant and profitable, but 
 that it actually lightens the required work by affording a broader and 
 clearer comprehension of it. And you have time for it. If you ever 
 reach a high executive position, you will find that instead of taking 
 your pleasure and recreation very much at will, as you do now, you 
 will make them a part of a schedule which accounts for almost every 
 minute of your time. You will often excuse yourself, instead of ceas- 
 ing work, when a friend drops in for a social chat; and you will 
 forego many a ball or dinner or theater party or other pleasure for 
 the sake of your work or study. In time you will come to smile with 
 amusement when you recall how you thought you were busy when in 
 school. The student is father of the practitioner, and I know that 
 very few young engineers understand how to concentrate their thought 
 upon what they are doing so that only imperative matters will in- 
 terrupt them. And still fewer take such a comprehensive view of their 
 work that the little, less important features of a task are not for- 
 gotten or neglected. Therefore, I fear that the student who thinks he 
 is hard worked has much to learn about methods of study. 
 
 Primarily, you must do the prescribed work with all your energy 
 and ability, set your own pace in it rather than be driven or coaxed 
 along, and bring yourself to understand that the training you are re- 
 ceiving and the habits you are acquiring now are of the utmost im- 
 portance to you throughout your professional career. If it be pos- 
 sible to do more work than has been prescribed (and almost every 
 earnest, energetic student will find it so) choose the work which you 
 prefer or think most beneficial, seek your instructors' advice regarding 
 it, and then do all of it you can without detriment to the prescribed 
 courses. Purchase other books which cover the same ground as the 
 text-books employed. They will often present the matter in different 
 lights and actually reduce the amount of. work required to grasp the 
 subject. I recall that an old work on analytical geometry, which treats 
 the problems graphically, greatly aided me to understand the alge- 
 braic treatment of the prescribed text book; and Prof. Merriman's. 
 books on bridges frequently made Johnson's clearer. Every book con- 
 tains important matter which is not to be found in other works that 
 treat the same subject. Often different methods are presented ; and at 
 tne least, the second reading serves by repetition to fix the matter 
 
86 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 more firmly in the mind. The difference between like works in matter 
 and method of presentation strengthen by bringing the judgment into 
 play and training it, and by developing the student's habit of independ- 
 ent thought. 
 
 Again, to read in the technical journals and the proceedings of 
 the engineering societies descriptions of such works as those of which 
 the text-book or lectures treat, greatly aids in understanding the sub- 
 ject and in fixing it in the mind, and, at the same time, affords a 
 glimpse of the connection between theory and practice. The reading 
 of technical papers also teaches you where to find data and how to 
 present them, and acquaints you with what is going on in the world. 
 There is something new in every issue, something to 'excite your 
 curiosity and stimulate your mind. 
 
 If the time and energy be available, it is very advantageous to 
 purchase and read books relating to allied subjects which the pre- 
 scribed course does not include. For instance, a thorough course in 
 dynamo-electric machinery or in thermodynamics or in the metallurgy 
 of iron and steel may be of great service to a civil engineer; and a 
 course in architectural engineering, in mill building construction, or 
 in masonry design is of the highest importance to a mechanical en- 
 gineer. I recall a large rail mill roof designed by an able mechanical 
 engineer, which had only itself and the wind and snow to carry, yet 
 was strong enough to support a railway train as well. And .a civil 
 engineer's work in mechanical lines is often painfully crude. Yet the 
 various branches of engineering frequently overlap; and any engineer 
 should be prepared to do reasonably well work in other lines which 
 are closely allied to his specialty. If the fundamental knowledge of 
 these allied subjects can be obtained in course without interference 
 with the regular work, so much the better, but sooner or later it must 
 be obtained. 
 
 Yet the great value of the purchase and perusal of the technical 
 periodicals and other than the required text books lies in beginning 
 a library and in establishing habits of independent thought and 
 study while still in position to obtain friendly aid and advice from 
 the faculty. The files of the technical periodicals form a very import- 
 ant part of every engineer's library. Even the six or eight volumes 
 of any good engineering paper which the student should accumulate 
 afford many descriptions and illustrations of engineering works and 
 of the methods of designing and constructing them. But the back 
 numbers are difficult to obtain ; and if the graduate does not have 
 them, he is not likely to buy them, and, consequently, will miss their 
 aid in solving his first practical problems. Without them his knowl- 
 
HARRINGTON. 87 
 
 edge of what has been done in the engineering world will not extend 
 much back of the day he began work in his first position. 
 
 It is true that there are one or two copies of each of the best 
 technical journals in the school's library and that they can be read, 
 even though' they are not purchased. But they will not be read. How 
 many of you read thoroughly even a part of one journal? How many 
 read none at all? And if you should read them, that would not serve 
 the purpose, for they and the technical society transactions consti- 
 tute a large share of every engineer's library, and you should have 
 them for reference. 
 
 After graduation many a young engineer would take up the study 
 of subjects which bear upon his work but which he did not study in 
 school, if he knew what books to buy. But, as a student, he has not 
 learned to select books, for the text books have always been specified, 
 and he knows little or nothing about the respective merits of others. 
 And rather than waste his money on ill selections, he commonly makes 
 the greatest of all errors by purchasing none at all. 
 
 It is difficult to estimate the ultimate value of a dozen books and 
 a single engineering paper purchased and read during the course of 
 study. The technical knowledge is increased, the habit of independent 
 thought and methods of independent study are established, additional 
 books are made familiar and available for reference, and the nucleus 
 of a library is formed. The graduate has already begun his pro- 
 fessional work; the transition from school to the office, shop, or field is 
 made without danger that he will consider his education completed 
 and that he will, in consequence, cease to study and grow. The size 
 of this beginning of a library is of infinitely less importance than the 
 habits formed in collecting it. The little group of books, if he carry 
 them with him, will constantly strengthen and support him in his 
 work and keep ever present in his mind the need for more books and 
 further study. 
 
 Many a student, instead of taking pride in the growing row of 
 books on his shelf, sells even his text books as soon as he has received 
 his credits in the subjects of which they treat. He burns his bridges 
 behind him and makes certain that whatever he has not learned from 
 his books will remain unknown, whatever was not clear will remain 
 obscure, whatever he forgets will remain forgotten. When, in his 
 later work, either before or after graduation, his memory needs re- 
 freshing or a point puzzles him, he cannot turn to the familiar pages 
 and satisfy his needs. Instead, in fear and trembling he puts on a 
 bold face and endeavors to convince his instructors or employers that 
 he knows what he does not know. If he succeed, he has cheated both 
 himself and them and has acquired a dishonest habit. If he fail, and 
 
88 , INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 he generally does, though he may not know it, he not only acquires 
 the dishonest habit and cheats himself, but he fails in his work and 
 falls behind in the race. No other books will ever supply the desired 
 information so readily as those he pored over in school. Even if the 
 student has not the means or the foresight to begin his professional 
 library t>y purchasing additional books, the required text books, if 
 retained, form a valuable working nucleus. When the course is com- 
 pleted the days of a text book's usefulness instead of being over are 
 only begun ; and the man who sells his as soon as he can is already 
 on the high road to failure. 
 
 It is frequently stated, sometimes by instructors, that the average 
 student cannot afford to buy more books than are absolutely essential 
 to the pursuit of the prescribed studies; but such a view is exceedingly 
 narrow. Expenses vary greatly with the situation of the institution, 
 the tuition charged, and the student's tastes, habits, and supply of 
 funds ; but four hundred dollars a year is probably a low estimate of 
 the average annual expenditure, even in our state universities where 
 the tuition is little or nothing. An increase of five per cent, or about 
 twenty dollars per annum, spent for a good technical journal and for 
 well selected engineering books will place within the student's reach 
 the means for doubling his fund of technical knowledge. And what 
 can be said of the economy of spending a dollar for half a loaf when 
 a dollar and five cents would buy a whole one! I feel sure that the 
 cases are few in which the lack is not the money to buy books but 
 the intelligence to appreciate their value and the energy to master 
 their contents. 
 
 Consult your instructors regarding the best books in each line 
 and make memoranda of their recommendations. Likewise consult 
 instructors in other lines of which you would like a knowledge and 
 make lists of the books they advise and the order in which such books 
 should be studied. Get the catalogues of the principal publishers ; 
 they may be had for the asking; and see for yourselves what is avail- 
 able. Study well the reviews of new books as they appear in the 
 technical papers. Then buy as many as you can find time to master 
 without neglecting your regular studies. If it be only one each term, 
 that is much ; if two, that is much more. And remember that the 
 mere possession of the book does not serve the purpose. It is like 
 your mind, valuable directly in proportion to the use you make of it. 
 There is no known method by which a knowledge of the contents of a 
 book may be acquired without reading and study, though the contrary 
 idea seems to be prevalent. Mere possession or laying on of hands 
 will not suffice. 
 
HARRINGTON. 89 
 
 I hear many of you say you have no time for extra work, that 
 your instructors demand it all and more. But how many of you do 
 not absolutely waste a half hour a day? I do not mean how many 
 withhold that much time from your studies and devote it to social 
 duties or pleasures, to recreation, or to exercise, all of which are es- 
 sential to right living; but absolutely waste it, doing nothing which 
 affords either pleasure or profit. Yet a half hour a day devoted to 
 books will enable you to read several ordinary volumes each term. 
 And the value of so much work, in the knowledge obtained and the 
 habits and training acquired, is almost incalculable. You have so 
 much to read, there are so many subjects just touched upon or not 
 included at all in your course, that the earlier you begin your inde- 
 pendent work the better. If you wait till you have nothing else to do, 
 you will never begin. You must make room for such work. You will 
 find that doing only a little regularly will strengthen you and will 
 rapidly increase your capacity for work, and you will be astonished 
 to see how much a half hour a day well employed will accomplish. 
 
 The majority of engineering students have not found it possible 
 to pursue wholly or in part an academic course, hence it is very im- 
 portant that they read as much as possible in non-technical lines. And 
 much valuable knowledge and training in the humanities, in the lan- 
 guages, and in sociology and political economy and finance may be 
 gained while reading for recreation. 
 
 In your reading while in school do not reach out too eagerly after 
 the practical phases of your subjects. Remember that the theory is 
 the more difficult part to obtain unaided and that after graduation you 
 will be obliged to make special effort to gain further knowledge of it, 
 while you will necessarily learn much of practice in the ordinary 
 course of your work. Seek to establish the principles which form the 
 basis of your future tasks as thoroughly as possible in your mind and 
 to acquire all the knowledge of them your time and strength will per- 
 mit. Build your foundations substantially, and the superstructure 
 will be much more certain to serve its purpose. 
 
 The discussion of technical problems in the undergraduate en- 
 gineering societies is a very effective means of developing sound meth- 
 ods, for it enforces precise and comprehensive thinking and neces- 
 sitates the reading of the technical papers and other books than those 
 required for class use. No one wishes to advance theories or make 
 statements which are not supported by facts or sound logic, therefore 
 earnest thought commonly precedes discussion or argument. 
 
 Immediately after graduation review thoroughly all your text 
 books that bear upon your work. Then map out a course of technical 
 study, select and purchase the books needed for it, and, if possible, 
 
90 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 devote to it a certain amount of time each day. You will be astonished 
 to find that with an hour a day well applied you will cover more 
 ground than you did with all your time while in school, for you 
 acquire better methods of study and greater mental grasp with the 
 passage of years. 
 
 At the same time, subscribe for at least one good engineering 
 weekly and read it thoroughly. For a few years the whole of it should 
 retain your interest, because you are still more or less in search of your 
 place in the world, and therefore you should be familiar with many 
 lines of work. A monthly, too, which offers a more general view of 
 the entire field of engineering is worth your while, for it tends to 
 broaden and to attract attention to lines which may have permanent 
 interest. , Such magazines frequently contain valuable matter relating 
 to shop management and accounting that is hard to find elsewhere. 
 In course of time it is well to increase the number of technical papers 
 and to restrict the reading more closely to the subjects of your special 
 interest, but too early specialization is narrowing and harmful. 
 
 As soon as you have read the principal books relating to your 
 particular subjects, take up other and more remotely related lines, but 
 always follow a plan; for variety without it will lead to weakness. 
 At the same time the plan should be subject to whatever alterations 
 more mature" judgment dictates. Avoid reading whatever comes to 
 hand. No knowledge is worthless ; but a small fund of well ordered 
 information is much more serviceable than a larger amount of hap- 
 hazard, ill-rounded, unrelated knowledge. It is difficult, but essential 
 to the highest success, to be both broad and thorough, "to know some- 
 thing of everything and everything of something." 
 
 Do not read superficially nor accept all you read as the truth, 
 solely because some writer has had the courage to put the matter into 
 print. Engineers are not agreed upon all points, and many state- 
 ments which are made as though they were generally accepted are 
 open to question, sometimes in error. They must bear the test of 
 reason. If they do not, there is something the matter with them or 
 with your reasoning, and it is well to determine positively which is at 
 fault. 
 
 Read descriptions of designs and of methods of construction, in 
 order that you may have ready for use the results of other men's 
 thought and experience. You should profit by their errors; and fre- 
 quently a new application of a method or a slight improvement upon 
 it will effect much. Each generation of engineers must begin where 
 the preceding left off, if we are to make progress. Yet each year en- 
 gineers waste much labor by re-inventing and re-devising what has al- 
 ready been well done; and much money is squandered in repeating er- 
 
HARRINGTON. 91 
 
 rors which should have taught a lesson, all through lack of familiarity 
 with technical literature, or the lack of a library. Remember that 
 progress is made by small increments and with much stumbling and 
 many falls, rather than by spectacular leaps and bounds. Wonders 
 are rarely found outside the columns of our sensation loving news- 
 papers. And if you want to make all your strength and ability ef- 
 fective, do not ignore what other men have done, but employ their 
 results honestly and freely as a basis for your own work. Acquire 
 with the utmost dispatch and with much financial sacrifice, if need 
 be, a well selected and comprehensive reference library. Obtain at 
 least one good book upon each subject as early as possible; and buy 
 the back numbers of the principal engineering journals and technical 
 society transactions for a period of ten years or so previous to your 
 graduation. You must be able to turn at need to the records of what 
 has been done as well as to what other engineers are now doing, if you 
 would save yourself labor and error. The field is not virgin and you 
 are not pioneers. At the same time you must neither become a slave 
 to precedent nor so fear falling into the errors of others that you fail 
 to act on your own initiative. Only those who do nothing never make 
 mistakes. 
 
 Immediately after graduation join the. principal technical society 
 in your own line, read the papers and discussions, and attend the 
 meetings if possible. And as fast as your years and experience permit, 
 move on to the higher grades of membership. This identifies you 
 with your profession, places at your disposal the most advanced pro- 
 fessional thought, acquaints you with the leaders among your pro- 
 fessional brethren, and as soon as you are prepared to take part in the 
 discussions, supplies the means for recording your own thought and 
 aids you in establishing your own fame. 
 
 Read from the beginning all you can find relating to the lives and 
 works of famous engineers. There is no greater source of inspiration, 
 no more certain method of obtaining a well balanced understanding 
 of the whole field of engineering, no surer way of gaining a knowledge 
 of what qualities in men make for success. Much encouragement will be 
 drawn from this source, and many a pitfall avoided. 
 
 Another neglected means of assistance is the miscellaneous papers 
 prepared by professional men for the purpose of aiding the younger 
 men to start aright and to pursue the best course. Addresses to grad- 
 uating classes and papers relating to special engineering subjects fre- 
 quently contain many valuable suggestions. Sometimes they are made 
 available by publication in pamphlet form, in the technical press, or 
 in book form. Dr. Humphreys, President of Stevens Institute of 
 Technology, has published two volumes of papers written by him- 
 
92 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 self and other prominent practitioners, many papers by Dr. Waddell 
 and others have been presented in pamphlet form; and the engineering 
 journals occasionally publish the important portions of able addresses 
 and papers. 
 
 The public libraries in our larger cities are of material service in 
 both technical and cultural lines. Their chief value lies in enabling 
 you to examine books before purchasing them and in the reference 
 books they possess. But it is well to remember that any book which 
 is worth reading should be purchased, in order that it may be referred 
 to or read again at pleasure ; for no one can remember all he reads. 
 
 Supplementing the reading along purely technical lines, it is well 
 to take up at a comparatively early period the sounder books relating 
 to methods of accounting, shop and railway management, banking and 
 finance, the laws of contracts, and the laws governing construction. 
 A knowledge of all these subjects is absolutely essential to the engineer 
 who reaches the top. Let me cite one or two cases in illustration. 
 My firm was recently called upon to examine an important bridge, to 
 report upon its condition, and to advise what would be the cost of a 
 new single-track structure, the cost of a double-track structure, and the 
 cost of a single-track superstructure supported on piers which would 
 ultimately carry another single-track superstructure. The present 
 traffic requires but a single-track, therefore it was also necessary to 
 advise the client how soon the traffic must be sufficient to make a 
 double-track structure necessary, in order to warrant the higher present 
 cost of the second and third types of bridge, and how much of the cost 
 in each case would be chargeable to maintenance and how much to 
 improvements. 
 
 Some years since a railroad company by which I was employed 
 was obliged to renew the superstructures of two bridges over the Ohio 
 River. Navigation interests demanded wider channels than the old 
 bridges provided; and before the War Department would grant per- 
 mission to build new superstructures on the old piers, without increase 
 of span length, it was necessary for me to prepare a statement showing 
 what present payment the United States must make in order to com- 
 pensate the railroad company for the increase in first cost of the 
 larger span in one bridge and of a cantilever structure in the other, 
 and for the increase in the cost of maintaining, and ultimately of re- 
 newing, the more expensive structures. 
 
 Such statements as these require for their preparation a sound 
 knowledge of accounting, of funding, and of maintenance charges. 
 Yet they are less complicated than many statements the engineers for 
 manufacturers find it necessary to make. 
 
HARRINGTON. 93 
 
 The knowledge gained by all the reading we have considered is 
 rendered much more available if the library be well indexed. There 
 is a general index of engineering literature which should be purchased 
 early; an excellent index of current technical periodicals appears in the 
 Proceedings oi the American Society of Civil Engineers; and the en- 
 gineering papers provide an index for each volume; but it is advan- 
 tageous for every engineer^to make a special index of his own library, 
 including everything but the handbooks ; for there are many valuable 
 pamphlets and documents which are not mentioned in any published 
 index; and the making of an index not only classifies one's knowledge 
 and saves much valuable time, but it teaches the method and the sys- 
 tem which govern in all large organizations. Indexing is something 
 of an art and merits careful study, therefore I would call attention to 
 two good articles on the subject which are to be found in the earlier 
 1907 numbers of Technical Literature. As you reach a higher pro- 
 fessional position, the increase in the size and scope of your library and 
 the greater demands upon your time make it essential for you to leave 
 the indexing to assistants; but you will always find it advantageous to 
 keep in close touch with the work. 
 
 It is advisable to go through your library from time to time and 
 weed out antiquated material. Do not let the possession of an old 
 edition of a book keep you from purchasing a more recent one, but 
 make sure that the new edition is altered in more than the title ; for 
 publishers often make new editions on account of very trivial revisions. 
 Watch the reviews for criticisms of new books and buy promptly what- 
 ever seems valuable to you. The profession is making rapid progress, 
 and books get out of date very quickly ; therefore you must never cease 
 to purchase new books, if your library is to keep pace with current 
 practice. Collect the bulletins of the Geological Survey and the Bureau 
 of Forestry, the Watertown Arsenal Reports, the Reports of the Chief 
 of Engineers of the Army, and other government documents. They 
 frequently contain much valuable information, and they may be had 
 for the asking. 
 
 One reason why young engineers do not acquire a library is be- 
 cause technical books are expensive. But no condemnation can be 
 too severe of an economy which has so large an influence against both 
 immediate and ultimate success. Five hundred dollars will buy more 
 technical books and periodicals than are possessed by most engineers 
 who have been out of school from eight to ten years ; in fact I doubt 
 that the average young man spends thirty dollars a year for such pur- 
 chases. I have known many an engineer who carried all his books 
 about in his trunk and had plenty of room left for his clothes. How 
 much would the knowledge gained from the study of books costing 
 
94 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 one hundred dollars per annum increase the earning power of any 
 young engineer? It will vary with the man and with his opportunities, 
 but two or three times one hundred dollars a year is an absurdly low 
 estimate for the earlier years, and ultimately the amount is not to be 
 computed. 
 
 But I fear that in most instances economy is but a cloak for the 
 true reason, viz., that the young man lacks the wisdom and the energy 
 to continue to study. He thinks vaguely that in some easy way he 
 will learn as he works for his living, that knowledge and position will 
 come to him as an inheritance. They will not come so, but disappoint- 
 ment will, with absolute certainty. 
 
 The field of engineering has become so broad, and competition so 
 severe, that no one can practice in many lines, as was customary 
 twenty-five or thirty years since. The highest success is to be won 
 only by making a specialty of one or two of the divisions of one branch 
 of engineering. But the foundation should be broad. The young en- 
 gineer should read one or two of the books relating to each subject, 
 and, when he has chosen his specialty, buy and read all the other books 
 which deal directly with his work. As before pointed out, if two or 
 more books cover the same ground, each will present the points in some 
 different way which improves the understanding of them and fixes 
 them more firmly in the mind. But two books never cover precisely 
 the same ground. Each lays special emphasis on one phase of the sub- 
 ject and presents it in a superior manner. Take bridges for instance. 
 If you have studied Johnson, you will find in DuBois a superior chap- 
 ter on erection ; in Merriman a superior treatment of arches, suspen- 
 sion bridges, movable bridges, and cantilever structures ; and in Burr a 
 superior mathematical treatment of the elastic theory. Johnson, on 
 the other hand, has superior chapters on mill building construction and 
 upon the aesthetics of design. Again, Howe's book on arches, Wright> 
 books on draw bridges, and Ketchum's books on mill buildings and 
 on bins, specialize in those subjects and treat them much more fully 
 than do the four broad texts first mentioned. You have not covered 
 the general field properly until you have read these four principal 
 books, and you have not covered the subjects of bridge superstructure 
 design, and of steel building design which is almost inseparable from 
 it, until you have studied the many special books dealing with par- 
 ticular branches of it; and, if you are taking up bridge work as a 
 specialty, you have only begun when you have mastered these. You 
 must yet study the metallurgy of iron and steel and the various other 
 alloys of iron, the chemistry of paint, methods of fabrication, methods 
 of testing and inspecting, the design and construction of foundations 
 by the pneumatic, open dredging, and other processes, the construe- 
 
HARRINGTON. 95 
 
 tion of reinforced concrete bridges and floors, paving, lighting, the 
 operation of signals, the various prime movers used to operate move- 
 able bridges, shore protection, field work in connection with bridge 
 construction, piles and pile driving, timber trestles, and creosoting and 
 other methods of timber treatment. Will a thorough study of all these 
 subjects make you a bridge engineer? Not at all. They constitute 
 only the strictly technical phases of the subject. Specifications and 
 contracts, organization and management of manufacturing plants and 
 construction forces, business systems, contracting, accounting, and 
 finance, are all subjects which the bridge engineer must study. In 
 addition, if an engineer is to attain the highest professional position, 
 he must be a man among men, must be a well read, cultured gentle- 
 man, able to meet on their own ground men in business and in other 
 professions, and to make himself a power among them. 
 
 A similar broad and thorough preparation is essential for the prac- 
 tice of any other specialty. The engineer who turns his attention to 
 the sale of machinery, electrical apparatus, steel work, or other en- 
 gineering materials and equipment, must have a detailed and accurate 
 technical knowledge of his specialty and a broad view of the general 
 field, must know much of business and finance, and must have all the 
 culture, tact, and finesse of a diplomat as well. The large and growing 
 field of technical journalism demands men of the highest calibre, men 
 who are sound in their fundamental knowledge of many lines and so 
 familiar with good practice that they may write with authority on 
 many very different subjects. We have only to look over the back 
 numbers of the technical papers to see what advances in this branch 
 of the engineering profession have been made. in a few years; while 
 acquaintance with any good paper will show that the technical journ- 
 alist must have an exceedingly broad view of a large field and yet must 
 be exceptionally sound, if the pitfalls of hastily written leaders and 
 false theory are to be avoided. 
 
 Substantially all the officers of many of the large companies en- 
 gaged in manufacturing, construction, and transportation have been 
 chosen from the engineering staff ; and the time is not far distant when 
 railroading, mining, all mechanical lines of business, and all construc- 
 tion work will be in the hands of the technically educated engineer. 
 The material progress of the world is dependent upon him. It is true 
 that he is not sufficient unto himself. He is a practical man and em- 
 ploys in his work whatever knowledge and material he can obtain from 
 others. He uses freely the discoveries of the mathematician, the chem- 
 ist, and the physicist; the material resources of the earth; and the 
 fruits of the skill and labor of the farmer, the artisan, and the ordinary 
 
96 INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING LIBRARIES. 
 
 workman. But he is chiefly responsible for the material progress and 
 for much of the intellectual progress of the human race. 
 
 The field is broad, the compensation is large, and the possibilities 
 are unlimited. Will you take advantage of them? Will you employ 
 all your strength, all your energy, all your ability to meet every re- 
 quirement for the highest order of success? Or do you prefer a life 
 of ease and obscurity? It is for you to determine. Your fate is in 
 vour own hands. 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE TECHNICAL PRESS 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ENGINEERING 
 
 NEWS. 
 
 By 
 Harwood Frost, B. A. Sc. 
 
 Some readers may claim, perhaps with a certain amount of jus- 
 tice, that this paper is in the nature of an advertisement for an en- 
 gineering journal, as its author was the Secretary of Engineering News; 
 nevertheless all the statements in it are correct, and the advice which 
 it offers engineering students is good and sound. The Editors can 
 do nothing but say "amen" to Mr. Frost's remarks and express the 
 hope that their readers may profit by his words of wisdom. 
 
 As is evidenced by the numerous asterisks employed, a large por- 
 tion of the address has been omitted. This does not mean that the 
 deleted parts are in any way objectionable, but simply that they are 
 not pertinent to the objects of this compilation of addresses. 
 
 Editors. 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE TECHNICAL PRESS. 
 
 By 
 Harwood Frost, B. A. Sc. 
 
 This subject is one of great importance to every engineering stu- 
 dent and every practicing engineer. It is a subject with which the 
 staff of every high-class engineering journal is brought into close touch 
 and it is in connection with this that I wish to address you, in an effort 
 to explain something of the many forms of engineering literature, of 
 its production, and of its educational value and its necessity in the 
 work of the engineer. 
 
 Under the general title of 'The Technical Press" may be included, 
 not only periodic literature, but also books, trade publications of a cer- 
 tain kind, and pamphlets, bulletins, and proceedings issued by engineer- 
 ing societies, by the government departments, and by individuals. The 
 term is a broad one ; too broad, in fact, to discuss satisfactorily on 
 this occasion, hence I shall confine myself to technical books and peri- 
 odicals. The other elements of the technical press, have, in many 
 cases, a considerable educational value, but trade publications and gov- 
 ernment bulletins can generally be obtained for the asking, or for a 
 few cents, and are not looked on with the same respect as the period- 
 ical or book for which you have paid out several dollars of your hard- 
 earned cash. This is the class of literature with which you will be 
 brought in close contact throughout your professional career, and to 
 get the best value for your money, there is need of careful considera- 
 tion in your purchases. 
 
 The "Technical Press," using the term to represent book and 
 periodic literature must be considered in itself an educational insti- 
 tution. It is a school in which not only the professor and the stu- 
 dent study together, but also the men in active practice, ranging from 
 the green graduate, trying to hold down his first job, to the old fel- 
 lows, the Nestors of the profession, full of years and honors, but it 
 is a fact, that in spite of their years and honors and their bank accounts, 
 however large they may be, they never reach that point in their pro- 
 fessional careers where they feel that they can do without the instruction 
 supplied by the technical press. 
 
 Do not make the mistake of allowing yourselves to think that your 
 graduation from this school has made you "Engineers." Your instruc- 
 tors have laid good foundations; they have set up the piers, but the 
 
 99 
 
100 THE TECHNICAL PRESS. 
 
 superstructures must yet be built, and in that every man is his own 
 architect. Your graduation simply means your entrance into a broader 
 field of activity in which you will be brought face to face with the 
 real problems of life, and if you decide to follow out your line of studies 
 and take up the profession and practice of engineering, you will find 
 that your success will, in a large measure, depend on the use you make 
 of the literature of your profession. 
 
 You have probably been told often that experience is the greatest 
 teacher and the best school, but while it certainly is one that every one 
 of you will have to go through, sooner or later, no man ever achieved 
 great success who depended solely on his own experience for enlighten- 
 ment. The technical press records for your benefit the experience of 
 others, and it is on this experience that you must depend principally 
 for the building of the superstructure of your professional career. 
 
 In referring to the technical press as an educational institution, I 
 do not wish to imply that it should be considered as a substitute for the 
 college. The high-class technical journal does not attempt to give you 
 an elementary education, or to duplicate what you have already learned 
 or are supposed to have learned in college. It excludes from its columns 
 nearly all matter of an elementary nature and such material as may be 
 found in standard text-books or which is already a matter of common 
 knowledge to the profession. It seeks for the benefit of its readers 
 the sort of information that is not yet found in text-books nor taught in 
 the class room. Wherever a man is doing work in a new or better way 
 than others ; wherever new and better tools are made, or new processes 
 devised; wherever progress is being achieved, it is the province of the 
 technical press to investigate that progress and to make it public for 
 
 the general benefit. 
 
 ****** **** 
 
 Two generations ago, engineering literature, as we know it, was 
 practically non-existent; today, there are several hundred weekly and 
 monthly technical publications ; there are hundreds of engineering 
 societies of all grades, from the great national organizations to the 
 local societies in towns and colleges, many of which publish periodic 
 proceedings containing the papers and discussions presented at their 
 meetings. Add to this the avalanche of new books on engineering sub- 
 jects that is being poured forth by the various publishing houses ; add 
 further, the thousands of trade publications issued by manufacturing 
 concerns, many of which are real engineering treatises; add again the 
 vast volume of technical literature published by the government in the 
 form of specialized bulletins, and then consider that this overwhelming 
 flood of literature is the production of America alone and that England, 
 France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and even Russia and Japan, are also pro- 
 
FROST. (';?' 101 
 
 ducing literature in greater or less quantities./ . 
 
 you will see what a problem is presented in this 'huge bulk of printed 
 material, and will realize how true it is that "Of the making of many 
 books there is no end." 
 
 No man can read all this literature; no, not the tenth part of 
 it, even were he to do absolutely nothing else. If you select any spec- 
 ialized subject, such as "Road-making." how many titles are there? 
 You might say a dozen, or two dozen. In making up a reference bibli- 
 ography of this subject recently, selecting only the works of historical 
 and practical value and discarding the many pamphlets and government 
 documents of little or no permanent value, and omitting all trade pub- 
 lications, I compiled a list of nearly 500 titles in the English language 
 alone, and this subject does not approach in volume some others, such 
 as Structural Engineering and the Building Trades, for instance. This 
 list, however, covered the period from 1600 to 1910 and of these 15 
 were issued in the seventeenth century; 50 in the eighteenth century; 
 250 in the nineteenth century, and 150 in the first ten years of the 
 present century. What it will be before the year 2000, is beyond cal- 
 culation. 
 
 Some of these books attempted to treat the subject in an encyclo- 
 pedic manner, such as Byrne's 1000-page "Treatise on Highway Con- 
 struction" ; others specialize in some one or two features of the sub- 
 ject, such as Soper's "Modern Methods of Street Cleaning" and Jud- 
 son's "Dust Prevention." When you consider this large volume of 
 literature, you wonder what becomes of it, and who reads it all. As I 
 said, no man can read it all, and no man in his right senses would or 
 should want to do so. 
 
 There are not only many books, but there are also many kinds of 
 books. There are books describing good engineering practice, but 
 poorly written, and there are books that are good literature, but bad 
 practice. There are books, excellently written, perhaps, but based on 
 wrong theories or advocating the authors' personal fads. So also, 
 there are many kinds of writers and many ways of writing books. There 
 is the "hack" writer who will produce a book on any subject, of any 
 length, in almost any given time. His method is to accumulate a quan- 
 tity of printed material on the subject, from any source, and rehash it 
 into readable shape, and to the desired quantity. He may, or may not 
 know anything of the subject of which he writes, but he assumes that 
 what has already been written by those who do know, and published by 
 those who are supposed to discriminate, is good enough for his purposes. 
 Such books contribute nothing to our store of technical information; 
 they are often misleading and unreliable, but their production is cheap, 
 
102 t V : ; THE TECHNICAL PRESS. 
 
 and .a ^sufficient number can .always be sold through modern advertising 
 methods to yield a profit to both publisher and writer. 
 
 In contrast to this there is the more careful compiler, the man 
 of literary ability and breadth of mind, who studies his subject, collects 
 his material from recognized authorities and with good judgment of 
 the value of the literary productions of others, selects the good from 
 the bad and produces an evenly balanced and smoothly reading treatise. 
 This book also, may add little or nothing to existing knowledge, but it 
 places the best of that knowledge in easily accessible form and con- 
 stitutes a welcome addition to our library. Then there is the treatise 
 prepared by an engineer of wide experience which may be a valuable 
 record of achievements, but written in a style about as readable as the 
 patent office Gazette or the Census Report, while another writer may 
 present practically the same facts in a style as readable as a book of 
 fiction. There are also the rare and occasional books that may be re- 
 ferred to as the "classics" of the engineering profession. They are the 
 results of years of careful and patient research, compilation, and selec- 
 tion by men of exceptional education and experience. 
 
 In this -class may be mentioned Trautwine's "Civil Engineer's 
 Pocket-book" familiarly known as "Trautwine," of which nearly 
 100,000 copies have been sold; Wellington's "Economic Theory of 
 the Location of Railways," generally known as "Wellington" a book 
 now 23 years old, but still a standard, almost beyond competition, al- 
 though in some parts rather obsolete. 
 
 Besides these, there are books padded with many useless words and 
 facts, books with a scarcity of facts, books with a greatly mistaken or 
 exaggerated idea of the importance of their subjects, and many other 
 varieties, too numerous to mention. 
 
 Seldom, however, in technical literature, is an entire book the origin- 
 al production of one man. Individuals usually give the first descrip- 
 tions of their works or results of their investigations in the form of 
 contributions to periodicals or of papers read before engineering socie- 
 ties, and when such material has become more or less voluminous, some- 
 one undertakes to collect it, sift it, re-write and arrange it for publica- 
 tion in book form. If the book is to be a success, this work of prepara- 
 tion is a laborious matter and cannot be done in a slipshod or careless 
 way. First and foremost, perhaps, the writer must be thoroughly 
 interested in the subject and feel an impulse to write on it; he must be 
 moved by a desire to contribute something to the world's store of 
 knowledge and to fill a gap in existing literature, rather than by a de- 
 sire to produce merely a commercial article for the sake of the royalties 
 resulting from its sale. In the writing of the book many things must be 
 considered. A mere statement of facts does not constitute a book. The 
 
FROST. 103 
 
 facts must be presented in logical order and in brief and grammatical 
 language that can convey but one meaning. Pet theories and fads 
 must be forgotten and illustrations should be used wherever necessary 
 to assist the reader in forming a clear and concise understanding of 
 the text and not for the purpose of padding a slimly worded book up to 
 a three dollar size. 
 
 After the manuscript is prepared, the book must be manufactured 
 and marketed through a publisher, and I think that I am justified from 
 an experience of some years in saying, without going into details, that 
 there are several kinds of publishers, from the factory that turns out 
 "hack" literature to the publisher whose name is a guarantee of au- 
 thority and reliability. 
 
 From this somewhat superficial classification of books, writers, and 
 publishers, you can readily appreciate the necessity of most careful 
 selection. Technical books range in price from $1.00 up, principally 
 up, and you can spend a big pile of money on a small pile of books. 
 Therefore, when you buy, buy with care. Few engineers know what 
 they really want in the way of books. Some buy nearly everything in 
 their line of interest, good and bad alike, but the average engineer can 
 afford only a few books on any one subject. He wants only the best, 
 and in many cases he is not so located that he can examine the books 
 before buying. He usually buys from the advertised descriptions, de- 
 pending entirely on the reputation of the publishers or of the writer, 
 but he is taking a leap in the dark that may be costly, as even the pub- 
 lisher with an A-l reputation may not be infallible. I recollect an oc- 
 casion when I was looking over the library of a well known bridge en- 
 gineer and on my remarking the omission of several books on his 
 specialty, he opened a drawer of his desk and showed me quite a number 
 of books, some issued by the best known publishers, which he had pur- 
 posely concealed from his assistants because of their absolute untrust- 
 worthiness. The publisher does not, and cannot afford to produce a 
 book with intention to mislead, but through a mistaken judgment of 
 his advisers, or through the pursuasive ability of a writer, he is some- 
 times induced, even against his better judgment, to issue a work which 
 later proves to be unreliable. Such a book not only brings financial loss 
 to the publisher, but in the hands of an inexperienced man may become 
 a source of great danger, resulting in disaster and a ruined reputation. 
 
 You will ask: "How, then, are we to know what books to buy?" 
 That is a serious question with all engineers, young and old. The re- 
 views of books published in the recognized engineering journals, gen- 
 erally speaking, form a good guide, but like the books themselves, there 
 are various kinds of book reviews. The average "review" of a tech- 
 nical book is a rehash of the author's preface, and knowing this, some 
 
104 THE TECHNICAL PRESS. 
 
 authors make broad statements of what their books are or are supposed 
 to be, and thus obtain good notices, with their consequent sales. The 
 periodicals that actually review or criticize technical books in an intelli- 
 gent manner, are comparatively few. 
 
 The "Book Review Digest," a guide for librarians, published in 
 Minneapolis, has selected only four periodicals out of the hundreds in 
 the technical field from which to quote book criticisms. These are 
 "Engineering News," "Engineering Record," and "The Engineering Di- 
 gest," and for electrical books only, the "Electrical World." 
 
 I believe that I can fairly say that the book reviews, published in 
 the monthly Literature Supplement of Engineering News form as good 
 a guide to the selection of engineering books as is available to engineers 
 today. In these reviews, all books are judged by the standard of their 
 usefulness to the practicing engineer, and the policy is very strict. 
 Practical engineers, who are recognized authorities in their various 
 fields, are selected as reviewers; the criticisms are fair and no favors 
 are shown to either publisher or writer; no consideration is made as to 
 whether or not the publisher is an advertiser, and no money could buy 
 a favorable notice for an unworthy book. Many copies of Engineering 
 News are purchased for the sake of these reviews alone, and there are 
 many engineers who will not purchase new books on important subjects 
 until they have seen reviews in Engineering News. The same policy 
 is adherred to in the case of individual opinions. When a letter is 
 received asking for an opinion as to the best books on a certain subject, 
 or for a comparison of two or more books, it receives careful considera- 
 tion, on the basis that it is better to keep a man's good-will even at a 
 considerable expense, than to lose that good-will by selling what may 
 be entirely unsuitable for his purposes just to make a sale. Hundreds 
 of inquiries of this nature are received every month and that this policy 
 pays is shown in the fact that we are dealing today with engineers in 
 every corner of the world men whom we have -never seen and never 
 expect to see, but who trust entirely to our selection and judgment. 
 
 Another point of importance is the necessity of being up-to-date 
 in your technical reading. The necessity of the publishers keeping his 
 literature up-to-date is one of the main reasons for the vast number of 
 books that are published. Engineering practice is so constantly chang- 
 ing that it needs many books to keep pace with it, and most of them 
 must be new books, but the best of these run through several editions 
 and remain standard for some years. In regard to new editions, how- 
 ever, it is well to be careful. The 47th "new and revised" edition of 
 Wood's "Treatise on Railroads," or some other such book, might be an 
 interesting piece of literature and it might also be a most comprehensive 
 work, but it would have the fault common to all books that have run 
 
FROST. 105 
 
 through a large number of "revised" editions a foundation based on 
 out-of-date principles. It is difficult, if not impossible, so to "revise and 
 enlarge" any book through many editions, that it will be as thoroughly 
 up to the times as another and entirely new book, written with the most 
 modern conditions as a basis; and the time must surely come when the 
 old reliable treatise, like the defeated champion, must be dropped into 
 the regions of the "has-beens." 
 
 To illustrate this, referring again to the subject of "Roadmaking," 
 in 1583, there was published a book entitled: "The Duties of Con- 
 stables and Surveyors of Highways." It ran through seven editions in 
 25 years, but the art advanced, and in 1610 was issued a new book en- 
 titled : "A Profitable Work Concerning the Mending of Highways." 
 This preached a new doctrine that of highway repairs. Then came 
 various books telling how to make these repairs; later MacAdam, Tel- 
 ford, and Metcalf came on the scene and propounded new theories of 
 construction which called for many more books and pamphlets. Later 
 followed the invention of the stone crusher, the steam roller, the road 
 machine, mechanical excavators and other machinery for road con- 
 struction; a great variety of mechanical devices for street cleaning; a 
 variety of paving and road-making materials, and finally the automobile 
 with its accompanying dust problem. All these call for special treat- 
 ment and cause the production of literature in the proportions of an 
 inverted pyramid. Pages might be quoted from many technical books 
 published within the last ten years to show of how little value much of 
 this literature is today, and the uselessness of out-of-date engineering 
 books, but I will only quote one sentence from the aforementioned 
 Wood's "Practical Treatise on .Railroads," the standard of 1825, in 
 which the author seriously states that "Nothing can do more harm to 
 the adoption of railroads, than the promulgation of such nonsense a? 
 that we shall see locomotive engines traveling at the rate of 12, 16, 18 
 and 20 miles per hour." Recent books on the subject of flying machines 
 and some other subjects become out-of-date in many of their state- 
 ments almost before they are off the press. 
 
 - This is sufficient, I think, to show you the importance of keeping 
 up-to-date in your reading, and of keeping pace with new developments 
 in that field of engineering in which your interests lie. 
 
 As to the extent to which you should keep pace with these new de- 
 velopments, let me quote from an address by Mr. C. W. Baker, Chief 
 Editor of Engineering News, before the students of the University of 
 Michigan. 
 
 "Take, for example, that branch of engineering known as Water 
 Power Development. We do not have to go back more than 40 years 
 to reach the time when the old 'mill-wrights' were the men who ac- 
 
106 THE TECHNICAL PRESS. 
 
 tually did all the work that was done in this country in the develop- 
 ment of water-power. All the knowledge they needed was carried under 
 their hats, with perhaps some few rules copied in a private note-book. 
 Today, however, an engineer who conducts a water-power development 
 enterprise must, either directly or through assistants, be familiar with 
 the latest practice in stream gaging, dam construction, hydraulic motors 
 and regulators, electric generation, transmission and utilization, and 
 power-house construction, to say nothing of such matters as the re- 
 lation between engineers and contractors, executive methods, dealings 
 with labor organizations, franchises, and riparian rights. It may be 
 well, also, for him to know how to handle a board of directors and float 
 a 'bond issue. 
 
 "Perhaps you may object that no one engineer can do all this, but 
 the fact is that engineers, in the aggregate, are doing all these things ; 
 and that every successful engineer today finds himself constantly in 
 need of knowledge that he cannot carry in his head and for which he 
 must rely on the experience of others, as recorded in professional litera- 
 ture." 
 
 This brings up to the engineer the problem of digging out of the 
 mass of literature offered him the things which he wants and needs ; 
 and it puts up to the makers of this literature the problem of how to 
 turn out their product in usable form ; how to give the engineer what he 
 needs and give it to him in such shape that he can make practical use 
 of it. 
 
 In a general way, it would appear that the solution of this problem 
 lies in the direction of specialization. This is an age of specialization. In 
 law the lines of specialism are drawn very fine and there is hardly a law- 
 yer whose field of activity is not well fenced in, and in medicine, the 
 all-around family doctor of a generation ago has given way to a hun- 
 dred or more specialists. In the engineering profession specialization is 
 almost as extensive, but it is a thing more recent than we are apt to 
 realize. The only real engineering work done a century ago was in the 
 construction of canals. The profession naturally developed with the 
 growth of the country along more or less distinct lines, but its formal 
 differentiation into the four great main branches of Civil, Mechanical, 
 Electrical, and Mining has taken place within a quarter of a century. 
 Today each of these great divisions is sub-divided many times and each 
 of these sub-divisions has its own special literature. 
 
 To the uninitiated, it might appear that an engineer does not have 
 to read the whole vast mass of the literature of his profession, but only 
 that relating to his own specialty. Actually, however, the problem does 
 not work out so easily. There are no tight fences built between the dif- 
 ferent specialties, and he would be a foolish man who would build such 
 
FROST. 107 
 
 a fence around himself and limit his view of life to what he could see in 
 one direction through a little peep-hole. On the contrary, the boundaries 
 overlap on every side. Here is an engineer, let us say, of a Portland 
 cement works, interested in the use 'of cement in buildings, bridges, dams, 
 and a hundred other structures, and also in the appliances of the mine 
 and the quarry, in steam-shovels, kilns, hoisting and conveying ma- 
 chinery, and in the conveying of materials. Manifestly, then, this en- 
 gineer wants something more than the literature of Portland cement 
 manufacture. 
 
 Another reason why an engineer cannot wisely make his reading of 
 too limited scope lies in the fact that in all construction work the en- 
 gineer is constantly working himself out of a job, and every change 
 presents new problems of its own for solution. You will readily under- 
 stand, therefore, why the question of a too voluminous engineering 
 literature cannot be disposed of simply by saying that each engineer 
 shall read the literature of his own special branch. If he is wise and 
 
 ambitious, he will read that and much more. 
 
 #****#**.*** 
 
 There is a very considerable amount of engineering literature that 
 assumes to itself an air of superiority because of the fact that it is of 
 no use whatever, such as the theoretical discussions and records of ex- 
 perimental research which wander so far away from the practical 
 worker that he can never make any use of the results. 
 
 When you make a critical analysis of engineering literature, measur- 
 ing it all by the standard just stated, you will be surprised to find what 
 a large portion of space in some engineering journals and society trans- 
 actions is taken up with such matter, which nobody ever used and no- 
 body ever will use. 
 
 There seems to be an idea among a certain class, that the thing 
 which is directly useful has a plebeian odor about it, while useless know- 
 ledge has something of the same odor of sanctity that clings around the 
 old classical studies. So in the application of science, theory is too often 
 set on a pedestal, and elaborate researches are carried on to search out 
 facts which, when they are found, are of no earthly use to anyone. 
 
 Theory is all right in its place, aimed straight at practical results^ 
 but vague theorizing and experimenting, with nothing more in view 
 than a hazy possibility that somebody, sometime, somewhere, may find 
 it useful, only cumbers our already overcrowded literature with useless, 
 stuff, and occupies the space needed for things of greater importance. 
 
 Another sort of literature which, at the present day, ought to be 
 scrutinized very carefully, is descriptions of engineering works. It 
 may seem strange to you that descriptions of engineering work should 
 not have the first place. There was a time, not many years ago, when 
 
108 THE TECHNICAL PRESS. 
 
 engineering journals consisted almost wholly of such material, but no 
 journal could today attempt to publish descriptions of every engineering 
 work every bridge and water-works and steam-engine or mine or 
 power station, and so on throughout the whole range of activity of a 
 thousand busy engineers. Such descriptive matter would answer no 
 good purpose, and, in fact, would be the least useful. You will find 
 that the engineering journals and society transactions in which this 
 class of articles consumes a large portion of the space are left to accumu- 
 late unread upon the shelves, or find a final resting place in the waste- 
 basket. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Every engineer wants to keep in touch with everything of import- 
 ance that is published, affecting his interests; but such material may be 
 published in any one of a hundred or more periodicals and no man 
 can attempt to read them all, even if he could afford to buy them. The 
 best, and practically the only, method of getting this information, that 
 is open to the busy engineer, is through the use of an index, such as 
 the "Technical Press Index," published in connection with "Industrial 
 Engineering and The Engineering Digest." This gives each month 
 all details and brief summaries of about 500 important articles published 
 during the preceding month, and by using this as a supplement to his 
 reading of two or three of the leading periodicals in his field, an engi- 
 neer will have at his command everything of special interest to him. 
 ****** 
 
 In conclusion, I believe that it would pay everyone of you to read 
 Engineering News not to look it over superficially in the library, but 
 to subscribe for it, to receive a personal copy, to study it weekly as re- 
 ceived, and to have your copies bound and carefully preserved for 
 future reference. We have reason to believe that most of our subscrib- 
 ers preserve and bind their copies of Engineering News, and while from 
 one point of view it is of no interest to us what becomes of our issues 
 after they reach the subscribers, in pursuance of our purpose to make 
 the journal of the greatest usefulness to the engineering profession, 
 we would strongly advise our readers to preserve their files complete. 
 
 We are aware that some of our readers pursue the practice of cut- 
 ting from the paper such articles as are in their special line of work at 
 the time, which they file on some system or other, and throw away the 
 rest of the paper. Perhaps if a man were absolutely sure that he would 
 follow a particular specialty all his life long and would never have need 
 of information on any other department of engineering work, this would 
 be a good course to pursue; but very few engineers can map out 
 their future in that way. Not many years ago, thousands of engineers 
 were devoting all their attention to railroad construction ; today nine- 
 
FROST. 109 
 
 tenths of them are in reinforced concrete work, hydro-electric develop- 
 ment, contracting, and other fields of engineering work, and it is quite 
 safe to say that those fared the best in making the change who were the 
 best equipped for the other lines of work and who had kept in touch 
 with them so far as possible during their work on railroad construction. 
 
 The men who have achieved the greatest measure of success are 
 the men who have worked, read, and thought more than was absolutely 
 necessary, who have not been content with knowledge sufficient for 
 the present needs, but who have sought additional knowledge and stored 
 it away for the emergency reserve. 
 
 It is this apparently superfluous labor that equips a man for every- 
 thing that counts in life; and I would, therefore, advise you, in your 
 own interests, to preserve and bind your files of Engineering News. 
 The possessor of these files and the periodic indexes that .have been 
 issued will have at hand an encyclopedia of modern engineering pro- 
 gress which will be almost as easy of reference as a dictionary and 
 which will constitute in itself a complete library of engineering litera- 
 ture. The time will come when the information you can find in these 
 pages on other departments of engineering than that upon which you 
 may be at any one time engaged, will be of the greatest value, and 
 you will find that your subscription must not be considered as an ex- 
 pense it is an investment that will repay you many times over. 
 
BUSINESS TRAINING FOR THE ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 
 Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys. 
 
 Dr. Humphreys, the President of Stevens Institute of Technology, 
 is also a practicing engineer of high standing who has been so success- 
 ful from a business point of view, that he has come to be acknowledged 
 as the highest authority on the question of providing business courses 
 in technical schools. As an engineer to be truly successful must be a 
 good business man, it behooves the student of engineering to read all 
 he can about the business features of engineering practice. Therefore 
 the numerous books and papers of Dr. Humphreys that contain refer- 
 ences to this subject are commanded to our readers for perusal. Most 
 of them can be obtained through the Secretary of Stevens Institute of 
 Technology, Hoboken, N. J. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 Ill 
 
BUSINESS TRAINING FOR THE ENGINEER. 
 
 Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys. 
 
 Self-evident should be the truth of the proposition that the engi- 
 neer ought to be a man of business, or at least, informed of, and pre- 
 pared to conform to, business conditions and business methods. When 
 this proposition is squarely laid before them, it is self-evident to the 
 majority of successful engineers and men of business. Business men, 
 bankers, and manufacturers not infrequently refuse their confidence to 
 engineers and experts as a class, because, under trial, some individuals 
 have demonstrated their incapacity to meet business conditions ; from 
 the standpoint of the man of business their reports, advice, conclusions 
 have required interpretation and readjustment or amendment. 
 
 The man, so far somewhat exceptional, who is able to bring to the 
 service of his clients or associates a sound technical training and the 
 ability to meet business conditions, proves by his comparative success 
 the material value of this dual capacity. For the sake of the profession 
 and the country at large it is important that this broader capacity should 
 no longer be exceptional. 
 
 To this end the professional educator and the engineer-student 
 must better recognize the conditions to be met in practice. A general 
 and definite demand on the part of the business world for engineers of 
 'such broader capacity would ensure the necessary reform in the separ- 
 ate schools of engineering and the university departments of applied 
 science. All that is possible should be done in the technical schools to 
 
 harmonize theory and practice. 
 
 ********* 
 
 After graduation the young engineer will be influenced by com- 
 mercial conditions, and perhaps by his own natural bent, to become a 
 specialist. To-day the field of engineering is so wide and the require- 
 ments are so exacting that no man can expect to excel unless he con- 
 fines himself within certain rather narrow limits. But no matter to 
 what part of the field he confines his efforts, he will surely find himself 
 limited and bound, more or less, by commercial conditions. 
 
 From this it may be argued that the engineer should not aim to 
 be also the commercial manager ; as a specialist, he should confine him- 
 self to the engineering branch of his business. To this it may be re- 
 plied that whatever special branch of industry is adopted, the engineer 
 
 113 
 
114 BUSINESS TRAINING FOR THE ENGINEER. 
 
 must understand and practice in harmony with the commercial condi- 
 tions of that specialty. There may be a further specialization between 
 the engineering and the commercial management, but the engineer 
 should have at least a knowledge of the general fundamentals of busi- 
 ness practice and also a knowledge of the special limitations attaching 
 to the particular business pursued. 
 
 As in schools of engineering we cannot expect to instruct the stu- 
 dents in all the specializations of engineering science and practice, so 
 with instruction in business methods we can expect to give only a broad 
 training in fundamentals upon which the student can safely and ex- 
 peditiously build when the need for specialization is encountered. 
 
 If it be admitted that the engineer-student should receive some in- 
 struction in business methods before graduation, it then remains to be 
 determined what can be added in this connection to a course already 
 crowded almost to the limit. Perhaps the matter of first importance is 
 accounting. We cannot expect to train the students to be expert book- 
 keepers, nor is it necessary to do so; but we can expect to give them 
 what is of more value and what many book-keepers do not possess a 
 sound knowledge of the principles of double-entry book-keeping. This 
 knowledge engineers need to enable them to exercise a close, intelligent 
 and independent supervision of manufacturing cost. 
 
 The students should be taught carefully and conscientiously to dis- 
 criminate between the charges to capital or revenue, and they should be 
 warned of the ease with which errors can be made in this connection 
 and the disastrous consequences likely to follow their commission. They 
 should also be shown the necessity for making adequate provision for 
 depreciation of plant, the scheme to be based upon an exhaustive analysis 
 of local conditions and not upon the blind acceptance of arbitrary rules 
 formulated by accountants. They should be shown that books can be so 
 kept, either through ignorance or design, as to hide the facts and to 
 present a warrant for the payment of dividends unearned. They should 
 be shown that all this, and much more, they will need if they are to be 
 competent as managers or reliable as advisors in connection with the 
 purchase of properties. 
 
 They can also be shown that often, when called in to pronounce 
 on the value of some new apparatus or process where these have already 
 been under commercial test, the technical investigation may well be 
 supplemented by a competent examination of the books of account ; and 
 that here the man who is only an engineer or only an accountant will 
 probably be found incapable of conducting such an examination. In 
 such a course might also well be included enough instruction in the 
 science of statistics to warn the student against the danger of draw- 
 ing conclusions from insufficient or inconsistent data. 
 
HUMPHREYS. 115 
 
 In connection with the work in this and other departments the 
 effort should be made to bring the students to a keener appreciation of 
 the value of a working command of English. They should be shown 
 that it is not enough that they possess the knowledge, but they must 
 have the ability to convey to others, and especially to their clients, in 
 language concise and free from ambiguity, the results of their profes- 
 sional or administrative work. 
 
 Unquestionably there is a crying need for more efficient work in the 
 teaching of English in the schools of technology, and perhaps this state- 
 ment may fairly be extended to include some of the colleges and uni- 
 versities. Reform in this direction is most difficult of accomplishment. 
 The work performed is too often of a perfunctory character, whereas 
 it should be characterized by enthusiasm and originality. The time 
 available is limited, and, therefore, the first care should be to give such 
 a training in English as will be most efficient to meet the requirements 
 of professional practice. 
 
 This leads naturally to another feature which may well be included 
 in the department of business methods instruction in the law of con- 
 tracts. We cannot expect to give engineer-students a working knowl- 
 edge of the law of contracts, but we may very reasonably expect to im- 
 press them with the dangers to be encountered and the necessity of 
 knowing when it is advisable to seek thoroughly competent legal advice. 
 Some advice in this line can also, to advantage, be included in the lec- 
 tures on engineering practice. 
 
 ********* 
 
 Generally the entering class in their wisdom are ready promptly to 
 denounce as useless or out of place all non-technical studies ; thus the 
 sympathetic co-operation of the students, which is such an important 
 element in the efficient teaching required in a full course of study, is 
 not obtained, and the foundation is laid for many regrets to be ex- 
 perienced in the years after graduation. 
 
RECORDS. 
 A Talk for Undergraduate Students of Engineering. 
 
 By 
 E. E. Howard, C. E. 
 
 This lecture, which was delivered in 1909 to the Engineering 
 Society of the University of Kansas, is on a subject new to engineering 
 students, but at the same time of great importance, and not to them only, 
 but also to engineers in general. Mr. Howard handles the question 
 in a masterly manner, and his discourse is of an unusually pleasing 
 character, imbued as it is throughout with a fine sense of humor. The 
 Editors believe that their readers will peruse the paper with both in- 
 terest and profit, and that they certainly will occasionally be amused by 
 some of the author's illustrative stories. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 117 
 
RECORDS. 
 
 A Talk for Undergraduate Students of Engineering. 
 
 By 
 E. E. Howard, C. E. 
 
 Throughout the ages man has devoted much laborious effort to 
 the making of records. Centuries before Job lamented "Oh that my 
 works were now written, oh that they were printed in a book, that they 
 were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever," other men 
 had been stirred with that same universal desire and by their efforts 
 and with their genius had developed an art of record making. Some 
 time ago an archaeologist showed to me a piece of stone on which he 
 said was the oldest known attempt of man to write, and the writing was 
 done regularly, in well denned characters, skillfully cut on the smooth, 
 rounded surface of a vase. Clearly it was no first attempt, but was a 
 product of skill and practice so that one wondered, as he meditated, 
 who before had trained and developed that skilled hand. From such 
 ancient times down to this present, man has never ceased to make rec- 
 ords, and to-day he is making more than ever before. 
 
 Every calling, every profession, every art, every science, every busi- 
 ness, every industry of mankind has its records and its record-makers. 
 It is not surprising that in engineering, a Science and an Art, a Pro- 
 fession and a Business, an Industry and an Inspiration, there are records 
 to be made of many different kinds. When an engineer prepares a 
 design, estimates, plans, and specifications, as a banker he has used rec- 
 ords of money, as a merchant records of prices, as a statistician records 
 of costs, as a transporter records of tariffs, as a producer records of 
 materials, as a manufacturer records of products, as a lawyer records 
 of legislation, as a physician records of human endurance, as an artist 
 records of fitness, as a historian records of achievements, and as a poet 
 records of his own imagination. 
 
 To come into contact with the record making of his chosen profes- 
 sion it is not necessary for a young engineer to wait till some. one calls 
 on him for advice as to building a bridge, or a dam, or a railroad; for 
 with his first engineering undertaking record-making will be required 
 of him. In fact, it is usually because of his record-making that the 
 engineer-graduate has immediate market value. 
 
 119 
 
120 RECORDS. 
 
 Records are made for information, to preserve and to convey 
 thoughts; and it is so axiomatic as to be almost unnecessary to say that 
 the meaning of a record should be clear and plain. If a record conveys 
 no meaning, it is no true record; if it conveys inaccurate meaning, it is 
 a record worse than valueless. If a thought be worthy of preservation 
 and transmission, it were a foolish thing to try to preserve it or trans- 
 mit it in some unintelligible manner. Even when records are for our- 
 selves alone, it is essential that they be decipherable. The first prin- 
 ciple, then is 
 
 "RECORDS ARE FOR INFORMATION." 
 
 From marking numbers on stakes to the successive steps in the solu- 
 tion of complicated and abstruse problems, the larger part of the rec- 
 ords you will make in the next five or ten years, will be made, as many 
 good things are, by hand. Your value will be determined in no small 
 part by your skill at this record-making and your skill will be deter- 
 mined in no small part by your writing and your figuring. Can you 
 write? That is, can you write a page that you are not ashamed of? 
 Can you write down a column of figures that you ought not to be 
 ashamed of? 
 
 Long ago you began to learn to write, but can you write? Writing 
 is good writing when it is legible, be it Spenceriah, vertical, backhand, 
 lean-over, or what not. Writing is bad writing when it is not legible 
 be it ever so beautiful a piece of pen-and-ink hand-decoration. To be 
 sure, great and honorable men are not always good penmen; but here 
 is an immutable fact which you can accept now or learn later by ex- 
 perience: legible and orderly writing and figuring will advance you in 
 the estimation of everyone with whom you have to do business. You 
 can verify that statement even now by your own observations. You 
 can see about you men whose ability was brought to notice by skill in 
 this elementary art, usually considered mastered and done with long 
 before college days. Of course, when you are Chief Engineer or Gen- 
 eral Manager with your name engraved at the top of the sheet, you 
 will have a stenographer and will dictate all your letters ; and then 
 the merest scrawl or scratch over your title will serve to reveal to admir- 
 ing and criticising henchmen your identity. But, between then and 
 now there will be a space when, perhaps, you will be sending in monthly 
 reports to the Division Engineer, and it will not count to your advan- 
 tage if he has to write to ask you whether such a mark is intended to 
 be a three or a five or some part of a mysterious secret code. Writing in 
 itself does not make a man or an engineer; its character is no conclu- 
 sive proof of a man's characteristics. Some of the best looking esti- 
 
HOWARD. 121 
 
 mates I ever saw contained the most errors; sometimes the most legible 
 writing has the largest number of misspelled words; but if you are 
 going to take advantage of everything for the struggle before you, do 
 not ignore this simple but important factor. You may have read re- 
 cently this shrewd advice: "Appearances are deceitful, but so long as 
 they are, there is nothing like having them deceive for us instead of 
 against us. A dirty shirt may hide a pure heart, but the chances are 
 against its covering a clean skin." Orderly neatness in figuring and 
 writing is an effective, if modest, recommendation. Some of the time 
 spent in studying what Professor Bates characterizes as "language 
 which, while it is English, is yet hardly more intelligible to the students 
 than would be Choctaw or the speech of Borrioboola Gha" might be 
 profitably employed in learning to write the language one is going to 
 use. And by "write" I do not mean here any sort of literary composi- 
 tion ; but merely "the mechanical act of tracing or inscribing symbols 
 or ideographs." The written alphabet has been declared to be the 
 greatest and most useful of all human inventions. If it is so, and as it 
 is quite unprotected by patents, does it not seem strange that so many of 
 us utilize this remarkable invention in such an unworkmanlike manner? 
 Having, then, a serviceable, legible system of characters or sym- 
 bols, in order to make a record these characters must be arranged into 
 accepted forms for conveyance of ideas. A second axiomatic concept 
 of Record Making is, therefore, 
 
 "SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT." 
 
 An orderly allotment, a systematic arrangement of symbols, of 
 characters, of words, of terms, of every detail of a record is essential 
 to make that record complete. It cannot be disputed that accuracy is 
 enhanced by symmetrical, methodical apportionment and classification 
 of data ; and that 'the recording of the complete, precise, exact truth in 
 some disorderly, chaotic, and confused way may result in error as great 
 as that arising from erroneous information. To struggle through a 
 perplexing labryinth of uncorrelated meanderings of truth, a maze of 
 indiscriminately muddled facts, on a disentangling expedition is as try- 
 ing to the temper as to discover that extensive calculations and careful 
 deductions must all be discarded because of incorrect statements of pre- 
 liminary data. For instance, I recall a man, a graduate of a reputable 
 engineering school, who was instructed to keep a force account (the 
 daily working time of a dozen laborers) in order to check the time-book 
 supposed to be kept by an illiterate foreman. Now the foreman, in spite 
 of his honest attempts, got his time-book so badly mixed that it was 
 impossible to tell what was due the men at the end of a week's time, 
 
122 RECORDS. 
 
 and the engineer, with a sheepskin passport from a considerate Facul- 
 ty, was called on for his records; but, sorrowful to relate, they were 
 in such condition that he himself could not discover how much was 
 due to each man, or indeed with accuracy, to any man. Pages of figures, 
 but no information; words, but no records! And so, at such a simple 
 examination he failed, and he found that it wasn't just something to 
 be "made up next term," hardly worth mention, for he had sacrificed 
 the confidence placed in his ability to do anything well ; and soon another 
 took his place. 
 
 You will be forgiven for not knowing how to run the job your 
 boss has, but lapses in the little things trusted to you will not be 
 overlooked so easily. In the examinations to which you are coming, 
 most of the questions will be very simple ones; but you will have to 
 pass them every day. 
 
 Of all the deplorable, unsystematic record-making habits, none is 
 worse than that of writing desultory notes on loose sheets. Records 
 should be kept in books, or else bound into books or some workable sub- 
 stitute therefor. In some of the largest engineering offices in this 
 country it is required that every figure be put down in a note book, 
 that every arithmetical operation be shown, so they can all be found 
 when the inevitable checking up comes. Too often it happens if notes 
 are made on nondescript sheets, that they are misplaced or lost even 
 before they are old, and one is sometimes forced to the undignified and 
 annoying attitude of looking for them in the waste basket. Nothing is 
 more irritatingly imbecile than to swoop deliriously on this scrap of 
 paper or that scrap of paper in the sudden anxious hope that it may 
 perchance bear certain information once recorded on a similar frag- 
 ment. "There may have been times in human history when the action 
 of the Turk who picks up and preserves every stray piece of inscribed 
 paper, 'because it might contain the name of Allah' has been highly 
 reasonable." But in these times a similar behavior is wholly uncalled 
 for even in literary fields, while in engineering records it is an indiction 
 of a lamentable lack of that system and order which throughout en- 
 gineering is a prime requisite. 
 
 You have read Alexander Pope's observation that "Order is Heav- 
 en's First Law," and you may recall that one St. John who had a 
 heavenly vision, received as his first command a direction to make a 
 record, a record of some permanancy "What thou seest write in a book." 
 As you start out in your engineering work remember St. John and 
 Pope "What thou seest write in a book," "Order is Heaven's First 
 Law." 
 
HOWARD. 123 
 
 It is not necessary to say to engineers that their records must be 
 solely of that which is true. Untrue records may be of service in other 
 lines, but in engineering they would fail because of their falsity. An 
 eminent jurist who had broad opportunity for observation of many men 
 on the witness stand, gave his opinion that engineers as a class are the 
 most accurately truthful men in the world. You are not dealing with 
 man-made laws, you can't evade the law of gravitation; force and in- 
 ertia are not matters of opinion ; and experience will permeate you 
 with a higher regard for truth than ever precept could. 
 
 Records of value should be of some permanency, and books in- 
 stead of loose sheets are an advance toward that desideratum. Don't 
 go around leaving "foot prints on the sands" for your engineering 
 records. Your employer won't see much that is "sublime" about records 
 so easily washed away. There is a story told of a rodman who was 
 sent out to establish a bench mark in a railroad yard, who returned, 
 advising that he had located it on the draw head of a box car. He 
 further explained to the thunderous silence which greeted him, that he 
 had carefully recorded the number and initial of the car, and could 
 find it at any time. 
 
 It is not improbable that your first records will be made in ordi- 
 nary "field books" and properly will follow the usually prescribed 
 standard form. But even such standard forms are sometimes so ar- 
 ranged and filled in that no one, not even the maker, after a time, can 
 determine the meaning of the notes. 
 
 The field notes of a survey, of a pile driving outfit, of a force 
 account, of anything, ought to contain all the information at hand in 
 some sensible arrangement, so that some one else can discover what was 
 done. This constant reiteration of one idea may seem to you a foolish 
 repetition, but when you have had to sit and tear your hair in an effort 
 to determine whether angles were turned to right or to left, or whether 
 such a line is center line of track or center line of structure, or some 
 equally provoking simple thing, you will acknowledge the correctness 
 of this oft-repeated requirement. Surprising it is that the special and 
 limited notes are nearly always included, while the simple essentials 
 are omitted. 
 
 Somewhere in the book the proper general explanation should be 
 given. For instance, a pile recorder may proceed systematically to call 
 the piles in the bents Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and that much may be clear 
 in the notes ; while you may search in vain to discover whether he counted 
 from north, south, .east, or west. I have looked over old note books 
 whose sole distinguishing title was "Line B" ; no date, no name, nothing 
 to indicate place or purpose. 
 
124 RECORDS. 
 
 The records made by all the different men connected with one en- 
 terprise should fit together to form a connected whole, and definite ex- 
 planations are needed that there may be uniformity of arrangement of 
 similar data. An example of lucid, explicit instructions of this char- 
 acter is to be found in Molitor and Beard's "Manual for Resident En- 
 gineers/' a book which the novice will find to be an excellent basis of 
 practical work, giving, as it does, clear ideas of actual duties and how 
 to perform them, and in which the experienced engineer will discover 
 many valuable hints and suggestions. Excepting that portion of the 
 book treating of Specifications, you will find that one-sixth of the num- 
 bered paragraphs, covering over one-third of the whole book, are devoted 
 to the duties of resident engineers with respect to records. You will no- 
 tice that the details of these records, the form and size, the titling and 
 numbering, the methods of report, are all carefully specified. 
 
 Field notes should be comprehensive and complete. In making 
 them put down everything you think will be needed and then all 
 the things you are sure you will remember. Of course, the engineer 
 is busy (like the Habitant farmer "No sooner one job's finish dan he 
 got two t'ousan more"), and the time for note making is limited, so that 
 while notes must be comprehensive they should be concise and brief. 
 It is far better to err by making notes too plentiful than to have omis- 
 sions. Attempt to come to the point as clearly as possible, but be sure 
 everything is included. Two words need not be used where one would 
 serve, but that one should not be omitted. 
 
 Don't be so brilliantly brief as was an engineer who was directed 
 to check the material for a half-through girder span on a couple of 
 cars, and who, instead of giving a memorandum like this 1G1, 1G2, 
 2FB1, 3FB2, etc., reported with much satisfaction "there are six big 
 pieces and a lot of little pieces" ! And he had told us he fully understood 
 checking steel for shipment! 
 
 Make your notes thorough, make them brief if you can, but make 
 them thorough anyway. The difficulty in accomplishing this was once 
 forcibly impressed upon me when on a trip inspecting old bridges with 
 a prominent engineer. We both made notes and he always finished his 
 sooner than I. Nevertheless, when the accounting came and the notes 
 were made into a report, mine were decidedly lacking and his contained 
 information I had instinctively left to memory to fallible memory. 
 Sometimes I had even failed to state the number of spans, or the stream 
 name, or the location number, or something else equally simple. Field 
 notes should be comprehensive, but comprehensive with discrimination. 
 
 Perhaps following the work of making notes in prescribed forms' 
 will come the writing of letters and reports. While letter writing is not 
 
HOWARD. 125 
 
 mentioned in many treatises on engineering, it still becomes an import- 
 ant part of professional work. When you come to direct others in their 
 work, you will do so largely by letter; and it will then be essential 
 that you be able to write a letter which will really convey your ideas to 
 its recipient. Some day you will be writing specifications for construc- 
 tions to be read by men of very different abilities, of varying views, of 
 complex relations, and it will be essential that your thought be conveyed 
 accurately to each one. 
 
 Of course, the mention of writing simple sentences that clearly 
 express one meaning without ambiguity, is smiled upon as being too 
 elementary a detail for college men. Surely "grammar," "composition," 
 "rhetoric," "literature" are household words ; but if you were to make a 
 practice of examining letters written by college graduates, you would 
 conclude that "grammar" was a theory long ago discarded, that "com- 
 position" was not for personal application, and that "rhetoric" and 
 "literature" were studied for "credits," not for use. 
 
 We agreed just now that poor penmanship is not necessarily an 
 evidence of lack of culture; but this fact is sure although a man may 
 not disclose his character by his penmanship, he surely will betray his 
 training by his use and arrangement of words and sentences. You ex- 
 pect to impress your employer and later your clients as an educated, 
 scholarly man; can you, or do you even try, to write scholarly letters 
 in simple sentences properly paragraphed? We commend or condemn 
 authors by what they have written, and so will business men judge us 
 by what we write and how we write it. 
 
 Specifications and reports may not concern you soon, but at the 
 very outset of your professional career you will surely have occasion to 
 write letters. A sloppy, slovenly, confusing, ambiguous letter produces 
 the same effect as a display of dirty hands, unkept attire, and general 
 personal untidiness. Your professors have told you this in substance, 
 * and have corrected your English ; and you have considered their opinions 
 to be due merely to their academic idiosyncrasies; but let me assure 
 you that they have overlooked your lapses far more readily than will 
 your business critics. 
 
 A word might be said regarding letters of application for positions. 
 Perhaps you may sometime need to write one. You will then be judged 
 by your letter, and it therefore deserves serious effort. Make it brief. 
 Make it neat. If practicable, make it cover only one page. Spell the 
 man's name correctly. Secure his exact title and address and use 
 them. Give tersely enough information to enable him to judge the 
 product you are advertising; at least so he will not have to write for 
 preliminary data. Don't tell him you have had charge of* every piece 
 
126 RECORDS. 
 
 of work you happened to be engaged upon, for he may know the man 
 who really was in charge, and, in consequence, might have to start in 
 by disbelieving you. And don't, as did one University man in a letter 
 of application I have seen, don't spell "engineer" with a "j." 
 
 The recording of ideas by drawing is, to me at least, far more in- 
 teresting that to put them down in writing. To originate a detail or 
 combination of details and to inscribe on the drawing board your plan 
 and your details so as to carry out your scheme is a most engrossing 
 occupation. Many students, not understanding that drawing is a means 
 for expressing ideas and that its character will depend on the ideas, 
 decry the work of drafting. Truly a man working only with mechanical 
 precision in stolid vacancy of mind, making letters on a map, or tracing 
 some other man's conceptions, is limited in scope, and his work is 
 drudgery; but no work can be of more absorbing interest than that of 
 a designing draftsman who is constantly making inventions and record- 
 ing them on paper. Pictured in his mind is a complete structure, and 
 piece by piece he mentally puts it together, and plans and dictates how 
 others shall actually put it together. Here, too, the same axiomatic, 
 simple principles for records are applicable. The plan is made to con- 
 vey a meaning. 
 
 Once I made a plan for a canal drainage gate that was to be better 
 than anything on the whole of a large rice irrigation plant. Facilities 
 for drafting were somewhat lacking, and the drawing was crowded on 
 one small sheet; but to my mind that gate, and especially its manifold 
 advantages, showed forth with unmistakable clearness. You can sympa- 
 thetically imagine my indignation and the consequent commotion when I 
 found my beautiful gate was being made as wide as it was to have 
 been high, and the flaring wing wall had become a slide-way for the 
 water to run over. The foreman produced the plan and I explained. 
 When he grasped the idea he recognized its efficiency. But he said "that' 
 plan doesn't show me anything like that." And I then began to 
 appreciate the principle that a plan should be so drawn as to appeal to 
 the user, not to the maker. 
 
 Vast numbers of engineering records are made only by drawings, 
 and the engineers must be able both to make them and to understand 
 them. Skill in making drawings is like skill in writing and figuring. 
 Don't possess yourself with the idea that if you are unable to make 
 a clear drawing, neatly lettered, it will be accepted as evidence that you 
 are meant for greater things. You are more likely to succeed to other 
 positions through skillful drawing. And as drawing i s the natural way 
 and the only way for recording much engineering thought, you ought 
 
HOWARD. 127 
 
 to be able to draw well if you expect your thoughts to be clearly under- 
 stood and to prevail. 
 
 Even in those cases where a drawing is for the use of the makef 
 alone, it should be complete and definite. To stare confused at your own 
 drawing and not find enough familiar lines to know what it is all about 
 will quickly produce a genuine foolish feeling. Some draftsmen will 
 make a large scale layout for a riveted joint in such a way that even the 
 next day it is of no use to them, and they will have to make it over 
 again, with additional expenditure of energy, or else get rivets on 
 chance dots, and center lines for bearing lines, and wrong angles, and 
 incorrect scales, and other numberless errors. 
 
 If you really intend to present your idea so that somebody else 
 may carry it out, don't credit him with omniscience, or skill in mental 
 telepathy, or a mind that moves in your individual track. Either give 
 every detail of everything you propose, or else expect surprises as the 
 doer applies his own ideas and perhaps achieves the required end in a 
 manner entirely at variance with your own veiled, stealthy, and secret 
 intentions. If you show a rivet floating around promiscuously in an 
 area of possibilities, don't be astonished when it is put in some other than 
 the exact spot you had in mind. Don't leave a space blank, and think 
 that anybody ought to know that was "three inches." 
 
 The plan maker is responsible for the mutual correlation of the 
 various parts, and he must give careful attention thereto. Usually in 
 an extensive work, contractors or mechanics have plans only of their 
 particular share, and they build in accordance therewith, trust- 
 ing entirely to the detailer that their portion will fit with the work 
 of the other builders. Especially when a change is made in one draw- 
 ing or in one detail, it should be traced throughout all of the parts that 
 may be affected and on every sheet of the entire set of drawings. For 
 instance, I have set anchor bolts according to substructure drawings 
 only to find later that the steel work would not fit, and then learned that 
 changes had been made in the steel plans and had not been properly 
 carried through to the substucture drawings. 
 
 If a drawing be for construction use, it is well to remember that 
 however easy it may be in the drawing room to spread three or four 
 sheets out on a desk and compare from one to another in order to 
 find one lonesome dimension, it is entirely a different thing when you 
 are shoe deep in mud with the rain dripping on your print, or when 
 your fingers are so cold that they can hardly push a pencil, or perhaps 
 when the tropic sun is beating on the back of your neck and one hand 
 is busy fighting off mosquitoes, when your dearest wish is for a drink 
 of cool water without any mud in it, and when the contractor is being 
 
128 RECORDS. 
 
 delayed and is roaring about for immediate instructions, and for points, 
 and for explanations. Give a thought for the man who is to try to fol- 
 low out the plan, and arrange the data as nearly as may be for his ad- 
 vantage and convenience. 
 
 Aside from ordinary mistakes and avoidable errors, the principal 
 deficiencies of drawings as records are largely due to a lack of con- 
 ception on the part of the maker as to how the user will perform the 
 work. This suggests the natural conclusion that only that man who has 
 done the class of work involved can really properly prepare a plan. 
 While this is not generally practicable, it is always possible for the 
 designer or detailer to have clearly in mind just how he would take each 
 step if he were to follow the plan and build thereto. Your structures 
 cannot spring into existence complete and perfect from your Jove-like 
 brow, but must be put together piece by piece. It is not uncommon 
 to find in steel-work plans instances of members which must first be 
 taken apart before they can be put in place, and rivets which no earthly 
 riveting tool could possibly drive. Many times I have had to make over 
 plans for substructure, supposedly complete, plentifully supplied with 
 dimensions, but yet lacking nearly every dimension required for staking 
 out the work on the ground. The maker of such plans should prepare his 
 drawings with the thought that he might be called on to stake out the 
 work, and to direct the carpenters in their form-building and the other 
 mechanics in their various efforts. 
 
 A carefully made plan is certain to save time and labor by having 
 the thinking done at the outset once for all. But the information must 
 be so arranged that a meaning, one meaning, the intended meaning, is 
 made clear to the user. Above all, for plans to convey information 
 there must be information to start with. 
 
 Final records of completed works are of special value both for 
 private information and for public reference; and they aid greatly in 
 the advancement of the engineering profession. Some times anxiety to 
 stop expense immediately on the cessation of the construction causes 
 records to be left in an unfinished condition a most expensive economy. 
 Notes should be final, completed, indexed, and arranged as soon as pos- 
 sible after making. For instance, it may become of importance to knovy 
 quickly just how deep the piles of a trestle were driven, or what load 
 a certain floor was designed to carry, or what pressure per square 
 foot was allowed on a certain material, or even who inspected certain 
 work. All too frequently such data are entirely neglected. Recently 
 in an important matter none of the city officials were able to find in their 
 records any definite information concerning the depths of piers in a city 
 bridge built only a few years previously. The remembrance of some 
 
HOWARD. 129 
 
 workmen was their most reliable record. Such conditions are prevalent 
 they are not exceptions ; and engineers are to be blamed for such folly. 
 When a work is completed it is best to make a new drawing showing 
 the structure as actually built; or if this be considered extravagant, a 
 special set of blue prints should be marked in red ink "as built" with 
 each altered dimension corrected. Such drawings or prints should be 
 dated and properly filed with a report or general statement concerning 
 the work. 
 
 Aside from the personal or local value of a record of completed 
 work, there is a value to the profession at large. We advance on former 
 accomplishments: the best way to forecast the future is to examine the 
 past. To this end it is essential that records be made of the design and 
 construction of completed works and that their plans be available for 
 study and comparison. This is being done by the technical press and 
 in the publications of engineering societies. No two pieces of engineer- 
 ing construction are exactly alike; the engineer must constantly, with 
 versatility and judgment, adapt old ideas to new conditions; and the 
 clearness with which new conditions are recognized and the aptness with 
 which the old ideas are applied measure the ability of the engineer. The 
 fundamental laws of machines are known to every man, or can be learn- 
 ed with ordinary diligence ; but the application of the principles resulting 
 in the complicated mechanisms of today demands laborious effort, vigi- 
 lant patience, and unceasing enthusiasm. Never again should it be said 
 that there are "lost arts," never more should mankind travel again and 
 again the same slow paths of the development of the arts. Future gen- 
 erations should surpass us by knowing both what we have done and how 
 it was accomplished. 
 
 There is not a single piece of important engineering work done any- 
 where, concerning which it would not be advantageous to some one to 
 know exactly how it was performed. The simplest thing to those who 
 know is yet as abstruse as matters most profound to those who know it 
 not. An engineer once told me that he had an extensive but unsuccess- 
 ful search made in one of the best engineering libraries in this country,, 
 in order to find a description of how to put up an ordinary frame bent 
 trestle a simple enough thing, surely, for those who know. 
 
 The younger members of the profession rightly expect that those 
 of mature experience should devote some time and effort to a record of 
 their accomplishments and failures for the general good, in order that 
 each success, no matter by whom accomplished, may ultimately lead to 
 a greater. And while the young engineer may not assume to instruct 
 those superior in wisdom and experience, he may still have a share in 
 such records, if only by contributing statements of facts and tabulations 
 
130 RECORDS. 
 
 of data. And if no one other than himself ever examines his final 
 records, they yet have a genuine value. 
 
 In order to give you a better appreciation of the variety of rec- 
 ords encountered in engineering work, I shall take as an example a 
 contract covering the construction of a number of bridges for a rail- 
 road in Mexico, which was of the cost-plus-percentage variety, and en- 
 deavor to trace through the various records required. 
 
 ****** **** 
 
 You thus see that the Engineers were concerned not only with 
 plans, specifications, surveys, field notes, inspection reports, and estimates, 
 but with cost-keeping, accounting, money exchange, invoicing, bills 
 of lading, bookkeeping, and all the records required for the conduct 
 of business. You will have noticed too, the magnitude of the labor in- 
 volved in reducing these records and in classifying results for proper 
 comparison. Such reduction is common in records of many kinds and 
 is sometimes carried to extreme refinement. I have heard of a mine 
 superintendent who was such an enthusiast for comparing averages that 
 he was reported to compute each day the average daily car number of 
 the cars loaded at the mine. 
 
 A somewhat just criticism of the training of our engineering 
 schools is made in that, being usually prematurely vocational, it fails to 
 educate. Another criticism more pointed, and in some respects not wholly 
 unjust, is that, although such engineering training is principally voca- 
 tional, it fails to train. 
 
 Now, frankly, you all expect to sell something. That something 
 is your services. Some day it may be your opinion, or your judgment; 
 but your opinion is not now of much value, and you will find it hard 
 to realize cash on your judgment. Your services you perform with 
 hand and brain, and what you do with your brain is expressed with your 
 hands. So with your training you should try to train your hands. 
 
 Suppose now, everyone of you were to write a letter to my firm 
 requesting employment. You would each receive an answer that your 
 letter had been placed on file. Do not cherish the belief that "on file" 
 means "lost." Some day a man or two is needed and the file is examined. 
 So far as we know, you are all alike, all graduates this year of an en- 
 gineering school of repute, about the same age, of about equal exper- 
 ience. Now who do you suppose will get the job? The letters are 
 all examined and one by one discarded, this one because it is careless, 
 that one because it is in such bad writing that evidently the writer will 
 not be able to make a neat drawing, another one for having gross mis- 
 takes in spelling, still another because it shows that the writer has ab- 
 solutely no knowledge of how a business letter should be phrased; so 
 
HOWARD. 131 
 
 finally the position is offered to the writer of the cleanest, neatest, most 
 careful letter. And every employer of engineers in the country follows 
 more or less the same plan, perhaps not consciously, but inevitably, be- 
 cause the only thing he has to gauge you by is that letter. 
 
 Now suppose you are all working side by side in a drafting room, 
 and some special work comes up. Who do you suppose will be chosen to 
 do it and so begin to raise himself from the general level? You know: 
 it will be the man who is doing the neatest, clearest, most accurate work 
 with his drawing instruments. Suppose you wanted to choose one out 
 of ten men, otherwise equal, to advance to the designing department, 
 which one would you select? Assuredly you would take the man who 
 could make the neatest, most orderly estimates, whose writing was leg- 
 ible, and whose figures were plain. Suppose you were all working in 
 equal positions in a field corps turning in notes every day, and one 
 man was to be selected for a better position. Do you believe it would 
 be the man whose notes are always smudged and dirty and irregular 
 and inaccurate? Frankly now, other things being equal, who will get 
 the raise? Certainly, there are other things, other characteristics, that 
 will be the determining factors later, but for your immediate future 
 nothing is more important than neatness. Neatness is evidence of care- 
 fulness, and carefulness of accuracy. By the time you have to 
 design a truss or an engine, you will have forgotten all you know about 
 it to-day, and will have to take up your books and study and really 
 learn it, but what you are unable to do in writing and figuring will be 
 noticed now. 
 
 You may be able to advance rapidly in spite of your illegible writ- 
 ing and careless drawing and dirty notebooks, and you may be con- 
 fident in assurance that you will; but, do not forget that you will be 
 pulling a heavy drag all the time. I could show you men who never 
 have taken the positions they deserve solely because of that drawback. 
 
 When you get something for nothing, usually you have paid full 
 value. Good records do not merely occur. Time and effort are the 
 price strenuous, sustained, painstaking, monotonous effort. But the 
 price will not be paid in vain. 
 
 An engineering student, therefore, should not only aim to learn 
 how to conduct a survey, how to design a structure, or how to inspect 
 a material, but he must also learn how to make records, intelligible rec- 
 ords of each effort. 
 
 Recapitulating, 
 
 Records are for Information. 
 
 They should be 
 
 Legible, Concise, and Comprehensive. 
 
132 RECORDS. 
 
 to which end there should be 
 
 Skillfully Made Symbols, 
 
 Orderly, Systematic Arrangement, and 
 
 Definite Ideas of Information Desired. 
 
 They should be 
 
 Permanent, Accurate, and Intelligible. 
 
 Memory is Fallible, Paper is Cheap. 
 
 Books Were Invented to Keep Together Loose Sheets. 
 
 A Record Correct Once is Correct Forever. 
 
 Take up your record-making till in time you yourselves will add 
 to those "epics of engineers, perhaps unsung in words, but being writ- 
 ten in huge characters on the face of this planet." 
 
 You have ideals, cherish them; you have ambitions, follow them; 
 you have determined to make your mark in the world; make it. But 
 when you do make that mark, in the name of all good records, make it 
 so clear and so plain that other folks shall know, beyond the peradven- 
 ture of a doubt, exactly what it stands for ! 
 
SOME EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN A LARGE 
 UNIVERSITY. 
 
 By 
 Professor Vladimir Karapetoff . 
 
 This paper was written as an address to alumni and not for stu- 
 dents. The main reason why it is offered for perusal to entering fresh- 
 men is that they may understand some of the problems which the 
 Faculty has to solve and to enable them to sympathize with it in the 
 difficulties with which it continually has to contend. Another reason 
 for presenting this address to freshmen is that it treats of the emotional 
 part 'of college life an aspect which is not generally recognized by 
 either instructors or students at least not with sufficient seriousness. 
 
 The ethical features of this paper and of the other two papers by 
 Prof. Karapetoff given in this book are earnestly recommended for the 
 student's consideration and guidance. It would be well were there in 
 the engineering profession more of its representatives who, like Prof. 
 Karapetoff, do not hesitate to treat in print openly and fearlessly the 
 moral and ethical questions that are so important to both students of 
 engineering and practicing engineers. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 133 
 
SOME EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN A LARGE 
 UNIVERSITY.* 
 
 By 
 Professor Vladimir Karapetoff. 
 
 The ultimate end of education is to develop the latent possibilities 
 of the individual, so as to bring them into better adjustment with his 
 environment, and to fit him for realizing the highest ideals of the times. 
 The education of the soul comprises that of the intellect, emotions, and 
 the will. This gives a natural classification of the problem confronting 
 our educators. 
 
 I. Intellectual Side of University Life The great problem is 
 "what to teach," and "how to teach." The common-sense "practical" 
 man would probably say: Why, teach law to the lawyer, teach medi- 
 cine to the doctor, engineering to the engineer ; and teach them in a plain, 
 practical way, so that the students can understand and apply the knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 This "horse-sense" advise is based on the assumption that a young 
 man or woman between eighteen and twenty-two is a piece of soft ma- 
 terial, that can be shaped into any desired form. Alas, Mr. Business 
 Man, fortunately it is not so. They are free, thinking, feeling, and will- 
 ing (or rather unwilling) beings, and to make them assimilate our 
 teachings is at least fully as hard as for you to sell goods to your cus- 
 tomers. Human education is not a mechanical or chemical process, or 
 even to be compared with the training of monkeys. It is an organic 
 process of self-development; the school merely provides conditions 
 favorable for such self-development. With the best teachers and first- 
 class equipment, we fail with certain individuals, and these individuals 
 are not necessarily stupid or lazy. They simply choose not to develop 
 according to prescription, and we ought to be glad that there are such 
 individuals. They keep before our eyes our most precious gift free- 
 dom of choice. I would not part with this gift for the sake of burden- 
 ing the country with a few more "stuffed" college graduates. 
 
 Evidently, it is impossible to give a general answer on "what to 
 teach," and "how to teach." I wish only to call your attention to the 
 fact that these two problems are conffonting us all the time. Success 
 in teaching depends primarily on two subtle psychological factors: live 
 interest and well directed conscious effort on the part of the student. 
 You, gentlemen, are stimulated in your present activities by many potent 
 
 *An address before Cornell Alumni of Pittsburg on August 29th, 1908. 
 
136 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS. 
 
 incentives, such as immediate useful results, notoriety, increased profits, 
 desire for promotion, fear of discharge, and so on. All these incentives 
 are virtually lacking with our students, and unless we wish to use the 
 methods in vogue with ancient Egyptian taskmasters, we have to rely 
 
 on the spontaneous interest and effort on the part of our students. 
 ********* 
 
 Another educational problem of great importance is the relation 
 between professional training and general culture. Most of our stu- 
 dents desire in the first place a professional training that shall give them 
 a livelihood. Again, the recent progress in most branches of practical 
 activity is of such a tremendous scope, that fully four college years are 
 required for professional training alone. But it is felt by the best educa- 
 tors that it would be wrong to deprive large masses of professional 
 students of the benefit and pleasure of general culture, wrong towards 
 themselves and towards the country. 
 
 Now, in the first place, what is general culture? My answer is: 
 Man's life is divided between furnishing services to and receiving ser- 
 vices from society. General culture comprises such studies as better 
 enable a man to receive and to enjoy services from society, while pro- 
 fessional training enables him to give better service to society. From 
 this point of view, French literature, botany, or even the steam engine, 
 can be studied either as a profession, or for general culture. You will 
 see from this definition that the principal aim of education develop- 
 ment of all of the man's latent powers is not complete without a fair 
 
 amount of general culture. 
 
 ********* 
 
 II. Emotional Side of University Life. Young teachers are often 
 baffled by a sudden outbreak of laughter in a class, at an apparently 
 insignificant word, a gesture, not at all comical to an outsider. I am no 
 longer offended at these outbreaks since I came to understand their 
 cause. A man needs emotions as a part of his mental life, and a young 
 man or woman of twenty needs them badly. The college life offers so 
 little opportunities for emotion that the students instinctively looks for 
 any small occasion to laugh, to yell, to whistle, to run, even to see a dog- 
 fight. He is like a prisoner who is glad to share his solitude with a 
 little opportunities for emotion that the student instinctively looks for 
 horrid mandolin playing, for taking an exaggerated interest in ball 
 games, for spending time in saloons and doubtful down-town resorts. 
 But, gentlemen, once natural channels for emotions are throttled, un- 
 natural channels are sure to open up. I know, some of you would say, 
 that students do not care for Shakesperean plays, classical concerts, 
 and readings from Browning; true, because these things are not purely 
 emotional, they require considerable concentration and training for their 
 
KARAPETOFF. 137 
 
 enjoyment. Not only is the average student not prepared to understand 
 higher art, but he objects to using his intellect in it, since what he 
 wants is a pure play of simple emotions. Watch him sit at the theater, 
 and rock, and whistle a catchy refrain with the chorus ; only an ignora- 
 mus would say that his mind is dormant or lazy. His emotions are 
 playing intensely; he enjoys in his imagination the part of life that reality 
 has cruelly deprived him of. Five-cent shows with their highly-emo- 
 tional performances have rilled a long-felt want for brain workers, and 
 for people whose life has much drudgery in it. 
 
 Now, instead of deploring and condemning, let us see what can 
 be done to give students the necessary emotions. Said old Darwin sadly 
 at the end of his life : "If I had to live my life again, I would have made 
 a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least every week ; 
 for, perhaps, the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been 
 kept alive through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, 
 and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the 
 moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature." 
 Through lack of emotions man is dwarfed both esthetically and ethically, 
 and if he is thus dwarfed during his student years, the probabilities are 
 that he will continue to drag his burdens through life without sunshine 
 and love, like a mule in the mine. 
 
 What then is to be done? My answer is: provide more oppor- 
 tunities for the enjoyment of art and for social intercourse. The very 
 nature of the case precludes compulsion, at least in the beginning. We 
 must proceed slowly, because a lack of appreciation of art is a general 
 fault in this country ; the remedy must begin at home and in the common 
 schools. I am aware that good work is being done for the development 
 of artistic taste ; this gives me courage to see the time when each student 
 will be required to pursue in the University the study of at least one 
 form of art: literature, poetry, music, painting, sculpture, in their 
 various manifestations. Mind you, he will pursue them for the emo- 
 tional pleasure that is in them, and not for drudgery or any utilitarian 
 purpose. With a proper preparation in the high school it will be difficult 
 to find a student who would not manifest even the slightest interest in 
 
 these arts.* 
 
 *********** 
 
 III. Volitional Side of University Life. Just a picture: a man is 
 drowning in the river, and a horrified crowd watches him from the shore ; 
 one of the spectators hastily takes his coat off and jumps into the water 
 to save the struggling one. Is this the man who is the best swimmer, 
 or a man whose emotion of pity is more deeply aroused than that of 
 
 *As I understand, the only required subjects in schools i Ancient 
 Greece were music and the study of the Homeric poems. 
 
138 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS. 
 
 anyone else in the crowd? Not necessarily; he is a man whose will is 
 trained to obey the dictates of the intellect and the heart. In my estima- 
 tion, an educated man with all his vast knowledge and refined emotions 
 is a failure unless his will is trained to do what he knows and feels he 
 ought to do. 
 
 Our watch-word must be : "Cornell men are trained to do things;" 
 this was the ideal of the founders of the University Ezra Cornell and 
 Andrew D. White men of great deeds and high practical achievements. 
 Some of you may think that the business of the University is to teach, 
 and not worry about students' emotions and wills. We feel, however, 
 that our purpose is not fully accomplished unless we graduate men and 
 women who not only know and feel things, but who actually do things 
 when the time comes to act. 
 
 Now, the will, like any other faculty, grows by exercise, and the 
 difficult side of the problem is: How to organize University life so that 
 students should have enough opportunity to exercise their wills, to 
 choose, and actually to bear the consequences of their decisions. The 
 student undoubtedly has to exercise his will in going to the lectures at 
 appointed hours, in preparing his recitations and reports, in voting for 
 class officers, and in taking part in various students' activities. But this 
 is far from enough: He or she is guided too much from without, and 
 the consequences of a student's decision are not at all in proportion to- 
 the differences in the motives. During the last panic a considerable 
 number of engineering apprentices and of trade apprentices have been 
 laid off by a large concern for an indefinite time. The foreman of the 
 apprentices told me that trade apprentices took this event in an entirely 
 different way from college graduates. The trade apprentices, being 
 used to rely upon their own resources, immediately began to plan their 
 program of action, while college men seemed to be hopelessly lost r 
 as soon as they could no longer follow a program arranged for them by 
 others. I should be loath to think that college education weakens the 
 will while developing the intellect, yet I do not see much in our Univer- 
 sity life that is conducive to the development of the will. 
 
 The manager of a large company in the Middle West told me re- 
 cently that in filling positions with college graduates he always gives- 
 preference to those who have been prominent in students' activities. 
 "It does not matter," said he, "whether the man distinguished himself in 
 athletics, in politics, or in literary activity. It simply means that he i? 
 a man of strong will and initiative, a man who can be relied upon to 
 achieve results, without an external pressure." 
 
 I think, this is a correct view regarding students' activities, and it 
 is from this point of view that we must encourage them. The greatest 
 difficulty is to induce a large mass of students to take a moderate part in' 
 
KARAPETOFF. 139 
 
 these activities, instead of a few becoming experts and almost profes- 
 sionals, while the rest are satisfied with watching them and cheering the 
 favorites. ********* 
 
 We often hear from our Alumni and from various employers of 
 our graduates : "Why do you not teach your students this or that ; this 
 is of great importance in practical life." The tendency is, at least in 
 the colleges of applied science, to teach too many things in a general 
 way, and none thoroughly. This is detrimental for the development of 
 the will, since the student has no opportunity for concentration and for 
 original study and research. The problem is to organize the courses so 
 that the student gets enough general information, and at the same time 
 some practice in special research, in which he has to exercise his judg- 
 ment and will. But to achieve this, the course must be lengthened by at 
 least one year. 
 
 I have indicated a few general educational problems that we have 
 to deal with in our University. In addition to these, there are problems 
 of wide national and international character, that affect instruction and 
 reflect upon the students' life. As such I would mention great differences 
 in the wealth of students; low standards and ideals, as a result of greed 
 and struggle for existence outside the University; indifference to philo- 
 sophical discussion and to religious duties, because of the uncertainty 
 pervading our economic and political life ; use of liquors, loose morals, 
 and a low estimate of women; indifference to the great political and 
 economic issues of the times, and a tendency to follow demagogues and 
 bosses. All these things students bring from their homes, imbibe from 
 papers and magazines, and inculcate from one another. We are en- 
 deavoring to counteract these harmful tendencies by all the means at 
 our disposal; and yet these being the curse of the times, our work is 
 successful only in proportion as we have the support of agencies outside 
 the University. The American people as a whole must make a de- 
 termined effort to free themselves of the remains of barbaric times and 
 establish a new commonwealth upon higher standards of thinking and 
 living^. 
 
HINTS TO STUDENTS ON THE EDUCATION 
 OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Ira. O. Baker. 
 
 Dr. Baker is one of America's most distinguished engineering in- 
 structors and authors, and his advice to students should carry great 
 weight. No one who reads the following paper can fail to be deeply 
 impressed with the soundness of its doctrine, the profundity of its 
 thoughts, and the elegance of its diction. It certainly is one of the 
 most important of all the papers that the Editors have collected. Stu- 
 dents are earnestly urged to read, ponder upon, believe, and follow the 
 advice herein given by one who is universally acknowledged to be a 
 great leader in technical education. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 141 
 
HINTS TO STUDENTS ON THE EDUCATION 
 OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 
 Dr. Ira. O. Baker. 
 
 Before Civil Engineers' Club of University of Illinois 
 March 28, 1887. 
 
 A recent discussion of civil engineering education in a prominent 
 engineering journal by eminent professors and practicing engineers, 
 suggested this subject. That discussion had reference mainly to the 
 facilities which should be possessed by an institution professing to edu- 
 cate civil engineers ; this article will have reference to how you as stu- 
 dents of civil engineering may make the most of the opportunities offered 
 by this institution. 
 
 First let me remind you of the three elements of a true education, 
 development, training, and information. By the first I mean the capa- 
 city for abstract conception and reasoning; by the second, the forma- 
 tion of correct habits of thought and methods of reasoning, and the 
 training of the hand to execute and the eye to see; and by the third, 
 the acquisition of the thoughts and experiences of other men, and of the 
 truths of nature. The development of the mental faculties is by far the 
 most important, since it alone confers that "power which masters all it 
 touches, which can adapt old forms to new uses, or create new and 
 better means of reaching old ends ;" and without this power the engineer 
 can not hope to practice his profession with any chance of success. The 
 formation of correct habits of thinking and working, habits of observing, 
 of classifying, of investigating, of understanding, of getting clear and 
 distinct ideas, of proving instead of guessing, of weighing evidence, and 
 of thoroughly honest work, is a method of using that power economical- 
 ly. The accumulation of facts is the least important. The power to ac- 
 quire information, and the knowledge of how to use it when obtained, 
 are of far greater value than any number of the most useful facts. 
 There is no comparison between the value of a ton of nails and the 
 power to make a single one. 
 
 The student, particularly of the technical courses, not infrequently 
 reverses the above order, and assumes that the acquisition ,of informa- 
 tion, especially that directly useful in his proposed profession, is the most 
 valuable element of an education. Probably this error is owing to a 
 misapprehension of the aim of a technical school. 'It is assumed that 
 
 143 
 
144 HINTS TO STUDENTS. 
 
 the object is to fit the student to earn his livelihood more easily, and 
 that therefore the institution should give him the maximum amount of 
 information and practice directly applicable in his professional work. If 
 this idea were to prevail, there would be no difference between a tech- 
 nical college and a trade school, and the product would be skillful ma- 
 chines instead of educated men. The prime object is to make the stu- 
 dent a wiser and stronger and more complete man, and at the same time 
 to train and develop his faculties in the direction most useful to the en- 
 gineer. This end is sought to be accomplished by coupling the mental 
 development of the student with the acquisition of training and in- 
 formation directly useful in the exercise of his profession. The best 
 results -would be obtained if the student should cultivate and expand his 
 power by pursuing a general course before entering upon the technical 
 studies. The lawyer, the doctor, and the preacher, all take a general 
 course and then the special. Why should not the engineer? Can the en- 
 gineering student, in four years, accomplish as much as the student of 
 law, or of medicine, or of theology does in seven? Is it wise for the 
 engineering student to neglect that preparatory education which in the 
 professions of law, medicine, and theology has long been recognized as 
 essential for a professional education? An eminent, practicing engineer 
 has said that "no greater mistake was ever made than that which as- 
 serts that the engineer does not need to be liberally educated." 
 
 Next let me emphasize the fact that it is best to follow one of the 
 regular courses. If for no better reason, take a prescribed course be- 
 cause of the experience of the early graduates of this institution. In 
 the beginning no degrees were given, and our graduates found them- 
 selves seriously handicapped by the lack of the usual evidence of a col- 
 legiate education. A few students, although they propose to take the 
 prescribed course, wish to change the order of topics. The courses as 
 printed are probably the best, and following them certainly obviates any 
 conflicts in times of recitation. In the mind of the student there is al- 
 ways some particular reason for departing from the course; but ex- 
 perience shows that in most cases, the student himself subsequently sees 
 that he chose unwisely. 
 
 Many students who follow a regular course take some extra stud- 
 ies, but not infrequently make a mistake in selecting them. These extra 
 studies afford an opportunity for the student to broaden his field of 
 knowledge, and in choosing them the three elements of an education 
 should be steadily borne in mind. Generally they are selected because 
 of their supposed immediate bearing upon the work of the chosen pro- 
 fession. For example, a student in civil engineering, wishing to take an 
 extra study, selects architectural drawing, because it will increase his 
 skill in drawing and therefore the better fit him to do any of that kind 
 
BAKER. 145 
 
 of work that may fall to his lot after leaving college. Whereas, having 
 obtained the principles of drawing and the practice necessary to explain 
 their application and to fix them in his mind, it would be wiser to employ 
 his time at something else and wait for the practice which comes after- 
 ward to obtain skill in drawing. If he selects architectural drawing 
 with a desire to learn something of the principles of architecture, and 
 holds the mere technic of drawing as subordinate to the prin- 
 ciples of architectural construction or ornamentation, he chooses 
 wisely. But, on the other hand, if he takes the subject because he thinks 
 it will be useful in designing a depot or round-house, he will probably 
 not derive much benefit from the study, for if the professor seeks to il- 
 lustrate an important principle by reference to a triumphal arch or an 
 ancient cathedral, the student will probably turn a deaf ear and allow his 
 mind to wander to the time when he hopes to get a large salary for 
 copying the drawings made in the recitation room. A student having an 
 opportunity to take an extra study should select one that will develop 
 some neglected intellectual faculty, or train his hand and eye in some 
 new direction, or store his mind with a new class of ideas. In pursuing 
 it, let him try to discover the spirit of the new subject, note the char- 
 acter of the data considered, and compare the method of arriving at the 
 results with those employed in the topics with which he is more familiar. 
 In connection with the question of extra studies it is well to remember 
 that three acres plowed deep generally yield more than four plowed 
 shallow. 
 
 However, the spirit with which the student pursues the studies of 
 his chosen course determines the amount and quality of the education 
 he gets. There are three things which sometimes unduly affect the 
 interest, and consequently the progress, of a student in his studies. 
 1. His estimate of the relative value of the different topics in the educa- 
 tion of an engineer; 2, the supposed practical bearing of the topic upon 
 the actual work of his profession ; and 3, the immediate influence of any 
 class of information in securing a position after graduation. 
 
 1. He thinks that the best engineering education is to be obtained 
 by giving as much of his time as possible to the technical subjects. The 
 great multiplication of knowledge has made this an age of specialists, 
 and if one would attain the highest success he must devote his attention 
 to a narrow field ; but he can not know one subject thoroughly until he 
 knows something of others. It is not expected that the engineer shall 
 also be a learned linguist, nor a practical analytical chemist, nor an ex- 
 pert geologist, nor a profound physicist; but he must have some know- 
 ledge of these topics before he can practice his own profession credit- 
 ablv. 
 
146 HINTS TO STUDENTS. 
 
 2. He often makes a mistake in his estimate of the bearing of any 
 topic upon the actual work of his profession. For example, he thinks 
 the adjustment of the surveying instruments is more important than de- 
 scriptive geometry, while the fact is that he who is well grounded in 
 the principles of descriptive geometry will be able to adjust any instru- 
 ment at sight. Again, students are always more interested in railroad 
 engineering than in analytical mechanics; and they consider it far more 
 important to learn a method of keeping transit notes than to understand 
 the method of finding the angle at which a force acts at the best advantage 
 in dragging one body upon another. The first gives information only, 
 while the second gives the three elements, mental development, intel- 
 lectual training, and information. Judged, even from the student's point 
 of view, the latter is of more practical importance; and, farther, he 
 who has the ability fully to comprehend it can devise a form of keeping 
 his notes which will probably be better for him than any he can 
 get from any one else. It is far better to be able to own the machine 
 which turns out nails by the tens of thousands than to be able to 
 hammer out a few by hand. Civil engineering education in America 
 may be said to have commenced with the building of the Erie Canal. 
 What think you would have been the effect, if the engineering student 
 of that day had been content to limit his studies to those branches which 
 he thought would be directly applicable in canal building? Would 
 he have been able to solve the problems necessitated by a new mode 
 of transportation? No one can foretell the development of the future, 
 or the possible practical bearing of any topic. A few years ago students 
 in physics desired to omit electricity, "because it was of no practical 
 importance;" while only a year or two afterwards their successors 
 wanted to give all their time to that branch, "because of its great prac- 
 tical importance." A broad scientific training is the best preparation 
 for any branch of engineering. 
 
 3. The attitude of a student toward his studies is often affected 
 by the idea that, if he would get a position after leaving school, he must 
 make his education "practical." The demand for technical graduates 
 seems to be increasing, but it is certain that they are not sought 
 after solely because they have crammed their heads and their note 
 books with rules and formulas. The most simple operations require 
 the exercise of that good judgment which comes only to him who has 
 paid the price by a study of those things which cultivate and expand 
 the intellect. The man who learns simply the practice of his day will 
 soom be "behind the times ;" he is a machine to be laid aside when a 
 more profitable one is found. But he who has caught the spirit of 
 growth is the one who makes precedents and determines the practice 
 of his times. The latter only is able to solve old problems under new 
 
BAKER. 147 
 
 conditions; he only has the good judgment necessary to know when to 
 be exact and when not to be exact; he only understands that there is 
 very much that books and formulas can not include. The wonderful 
 material development of our country in the last quarter of a century, 
 together with the scarcity of technical schools, made it possible for 
 poorly educated and unripe engineers to find employment; but the 
 conditions are rapidly changing. The evidence is abundant and con- 
 clusive. The new problems demand higher engineering ability and 
 wider knowledge. The wise young engineer will prepare himself accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 In conclusion, there is one point on which I hope there will be 
 no mistake. I do not wish to be understood as claiming that a general 
 education alone is a sufficient preparation for the practice of civil en- 
 gineering. The best technical training must be founded on a thorough 
 scientific education. Although a man with a general education could 
 "pick up" the necessary special information without attending a tech- 
 nical school, it would be to his advantage, both in the final result and 
 in economy of time, to pursue a technical course. The special en- 
 gineering school not only develops that quality of mind most suitable 
 to the engineer, but also gives him information and practice which it has 
 been abundantly proved are of great utility in the practice of his pro- 
 fession. On the other hand, it is not claimed that students immediately 
 upon graduation from the technical course are engineers of mature judg- 
 ment, although as a rule their training and attainments enable them to 
 make a rapid growth. 
 
 But, finally, let no student pursue an education alone for its 
 material ends. He should strive to be not only a trained specialist but 
 also an educated man, and some day, if not now, he will see that the 
 latter is as desirable as the former. 
 
THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 Onward Bates, C. E. 
 
 This address was delivered in December, 1909, to the Civil En- 
 gineers' Club of the University of Illinois by a civil engineer who has 
 attained great success in the practice of his profession and who has 
 been honored by the highest distinction which that profession can 
 bestow upon any of its votaries, viz., the presidency of the American 
 Society of Civil Engineers. 
 
 It has been found necessary to omit certain parts of it which are 
 not specially fitted for the purpose of this book, notably both the be- 
 ginning and the ending. What has been retained consists mainly of 
 good, sensible advice. The Editors can heartily endorse what Mr. 
 Bates says concerning the importance of correct spelling, for in their 
 practice they make a point of rejecting all applications for positions, 
 when such applications are mis-spelled. Of course, every man is liable 
 to make a slip in spelling occasionally, often from carelessness rather 
 than lack of knowledge; but a grossly mis-spelled letter is a sure indica- 
 tion that its writer has not been as thoroughly educated as a graduate 
 engineer should be. 
 
 What Mr. Bates says about the lack of ability of many young en- 
 gineers to write letters and to talk is unfortunately too true; and this 
 defect is far more important than most people deem it. The persistence 
 with which American engineering students as a class ignore the study 
 of English is simply disheartening. It seems almost impossible to 
 force them to believe that a command of their native language is at all 
 essential to their professional success. 
 
 This paper is written with great force and vigor, and its teachings 
 are true ; consequently it behooves both students and young engineers to 
 give heed to its instructions and profit therefrom. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 149 
 
THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 Onward Bates, C. E. 
 
 If I give you a lecture on words, it is not wholly inappropriate 
 under the title of the Practical Engineer. We are not dummies ; words 
 are as necessary to us as to others, and in our profession more neces- 
 sary than in some others. I will not ask if each of you knows his 
 letters, accepting that much without question; but I do question if each 
 of you knows how to spell. If you do, it is more than some practical 
 engineers do. Correct spelling is an accomplishment; a man is fre- 
 quently under-rated just because he has made some mistakes in spelling. 
 It is also a matter of importance for sometimes the idea one wishes 
 to convey is changed by a mistake in spelling. It is important to know 
 the meaning of words, in order that you may say or write what you 
 mean. How can one expect to write specifications, or draw up con 7 
 tracts, if he does not know what words to use, and what construction 
 can be put upon them when they have been used ? In addition to spelling 
 correctly, and using words whose meaning you understand, it is still 
 more essential that you should know how to string them together. 
 Our profession is exact in its nature, and should be precise in its 
 expressions of fact or opinion, written or spoken. There is no occupa- 
 tion in which it is more important to say precisely what is meant to 
 be said. The engineer's opinions should be expressed with the same 
 regard for accuracy as is used in his mathematical computations. 
 
 Can you write a letter? Some engineers cannot. They may write 
 what purports to be a letter, and can perhaps make their correspondent 
 understand the ideas they wish to convey. I do not ask if you can 
 write legibly; that seems to be a lost art, and is not, in these days of 
 typewriters, to be expected. Yet the writing machine is not always at 
 hand, and bad hand-writing is far more risky and impolite than mumbling 
 of words where you have the opportunity to apologize and repeat them. 
 I mean, can you write a letter, stating in clear, distinct, concise, and 
 correct language the facts and opinions which you wish to make known 
 to your correspondent? If you cannot, then your education as an en- 
 gineer is incomplete. 
 
 Do you know how to talk? To talk well is a great art. You can 
 please, you can plead, you can instruct, you can command, or you can 
 
 151 
 
152 THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 rebuke, in each case with the right use of words, and the right degree 
 of emphasis, if you can correctly use the English language. Engineers 
 take pride in being workers; they like it to be said of them that they 
 are the people who do things. In fact they seem to feel rather above 
 talking, leaving that for the common people to do. Nevertheless they 
 do talk, and not always to the best advantage. In the most momentous 
 affairs they get others to talk for them, and when, as sometimes hap- 
 pens, they fall under the necessity of making arguments, explanations, 
 or demands, they suffer from inability to do justice to their cause. 
 We may say that anybody can talk, and that some people make a 
 business of talking; and yet mature observation leads one to believe 
 that scarcely any other talent is more serviceable and more profitable. 
 Talk, like every other commodity, is valuable not for its quantity but 
 for its quality. There are times when a few words of wisdom are worth 
 more than volumes of nonsense, although the latter has its value at 
 other times. 
 
 The command of the English language is a necessity as well as an 
 accomplishment. It is the language of the profession, and it is fast 
 becoming the language of the civilized world. The knowledge of this 
 language is an essential requirement of the educated engineer ; it is a 
 necessary part of his equipment, and we may call it one of the tools 
 of the profession. We attach great importance to the other tools, and 
 in my opinion have neglected this important one. How often do we 
 observe an engineer, who has an excellent technical education, and who 
 can apply it in his work, and yet lacks the facility of language which 
 qualifies him to engage in discussions of a general nature with men of 
 other occupations. 
 
 The preceding discussion of words and their use may seem to you 
 more appropriate for an address in a primary school than in a Civil 
 Engineers' Club. It was purposely introduced, to call your attention 
 to one of the short-comings of the practical engineer. Assuming for 
 the sake of argument that it is a short-coming, then who is respon- 
 sible for this condition? It may be the fault of the University, in not 
 teaching the subject. Or, if the professors make the excuse that a 
 knowledge of the language should be acquired before entering the 
 University-, it may be their fault that they have not enforced this re- 
 quirement. It may be your own fault, in failing to avail yourselves of 
 your opportunities in the University and in the preparatory schools. 
 Whosesoever fault it is, if you are deficient in this respect, I advise 
 you to rectify the deficiency. You can do this on your volition. There 
 are many practical engineers who are self educated, and who have 
 acquired a good command of language. The means for this acquire- 
 
BATES. 153 
 
 ment are at hand and consist principally in conversation with those 
 who speak correctly, in reading good books, in studying examples of 
 well written letters, in a constant use of the dictionary, and in a con- 
 sideration of all that one speaks or writes. Many a man who has no 
 acquaintance with text books on grammar, has succeeded in acquiring 
 a correct use of language by availing himself of these means; and if 
 you keep good company, and read good books, this accomplishment is 
 naturally and easily acquired. 
 
 This dissertation on the use of the English language is intended 
 to call your attention in a pointed manner to a weakness of the prac- 
 tical engineer which has been the subject of frequent criticism, and as 
 this is only one of the many faults which are found in him, to prepare 
 your minds for the consideration of the general criticism, that the 
 engineer, as compared with men in other occupations, is narrow and 
 one-sided. I speak now of all engineers, practical and otherwise. 
 
 Let us consider this general criticism. 
 
 If it is without foundation it cannot stand and we can refute it. 
 If on the other hand, there is reason for it, we ought to study ourselves 
 and remove any causes which warrant it. Speaking from my own 
 experience I think the criticism is a just one. I have personally felt 
 myself handicapped by fixed ideas, narrow views, and a stubborn pur- 
 pose of proving myself to be in the right. Again for the sake of argu- 
 ment, let us assume that engineers in general possess these faults, and 
 let us look for the causes of them, and seek the remedy for them. 
 Is narrowness of mind an inherent quality which leads one to select 
 engineering as his vocation? I reject this query with scorn, and only 
 mention it to dispose of it at once and altogether. Having progressed 
 so far, we know that we must look for the causes outside of the indi- 
 vidual. It must then be due to his education, and I think the trouble 
 is located in the University. The professors may demolish me for this 
 statement, but I have a right to make it; for I am a member of the 
 National Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. I am 
 also a member of a National Committee to consider the Status of En- 
 gineering Education. I objected to serving on this committee, on 
 the ground that I was not a college man, ai}d was jokingly informed that 
 it was a case where practical engineers were needed to balance the pro- 
 fessors. 
 
 Having made the general statement, that the University course as 
 applied to students of engineering, has the effect of graduating men 
 who are narrow and one-sided, it is incumbent on me to give my 
 reasons for this statement. In the first instance, professors of en- 
 gineering are usually specialists, and they generally teach their spe- 
 cialties. If one is a master, as he should be, of the special subject 
 
154 THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 which he teaches, it is natural and to be expected that the importance 
 of that subject is magnified in his mind when compared with other 
 branches of the science of engineering. In his efforts to impart the 
 knowledge of his specialty to the student, the latter forms his opinion 
 of the specialty and is much influenced by the personality of the teacher. 
 If the subject is one for which the student has an aptitude or liking, 
 it obtains a preference in his mind over other subjects. He becomes 
 more proficient in it and he attaches more importance to it. This 
 criticism applies in a general way to each of the professors constitut- 
 ing the faculty of an engineering college. This faculty is composed 
 of a number of engineers, each one selected for his knowledge of the 
 science of engineering, and for his ability to teach some special branch 
 of that science. It is an old saying, that it takes nine tailors to make 
 a man, and I suppose it takes at least that many professors to make 
 an engineer. 
 
 Many years ago I was asked to give an address as a practical en- 
 gineer to the students of <he civil engineering department of Cornell 
 University. I arrived at Cornell the day before my address was to be 
 delivered, and was shown through the buildings and introduced to the 
 professors. At first I was very much in awe of them, and it seemed 
 to me impertinent that I should presume to address students who were 
 under the instruction of men, each of whom was a high authority in 
 some line of professional knowledge. I was appalled at my own ig- 
 norance and wished myself at home. However, as I became acquainted 
 with these learned men, I discovered that each one held to his own 
 specialty, and was most deferential to his brethren who taught other 
 specialties. Then my mind began to clear up regarding them, and I 
 reflected that while I could sit at the feet of any one of them and 
 be instructed in his specialty, there were lines of practical engineering 
 in which I was perhaps more competent to obtain results than he was. 
 With this comforting thought I braced up and talked to the young men 
 with confidence, as I am now talking to you. Do not, for one moment, 
 consider my remarks as in any sense derogatory to engineering profes- 
 sors at this or any other University. They command my admiration, 
 for among them I see men pf undoubted talent and knowledge which 
 would bring them far better pecuniary recompense for their labors, 
 and far greater appreciation from the public, if they were engaged as 
 practical engineers instead of professors. Theirs is an example of true 
 devotion to the profession, and doubtless they feel that it is a higher 
 
 grade of work to make engineers than to practice the profession. 
 
 *##*#* *** 
 
 * 
 
 I have recently heard the statement made that the study of mathe- 
 matics, and of other subjects which require precise and concentrated 
 
BATES. 155 
 
 application, have a tendency to cause the mind to move within narrow 
 or restricted limits in the direction of such concentrated application. 
 How much of truth there is in this statement I am not enough of a 
 psychologist to determine, but I can readily understand the possibility 
 of some such effect; and if it be granted that it is a fact, instead of 
 a possibility, we must look to the Universities to provide the remedy. 
 
 The function of a University is not so mtich to store a certain 
 amount of knowledge in the minds of its students, preparatory to their 
 graduation, as it is to qualify them for taking their places in the world 
 as men among men. As a corollary of this statement we may say 
 that the knowledge of mathematics, and of the use of instruments, 
 does not make an engineer. This knowledge is absolutely essential, 
 for one cannot be an engineer without possessing it; and to avoid being 
 misunderstood, I wish to say, with the utmost emphasis, that it is 
 impossible for an engineer to have too thorough a knowledge of any 
 thing which is required in the practice of his profession. At the same 
 time, if you only know mathematics and the use of your instruments, 
 and you enter the actual practice of engineering using the mathematics 
 and the instruments to accomplish certain results, you are not practicing 
 the profession but reducing the profession to the status of a trade. 
 It is a common error among engineers, and particularly among the 
 younger men of the profession, to assume that they are only to do in 
 practice what they have been taught to do in their study of the pro- 
 fession, and to do it in the identical manner in which they have been 
 instructed to do it. The engineering profession, rightly considered, 
 is an extremely broad one ; and the young engineer, who desires to 
 attain eminence, must cultivate breadth of -character, of judgment, 
 and of methods, to qualify himself for high rank. If he has failed in 
 the University in securing this broad education, it is essential that he 
 must get it after he leaves the University. 
 
 How to make the University course more comprehensive is a prob- 
 lem for the professors to solve. My present object is to prove to 
 them that the problem exists. If I can do this, and obtain from them 
 an admission of the necessity for broadening the course of instruction, 
 they will find a way to do it. This necessity is impressed upon me 
 by observation of their graduates. These graduates look for employ- 
 ment in the lines of work in which they are most interested. They 
 remember their favorite study under the influence of the professor 
 whom they personally admired, and they desire, if possible, to follow 
 in practice the lines upon which their minds were trained in the Uni- 
 versity. They begin as specialists and continue as such. This is com- 
 mendable within certain limits, for the range of engineering work is 
 so extended that it is necessary to specialize in practice. The objec- 
 
156 THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 tion to it is that the engineer's mind seems to be closed against 
 other specialties. I have known a man of talent, a graduate civil en- 
 gineer, who was employed on stress diagrams for truss bridges until 
 he seemed to be impressed with the idea that the making of these dia- 
 grams was the sum and substance of engineering. The same effect 
 may be noticed in men employed in other lines of work. The young 
 engineer does not as a rule grasp the opportunities which are ahead of 
 him. He may have a remote idea that some day he will be a chief 
 engineer, that great works will be under his charge, that important 
 questions will be submitted to him for decision, that he will be called 
 upon to plan great structures and to solve large problems; but just 
 how these honors will come to him he does not know. His mind does 
 not go much farther than to think that they will come to him when he 
 gets older. He should keep these things before his mind, and work 
 toward them, remembering that they come as rewards for those who 
 have shown themselves competent to receive them. He should con- 
 tinually work and study with the determination to earn these prizes, 
 and he should remember that each day's work is a step in that direc- 
 tion. If he qualifies himself for advancement, he will find that advanced 
 positions are inviting him to appropriate them. He must be broad 
 to comprehend and secure these advancements. If he is content merely 
 to practice those things which have been taught him, and to secure the 
 results which he had been taught that computations and processes will 
 bring, and to rest satisfied there, feeling that in this he has done his 
 duty, he will be what may be called a Journeyman Engineer, and he will 
 not secure this advancement, neither will he be entitled to it. There 
 are certain qualities of mind which young engineers do not possess, 
 because they have not learned them. One of these is the quality of 
 discrimination; the ability to determine between right and wrong, good 
 and bad; what should be rejected, what is acceptable; and what is to be 
 desired and striven for. In other words, an engineer is not fitted for 
 high position unless he is judicious. When a man is working for his 
 monthly stipend, with certain fixed duties, or under the direct orders of 
 a superior, it is hard for him to realize the value of a judicial mind and 
 to train himself for judicious conduct. In a subordinate position he 
 cannot appreciate the judicial requirements for an engineer who is 
 sufficiently advanced to be in charge of work, and especially to be re- 
 sponsible for great undertakings. As he rises in the scale of rank he 
 is more and more of a judge with each degree of advancement; a judge 
 of materials, of processes, of expedients, of the qualities of his fellow 
 men and of their abilities to do certain things; a judge of general 
 effects, and a judge of right relations. The judicial faculty is frequent- 
 
BATES. 157 
 
 ly the most important of any which is possessed by the engineer at 
 the top. This quality, and the ability to obtain results through judicious 
 decisions, may to some extent be inherent in a man, but to a far greater 
 extent it is the result of study and practice. This is one of the quali- 
 ties which I should like as far as possible to be instilled into the en- 
 gineer while he is at the University. It is your duty, young men, to 
 consider all of the steps between your present position and one at the 
 head of the profession, and to train yourselves continually with the 
 purpose of making the latter place your final destination. Look up 
 and climb; the way is as open to you as to others. There is no royal 
 road to success for an engineer. The way is open to each one of you, 
 and your success will depend more upon yourselves than upon all 
 other influences combined. While I tell you to look high and strive 
 for a place at the top, let me caution you that it is not to be obtained 
 by going too fast. You may make a mistake in failing to consider that 
 great rewards will be yours if you earn them, and you are equally liable 
 to make a mistake in assuming that you will get them without earning 
 them. Success means an improvement at each step. You cannot skip 
 any of the steps; you must be thorough in everything you do. You 
 must be reliable in small as well as in large trusts. There is no 
 quality so much appreciated by those who have need of your services, 
 and who are in a position to promote your advancement, which is as 
 much valued as the quality of reliability. If you leave any gaps behind 
 in your progress upward, they may at some inopportune time be a 
 snare to you ; for when you look backward for the supplies which you 
 are depending to be furnished over the road of your past experience, 
 they may be wrecked in the gap which you have left, and you may 
 find that you have reached the limit of your advancement. In past 
 times men have attained distinction as engineers who had no college 
 education, and very little school education of any kind. Some of our 
 oldest and most respected practitioners belong to that class. These 
 same men, however, could not start over and succeed under existing 
 conditions. They have the experience which enables them to employ 
 men of better education than they received, and are respected on ac- 
 count of what they have done; but their class is rapidly dying off. At 
 the present day it is useless for any one, who has a proper ambition 
 to be among the first in his vocation, to attempt the engineering pro- 
 fession without a University education. Let me encourage you to 
 strive for the final purpose of your education, and let me congratulate 
 you on the great opportunity for preparation offered you in this Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 There is one more specification in the charge against the engineers 
 of a narrowness of vision, and it is this, that those of us who are 
 
158 THE PRACTICAL ENGINEER. 
 
 zealous, over-estimate the value of the profession. I would not, for 
 one moment, say that we should not work as hard as we do, nor 
 strive as much as we do for great results and for honorable position; 
 but let us not forget there are other things beside our profession. I 
 love to think of the engineer's profession as a manly one; and yet there 
 are claims on our manhood which take precedence of the profession. 
 First of all we must remember what is due to our families, and then 
 come our duties as citizens; then our duties to our fellow men, and 
 among these is our special duty to our brethren in the profession. 
 If we are determined to broaden ourselves we must associate with other 
 people, and become integral parts of the community. We should 
 engage in all sorts of good works, and we should not neglect an in- 
 terest in politics. Take for an example of an engineer's delinquency, 
 the performance of his political duties. In so far as I know, most 
 engineers do not even vote. Possibly they do not know the names of 
 the candidates; or if they do know their names, they may not be aware 
 of their principles and policies. If all work and no play makes Jack 
 a dull boy, then by analogy the giving up of ourselves wholly to the 
 practice of engineering makes us narrow men, and limits our engineer- 
 ing opportunities. There is no good reason why an engineer should 
 not cultivate and enjoy the society of his fellow men. As a side issue, 
 to counteract the narrowing tendency of his exact and exacting occu- 
 pation, he should stroll in the fields of literature and art and general 
 science. He ought to be familiar with the libraries, the museums, and 
 the art galleries to which he has access. He should read the best of 
 current literature, and should acquaint himself with history. He 
 should study nature and learn its great lessons at first hand. He 
 should improve his mind by taking care of his body; and healthful 
 exercise, with friendly rivalry in active sports, is good preparation 
 for professional work all this of course within reasonable limits. If 
 he plays golf, it is not required that he shall be a golf fanatic; and if 
 it is foot-ball, he can afford to stop short of maiming his opponents. 
 To be broad he must avoid extremes in all things. The setting of 
 one's profession on a pinnacle, to be worshipped as the only real object 
 in life, is unwholesome, and it defeats its own ends. Engineers should 
 be seen at other places than at a desk, or leaning over a drawing board, 
 or squinting through an instrument. They ought to be found where 
 their fellow citizens congregate for any purpose affecting the common 
 good, and they should take their part in such meetings. 
 
 They should be interested in charity and philanthrophy and should 
 have their share with others in movements for promoting the health 
 and happiness of mankind. 
 
SOME RELATIONS OF THE ENGINEER TO SOCIETY. 
 
 "'' "> ; ^: ' \ By ' : ; 
 
 Colonel H. G. Prout. 
 
 The author of this address is one of America's most prominent 
 engineers. In his younger days he served with distinction in the 
 Egyptian army, where he attained the rank of Colonel. For many 
 years he edited the Railroad Gazette, returning, however, from his 
 editorial work to active professional practice. 
 
 A careful perusal of this scholarly paper must give to the reader 
 some conception of the magnitude and importance of the engineering 
 profession; and it should also arouse the enthusiasm of engineering 
 students and encourage them to do their utmost to become worthy 
 members of that profession. The Editors recommend their readers to 
 purchase and read the book mentioned by Col. Prout entitled "The 
 New Epoch as Developed by the Manufacturer of Power" by the late 
 George Shattuck Morison, C. E., for it is one of the great master- 
 pieces of engineering literature. Being a copyrighted book, it was not 
 practicable to reproduce it in this series of addresses. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 159 
 
SOME RELATIONS OF THE ENGINEER TO SOCIETY* 
 
 By 
 Colonel H. G. Prout. 
 
 In the summer of 1903 an eminent engineer died in New York, Mr. 
 George Shattuck Morison. He was a man of broad education and of 
 a powerful mind and illustrious achievement. Like most engineers he 
 wrote but little, but he left behind him a manuscript which was after- 
 wards printed in a book of one hundred and thirty pages, under the 
 title of "The New Epoch as Developed by the Manufacture of Power." 
 You can read it easily in two hours, but it sums up much of the read- 
 ing and meditation of a vigorous and intellectual life. 
 
 Mr. Morison reminds us that students have recognized certain 
 great ethnical epochs in the progress of mankind. The use of fire first 
 lifted man out of the condition of the animals around him; then came 
 the use of the bow and arrow which further established his superiority. 
 The next great step was the use of pottery, and man passed from 
 savagery to barbarism. The domestication of animals and the manu- 
 facture of iron marked two more eras in the development of the race. 
 Finally came the use of the written alphabet, the greatest and most 
 useful of all human inventions, by which knowledge could be preserved 
 and distributed. Progress thus became continuous and great masses 
 of mankind were enabled to advance simultaneously along the same 
 lines. This was the step from barbarism to civilization, and there the 
 ethnical periods are considered to have closed. What has followed is 
 assumed to be but the natural advance of civilization. But Mr. Morison 
 thinks that there is no apparent reason why other epochs should not 
 come, just as distinct and just as important as either of the six which 
 are behind us. It but needed the discovery or the development of a 
 new capacity to make a new epoch, and such a new capacity came 
 with the manufacture of power. By the development of the manufac- 
 ture of power man's capacity is suddenly increased beyond any limit 
 which the human mind can forsee or imagine. The strength of man or. 
 the strength of animals no longer sets a boundary to the capacity to do 
 
 *An address delivered at New Haven in the Sheffield Lecture Course, 
 February, 1905; at Ithaca at the First Annual Reunion of Civil Engineering 
 Alumni of Cornell University, June, 1905; at Wilkmsburg before The Elec- 
 tric Club, November, 1905. 
 
 161 
 
162 THE ENGINEER AND SOCIETY. 
 
 work. Forms of matter are changed, and the forces of nature are 
 set to do our bidding, and we can see no stopping place in this pro- 
 cess. The power of man to do useful work has been multiplied in 
 the last century beyond all computation or imagining. In the last one 
 hundred years man's productive capacity has probably advanced more 
 than in all the preceding years that he had inhabited this planet, and 
 the revolution wrought by the development of the capacity to manufac- 
 ture power has just begun ; the door has just opened. 
 
 I think it was Mr. John R. Freeman who estimated that in one 
 oyage across the Atlantic a steamship develops as much power as 
 was developed by hundreds of thousands of men working through 
 decades of time to build the great pyramid; but the biggest ocean ship 
 is small compared with the great power factories which we can see all 
 around us, and this power is delivered in our houses and in our shops 
 and on our railroad tracks, to the immense saving of time and energy. 
 It would interest you to try to compute the human effort saved by the 
 mere fact that some hundreds of thousands of maids and housewives 
 draw water from spigots, where it is delivered from steam pumps, in- 
 stead of going to wells. How can we measure the effect on human 
 society of the fact that two men in a locomotive cab haul two thousand 
 tons of goods or five hundred passengers across half a continent at 
 forty miles an hour, or of the fact that every steam hammer in a forge 
 shop does the work of a dozen men, and does it better? 
 
 While the capacity of man to do accustomed things has been mul- 
 tiplied, he has been empowered to do things that he could not have 
 done before. The steel forgings that are made now could not have 
 been made at all by man-power or animal-power. Manufactured power 
 was necessary to the production of the great structures of to-day the 
 ships, the guns, the bridges, the great engines in the power houses, the 
 tall buildings in the cities. Perhaps there are those now before me 
 who doubt if human happiness has been increased by the mere capacity 
 to produce big things. You will remember Ruskin's ideal society, with 
 the happy peasant in a velvet jacket singing in the fields, the heavens 
 unpolluted by the smoke of mills and the air unvexed by the noise of 
 railroads. Not long ago a professor in a neighboring great university 
 maintained with some heat the superiority of the Greek civilization, 
 when the mass of the people lived in squalor and built Parthenons, as 
 compared with our civilization when the mass of the people are more 
 sure of food and clothes and fuel, and build ugly steel frame Masonic 
 Temples. We cannot stop here to discuss the relative value of civili- 
 zations, but I make bold to believe that the average of human happiness 
 was never so high as now. 
 
PROUT. 163 
 
 The examples which I have cited only suggest the amount of human 
 effort that has been set free by the manufacture of power. My imagi- 
 nation is unequal to the task of giving you more than a hint of the 
 change in man's condition which has just begun, and even to-day the 
 manufacture of power, an art a little more than a century old, is in 
 process of evolution. The prime mover of yesterday will not be the 
 prime mover of to-morrow. Our methods of using the stored heat 
 energy of the sun to-day will be history twenty-five years from now. 
 
 It is less than one hundred and fifty years since Watt made the 
 reciprocating steam engine a thing of actual use, and fairly began the 
 era of manufactured power. Already the reciprocating steam engine 
 is doomed, except for certain special uses. The development of the 
 transmission of power by electricity has made it possible to use the 
 high efficiency of the steam turbine, and the use of turbo-generators is 
 even now large and spreading fast. But the turbine is only a step. 
 Its successor is already foreshadowed in the gas engine. Side by side 
 with these changes in the type of prime mover advances the art of 
 transmitting and using power by electricity; and so swiftly does the art 
 advance that now the day seems close at hand when we may .see short 
 but important lines of steam railroad of heavy traffic converted to 
 electric working. The power houses will be equipped with steam tur- 
 bines or with gas engines. Alternating current will be sent out over 
 long transmission lines and stepped down and used in the car motors 
 without converting. Two great things will be accomplished. Working 
 cost will be reduced and the public will have more frequent, cheaper, 
 and perhaps swifter service. 
 
 These are a few of the great engineering changes now visible over 
 the horizon. If we had time we might speak of others in the fields 
 of transportation, of sanitation, and of manufacture, which will possibly 
 have even more effect on the wealth and happiness of man than those 
 which I have mentioned. For instance, who can forsee the effect 
 of countless small improvements in manufacture which are flowing 
 from the swift development of mechanical, electrical, and chemical 
 knowledge and skill? And perhaps even greater results will flow from 
 improved sanitation saving present waste of human energy. And these 
 changes are close at hand. 
 
 We may reasonably suppose that twenty-five years from now, 
 when many of the young men now sitting before me are in the full 
 tide of their useful work, these United States will have a population 
 of one hundred and twenty million. That will be more than the pre- 
 sent population of the United Kingdom and France and half of Ger- 
 many combined. It will be a free and homogeneous population, more 
 
164 THE ENGINEER AND SOCIETY. 
 
 efficiently educated than any people the world has even seen. It will 
 be a population of singular daring and enterprise, this for two great 
 reasons. For ten generations the Americans have lived under condi- 
 tions to develop courage and enterprise; and the immigrants coming to 
 our shores must be, generally speaking, class for class, more courage- 
 ous and enterprising than those whom they have left behind or they 
 would not have come. This population, so vast in numbers, so effi- 
 ciently educated, so courageous and enterprising, and so free to work, 
 each man in his own way, will be seated in a temperate climate, amongst 
 unrivalled resources of soil and mine, in a country intersected by great 
 natural waterways and covered with a net work of railroads and with 
 a vast coast line on the two great oceans. Put into the hands of such 
 a people, so situated, the means for the manufacture of power and 
 their influence on the world, physical, intellectual, and moral, may be 
 greater than the influence of the men who built the Roman Empire, 
 greater than the influence up to this time of the race which built the 
 empire of the English-speaking people. What a glorious thing it is to 
 be a young American at the dawn of the new epoch ! 
 
 These matters of which I have just been speaking are impor- 
 tant. They are occupying much of the best intelligence of the world. 
 They are pursued with most admirable enthusiasm and devotion. But 
 regarded in a broader way they are only incidents in the general for- 
 ward movement of the new epoch. Not only have we entered on 
 another ethnical period, but upon the most important period in the 
 progress of mankind. It is quite conceivable that a thousand years 
 from now men may look back to the 19th and 20th centuries as the most 
 significant period in the history of the race. 
 
 Perhaps you begin to wonder where I am coming out, perhaps 
 you are already asking what all this has to do with the announced sub- 
 ject of my lecture "Some Relations of the Engineer to Society." 
 
 My proposition is that the engineer, more than all other men, has 
 created this new epoch and that the engineer, more than all other men, 
 will guide humanity forward until we come to some other period of a 
 different kind. On the engineer and on those who are making engi- 
 neers rests a responsibility such as men have never before been called 
 upon to face; for it is a peculiarity of this new epoch that we are 
 conscious of it, that we know what we are doing, which was not true 
 in either of the six preceding epochs, and we have upon us the respon- 
 sibility of conscious knowledge. 
 
 If we are right in the notion that the manufacture of power has 
 brought mankind into a new ethnical period; if we are right in the 
 notion that the engineer is the man who beyond all other men has 
 
PROJJT. 165 
 
 created the new conditions and who must beyond all other men carry 
 them forward in their development, then we are face to face with cer- 
 tain facts of tremendous importance to two classes of our fellow citi- 
 zens: First, to those who are responsible for the training of youth 
 for their work in the world ; and, second, to those young men who 
 have chosen engineering as their profession. 
 
 The same events and conditions which have created the new epoch 
 have affected the plans of education, and, so far as I am qualified to 
 judge, those who are training the young men who are to guide the 
 human race in the next few decades are working forward in the right 
 direction. It is obvious that our aim must always be to acquire a more 
 complete and perfect knowledge of the forces of nature, and to this end 
 we must have mathematics. Years ago Prof. Bartlett, in the introduc- 
 tion to one of his remarkable books, said that the man who is endowed 
 with the priceless boon of a copious mathematics possesses the key to 
 the external universe. It is my observation of a good many young 
 men starting as engineers that their mathematical training is defective. 
 Instead of holding a key they have a feeble grasp on something as vague 
 as fog; they have not been trained to use their mathematics as a tool 
 for investigation, or for analysis, or for conclusive reasoning. Perhaps 
 we may attribute this partly to the survival down to this day of Plato's 
 notion that geometry is degraded by being applied to any purposes of 
 vulgar utility. 
 
 Close to this is physics. A command of those facts and laws 
 which we roughly group under the head of physics is more important 
 than a command of mathematics. A mere mathematician cannot be 
 an engineer, but a man can be an engineer with limited mathematics 
 if he has a working conception of the laws of physics. My favorite 
 test of the intellectual power of a boy is to ask how he stands in physics. 
 A high stand there is a pretty certain indication of imagination, of 
 power to analyze and of capacity to reason. 
 
 Command of the forces of nature requires besides mathematics 
 and physics a specific knowledge of those branches of learning which 
 we call the natural sciences. The relative importance of any one of 
 these to any one man must depend upon the kind of work which he 
 intends to do, but some knowledge of almost all of the natural sciences 
 is important to the engineer, and a large and definite knowledge of 
 some of them is necessary. 
 
 But mathematics and physics and the natural sciences are not 
 the end. If an engineer is to go far, he must have some of those 
 studies which give him broad and just ideas of the relations of man 
 to man and of man to society. 
 
166 THE ENGINEER AND SOCIETY. 
 
 The duties of my life bring me into daily contact with large in- 
 dustrial and commercial interests employing many men, and I may say in 
 all sincerity, and with due regard to the meaning of my words, that 
 it is far easier to hire engineers than it is to hire men. 
 
 It is my constant observation of four engineering works, employ- 
 ing about 20,000 men, that engineers reach the limit of their useful- 
 ness from defects of character, rather than from want of technical 
 attainments. Our greatest difficulty is to find courage, candor, imagi- 
 nation, large vision, and high ambition. I do not know which of these 
 qualities is most often lacking, or which is most essential. The lack 
 of courage and candor comes most often to my notice, but the lack of 
 imagination and of broad outlook produces the most serious disasters. 
 All of these things an engineer must have if he is to go far, and 
 all of these any citizen must have if he is to go far in the work of 
 life. Our scheme of education will be radically defective if it does not 
 provide for the development of courage and candor, of imagination and 
 broad vision and high ambition. Our scheme of education of the 
 engineer and the citizen must also teach our youth something of the 
 large mistakes of men and nations in the past and something of their 
 successes. Lacking that teaching we see the farmer in Texas and the 
 third rate lawyer in Congress and the professional friend of mankind 
 in Nebraska re-inventing ancient errors and diverting valuable energy 
 from the useful purpose of hoeing corn. It is not for me, not even an 
 amateur in education, to say how these things should be reached, but 
 I venture a suggestion. 
 
 Scientific study may be in itself a great expander of the imagi- 
 nation. You will remember that Prof. Shaler wrote five dramas in 
 blank verse to prove this. I am not competent to judge of his demon- 
 stration, but at least I venture the assertion that the study of chemistry 
 or of biology, of machine design or of analytical geometry, of geology 
 and astronomy, is as quickening to the imagination as the study of 
 Greek or Latin grammar, of moral philosophy or of rhetoric, or as a 
 formal and routine study of English literature. The result is mostly 
 dependent on the teacher and not on the thing taught. The quickening 
 influence is the human influence. 
 
 This brings me to another suggestion. Gordon used to say that 
 it would be better if the young British officers were made to read 
 Plutarch's Lives. "There we see men of no true belief, men who are pure 
 pagans making their lives a sacrifice as a matter of course. In our 
 day it is highest merit not to run away." This is a fertile suggestion 
 under which lies a truth of the greatest importance in the scheme of 
 education. At this moment we may see Plutarch's men fighting for 
 
PROUT. 167 
 
 their country on the other side of the world and showing noble devo- 
 tion and a lofty idealism, because for centuries and centuries great 
 ideals have been held always before them. Admiral Togo's little ad- 
 dress to the spirits of the dead the other day in Tokio was a noble 
 inspiration to the youth of his nation. It had the very spirit which 
 made Plutarch's men immortal. The essential thing is to bring youth 
 into habitual and constant contact with great men and great ideas and 
 great deeds. Make them read Huxley's Life and Letters and Lord 
 Robert's Forty-one Years in India and Grant's Memoirs. Or, per- 
 haps better than any of these, let them read deeply in the story of 
 Lincoln's life. There they will find the simple foundation qualities, 
 love of truth, courage, patience, and fortitude, tenacity and devotion, 
 working in great fields of effort. If these examples do not stir a 
 young man, you had better let him go quietly back to hoeing corn. 
 He may make a useful man and a necessary man, but he cannot make 
 a great man or even a big man. Huxley has said that the progress of 
 mankind has been through the production of men of genius; but society 
 cannot deliberately and consciously produce men of genius. They are 
 the rare fruit of a thousand uncontrollable conditions, 'but we can 
 deliberately and consciously develop leaders, and the affairs of men 
 have never called for leaders so loudly as now. 
 
 I said a while ago that we are face to face with certain facts of 
 tremendous importance to those who are training young men for 
 engineering, and to those who have chosen engineering as their pro- 
 fession. I have suggested a few considerations, more particularly for 
 those who are educating the young engineer, and now let us turn to 
 the engineer himself. 
 
 It is my proposition that the engineer more than any other man 
 has brought about the new epoch which we have now entered upon 
 and that he more than any other man is to lead mankind forward in 
 the next century or two. But who is this engineer to whom we as- 
 sign such a place in human progress? What is engineering? These 
 claims, so broad as to seem extravagant, must rest on a broad founda- 
 tion. 
 
 You will have observed that of the six great forward steps taken 
 by the human race as a race, five were enlargement of his physical 
 powers and improvements in his material welfare, through conquests 
 over the forces of nature, and the sixth of these great steps worked 
 for his advancement by enabling him to preserve and distribute know- 
 ledge. Even that step probably had its greatest value in hastening 
 the conquest of nature. So we must not be surprised to discover that 
 progress is through knowledge of a material universe. 
 
168 THE ENGINEER AND SOCIETY. 
 
 Some eighty years ago Tredgold made that famous definition of 
 engineering which has never been improved upon. It is the art of 
 directing the great sources of power in nature to the use and con- 
 venience of man. Broadly this definition must include the physicist, 
 the chemist, the biologist, the geologist, and the metallurgist, for they 
 discover those laws and properties of matter in the knowledge of which 
 the engineer must work. Narrowly the engineer is one who, having 
 knowledge of the laws and properties of matter, designs and constructs. 
 The primitive engineer, the man who had that instinctive feeling for 
 the forces of nature and for the properties of matter, and that quality 
 of contrivance which must be born in a man if he is to be an engineer 
 at all, taught his fellow savages to use fire, to use bows and arrows, 
 and to make pottery. Then he taught his fellow barbarians to use 
 the strength of the larger animals and to smelt and forge iron. Just 
 so the modern engineer using the same . heaven-sent qualities is carry- 
 ing forward the conquest of nature until he has brought us into this 
 last and greatest era, the era of the manufacture of power. 
 
 I shall not stop to name his doings, they are written across the 
 face of the earth. You remember what Carlyle says of the English 
 "Of all nations the English are the stupidest in speech, the wisest in 
 action. Thy epic, unsung in words is written in huge characters on 
 the face of this planet Sea-moles, railways, fleets and cities, Indian 
 Empires, America, legible throughout the solar system, England her 
 mark." Such, too, is the epic of the engineer written in railways, 
 canals and bridges, in fleets and harbors, in water works, roads and 
 parks, and finally in the great ultimate struggles of mankind on the 
 battle field to save and destroy nations. There, too, the engineer writes 
 his tragic poetry. You never thought of him as a poet, did you, and 
 yet in the last one hundred years the highest expressions of the creative 
 imagination have been in the work of the engineer. 
 
 A few years ago Mr. Abram S. Hewitt said that Sir Henry Bes- 
 semer had done more than any other man of his time to destroy the 
 power of the privileged classes in Great Britain, that he was the great 
 apostle of democracy. Bessemer's service to mankind was to lower 
 the cost and increase the quantity of steel and so make possible the 
 enormous development of transportation in the last half of the last 
 century, which has changed the face of society, and I do not believe Mr. 
 Hewitt over-estimated the importance of Sir Henry Bessemer's achieve- 
 ment. The wheat that makes a loaf of bread is carried from Dakota 
 to New York for one-third of a cent. One day's wages of a mechanic 
 will carry from Chicago to Liverpool food to last him a year. Quick 
 transportation has cut the peasant loose from the soil of his little 
 
PROUT. 169 
 
 parish and opened the markets of the whole world for the labor of the 
 artisan. All this means that improvement in transportation has been 
 one of the powerful forces for preserving and spreading liberty. Thus 
 Bessemer was the apostle of democracy. The engineer has made life 
 freer and easier, he has helped to destroy arbitrary class distinctions, 
 and he has prolonged human life. 
 
 I shall not dwell longer on what the engineer has done. I wish 
 especially to take a little time to point out some of the things which 
 he is about to do. Bear in mind that in what I shall say I use the 
 term "engineer" in its broadest sense to indicate the man of modern 
 scientific education and of practical contrivance. Trained in daily con- 
 tact with exact and inexorable laws he is becoming more and more a 
 leader in large affairs, he is fast taking his place at the head, and 
 close to the head, of the great industrial concerns. Mind I do not 
 say that he will displace men of other professions. Men bred to the 
 law, men trained in business, will always rise to the top. Superior men 
 will make their way to command through many different avenues. 
 What I do mean to say is that the education and experience of an en- 
 gineer especially fit him for high administrative positions not now 
 commonly thought of as engineering work. Carlyle tells us that 
 "Frederick the Great's ambassadors are oftenest soldiers. Bred sol- 
 diers, he finds, if they happen to have natural intelligence, are the 
 fittest for all kinds of work." In Frederick's time engineering as a 
 profession did not exist. Soldiering came nearest to it, and there is 
 great likeness in the work of the engineer and the soldier and in the 
 qualities of mind and character developed in the two callings. Both 
 must ascertain physical facts without mistake. Both must analyze and 
 weigh evidence and must reason correctly. Both must deal with rela- 
 tions of time, space, force, and matter. Both must handle men in 
 action. Both must have the restrained and disciplined imagination to 
 project clearly conditions and results which they cannot see. Both 
 must decide, often very quickly, knowing that on the decision hangs 
 success or failure. But this is the training which makes men of 
 action leaders, commanders. No doubt you will agree with much 
 that I have just said, but I question if you will quite appreciate the 
 gravity of the sudden emergency work which comes in an engineer's 
 life. Suppose you are putting down a deep foundation alongside of a 
 twelve story building in New York City and the quicksand begins to 
 run and the walls of the big building to crack. The peril is not so 
 pressing as the peril of battle for you can stop work and think. But 
 you must think straight and act right or you will cost someone a lot of 
 money, even if you kill no one. Suppose you are putting in a foun- 
 dation for a bridge pier in the bottom of the Mississippi and the river 
 
170 THE ENGINEER AND SOCIETY. 
 
 bed begins to scour and a caisson as big as a house begins to tip and 
 to move down stream. A great deal of money depends on what you 
 do in the next few hours. Suppose you are putting a tunnel under the 
 St. Clair river and the compressed air begins to blow out through a 
 pocket in the river bed. Here is an affair of minutes, and of life as 
 well as money. These very things have happened and are exactly the 
 things that come as a matter of course in an engineer's life, and they 
 are met by just the same qualities of courage and stored up skill and 
 emergency judgment that you must have ready when the enemy gets 
 on your flank. Beyond all- this the engineer is of necessity a student 
 of costs and economics. He must know what it costs to move a yard 
 of earth and to put in a yard of concrete and why. He must know 
 what it costs to produce a horse power. He has been defined as a 
 man who can do well for a dollar what any man can do somehow for 
 ten dollars. VBeneath all this must lie sleepless fidelity to his trust. 
 
 These are some of the qualities of leadership, obvious, and rec- 
 ognized as produced in the contest with nature; but there are others, 
 higher ones, not so obvious. I mean the qualities of moral leader- 
 ship. Probably you never thought of the engineer as a moral leader, 
 and yet I have often thought and said that. in a knotty case of applied 
 morals I would sooner trust an engineer than any other man. I once 
 said this to that famous moralist, the late Speaker Reed. It was ap- 
 parently a new thought to him. He reflected as much as a quarter of 
 a minute, which was a long time for him. "Yes," he said, "I guess 
 you are right, a minister has no sense of proportion in sin." That 
 thought is a little too delicate and complicated for me to follow further, 
 but the lawyer is fair game. You will remember the saying of Macau- 
 lay on this matter. "We will not at present inquire whether it be right 
 that a man should, with a wig on his head, and a band around his neck, 
 do for a guinea what, without these appendages, he would think it 
 wicked and infamous to do for an empire; whether it be right that, 
 not merely believing but knowing a statement to be true, he should 
 do all that can be done by sophistry, by rhetoric, by solemn asserva- 
 tion, by indignant exclamation, by gesture, by play of features, by 
 terrifying one honest witness, by perplexing another, to cause a jury 
 to think that statement false. It is not necessary on the present occa- 
 sion to decide these questions." Nor is it necessary for us here to decide 
 a question which every law student has debated over and again. For 
 my present purpose it is enough to say that the daily practice of a 
 profession concerning which such questions can arise puts a man of 
 weak mind or weak character in very considerable peril of becoming 
 a skillful sophist and a weak moralist. Even in the daily walks of 
 
PROUT. 171 
 
 business there is frequent temptation to obscure the truth. But the 
 man who passes his life in contests with nature is not apt to be a 
 sophist. The engineer can have no object in concealing the truth or ^> 
 in misusing it. His work is a material fact ; it is not an impression 
 upon the minds of other men. No trick of words, no art of speech, 
 will make his bridge stand up, or his bearings run cool. No ingenuity 
 of argument, no power of rhetoric will save one ounce of coal per 
 horsepower-hour. We all know in some vague and abstract way that 
 we must yoke our wagon to a star, but the engineer must do it. The 
 law which guides him is not the product of the schools and the courts, 
 it is not the product of changing standards of life and thought; it is / 
 the eternal law of natures So far as he finds it and follows it he suc- 
 ceeds ; so far as he misses it he fails, and there is no escape for him. 
 Nature always stands watching him, neither kind nor cruel, but per- 
 fectly just- swift, inexorable, and inevitable at once his guide and 
 his judge. Who else of all mankind has a discipline so fine? Reward 
 is so prompt, punishment is so swift and sure. Emerson has said 
 "The mind that is parallel with 'the laws of Nature will be strong with 
 their strength." 
 
 I have pointed out some of the special and peculiar qualifications 
 of the engineer for leadership. There is another which he enjoys in 
 common with other professions. I mean that which we may call the 
 professional spirit. It often seems to me that some of the great dan- 
 gers to the social order which we see around us will be lessened, not 
 cured but lessened, by the growth of the influence of the professional 
 man in affairs. We are worried about the growth of corporate power. 
 I don't believe that corporations are worse managed than they used to 
 he, but they are bigger and stronger and we hear more about them, 
 as we hear more about most things. However all that may be, we shall 
 not change human nature by law, and corporate nature is human 
 nature. I see much good to come from the growth of the professional 
 spirit in corporate management. The professional spirit is in its essence 
 the sense of trusteeship. When the professional man takes in trust 
 the affairs of his client that trust becomes more binding upon him than 
 his own personal interests. I am often amazed when I think of the 
 vital force of this professional spirit of trusteeship. I am often aston- 
 ished when I think of the great number of very common-place men 
 who work along year by year with sustained devotion to a true stand- 
 ard of professional duty. It confirms my faith in the notion that the 
 mass of mankind like to do their duty if they can only know what it 
 is. and that the mass of mankind desire the approbation of noble minds. 
 It is my impression that the true professional spirit is at least as strong 
 
172 THE ENGINEER AND SOCIETY. 
 
 amongst engineers as in any other profession, and I am often tempted 
 to think that it is stronger. Here then we see still another reason to 
 look forward to the leadership of the engineer. 
 
 Those of you who have been dozing or wandering while I have 
 talked and who have caught only the high spots will have received the 
 impression that I have been claiming the earth and the fullness there- 
 of for a small group of our fellowmen who have chanced to band 
 themselves in a certain profession. My real purpose has been to call 
 attention to the commanding importance in the advancement of man- 
 kind of a certain sort of training, and I had hoped that the presenta- 
 tion of this thought, while not at all novel or original, might have a 
 certain interest to you, gathered in the shadow of this noble university, 
 and especially to the young men. 
 
 I have said that the engineer brought about this seventh epoch in 
 the progress of the human race, the era of manufactured power, but 
 I am not sure but we should go back three hundred years to Lord 
 Bacon. It was Bacon's purpose to teach man to gain command over 
 nature, and he taught that this could be only by diligently learning the 
 truth and then following it. And this is the real significance of the 
 engineer as an ethnical force ; he must know the truth and live .by it. 
 Bacon was not the first man to observe natural facts correctly and to 
 reason from them simply and boldly. The savage engineer who 
 taught his fellows to make fire must have done that. But Bacon roused 
 great numbers of men to the dignity and value of natural knowledge. 
 And I would ask you to remember, and especially the young men, that 
 knowledge of man and his deeds and motives is a branch of natural 
 knowledge. If we are to help mankind forward in this new era on 
 which we have entered, we must gain positive knowledge, and we must 
 vitalize it by contact with great characters and great events. We must 
 get command of the sources of power in nature and then within our- 
 selves, we must have courage and candor, fortitude, tenacity and imagi- 
 nation, and devotion ; and the greatest quality of all is devotion. 
 
THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AS AN ENGINEER. 
 
 ' .. . By u^||S 
 
 Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys. 
 
 It is quite possible that this address of Dr. Humphreys is some- 
 what too abstract and difficult of comprehension for the average stu- 
 dent : nevertheless a careful study of it cannot fail to enlarge the 
 reader's mental grasp of the subject of engineering education. It will 
 also give emphasis to the statements of several of the other authors, 
 and will impress upon the student the importance of a number of special 
 studies in engineering curricula. 
 
 The quotations from Dr. Eliot are classic and, therefore, worthy 
 of serious consideration. 
 
 The business aspects of this address are especially commended to 
 the engineer-student, as they constitute the most characteristic or 
 special feature of Dr. Humphreys' system of imparting engineering- 
 instruction. 
 
 Editors. 
 
THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AS AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys. 
 
 Our progress in the industrial arts has of late been so marked 
 as to raise the United States to the first rank as an industrial power. 
 Our relative progress has excited earnest inquiry among the statesmen 
 and educators of other countries to determine the causes therefor. It 
 has come to be acknowledged that among these causes must be in- 
 cluded technical education, and we have for a year and more been 
 receiving visits from commissions and individuals from abroad charged 
 with the duty of investigating our systems and methods. While among 
 ourselves this subject has been receiving the attention it deserves, and 
 manufacturers, engineers, and educators have been most active in its 
 discussion, looking to the eliminating or minimizing of faults and the 
 further development of the good points of the systems and methods 
 followed, there are still to be found many high in authority who re- 
 fuse to concede to technical education the position it deserves and who 
 fail to see that the study of the subjects included in the engineer-stu- 
 dents' curriculum may serve to broaden and cultivate as well as to make 
 efficient. 
 
 I am sorry to say that I have more than once been obliged to listen 
 to the applause called forth by attacks on technical education con- 
 tained in addresses delivered before assemblies largely composed of 
 professional educators. By those who thus assume an unfriendly atti- 
 tude towards technical education it seems to be taken for granted that 
 this special training is necessarily opposed to culture studies. No 
 doubt some reason for this distrust can . be found in the excessive 
 specialization at one time to be generally found in our technical courses 
 and still, unfortunately, to be found in some; but I contend that where 
 this special training is wisely provided for only a necessary discrimi- 
 nation is exercised in the specialization and the result no more tends 
 to produce narrow men than does the old B. A. course. I do not 
 affirm that the best engineering course necessarily produces the culti- 
 vated man, nor can this be claimed for any course of study. 
 
 By those who elect thus to sit in judgment on the engineer, ap- 
 parently it is assumed that he is necessarily engaged with material 
 
 175 
 
176 COLLEGE GRADUATE AS ENGINEER. 
 
 things only and that it is reserved to those who more exclusively fol- 
 low the humanities to take part in the higher things of life. By some 
 the opinion seems to be held that the engineer is a man who confines 
 himself to the occupations that require the constant wearing of over- 
 alls. Confusion exists in the minds of some as to the functions of the 
 engineer as compared with those of the mechanic. 
 
 In setting before you the claims of the engineer as a member of 
 a profession I have no intention of casting reflections on those who 
 earn their living by manual labor. I hold that the first duty of every 
 man is to be a producer so that he and his shall not be a burden upon 
 the community and still further that he may contribute his quota to the 
 common purse for the support of the Government and the support of 
 those who, for one reason or another, are actually incapable of carry- 
 ing even their own weight. Any man, be he cultured or uncultured, 
 who honestly performs his duty in this connection need not be ashamed 
 to look the world in the face. 
 
 Our views may vary as to our responsibilities with regard to the 
 hereafter, but there should be no question as to the duty of first hon- 
 estly and courageously meeting the present responsibilities of this life. 
 Apparently there are those who hold that the present and evident duties 
 can be neglected or wholly pushed out of sight that they may the more 
 completely devote themselves to the contemplation of their responsi- 
 bilities with regard to the hereafter. 
 
 If I am right in believing that the time we are permitted to spend 
 on this earth is one of preparation and development for something 
 higher, then nothing of the present can be neglected and the educa- 
 tion of those who are to take part in the world's work becomes a 
 solemn responsibility. 
 
 From this point of view it is unprofitable to make comparisons as 
 to the relative importance of the several professions or vocations. All 
 legitimate vocations are important, and the world's work, to be in 
 balance, requires the honest, intelligent filling of all. Some produce 
 in a material way ; others produce through their imagination and their 
 product serves to uplift, encourage, and sustain those engaged in the 
 more material callings. 
 
 The man who faithfully works to the limit of his powers and op- 
 portunities, no matter how lowly his vocation may be, rises superior to 
 the man of greater or more refined powers and larger opportunities 
 who does only a part of that of which he is capable. This may be 
 trite, but my experience in widely differing lines is constantly showing 
 me that this truth if recognized is not heeded and, as a result, the 
 faithful worker is unfavorably compared with the brilliant idler. 
 
HUMPHREYS. 177 
 
 But the engineer's vocation is not a lowly .one. In the certificate 
 of membership of the great Institution of Civil Engineers of Great 
 Britain appears the following: 
 
 "A Society established for the general advancement of Mechani- 
 cal Science and more particularly for promoting the acquisition of that 
 species of knowledge which constitutes the profession of a Civil Engi- 
 neer, being the art of directing the great sources of power in Nature 
 for the use and convenience of Man." 
 
 God or, if you prefer, Nature has placed in our hands certain 
 materials and forces. These must first be apprehended, analyzed, and 
 measured ; and here is the field of the scientific investigator, the man 
 of research. 
 
 It is for the engineer to take the knowledge thus furnished to him 
 by the men of pure science and apply it so as best to meet the wants 
 of his fellow men. The engineer must have such a knowledge of the 
 fundamentals of science as will enable him to apply efficiently the work 
 of the scientist. Sometimes we find an engineer more richly endowed 
 with scientific imagination, turning from the work of application to 
 original research. Sometimes, yes often, the scientist is directed into 
 new lines by the engineer's specific statement of the need for further 
 knowledge ; and again, the scientist frequently builds and corrects his 
 theories on the practical experiences of the engineer. The tremendous 
 advance made during the last twenty years in electrical science is a 
 notable example of such collaboration. 
 
 No sharp line can be drawn between the man of pure science and 
 the man of applied science. The engineer of today must have a general 
 knowledge of science and he must have a full knowledge of and be 
 capable of practically applying the laws of Nature in at least one little 
 corner of the great field of engineering. For now it has come to pass 
 that no man can hope to be an authority over the whole wide field of 
 engineering. 
 
 The engineer-student today must be so trained in the fundamentals 
 of science and so trained in Mathematics that he can after graduation 
 quickly and safely further specialize within his specialty of engineering. 
 In our colleges we cannot make engineers, but we can prepare the 
 students to profit thoroughly and promptly by their opportunities in the 
 school of practice. 
 
 The institution of which I have the honor to be President has 
 for its title "The Stevens Institute of Technology," with the secondary 
 title of "A School of Mechanical Engineering." 
 
 One might then suppose that our work would be found to be as 
 closely specialized as is possible. A glance over the list of our Alumni 
 
178 COLLEGE GRADUATE AS ENGINEER. 
 
 shows at once that our training has fitted our men fundamentally for 
 quite different lines of engineering work. In this list we find officers 
 of railroads, superintendents of iron and steel mills, electric light engi- 
 neers, electric railway engineers, manufacturers of electrical apparatus, 
 gas engineers, specialists in steam, marine engineers, designers and 
 builders of various kinds of engines, hydraulic engineers, bridge builders, 
 sugar manufacturers, refrigerating engineers, oil refiners, locomotive 
 builders, superintendents of copper refineries, manufacturers of instru- 
 ments, superintendents of paper mills, manufacturers of textile machin- 
 ery, mining engineers, etc., etc. The same college course furnished to 
 each of these men a solid foundation upon which to build the super- 
 structure required for his selected vocation. 
 
 It is true that, in Technical Schools this concentration on a single 
 course of study is rather the exception. At the Massachusetts Insti- 
 tute of Technology, for example, the students follow the same lines for 
 part of the course, and then they begin further to specialize as electri- 
 cal engineers, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, naval engineers, 
 mining engineers, architects, etc. But even where there has been this 
 more definite specialization within the limits of the college course, a 
 further specialization and training in detail is required after gradua- 
 tion. 
 
 Before considering a department of study which should be includ- 
 ed in every engineering course, let me for a moment again refer to the 
 question Does the education of an engineer necessarily exclude cul- 
 ture studies? President Eliot, of Harvard, can be taken as a notable 
 example of the man of culture. He is also an authority of weight on 
 questions of education. I leave my case then in the hands of Presi- 
 dent Eliot, though I could call in to my support many others of the 
 prominent educators of our country, notably President Butler, of Col- 
 umbia. 
 
 I quote from an address delivered this summer by President Eliot 
 before the New England Educational Association, published in full in 
 "The World's Work" of August, and published in condensed form in 
 "Science" of July 17th, under the title of "The New Definition of the 
 Cultivated Man." I hope that by listening to these quotations some of 
 you will be led to read the entire address. 
 
 "There are two principal differences between the' present ideal" 
 (of general cultivation) "and that which prevailed at the beginning of 
 the Nineteenth Century. All thinkers agree that the horizon of the 
 human intellect has widened wonderfully during the past hundred 
 years, and that the scientific method of inquiry, which was known to 
 but very few when the Nineteenth Century began, has been the means 
 
HUMPHREYS. 179 
 
 of that widening. This method has become indispensable in all fields 
 of inquiry, including psychology, philanthropy, and religion; and, there- 
 fore, intimate acquaintance with it has become an indispensable element 
 in culture." 
 
 ****** * * * * 
 
 "I need not say that within that century what we call science, pure 
 and applied, has transformed the world as the scene of the human 
 drama ; and that it is this transformation which has compelled the recog- 
 nition of natural science as a fundamental necessity in liberal educa- 
 tion." 
 
 ****** * * * * 
 
 "A second modification of the earlier idea of cultivation was advo- 
 cated by Ralph Waldo Emerson more than two generations ago. He 
 taught that the acquisition of some form of manual skill and the prac- 
 tice of some form of manual labor were essential elements of culture." 
 
 ****** **** 
 
 "The idea of culture has always included a quick and wide sym- 
 pathy with men ; it should hereafter include sympathy with Nature, 
 and particularly with its living forms a sympathy based on some 
 accurate observation of Nature. The book-worm, the monk, the isolated 
 student, has never been the type of cultivated man. Society has seemed 
 the natural setting for the cultivated person, man or woman ; but the 
 present conception of real culture contains not only a large develop- 
 ment of this social element, but also an extension of interest and rever- 
 ence to the animal creation and to those immense forces that set the 
 earthly stage for man and all related beings." 
 
 ****** #*** 
 
 "Let us proceed to examine some of the changes in the idea of 
 culture, or in the available means of culture, which the last hundred 
 years have brought about. 
 
 1. "The moral sense of the modern world makes character a more 
 important element than it used to be in the ideal of the cultivated man." 
 
 ****** **** 
 
 2. "A cultivated man should express himself by tongue and pen 
 with some accuracy and elegance; therefore linguistic training has had 
 great importance in the idea of cultivation. The conditions of the 
 educated world have, however, changed so profoundly since the revival 
 of learning in Italy that our inherited ideas concerning training in 
 language and literature have required large modifications. In the year 
 1400 it might have been said with truth that there was but one lan- 
 guage of scholars, the Latin, and but two great literatures, the Hebrew 
 and the Greek. Since that time, however, other great literatures have 
 
180 COLLEGE GRADUATE AS ENGINEER. 
 
 arisen, the Italian, Spanish, French, German, and above all the English, 
 which has become incomparably the most extensive and various and 
 the noblest of literatures. Under these circumstances it is impossible 
 to maintain that a knowledge of any particular literature is indispen- 
 sable to culture." 
 
 * * * * * :I: * * X :}: 
 
 "The linguistic and literary element in cultivation therefore abides, 
 but has become vastly broader than formerly so broad, indeed, that 
 selection among its fields is forced upon every educated youth. 
 
 3. "The next great element in cultivation to which I ask your at- 
 tention is acquaintance with some parts of the store of knowledge 
 which humanity in its progress from barbarism has acquired and laid 
 up." 
 
 * * * * # # * * # $ 
 
 "It is too vast for any man to master, though he had a hundred 
 lives instead of one ; and its growth in the Nineteenth Century was 
 greater than in all the thirty preceding centuries put together." 
 
 * * * * * * * * # * 
 
 "Culture, therefore, can no longer imply a knowledge of every- 
 thing. It must be content with general knowledge of some things, and 
 a real mastery of some small portion of the human store. Here is a 
 profound modification of the idea of cultivation, which the Nineteenth 
 Century has brought about. What portion or portions of the infinite 
 human store are most proper to the cultivated man? The answer must 
 be those which enable him, with his individual personal qualities, to 
 deal best and sympathize most with Nature and with other human 
 beings. It is here that the passion for service must fuse with the 
 passion for knowledge." 
 
 ********** 
 
 "We have learned from Nineteenth Century experience* that there 
 is no field of real knowledge which may not suddenly prove contribu- 
 tory in a high degree to human happiness and the progress of civili- 
 zation, and therefore acceptable as a worthy element in the truest 
 culture. 
 
 4. "The only other element in cultivation which time will permit 
 me to treat is the training of the constructive imagination. The imagi- 
 nation is the greatest of human powers, no matter in what field it works 
 in Art or Literature, in mechanical invention, in science, government, 
 commerce, or religion: and the training of the imagination is, there- 
 fore, far the most important part of education." 
 
HUMPHREYS. 181 
 
 "Contrast this kind of constructive imagination" (he has been 
 referring to Zola's La Bete Humaine) "with the kind which conceived 
 the great wells sunk in solid rock below Niagara that contain the tur- 
 bines that drive the dynamos that generate the electric force that turns 
 thousands of wheels and lights, thousands of lamps over hundreds of 
 square miles of adjoining territory; or with the kind that conceives the 
 sending of human thoughts across three thousand miles of stormy sea 
 instantaneously on nothing more substantial than ethereal waves. There 
 is no crime, cruelty, or lust about these last two sorts of imagining. 
 No lurid fire of hell or human passion illumines their scenes. They are 
 calm, accurate, just, and responsible, and nothing but beneficence and 
 increased human well-being results from them." 
 
 * * * * * * * *' * * 
 
 'That great century (the Nineteenth) has taught us that, on the 
 whole, the scientific imagination is quite as productive for human ser- 
 vice as the literary or poetic imagination." 
 
 ****** * * * * 
 
 "It results from this brief survey that the elements and means of 
 cultivation are much more numerous than they used to be; so that it 
 is not wise to say of any one acquisition or faculty with it cultivation 
 becomes possible, without it impossible." 
 
 ********** 
 
 "On the other hand, is there any single acquisition or faculty which 
 is essential to culture, except indeed a reasonably accurate and refined 
 
 use of the mother tongue?" 
 
 ********** 
 
 "There has always been difficulty in defining culture. In the past 
 the definition offered was often narrow and insufficient." 
 
 The time had arrived for the statement of a new and broader 
 definition of culture, and President Eliot opportunely met the require- 
 ment. I have therefore felt warranted in quoting at some length from 
 his masterly address, for I know I may serve you best by practically 
 forcing on your attention that which the pressure of other duties might 
 influence you to neglect. 
 
 Now the question is do the courses of study offered by the best 
 of our separate engineering schools and by our university schools of ap- 
 plied science sufficiently include culture studies as defined by President 
 Eliot? 
 
 To-day the engineer should be trained in theory and in practice. 
 
 Such progress has been made during the last thirty years in tech- 
 nical education . that it seems like quoting from ancient history to go 
 back a half century. But we find that Prof. Rankine, of the University 
 
182 COLLEGE GRADUATE AS ENGINEER. 
 
 of Glasgow in his "Preliminary Dissertation on the Harmony of Theory 
 and Practice in Mechanics," first delivered in two addresses in the winter 
 of 1855-6 and published as the preface to his "Applied Mechanics," 
 pointed out the necessity on the part of the educated engineer, of a 
 complete training in theory and practice; and that, no longer must the 
 fallacy be held that there is "a double system of natural laws ; one 
 theoretical, geometrical, rational, discoverable by contemplation, ap- 
 plicable to celestial, aetherial, indestructible bodies, and being an object 
 of the noble and liberal arts; the other practical, mechanical, empirical, 
 discoverable by experience, applicable to terrestrial, gross, destructible 
 bodies, and being an object of what were once called the vulgar and 
 sordid arts." 
 
 Rankine closes his dissertation with these words : 
 
 "Thus it is that the commonest objects are by science rendered 
 precious; and in like manner the engineer or the mechanic, who plans 
 and works with understanding of the natural laws that regulate the 
 results of his operations, rises to the dignity of a Sage." 
 
 To those of you who are particularly interested in either pure or 
 applied science, let me strongly recommend to you a careful study of 
 this dissertation of Rankine's. The man of science and the engineer 
 are often required to meet fallacies ; on such occasions Rankine's Dis- 
 sertation may serve as a safeguard from fatal error. 
 
 For many years there has been a contest, which has not yet entirely 
 ended, between those who contend that to be practical one must not 
 be theoretical, and those who contend that to be scientific one must not 
 be practical. This contention has not ajways been so bluntly stated, 
 but that is what is meant when some say we do not want scientific 
 engineers, we want practical engineers ; and when others say, we do not 
 want practical engineers, we want scientific engineers. Both of these 
 parties have failed to appreciate that the engineer must be capable of 
 practically applying scientific knowledge. Especially in the United 
 States it is now coming to be generally appreciated that the engineer 
 must not only know but he must be able to do. 
 
 Discredit has been brought upon the engineering profession be- 
 cause some of its members have not been sure of their theories before 
 they commenced to apply them; because others have been credited with 
 a scientific training while they were weak in the very fundamentals of 
 science and mathematics ; because others with a fairly complete know- 
 ledge of science and mathematics have been deficient in practical ability 
 and experience ; and because others have been unable or unwilling 
 to appreciate that engineering practice must conform to commercial con- 
 ditions and requirements. 
 
HUMPHREYS. 183 
 
 Still another opportunity for unfavorable criticism by practical 
 business men has been given by the lack of a proper disciplinary con- 
 trol of the students so often to be found in our colleges, with the re- 
 sult that not infrequently the employer finds it far more difficult to lick 
 into shape the college graduate than he does the boy from the high 
 school. The boy goes from the control of the school and naturally sub- 
 mits to the control of the office; too often the college graduate has 
 been demoralized by four years of college license and so is unwilling 
 to submit to office discipline. This can be corrected only when faculties 
 and students recognize that the same laws are intended to govern those 
 in the college and those outside, and that the breaking of the law can- 
 not be excused on the plea that only a little fun was intended. While 
 this criticism applies to some graduates of our schools of engineering, 
 I believe it applies in a greater degree to other college graduates. This 
 difference is perhaps accounted for by the facts that a majority of en- 
 gineering students enter college with the definite purpose of preparing 
 themselves for a selected vocation and having entered they are worked 
 so hard that there is not much time or energy left for foolishness and 
 lawlessness. 
 
 Undoubtedly our colleges have been also in part responsible for the 
 discredit which has been brought upon the engineering profession 
 through the causes first mentioned. In some cases the course of study 
 has been too closely specialized, too much attention has been 
 devoted to the details of technical training and too little to the 
 fundamentals of science and mathematics and to the more general and 
 more broadening studies. There has been too much of a tendency 
 to stuff the students with facts when rather their reasoning powers 
 should have been more thoroughly trained to apply principles to cases. 
 
 Now a reaction has set in, if we may judge from the public utter- 
 ances of many of our prominent educators. If so, then we must see to 
 it that we do not go to the other extreme by making our courses of 
 instruction too broad and too general and so fail to give our engineer- 
 students that special and exact training in the fundamentals which 
 they certainly require before all else. We must above all things be 
 thorough. Even in the interest of culture, there can be no advantage, 
 on the one hand, in omitting this exact and thorough feature of the 
 training nor, on the other hand, in so crowding the curriculum that the 
 store of knowledge offered cannot, within the four years, be assimilated 
 and systematized for use. 
 
 We must then resist the pressure constantly felt to introduce new 
 matter into our courses. We must appreciate that many of the things 
 thus pressed upon our attention are only new applications of the same 
 
1 84 COL LEGE GRA D UA TE A S EN G1NEER. 
 
 fundamental principles. If we decide that these newer applications are 
 more important than some others already included, we must recognize 
 the necessity for selection and we must eliminate the old as we intro- 
 duce the new. 
 
 Every engineer-student should be given full opportunity to learn 
 that for true success in his profession he must after graduation take up 
 a post-graduate course of study, and that probably the best post-gradu- 
 ate course will be followed in connection with his work as a wage 
 earner in some one part of the field of engineering. Engineering post- 
 graduate work in college is only possible for a small minority and it is 
 doubtful if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in the case of the 
 large majority. There are certain necessary things to be learned only 
 by contact with the working world. 
 
 Nor need this later closer specializing be necessarily narrowing if 
 the man has been previously broadly (not superficially) trained. 
 
 The training in the fundamentals of science and mathematics (the 
 theory) should be constantly harmonized with the training in the labora- 
 tories and shops (the practice) ; and the connection between these two 
 branches should be constantly emphasized by the work in the depart- 
 ment of Mechanical Drawing, which can well be made a strong con- 
 necting link. 
 
 To these should be added one or two modern languages and as 
 much as possible of the mother tongue and its literature. The study of 
 English should be kept in mind in each of the other departments and 
 should be finally kept prominently in view in connection with the writ- 
 ing of the graduation thesis, which should be a business-like report on 
 some experiment, investigation, or construction. And the engineer- 
 student should not be graduated until he has given proof in his thesis of 
 the thoroughness and breadth of his training and of his ability to ex- 
 press himself clearly and explicitly. 
 
 Now let me refer to one other feature which in my opinion should 
 be included in the curricula of schools of engineering. A failure to do 
 so has been a fruitful source of distrust of the engineer on the part of 
 the manufacturer and the man of business. I refer to instruction in 
 business methods. I do not refer to such a superficial treatment of the 
 subject as will enable young engineers more quickly to take up posi- 
 tions as salesmen of machinery and apparatus, but I refer to that 
 broader training in business affairs which every man must sooner or 
 later acquire if he is to be a leader. 
 
 I contend that even the man who is to stick closely to the technical 
 side of his profession must know of the limitations and conditions under 
 which his technical knowledge is to be made available for those who 
 wish to buy his knowledge. 
 
HUMPHREYS. 185 
 
 The engineer should know the principles at least of Accounting 
 unless he is to be absolutely dependent for the record of the financial 
 results of his work on the unchecked statements of a book-keeper. Fre- 
 quently cases arise in engineering work and in manufacturing where 
 the accountant alone is not competent to determine whether the -final 
 result has created a profit or a loss. 
 
 We have only to think of the grave responsibiliy to others, per- 
 haps innocent and dependent investors, to see that this brings in a 
 consideration far above things material. 
 
 The daily press has lately shown us how the lack of a combina- 
 tion of business and technical training in the persons of responsible 
 heads of industrial concerns has brought loss to many innocent people. 
 
 The early history of our United States railroads is filled with the 
 records of financial disaster which might have been avoided if a com- 
 bination of engineering knowledge and accounting skill had been exer- 
 cised to produce correct statements of profit and loss which in turn 
 should have prevented the impairment of capital by the payment of 
 unearned dividends. 
 
 Then the engineer should be capable of following up in detail the 
 records of shop cost. Further, he should be capable of outlining a 
 system for the keeping of shop cost records. In some large establish- 
 ments the keeping of shop cost is a matter of great complexity, and 
 many a concern has been ruined because this fact has not been soon 
 enough realized. 
 
 The engineer should be warned against the dangers to be' en- 
 countered in the drawing of specifications and contracts; he should be 
 taught that the annoyances and losses involved in lawsuits are most 
 easily to be avoided by the exercise of care and skill in the writing of 
 such papers, yes, and in the dictating of the routine correspondence. 
 
 In this connection may well be included in the engineering course 
 some lectures in commercial law and especially the law of contracts 
 not with the idea that the student shall be encouraged to be his own 
 lawyer, for this he should be warned against, but that he shall the 
 better be able to avoid the necessity for a lawyer's services. 
 
 To give the student more interest in the study of English it should 
 be constantly kept before him in the several departments that only 
 through a fairly complete command of the mother tongue can he hope 
 to make available the knowledge and training he is acquiring in those 
 departments. 
 
 The engineer-student should also be shown that the preparing of 
 correct estimates of cost is something which his employer or associates 
 have the right to demand. Then it should be shown to him that in most 
 cases such estimates can onlv be made where the correctness of past 
 
186 COLLEGE GRADUATE AS ENGINEER. 
 
 records of cost can be absolutely relied upon. And it should be here 
 again shown that the keeping of such records is something of more or 
 less complexity and frequently not to be compassed by a man who 
 is only an accountant or only an engineer. 
 
 The business man has been too often given the right to regard 
 engineers' estimates with suspicion and this has been because the en- 
 gineer has been insufficiently equipped to meet reasonable business re- 
 quirements. 
 
 Again, in this connection the engineer-student should be given some 
 insight into the value of data and statistics and warned of the dangers 
 to be encountered in their partial reading. It is the duty of the engi- 
 neer to see that figures do not lie, and this can be done only by exercis- 
 ing every possible care in the collecting and the interpreting of data. 
 
 Again, the engineer, if he is to be a safe guide for investors of 
 capital must be keenly alive to the fact that all kinds of plant depreci- 
 ate and that to prevent impairment of capital this depreciation must 
 be correctly measured and provision made to compensate therefor out 
 of the annual profits; and that otherwise the capital is impaired. Here 
 perhaps as much or more than in any other one direction does the train- 
 ing of the accountant need to be supplemented by that of the engineer, 
 or vice versa. 
 
 The engineer-student should also be instructed as to the relative 
 rights of capital and labor, and- no effort should be spared in this and 
 other connections to show him that the Golden Rule is the only rule to 
 follow, even if he is not to rise in his motives above the plane of 
 expediency. Capital today justly has cause for serious complaint against 
 labor, but it is to be remembered that in the past there have been pro- 
 vocations offered to labor so that we may be reminded to avoid such 
 provocations in the future. Into the hands of the trained engineers 
 will in the future largely fall the management of our industrial prop- 
 erties ; an examination of the alumni lists of our prominent schools 
 of engineering will show how rapidly this is coming to pass. Under 
 the circumstances, a great responsibility rests upon our engineering 
 schools, for on the results of their work as found in the persons of 
 their graduates will largely depend the building up and the maintaining 
 of such a spirit of mutual confidence and good will between labor and 
 capital as is necessary to the well-being of our country. 
 
 Those who are ready to criticize technical education in general 
 are even more ready to criticize the addition of instruction in business 
 methods as tending to make engineering less professional and more 
 sordid. 
 
 A certain class of culture faddists, losing sight of proportion, 
 argues that commercialism should be excluded from the higher institu- 
 
HUMPHREYS. 187 
 
 tions of learning. Culture is to be admired and we are all prompt to 
 render homage to the cultivated man who is also an active, intelligent 
 and unselfish worker for good. But daily our experiences are showing 
 us that there are men who having enjoyed full opportunities for culture 
 have only laid on a veneer which when penetrated discloses selfishness 
 and inefficiency. 
 
 No possible training can ensure against either open boorishness 
 or culture-veneered selfishness. 
 
 But I contend that in adding instruction in business methods to 
 the engineer-students' technical training we are increasing the chances 
 of developing our students as all-around men. It is a decided 'Step in 
 the direction of culture if we can lead our subject to look at things 
 from all points of view and especially from that of the other man. 
 
 It is right then that we should point out to the engineer-student 
 how he can best do his whole duty to his employer, to his employees, 
 and to the community. 
 
 It is right that he should be convinced, if possible, that he cannot 
 be a law unto himself, that he must be a faithful and efficient servant, 
 and that this can be done only when he conforms to legitimate business 
 customs and requirements. 
 
 By reason of the faith that will be put in him primarily through his 
 professional diploma he should be shown his responsibility to his Alma 
 Mater. 
 
 Again, it is chiefly in connection with instruction in the business 
 end of his calling that he can be warned of the temptations to which, 
 if at all successful, he will be subjected: viz., to certify to statements 
 which are known to him to be false or which he has not himself fully 
 investigated; temptations to make incorrect estimates to induce the first 
 investment of capital; temptations to "skimp" designs or construction 
 to save a profit for himself; temptations to gain privileges or conces- 
 sions by corrupting others ; and many other temptations which are con- 
 tinually presenting themselves to the man whose special ability as an 
 expert leads others more or less blindly to trust to his statements. 
 
 Again, in the discussion of such an apparently matter-of-fact sub- 
 ject as statistics or data there is the opportunity to impress upon the 
 student the responsibility for seeing that figures are not permitted to 
 lie or still worse made to lie ; that to ensure the honest employment of 
 data constant vigilance must be exercised; that especially should the in- 
 vestigator guard himself against a too ready acceptance of facts and 
 figures which tend to confirm him in preconceived opinions. And here 
 the warning should be extended against the dishonesty of accepting and 
 quoting any statement of opinion unless it is as carefully conditioned 
 and safeguarded by the context as in the original expression. 
 
188 COLLEGE GRADUATE AS ENGINEER. 
 
 So great are the opportunities for a man who has had experience 
 in the fields of engineering and business to do good to engineer-stu- 
 dents in this direction, so great are the opportunities to put before them 
 high ideals of professional honor, that this branch of the work should 
 only be entrusted to a man who has had these experiences and who has 
 a real appreciation of his responsibility for the future welfare of those 
 entrusted to his guidance. 
 
 Finally, I do not claim that such a course of training as I have 
 briefly outlined necessarily produces the trained engineer and the culti- 
 vated gentleman, but I do claim that such a course can turn out such a 
 product where the raw material offered is capable of such cultivation. 
 And as far as cultivation is concerned nothing more can be claimed 
 for any college course. 
 
THE STUDY OF ENGINEERING. 
 
 By 
 Professor William H. Burr. 
 
 A book of this kind would not be complete without a specimen of 
 the technical literature of Mr. Burr, whose fame as an engineer, a 
 mathematician, a technical writer, and an instructor is world-wide. 
 Unfortunately, he has written very little that is suitable for the Editors' 
 purpose, most of his literary productions (barring his text-books) hav- 
 ing been prepared for practicing engineers. This paper, however, is 
 eminently suitable, dealing as it does with the broad field of technical 
 education and the applicability thereof in numerous branches of activity 
 closely allied to engineering. 
 
 Coming from such a high authority as they do, the teachings of this 
 address ought to produce a convincing effect upon the reader's mind, 
 and the elegance and force of the English used render the paper a 
 model for engineering writing. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 189 
 
THE STUDY OF ENGINEERING. 
 
 By 
 Professor William H. Burr. 
 
 It is frequently stated and often earnestly contended that engi- 
 neering is the youngest of all the professions. In some respects this is 
 true, although it is not true as a fundamental statement. The modern 
 science of engineering is of comparatively recent date, for it is scarcely 
 more than a century since the operations of the engineer began to be 
 based upon sound philosophical principles and it is even less than that 
 since the calling of the engineer assumed full-fledged standing among 
 modern professions. As a matter of fact during the past eighty or 
 ninety years the engineering profession has made such rapid advances 
 and has extended so broadly, that the corresponding educational de- 
 mands for those about to enter it have not, to this day, been fully met. 
 The numerous and vigorous engineering schools which have sprung 
 into existence within the past fifty years have done and are doing excel- 
 lent work. They have prepared thousands of young men for the credit- 
 able performance of their duties as engineers, but in too many cases 
 not satisfactorily as professional men. 
 
 It is not intended by this observation to assume any position of 
 superiority for those young engineers who have received a broad liberal 
 education prior to entering the professional school, but simply to recog- 
 nize the fact that there has often, in the past, been something materially 
 wanting in the qualifications of engineers as a whole, resulting in the 
 failure on the part of many in the community at least to recognize the 
 full professional standing of the engineer. Fortunately this attitude 
 of the public has largely disappeared, but it was only a few years ago 
 when measures were discussed and proposed in the prominent engineer- 
 ing organizations of this country to induce or compel, so far as may be, 
 a more adequate recognition of the value of professional services of 
 engineers on the part of the public than had been the case up to that 
 time. Some medical and law schools already require a liberal, college 
 course of study as a qualification for entrance. The question has al- 
 ready arisen and is being seriously asked why those who are entering 
 the engineering profession should not be required to possess at least 
 as excellent educational qualifications as those who enter the profes- 
 sions of law and medicine. 
 
 191 
 
192 STUDY OF ENGINEERING. 
 
 The agitation of this question of engineering education has stimu- 
 lated material advances in the educational preparation of young engi- 
 neers for their life calling. A number of engineering schools already 
 encourage the acquisition of a liberal education before beginning a 
 course of study in engineering. Columbia University took this im- 
 portant step nearly fifteen years ago by prescribing probably the earliest 
 six years' course of engineering study, the first three of which consist 
 of work done in the college leading to the bachelor's degree and a 
 subsequent three years in the engineering school leading to the engi- 
 neering degree. This course of study is judiciously balanced so as to 
 include all work given in the most advanced courses of engineering 
 study in this country, the more elementary subjects of which are taken 
 in the third year of college work and form part of the requirements 
 for the bachelor's degree. 
 
 Such a course of educational training is of the highest value not 
 only to those young men who contemplate following engineering as a 
 profession, but for a far larger class who intend to pursue callings not 
 wholly of an engineering character, although more or less affiliated 
 with some lines of engineering work. This group of liberally educated 
 technical men are fitted to find their occupations in many fields of manu- 
 facturing work, including such great industries as the steel and iron 
 business, paper manufacturing in all its branches, the manufacturing 
 of textile fabrics, manufacturing industries connected with the produc- 
 tion of agricultural machinery and other commodities consumed in large 
 quantities in agricultural pursuits, and other similar industries involving 
 the manufacture and application of power, besides the broad field of 
 contracting in its numberless ramifications in public works and corporate 
 enterprises. Although the value of engineering study as a preliminary 
 to these fields of industrial activity has occasionally been mentioned 
 or even fully stated in some instances, its significance has not been 
 appreciated to any sensible extent by the community as a whole. There 
 is probably no direction in which engineering education can be made 
 so widely useful to the modern community as in preparing its young 
 men for this great diversity of useful callings. 
 
 It is obviously no error to consider that the main function of an 
 engineering school is to educate engineers, and yet that part of its 
 functions may in the future affect the minority of its graduates. Com- 
 paratively few engineers are required in the community as compared 
 with physicians and lawyers. No member of any modern community 
 can pass any great portion of his life, if that life is in any sense an 
 active one, without requiring a number of times, and usually many 
 times, the services of the members of those professions, but that part 
 
BURR. 9 193 
 
 of the public who require the services of an engineer at any time in 
 their lives is comparatively small. It is a calling fundamental to the 
 welfare and development of the community and one in which the re- 
 wards of earnest and well-directed effort are abundant, but the number 
 of those who devote their lives to engineering specialties or to the 
 practice of engineering in purely professional fields can never be rela- 
 tively large. In one sense, obviously, this is advantageous, because it 
 reduces the competition of the ablest and best qualified engineers to a 
 simple matter compared with what it would be if the members of the 
 profession were much more numerous. On the other hand, the num- 
 ber of young men throughout the country who are to follow callings 
 in the great industrial and other corporate fields where the work to be 
 done is, to a greater or less extent, of an engineering nature must al- 
 ways be great. They probably already constitute a majority of the 
 executive and other officers of such industrial corporations, and it is 
 a majority which will ever be increasing. 
 
 In fact, in any business, where there are questions of structure 
 or machinery or applications of power, or of the development of power- 
 producing installations, or of the creation of conditions designed to in- 
 crease agricultural productiveness, or to manufacture raw materials 
 from any of the great natural resources of the country into available 
 products for consumption, it is imperative that those who conduct or in 
 any way take substantial part in such lines of work in the most effective, 
 economic and productive manner should possess those qualifications 
 which come chiefly, if not only, through the study of engineering. 
 
 This general observation has already been more than justified in 
 railroad corporations. In the near past the services of the engineer 
 were required only in the construction of the road and the maintenance 
 of the roadbed and motive power. All duties outside those of a struct- 
 ural or mechanical character were performed by business men in their 
 executive capacities who possessed no engineering qualifications of any 
 kind whatever ; but that situation soon changed. It was found; and 
 logically found, that the best executive or administrative officers of a 
 great railroad corporation were, in the main, those who by education 
 and experience had been engineers and consequently who, and who 
 only, understood fully and thoroughly the character of the things which 
 the railroad executive had to deal with. The broad questions of ad- 
 ministration coming before every administrative railroad man and 
 involving constantly, and many times in a thoroughly technical way, 
 matters of an engineering character, can be satisfactorily settled so as 
 to give to the corporation the highest efficiency by those only who 
 are competent to pass judgment upon such questions. The functions 
 
194 STU9Y OF ENGINEERING. 
 
 performed by every railroad corporation are largely of an engineering 
 character and there is scarcely any question, even of a rate charge, 
 which does not come back directly upon the engineering economics of 
 construction and operation. In other words, the most thoroughly com- 
 mercial matters which must be administered by the officers of a rail- 
 road corporation cannot be efficiently administered without an accurate 
 knowledge of the engineering elements on which they are in the last 
 instance based. 
 
 Precisely the same observations can be made with equal force re- 
 garding all branches of manufacturing, and they are of especial force 
 in connection with the great industrial corporations of the country, all 
 of which involve the administration of business interests depending for 
 their efficiency, economy, and success upon greatly varied applications 
 of engineering. Those applications include the construction, operation, 
 and maintenance of power plants, a great variety of structures, applica- 
 tions of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engi- 
 neering, civil engineering, mining and metallurgy; and it is no longer 
 possible to conserve such interests without technical knowledge and 
 extended technical experience. While the actual doing of these things 
 in every great corporate enterprise is intrusted to technical specialists, 
 it is equally true that no administrative or executive officer of such a 
 corporate organization can best conserve or administer the interests in- 
 trusted to him by virtue of his position without possessing the educa- 
 tional training and, frequently to a considerable extent, the experience 
 acquired by engineers. While it is clearly beyond the capacity of any 
 man to be personally familiar with all the technical details of any one 
 of these various corporate industries, it is equally impossible, on the 
 other hand, that he should be best qualified to discharge the duties of 
 an executive position dealing with such technical interests without a 
 fair knowledge of, and familiarity with, the fundamental principles 
 which govern them, so as to know confidently what to require of the 
 divisions or departments of the field of activity for which he is re- 
 sponsible. Some of the most signal failures in these corporate opera- 
 tions have resulted from the lack of essential knowledge on the part 
 of administrative officers, just as the extended development and phe- 
 nomenal growth of the most successful of them have been stimulated 
 and directed by those who have had the requisite educational training 
 and experience to direct and control intelligently and effectively the 
 resources available for their purposes. 
 
 The study of engineering opens to those who pursue it the widest 
 fields of industry and enterprise known to the modern world, and that 
 study will never attain its full productiveness until it is so put before 
 
CALIFORNIA,, 
 
 i 
 
 BURR. 195 
 
 the young men of the present time as to make clear the prominent fea- 
 tures of its usefulness. It may be thought that too much emphasis 
 is laid upon this application of engineering study, but it is done only 
 for the purpose of calling attention to one of the most important func- 
 tions of engineering education, the value of which has not yet been 
 realized to any sensible extent even by those who are most active in 
 promoting that field of educational work. 
 
 The qualifications demanded of engineers in all the extended fields 
 of engineering work are vastly more complicated than in the early days 
 of those engineers who have not yet reached even middle life. It is 
 no longer sufficient that a civil engineer, a mechanical engineer, an 
 electrical engineer, or a mining engineer and a metallurgist should 
 possess just that amount of technical knowledge "which will 'enable him 
 to discharge the' duties of any position which he may hold, purely as 
 an engineer. He has, or may become not only an expert technical man, 
 but also the controlling personality in many wide fields of professional 
 work in which it is not only his duty to direct purely professional opera- 
 tions, but also to conserve varied interests depending upon those opera- 
 tions in such a manner as to secure the efficiency and success of an or- 
 ganization. In the discharge of these general or administrative duties, 
 he loses in no sense his professional character, but he rather preserves 
 it in a higher capacity and adds to it certain broad qualifications which 
 can be best developed through his liberal education. It has become, 
 therefore, almost or quite imperative that his educational training purely 
 as an engineer should be preceded by the prior training of a college 
 education. 
 
 * * * * ****** 
 
 There is again another field of attractive activity which can best 
 be entered through engineering study, and that is the wide field of 
 municipal public works. This includes both the design and construction 
 of all classes of public works, such as water works, bridges, roads and 
 pavements, electric power development, electric lighting, harbors and 
 docks, and other similar works, as well as the administration of those 
 divisions or departments of municipal government whose jurisdictions 
 include the various public works of large cities. There is no class of 
 municipal officers who have given more satisfactory administration of 
 these various public affairs than the commissions or commissioners who 
 have been prepared for these public functions by engineering training 
 and experience. The executive or administrative man is always sought 
 whatever may be his calling. His capacities make him a marked man 
 and the engineering profession has a full share of such leaders. When- 
 ever these men have been put at the head of public works, departments, 
 or commissions, they have rarely failed to leave creditable records be- 
 
1% STUDY OP ENGINEERING. 
 
 hind them. To such an extent is this true that on one occasion the late 
 Hon. Carl Schurz dwelt upon it with marked emphasis in an address 
 which he made in Baltimore. The engineer is not by educational train- 
 ing a politician ; on the contrary, his whole habit of thought and work 
 is to reach- effective and honest results through which his purposes 
 may be most efficiently accomplished, and that constitutes an excellent 
 qualification for public service. 
 
 These official services which gain their marked efficiency chiefly 
 through the training acquired by engineering study have developed 
 largely during the past decade. In fact, within the past two years 
 engineers engaged in connection with municipal public works have 
 been appointed to high administrative positions in such great centers 
 of business and intelligence as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Spring- 
 field, Mass., and in a number of other large cities of the country. Jt 
 is a field of honor and usefulness to which every engineer engaged in 
 public works may properly aspire, and no candidate for such an office 
 can possess any more effective qualification than that which he derives 
 from an engineering education. 
 
 The influence of the study of engineering, therefore, is seen to 
 reach far out in many directions which contribute to the welfare of 
 the community, not only along purely technical lines, but also in a 
 large number of great industrial fields and in the public service of the 
 country. 
 
THE MAKING OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 M. J. Riggs, C. E. 
 
 Mr. Riggs is the Superintendent of the Toledo Branch of the 
 American Bridge Company at Toledo, Ohio; and as such he has had a 
 wide experience in dealing with young engineers. He is a graduate of 
 the Iowa State College; and this address was delivered by him at his 
 Alma Mater on the occasion of the dedicatiqn of its Engineering- 
 Hall in May, 1903. Portions only of the address are here produced 
 mainly those which deal with the necessity for absolute honesty in 
 engineers of all kinds, ages, and conditions, from the embryo engineer 
 just entering the freshman class of a technical school to the highest 
 engineering authority in the land. 
 
 As the reader will perceive, Mr. Riggs treats of other ethical sub- 
 jects than honesty, and all that he says is expressed in such a forceful, 
 vigorous style that it cannot fail to produce a deep impression upon 
 anyone who reads it at all carefully. 
 
 The Editors endorse heartily all that Mr. Riggs says ; and they 
 hope that his words of exhortation will long continue to aid in the 
 betterment of the engineering profession by their influence upon its 
 student members. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 197 
 
THE MAKING OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 M. J. Riggs, C. E. 
 
 This leads me to the statement of what I believe to be the highest 
 purpose to which this fine building and equipment, together with the 
 best efforts of all the professors in the engineering courses, should be 
 dedicated, that is, briefly, to .the building up of true men of strong 
 character, breadth of view, and right purposes in life from the great 
 abundance of raw material which lies scattered in your villages and on 
 your farms all over this good state. When you graduate men of this 
 stamp from your engineering courses you will have done your part to- 
 ward making them first class engineers. 
 
 ***.***** :fc # 
 
 When you look over the field and note what is being done and 
 what is still to be done in the way of taking the forces and materials 
 of nature and converting and using them to supply the world's needs, 
 to build up society and to help along our best progress and development, 
 you will find that there is plenty of work to be done, and that the en- 
 gineer is the man who can and should lead and direct the doing of it. 
 and let me say here that for the doing of this work the engineer receives 
 ample reward. From the financial standpoint the efficient and capable 
 engineer receives as much compensation, perhaps, as he would in any 
 other profession or business. His best pay, however, comes from the 
 work itself. There is a great satisfaction in doing things, and the 
 successful accomplishment of any engineering work is a pleasure. 
 
 In these days -the engineer is the man who is turning the world 
 upside down, and I know of nothing finer or more satisfactory than the 
 building of a Brooklyn bridge, the building and equipment of the 
 Northwestern railway, the development of Niagara waterpower, the re- 
 claiming of one-half of one of our large western states through irriga- 
 tion, the completion of a Chicago Drainage Canal, the building and 
 equipment of a modern rapid transit railway system such as is now 
 being done in New York City, or the putting into successful operation 
 the large steel mills of the Carnegie Steel Co., at Homestead, Pa. 
 
 If the engineer is to carry on successfully this great work he must 
 be a first class man, he must be honest. He deals with forces and 
 
 199 
 
200 THE MAKING OF AN ENGINEER. 
 
 principles which are unvarying and which of themselves tend to make 
 him honest. He must be honest to himself and to his work. Any viola- 
 tion of these well known laws of nature will certainly make itself known 
 and result in expense and disaster. He must be honest with his client 
 or employer since he is put in trust of great interests both financial and 
 material, and if he is to have the confidence of those for whom he 
 works he can only have it by strict integrity and attention to business. 
 
 There is probably no place in any profession or business for the 
 dishonest man, but of all the professions of which I know that of 
 engineering has the least room for such men. On the whole, I believe 
 engineers as a class are usually honorable. I have known a few of 
 the opposite kind and have never known one to succeed and maintain 
 any position whatever. 
 
 The engineer must be energetic. His work is to get things done. 
 He receives his pay and holds his position because men with means 
 want to invest it with the idea of prompt- returns. There certainly is 
 no place in the engineering world for the lazy man. It is not how long 
 will it take, but how quickly can it be done and how well, not how 
 little can be accomplished today but how much, not half way service, 
 but the very best that is in one. 
 
 The engineer must be a man of broad view. He has large things 
 to do in every part of his work, large undertakings to be carried out, 
 large investments of capital to be properly expended; and no small man 
 can do these large things well. For this reason I think his training at 
 school should not be narrowed down to a specialty, but that he should 
 have a broad culture, one that will tend to help him in these lines and 
 to make him fit to do what he must do in life if he is to succeed. 
 
 ********** 
 
 The engineer must keep up with the times, he should not be lazy 
 mentally, he ought to keep fully posted as to what is being done in a 
 general way along engineering lines, and he should have a much better 
 and more intimate knowledge of his own particular line. This he can 
 do by keeping his eyes open and always being quick and ready to adopt 
 any methods which may be better than his own. He should take and 
 read carefully three or four of the leading engineering papers which 
 are published and which are doing an excellent work for the engineering 
 profession. He should belong to the local and national societies of 
 engineers in his line, and should keep in touch with brother engineers, 
 which his membership makes possible. 
 
 Lastly, the engineer should be a good man. The qualities which 
 I have outlined necessarily make him a man of power, of strength, and 
 of influence, not only with the men with whom he works but also in 
 
RIGGS. 201 
 
 the community in which he lives. These qualities cannot but make him 
 a leader in social and public life. 
 
 A man with all this inherent strength has no business to lessen it 
 and curtail bis usefulness and influence by not being a man of good 
 morals, and by not using this strength to build up and help other men. 
 There is no reason why the engineer should be blind on the moral side 
 and every reason why he should be the opposite. I have little patience 
 with the cob pipe, cigarette smoking, beer drinking engineer and I be- 
 lieve no one else has, and I also believe that the brightest man cannot 
 succeed in the engineering profession who is not also a good man and 
 who is not letting his influence for right be felt by his associates, friends, 
 and neighbors. 
 
 I have carried for some years in my inside pocket some verses 
 written by Maltie D. Babcock which I get out and read occasionally. 
 The sentiment has helped me and I give the first verse to you now. 
 
 "Be strong, we are not here to play, to dream, to drift. 
 We have hard work to do and loads to lift. 
 
 Shun not the struggle, face it. 
 Tis God's gift." 
 
 
AMBITION. 
 By 
 
 Winder Elwell Goldsborough, M. E. 
 
 The following extracts are taken from an interesting and spirited 
 address made in 1906 by Mr. Goldsborough (then Vice-President of the 
 American Institute of Electrical Engineers) to the students of the 
 Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School of Technology. 
 
 Mr. Goldsborough's definition of work as being something agree- 
 able to do is a good one and should be remembered and appreciated, 
 and his approv ' of the "rolling stone" receives the unqualified endorse- 
 ment of 
 
 The Editors. ' 
 
 203 
 
AMBITION. 
 
 |fSS './.""' B ? , ;Sl ! 
 
 Winder Elwell Goldsborough, M. E. 
 
 We have a great misconception of what "work" is. When I was 
 a boy, work meant discomfiture to me. I always heard work or labor 
 spoken of as something that no one wanted to do. 
 
 Now, there are various definitions to be given to work, and the 
 generally accepted definition of it is wrong. To my mind work is any 
 agreeable and at the same time useful thing which a man has to do 
 the thing which he wants to do. It makes no difference what that thing 
 is. If you are kept from "work" or tasks which you wish to perform 
 by the obligation resting upon you to attend social functions, then these 
 social functions become hard to endure. Many times a social func- 
 tion is a real bore, and there is no pleasure in it. 
 
 But, are there many of us here who have not felt the thrill that 
 comes with the perfection of some one thing in which we have our 
 heart? What young engineer, after he has created through his plans, 
 designs, and work, a large engineering plant, would be willing to be 
 absent from the starting up of that plant for any social function or any 
 pleasure of field or sport which you could offer him? It is the es- 
 sence of his success. His life blood has gone into the plant. It is a 
 creature of life and being to him. And he would not give up the 
 pleasure of being there; of working all night; of experiencing any dis- 
 comfort to make that plant a success, for anything else you could give 
 to him. 
 
 It is not the money, it is not the gain, which makes men in this 
 country. America has been accused of being a country in which only 
 gain is sought. That is not true. I have come in contact with too 
 many of our men; I have seen too many of our boys; I have had them 
 work too close to me ever for one moment to think that the dominant 
 idea in the brains of our men and boys is money. 
 
 There are many things which a young man has to learn if he would 
 succeed; and all of us want to succeed. If we could only, when we 
 start out, have the knowledge of the ways and methods of mankind that 
 we acquire in later years, it would be very valuable to use. We can't 
 learn those things by having them told to us, because they somehow 
 
 205 
 
206 AMBITION. 
 
 slip away. If you visit an engineering structure and study it, you can 
 always carry it in mind and remember it and have it as a direct asset; 
 but if you only learn of it by hearsay, you may or may not be able to 
 retain a memory of it. And so it is with experience. We must learn 
 it at first hand. We must acquire it for ourselves. Then why should 
 any young man be willing, during two or three or four years of his life, 
 to stay in one shop and learn but one thing, when there are so many 
 things to learn? 
 
 I once was conversing with Dr. Robt. H. Thurston. I had been out 
 of college about three years, and in talking over the situation with him 
 I apologized because the old saying "A rolling stone gathers no moss" 
 did not seem to be exemplified in what I had been doing, as I had 
 changed my position several times in the three years. He said "Don't 
 worry about that. A rolling stone is the only one that gets polished." 
 That set me to thinking. If the rolling stone gets polished if you 
 want a high polish, you have to roll a good deal. 
 
 So the thing for a young man to do is to get out in life and to 
 learn all he can in one position, and then, as soon as he has acquired 
 the better part of the knowledge of one he is young he ought to 
 break off, and get another place, even if he has to begin all over again. 
 Because think of the experience he is going to get in the new place, 
 the new problems he is going to have to solve; and he will be twice as 
 good a man when he has acquired the new experience. 
 
 Make trouble for yourselves, or at least what the world calls 
 trouble; and with deliberate aforethought, if need be. Change condi- 
 tions around. You have but so many years to live. And before you 
 are thirty years old you must acquire a good deal of information about 
 the ways in which business is and can be done. You note that a cer- 
 tain man has consolidated a number of properties and thereby accumu- 
 lated great wealth. How was that man able to do it? Once that man 
 was in the same position you are. How did he find out how to con- 
 solidate properties? By going and consolidating something. And he 
 built and he built, and he consolidated bigger things, and by and by 
 he became a multi-millionaire and you wonder how it all happened. 
 Simply because that man had the energy to go and find out the ways 
 of doing these things and then to do them, and not necessarily, at all, 
 because he had the means at hand with which to do them. No man who 
 has attained to fame or to wealth by his own work, has attained to it 
 except with much the same foundation and much the same opportunity 
 that you have. 
 
 ********* 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 By 
 
 Professor Henry S. Carhart. 
 
 This address was delivered by Prof. Carhart at the dedication of 
 Pasadena Hall of the Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena, Cali- 
 fornia, in June, 1910; and it was published in the issue of Science of 
 July 8th, of the same year. 
 
 Prof. Carhart in this paper gives much information of historical 
 interest, deals with a number of ethical matters, and offers a great 
 deal of valuable advice to engineering students ; hence it is here repro- 
 duced in full in the hope that our readers will reap much benefit from 
 its perusal. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 207 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 By 
 Professor Henry S. Carhart. 
 
 It is essential to develop industrialism, to train men so that they 
 shall be engineers, merchants in short, men able to take the lead in all the var- 
 ious functions indispensable in a great modern civilized state. 
 
 Such was the recent utterance of a distinguished American trav- 
 eler in an address at the ancient Moslem University on the banks of 
 the Nile. It reflects the sentiment prevailing in America today. Mr. 
 Roosevelt held up as it were a mirror to the Egyptians, that they 
 might see in it the reflection of American conviction relative to edu- 
 cation. The underlying thought is, as he expressed it, that 
 
 There has always been too great a tendency in the higher schools of learning 
 in the west (the Occident) to train men merely for literary, professional and of- 
 ficial positions; altogether too great a tendency to act as if a literary education 
 were the only real education. 
 
 The foundation of healthy life in the state is necessarily composed 
 of the men who do the actual productive work of the country. Among 
 these producers the engineer is pre-eminent. Without him in the com- 
 plex commercial life at the present, capital would lie idle, colossal manu- 
 factures would shrink to individual industries, the development of re- 
 sources would cease, the earth would' no longer contribute as now to 
 the wealth of nations, and society might eventually relapse into the rela- 
 tion of the feudal baron and his retainers of the middle ages. 
 
 The engineer is now more than ever before an essential factor in af- 
 fairs. Engineering information and technical skill are in demand in 
 many fields not heretofore requiring them. What manner of man is this 
 present-day engineer, whose existence and work are so vital to the 
 higher interests of society? What are the intellectual qualities that fit 
 him for his high office, what the aptitudes that qualify him for leader- 
 ship, what the supreme test of his fitness to bear on his shoulders some 
 of the burdens of organized civil life and to lead the way toward still 
 higher achievements? Finally, what style of intellectual training is best 
 suited to fit him for the prodigious problems awaiting solution at his 
 hands? 
 
 It is not necessary, even in this presence, to refrain from saying 
 that the type of man, whom we are about to survey in his highest 
 
 209 
 
210 TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 ethical and intellectual character, is not an artisan, a motorman, nor 
 even an engine-driver, as useful and honorable as these callings are. 
 Nor is it manual training or manual dexterity or mechanical skill that 
 constitutes his claim to recognition as an invaluable contributor to prog- 
 ress in the twentieth century. He is rather the masterful man who 
 unites oceans and revises the paths of commerce ; who levels hills and 
 removes mountains if they chance to be in his ' way ; who changes 
 the course of rivers or sends them through tunnels to generate electric 
 light and power and to convert deserts into fruitful fields. 
 
 If modern industry demands combination and the massing of capi- 
 tal, combination requires the services of large-minded engineers as 
 managers. When Cecil Rhodes appealed to the Rothschilds for capital 
 to form the De Beers Diamond Mining Company for the purpose of 
 uniting all the diverse and independent claims of the Kimberley dia- 
 mond field, he was assured that money would be furnished on condi- 
 tion that they be permitted to place in charge their mining engineer 
 as manager Mr. Gardner Williams, who hailed from the great state 
 of the Golden Gate. Mr. Williams substituted for the open working 
 of the diamond mines his method of mining by vertical shafts and 
 horizontal tunnels into the core of the precious "blue-ground" filling 
 the volcanic pipes, which have yielded uncut diamonds to the aggregate 
 value of more than $500,000,000. 
 
 When the great gold-bearing reef at Johannesburg, the richest 
 gold mining district in the world, needed a controlling genius to direct 
 the Kaffir mines, it was John Hays Hammond, another American mining 
 engineer, who dictated the engineering and mining policies of the Wit- 
 watersrand. Hammond adapted the method of mining the ore and 
 winning the precious metal to the conditions existing in that great 
 outcropping reef, forty miles in length, with the result that a low- 
 grade conglomerate has yielded millions of gold with a fair profit to 
 the shareholders. In large enterprises of this character success or 
 failure turns on the trained intellect, the executive ability, and the 
 comprehensive grasp of the controlling brain at the head. 
 
 There is no rainfall in Egypt. The burning, w r ind-driven sands 
 forever face a cloudless sky. On half the city of Cairo no green thing 
 grows and flourishes. Mosques and the splendid tombs of the Mem- 
 look sultans are surrounded by drifting sand. But for the yellow flood 
 of Father Nile the whole of its fertile valley would be as parched as 
 the sands about the great pyramids of El-Geezeh. I have seen the river 
 in flood, when its turbid water stretched for miles beyond its banks 
 to the rising ground at the feet of the Sphinx, enriching, irrigating, and 
 insuring a bountiful harvest to the stolid husbandman, who still prac- 
 
C ARM ART. 211 
 
 tices the methods consecrated by centuries of use. Nature has done 
 much for Egypt ; engineering has done no less. The barrage at Cairo 
 and the stupendous dam at Assuan conserve the rich tepid flood of the 
 Nile and pour it in golden streams over a million acres of fertile sugar- 
 cane and cotton land. Instead of a burning, barren waste, the land 
 of the Pharaohs has become more than ever before in history a garden 
 of the gods. Egypt may hate England, but to Sir Colin Scott-Mon- 
 crieff, an English engineer, who raised the barrage at Cairo and built 
 the Assuan dam, she owes more than she ever did in ancient times to 
 Ramesses II. 
 
 Across the Firth of Forth in Scotland stretches a massive iron 
 bridge with two main cantilever spans, each longer than the famous 
 Brooklyn bridge. They were pushed out horizontally from two canti- 
 lever shore arms without scaffolding or false works, and with the 
 roadbed soaring 300 feet above the water of the Firth. M. Eiffel de- 
 clared that it was in comparison an easy task to build the Eiffel tower 
 nearly 1,000 feet high, because it is vertical and stands on a firm base; 
 but to push out such a tower horizontally 300 feet above an arm of the 
 sea, and to balance it during construction on the top of a tall pier, was 
 infinitely more difficult and hazardous. This hazardous feat the late 
 Sir Benjamin Baker accomplished, and over his monumental bridge 
 400 or 500 trains now pass daily. It was this same plain but resourceful 
 engineer who designed the cylindrical ship that transported Cleopatra's 
 needle from Alexandria to New York. 
 
 These daring, resourceful, and intrepid engineers are examples of 
 those who did their work for the most part in the last century. They 
 are typical of a class who achieved fame and accomplished great things 
 with but little help from the universities. They learned their lessons 
 in the great school of experience, and arrived at success despite the 
 lack of the early opportunities now open to the aspiring engineering 
 student. They were not narrow specialists, but men with the broad 
 intelligence to consider a new and difficult problem from all points of 
 view, and to employ for its solution any method which their intellectual 
 resources could command. They were not mere copyists, who read 
 nothing beyond the headlines of their copy-books, nor yet mere imi- 
 tators content to cull from the products of genius those that could be 
 adapted to the problems in hand. They were rather the creators, whose 
 edifices, built on the foundation stones hewn by others, have risen above 
 the horizon for many lands. 
 
 If we inquire somewhat more minutely into the qualities that 
 make for leadership in engineering, we shall find that thoroughness, 
 originality, and the habit of making all mental acquirements one's own 
 
212 TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 are essential. Originality is a gift, but it may be cultivated ; the two 
 other qualities are certainly within the reach of every young man with 
 normal mental endowments. The habit of going to the bottom of every 
 subject investigated instead of contentment with a superficial examina- 
 tion is one to be assiduously cultivated. Each essay in concentrated 
 effort makes mental fitness for still deeper levels of penetration. 
 
 Thoroughness is associated with sincerity in the conduct of public 
 works. The greater undertakings which an engineer is called on to 
 design and execute are not the ephemeral structures, made of "staff" 
 and designed to house an international exhibition ; they are for posterity 
 as well as for his contemporaries. Noble examples of thorough and 
 sincere work have come down to us from ancient times. One allows 
 the eye to follow with admiration the long lines of aqueduct stretch- 
 ing across the Roman Campagna, in large part still standing, though 
 gnawed for centuries by the tooth of time. In the Forum in Rome is 
 an opening into which one may descend to the uncovered Cloaca Max- 
 ima, or great drain of the imperial city. It was built long before the 
 Christian era and was old when Paul suffered imprisonment in Rome 
 and execution outside the gates. Huge rectangular blocks of tufa lie 
 in perfectly level courses without cement, and through this great drain 
 today runs a stream, like a small river, on its way to the yellow Tiber. 
 This was honest work and the twentieth century engineer might well 
 imitate it. 
 
 Then the proper assimilation of one's information is no less essen- 
 tial than thoroughness. It is not uncommon to observe a sort of aloof- 
 ness of a man's mental attainments with respect to his powers of prac- 
 tical achievement. He appears to have put his acquisitions in a safety 
 vault and lost the key. His intellectual equipment is for adornment 
 and not for use. His collection resembles some collections of physical 
 and engineering apparatus I have seen, well arranged from the point of 
 view of a museum, but never used. A certain college janitor once 
 complained in explanation of his ill health that his food didn't "suggest." 
 This state of health is characteristic of the mental dyspepsic, who 
 does not digest his intellectual pabulum, nor does it "suggest" any 
 way in which it may be turned to good account. 
 
 Another quality of the great engineer is daring. The mythical 
 Darius Green had it, but his daring was not coupled with the pro- 
 pelling power of an internal combustion engine; hence his story only 
 adorns a rhythmic tale. His flying machine was not a forerunner of 
 the aeroplane. Without this quality of daring developed to an aston- 
 ishing degree the Wrights would not have amazed the world by their 
 sustained flights, Bleriot would not have soared aloft across the Eng- 
 
CARHART. 213 
 
 lish Channel, Paulhan would not have flitted from London to Man- 
 chester, nor would Curtiss have followed the silver line of the noble 
 Hudson from Albany to New York. These men are representative 
 enthusiasts of the aeroplane, whose intrepidity has made possible the 
 navigation of the air. 
 
 The history of the first Hudson River tunnel at New York is one 
 of repeated accidents, of many failures, and of final success. During 
 one of the periods of inactivity and when the enterprise halted near 
 complete failure, Sir Benjamin Baker was brought over from England 
 as a consulting engineer to give advice to the company. The air 
 caissons were in a dangerous leaky condition, but Sir Benjamin must 
 himself go down to make an examination. So he called for a volunteer 
 to accompany him. An Irish laborer stepped forward and indicated his 
 willingness to go. Together the two descended into the pneumatic 
 caisson. The inspection completed, imagine their dilemma when Sir 
 Benjamin discovered that their return was cut off by the leaky con- 
 dition of the air locks. The eminent engineer said to his Irish com- 
 panion that there was only one thing to do; they must bring mud in 
 their caps, plaster over the cracks, and stop the leaks. The expedient 
 was happily successful and the two escaped into the upper air. I heard 
 Sir Benjamin tell the story to illustrate the devotion of the Irish laborer. 
 After they were safely out Sir Benjamin said to his companion in 
 danger, "Pat, why did you risk your life to go down into the caisson 
 with me?" Pat replied, "I'll tell you sir. Do you remember when 
 you were building the Forth bridge and the foundation of one of the 
 piers was going in, and you were in the pit inspecting the work, that 
 Mike McGinnis, Dan O'Leary, and myself were dumping stone into 
 that same pit, and dumped a load without seeing that you were below? 
 But as good luck would have it, sir, you were not hit. And what did 
 you do sir? You just turned an eye up to see who had dumped the 
 stone, but you said nothing, sir, and we were not told to go to the 
 office for our time. And now here I am, sir; I endangered your life 
 once, and it was only fair for me to take a risk for you when you 
 needed it." Ah! how many unrecorded deeds of devotion stand to the 
 credit of the common laborers, who have risked their lives, and, alas, 
 too often lost them, in carrying out some great enterprise for the public. 
 The engineer at the head must be the intrepid leader of intrepid men. 
 
 The engineer who devises and executes public undertakings of 
 magnitude must always be prepared for the unexpected and therefore 
 must be resourceful. It is not unusual to encounter difficulties not 
 anticipated. These must be surmounted or failure is inevitable. A 
 solution must be found without delay or great interests are imperiled. 
 
214 TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 Swiss engineers are at present constructing a short-cut railway line 
 between Lake Thun and the mouth of the Simplon tunnel. It includes 
 a long tunnel through a mountain range. Two years ago, after this had 
 been driven forward about a third of the whole length from either end, 
 the cut from the south side was unexpectedly and suddenly driven into 
 a deep cleft or fault filled with soft mud and ooze and forming the 
 underlying filled bed of a mountain stream. Twenty-five men were 
 overwhelmed and lost their lives. Now a tunnel could doubtless be 
 pushed through soft material of this nature, but there was no foundation 
 on which it might rest. Was the enterprise therefore abandoned? 
 By no means. Starting back a short distance from the uncovered fault, 
 the engineers ran a curve into the heart of the mountain behind the 
 obstruction; this will join the two straight portions already completed. 
 
 A similar fault 900 feet deep and filled with sediment has been 
 found under the bed of the Hudson at the Highlands where the new 
 aqueduct crosses the river. Since this is an aqueduct and not a viaduct, 
 a different solution is possible. The tunnel is to be carried under the 
 river as an inverted siphon with the vertical legs nearly 1,000 feet 
 deep. If one can not remove or overcome an obstacle, one may at least 
 go around or under it. 
 
 These enumerated qualities which make an engineer fit are intellec- 
 tual. There is still another which is a supreme test of fitness for public 
 service. It is the moral quality of honesty. Failing in this, there is no 
 compensation. Intellectual honesty includes the characteristic of sin- 
 cerity, to which allusion has already been made. Moral honesty is no 
 less essential in any age, but especially so in these days of uncovered 
 bribery and graft. The honest engineer's opinions are not for sale to 
 the highest bidder. He is entitled to compensation for his judgment 
 and his decisions, but they can not be purchased, a distinction with a 
 marked difference. 
 
 There has never been an age when capable and honest engineer- 
 ing talent was more in demand than in this new century. The present- 
 day problems in great cities, incident to the rapid introduction of new 
 methods of transportation, of lighting and power, and of communica- 
 tion, are insistent for solution. They are almost hopelessly entangled 
 with vested rights, and with class privileges, which have been recklessly 
 given away in the past, or handed over for a secret and vicious consid- 
 eration on the part of those incidentally in power. Civic bodies and 
 public-service commissions, thanks to such heroic leaders as Governor 
 Hughes, are now giving expert attention to the solution of these eco- 
 nomic problems in cities, aided by the highest engineering talent that 
 good compensation can command. New York, Chicago, and now Pitts- 
 
CARHART. ; 215 
 
 burg are the subjects of study by such commissions, constituted either 
 by private appointment or by legislative enactment. The engineers 
 studying these problems must be clean-handed and honest to the core. 
 This kind of public service is in its infancy, and the future is certain to 
 furnish more of it for competent and clean engineers. 
 
 I have sketched rapidly the salient characteristics of the modern 
 engineer required for the larger problems of an age in which indus- 
 trial development proceeds with astounding rapidity. It is too much to 
 expect these qualities to be displayed in a marked degree by young 
 men just entering upon a course of study leading to a degree in engi- 
 neering. It is not mere possession of such qualities that ensures success, 
 but the marked development of them. There are boys enough of sterling 
 character, with originality, thoroughness, nerve, and resourcefulness 
 in the directions in which the interests of youth lie. It is the office of 
 the enthusiastic teacher to develop the possibilities of a promising boy, 
 to stimulate the growth of those traits that especially need nurture, and 
 to encourage the power of initiative and self-reliance. And he shall have 
 his reward. It comes not in the way of pecuniary compensation, but 
 in that sweeter award of appreciation and gratitude on the part of those 
 whose regard in after years counts for more than mere passing popu- 
 larity. No greater delight comes to the worthy teacher of large ex- 
 perience than the success of those in whom he has taken a personal in- 
 terest, and for whom he has been able to open the door of opportunity. 
 
 It is pertinent now to touch on the style of training best adapted 
 to develop the qualities that distinguish the eminent engineer from 
 his less fortunate fellows. What shall be the philosophy of his treat- 
 ment educationally for the conservation of his undeveloped resources 
 and the reclamation of his arid areas? These are serious issues for 
 thousands of ambitious students who stand on the threshold of their 
 young manhood. 
 
 The recent trend of affairs has shown too pronounced a tendency 
 toward undue specialization in engineering practice. It is not enough 
 that instead of the two traditional divisions of engineers in olden times, 
 the civil and the military, there are now in practice civil, mechanical, 
 mining, hydraulic, electrical, telegraph, telephone, sanitary, chemical, 
 electrochemical, and illuminating engineers, but the enthusiasts in these 
 several lines are insisting that their specialties be assigned a seat in the 
 circle of the engineering curriculum. This granted, the young collegian 
 has either a narrow training that reduces him to the grade of an artisan, 
 or the instruction given him is so superficial that it never strikes root 
 and never reaches down to stir his subconscious powers. It may be suf- 
 ficient for the practiced eye of a Paulhan to get a vivid impression of 
 
216 TWENTIETH, CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 the salient features of a landscape from the window of a railway carriage 
 to serve as a guide in an aerial flight over the same region; but the 
 young engineer, who gets a flitting view of the whole field of current 
 engineering practice, from the moving-picture show of a lecture-room 
 lantern screen will have only a sorry preparation for sustained flight 
 when he attempts to rise by the power of his own enginery. 
 
 Instead of a panoramic view of engineering practice, an interested 
 public has a right to demand training in fundamentals and the elimina- 
 tion of ephemeral details that constitute a current art and not a body 
 of permanent principles. The older culture course has its humanistic 
 studies, consecrated by centuries of use, and a body of trained experts 
 as teachers, who are not often drafted from institutions of learning by 
 the superior rewards of professional life. Pure science also has its 
 settled subjects of study its languages, it higher mathematics, and its 
 circle of related sciences. Then too the scientific worker who has 
 insight and becomes a discoverer enjoys a superlative satisfaction de- 
 nied to men who never add to the sum of human knowledge as the re- 
 sults of research. 
 
 In contrast with these old-established courses, those in engineering 
 are still indeterminate and lack a certain coherence which is the product 
 of age. Shop work has too often been exalted above language, and 
 laboratories have been established in imitation of a factory or a central 
 power station. The fundamentals for general culture have been pushed 
 aside by the onrush of machinery, and a young graduate must be able 
 to run a steam engine and take an indicator card, even though he can not 
 write a straight English sentence or dictate a business letter worthy to 
 go on a post card. 
 
 Too much stress can hardly be placed on the necessity of thorough 
 instruction in English. It is a common impression among the young 
 that the study of one's mother tongue is a waste of time. There never 
 was a greater fallacy. Psychologists tell us that a speech center has to 
 be formed and developed in the brain. So far is human speech from 
 being intuitive and automatic that we acquire it only by continuous and 
 incessant effort. There is no tool used by the human mind requiring 
 more polishing and taking a finer finish. Language is not an inheri- 
 tance, but an acquisition. It may resemble on the one hand the crude 
 spears or assegai of the South African Kaffirs, or on the other the flex- 
 ible incisiveness of a polished Damascus blade. American college stu- 
 dents have less facility in the use of idiomatic English than have students 
 of the same age in the English universities. When one listens to the 
 limpid and expressive English of an Oxford senior, and notes his large 
 vocabulary and his facile use of it, as compared with the senior in an 
 
CARHART. 217 
 
 American college, one is prepared to admit the propriety of the distinc- 
 tion often drawn on the continent between English and American. 
 
 The engineering student should have sufficient acquaintance with 
 the best masterpieces in English to give him a taste for the highest 
 types of English prose, and enough practice in writing themes to secure 
 for himself a clear and expressive style of composition. 
 
 The opinion of eminent engineers on the pressing need of a better 
 use of English on the part of members of their profession is the best 
 evidence of the neglect of instruction in English in engineering courses 
 in the past. The acquisition of a clear, terse style is urged by them 
 on the ground that an important feature of the modern engineer's duties 
 is to make reports on various phases of engineering undertakings. 
 These reports are an index of the man, and if they are defective in form 
 or finish, the natural conclusion is that he is also deficient as an engineer. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to insist on thorough courses in physics and 
 mathematics as fundamental subjects for all engineers, though the former 
 has often been pushed aside, with barely time enough for instruction in 
 the merest elements of the subject, notwithstanding the fact that engi- 
 neering is largely applied physics. A civil engineer at the head of that 
 department in a large technical school recently admitted that engineer- 
 ing students should take a course in light because of their use of opti- 
 cal instruments in surveys and locations, but he expressed the opinion 
 that they had no use for the study of sound. And yet the abatement 
 of serious and unnecessary noises in large cities is already the avowed 
 object of several voluntary organizations. Any observant traveler, who 
 has occasion to patronize the New York subways, will readily admit that 
 some attention to the avoidance of noise on the part of the civil engi- 
 neers who designed the subways would have, been of great benefit to the 
 patrons of that wonderful artery of travel. When the London Central 
 was first put in service seventy-five feet below the surface, complaints 
 and suits at law were numerous on the ground of serious vibrations 
 transmitted to buildings overhead. These vibrations have largely been 
 eliminated by reconstructing the electric engines to prevent their pound- 
 ing the rails. Such facts as these the modern engineer would do well 
 to heed. 
 
 An engineering course should include instruction in history and 
 economics. The great civic and economic facts of the larger world 
 should be a part of the engineer's outfit. His part in the world's work 
 has close connection with those social and economic movements that 
 are conditioned on future development ; and the only guide we have for 
 the future is the teaching of the past. 
 
218 TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGINEER. 
 
 If present courses in engineering are to conform to these sugges- 
 tions, some modifications in the purely technical subjects are requisite. 
 Instruction in these may well be confined more closely to fundamental 
 principles and to the enforcement of them by the concrete examples fur- 
 nished by the exercises in the laboratory. A multitude of details do not 
 belong in the instruction given to immature students, but to the actual 
 work of the practicing engineer. If inquiry is made of the experienced 
 engineer from whom he got the most help in his college course, he will 
 not mention the teacher whose instruction consisted largely of a cate- 
 gory of details of the engineering art, but rather the one who marshaled 
 the leading facts of the subject under general principles, brought out 
 clearly the correlation between them, and enforced them by the work 
 of the laboratory, which had obvious and vital connection with the in- 
 struction of the class-room. 
 
 My friends, I have seen young men develop into engineers who are 
 now engaged in leading work in the world. They are directing large 
 operations in telephone companies, holding influential posts in electric 
 light and power industries, directing new enterprises destined to develop 
 resources, superintending manufactures of large moment, and super- 
 vising construction undertaken by the Reclamation Service of the federal 
 government. Such men as these give me great hope for the future of 
 this institute planted in the most attractive spot in the empire of Cali- 
 fornia south of the Tehachepi. This is a region abounding in undevelop- 
 ed possibilities. Its water powers, its mines, its reservoirs of liquid 
 fuel, its irrigation possibilities, coupled with a soil in which nature 
 has been' lavish in her gifts of productiveness, and its ocean shore in 
 touch with the wealth of the orient, all combine to offer a field to the 
 aspiring engineer unsurpassed in history and written all over with fetch- 
 ing inducements to noblest effort. 
 
 The young man who -wishes to become a component part of this 
 empire as an engineer will enter this institute and take a straight course, 
 looking for no short cuts to a degree, expecting no magician to lift him 
 over hard work, and later to put him down softly in easy engineering 
 positions. To all such the Throop Polytechnic Institute says, "Come 
 this way!" 
 
ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 By 
 Professor Frank H. Constant. 
 
 Professor Constant, who is still a young man, occupies the chair of 
 Structural Engineering in the University of Minnesota. This address 
 was prepared by him for delivery to his students in 1907. His dis- 
 course is sound, thoughtful, and scholarly; and no one who reads it 
 can fail to receive much benefit from the author's lofty ideals. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 219 
 
ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 By 
 Professor Frank H. Constant. 
 
 A man grows in proportion as he touches life, and no man needs 
 this vitalizing touch more than the engineer. The world does not fully 
 understand the engineer nor appreciate the true nobility of his work. 
 It is inclined to regard him as uncompanionable, as unsympathetic with 
 the higher things of life, as one with ideals which are mechanical and 
 practical and therefore low. And, as on the one hand he has felt this 
 lack of a humanizing bond between himself and his fellows in other 
 walks of life, and on the other has tasted the real joy of his work and 
 found there an absorbing interest, he has withdrawn more and more 
 from life in its broad sense, becoming individualistic, unsocial, and out 
 of sympathy with everything not distinctly engineering in its nature. 
 I am speaking now of the general type. 
 
 Negatively the engineer has been characterized as a man with the 
 social instincts poorly developed, who is more at home in the field or 
 office than in the drawing room, whose conversation runs to facts and 
 figures rather than to general ideas and speculative truth, whose read- 
 ing is confined to the almost unlimited field of technical literature with 
 little or no browsing in the fields of letters, art, science, or general know- 
 ledge, whose mental processes are concrete and mathematical and bear 
 upon the practical problems with his daily work, finding little time for 
 the vast world of thought outside of his own calling. "I would rather 
 have one good engineering formula than all the logic ever written," 
 was the rather crushing reply from an engineering classmate when the 
 writer, with doubtless much show of egotism, was displaying his newly 
 acquired knowledge of formal logic, in the old college days. The writer 
 remembers the loud laughter which accompanied a bright young Sibley 
 College graduate's description of an academic classmate who was fond of 
 scouring the country waysides with a butterfly net. Is not a general lack 
 of sympathy with branches of knowledge whose utilitarianism is not 
 immediately apparent, a general characteristic of the engineer? With 
 what impatience and lack of interest most engineering students pursue 
 prescribed studies having no immediate bearing upon their technical 
 work. Nay more, even in a strictly technical subject the instructor 
 must emphasize the practical bearing of each part of his instruction. 
 Let him, in his enthusiasm, momentarily wander off by the wayside with 
 
 221 
 
222 ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 net in hand to catch the whole truth of his subject and he is summarily 
 brought back to the wide and beaten path by the sudden falling off of 
 the interests of his class. How to do things, not why they are so done 
 is the question he must satisfy. 
 
 Happily there is another, a positive side in the analysis of the engi- 
 neer. Generally he is a man of sterling character, of rigid honesty in 
 the midst of manifold temptations, devoted to his work which he finds 
 absorbingly interesting, a hard and usually inadequately paid worker 
 finding compensation in successful achievement, kind but firm to his 
 subordinates, loyal to his superiors, jealous of his reputation, unosten- 
 tatiously proud of his own and other engineers' achievements. Narrow, 
 if you will, because he is little interested in letters and art, but finding 
 his own chosen field broad enough to occupy all of his time and energy. 
 No more narrow, therefore, than many another faithful worker who 
 finds the business of life all absorbing. But not narrow in the sense 
 that his intellectual development is dwarfed, for it may truthfully be 
 said that the engineer who attains to modicum of success must pos- 
 sess intellectual power and training at least equal to that required for 
 a like degree of success in any other calling. In a word the engineer 
 possesses character, intellectual power, and an intimate acquaintance with 
 Nature's ways and laws. He needs but the humanizing touch with life 
 to round out his character and immensely broaden his sphere of useful- 
 ness. How may he more closely touch life and how will it affect his 
 work and personality ? 
 
 The first care of a sturdy and virile man who wishes his presence 
 in this world to add a little to the sum total of human progress, is for 
 the partial success, at least, of his chosen life work. Now success in 
 an engineering sense at the present day, is not simply graduation from 
 college, a position in an office or field, and a permanent devotion to 
 technical details which gradually narrow in scope as the advancing 
 years bring greater and greater specialization. Such a man may rise 
 to the head of an office, he may design important structures and justly 
 be proud of his achievements, and yet ever wonder that his compensa- 
 tion is no greater. Such is the type of the older generation. The office 
 man was out of place in the field ; and both office and field men were 
 accounted impractical in the management of executive affairs. He was 
 not supposed to have broad ideas upon economic policies nor to present 
 what views he did have forcibly and effectively. He was selected not 
 for executive positions but to work up the details of projects which 
 others planned and benefited from. He was regarded as an expert 
 technician, and his success was measured by the skill he possessed in 
 grasping technical details and by his creative power in solving new and 
 
CONSTANT. 223 
 
 complex engineering problems. That he has risen magnificently to this 
 height, there is no shadow of doubt. That he must be an expert techni- 
 cian before he can go farther is likewise true. But, in addition to this, 
 his life and training should especially fit him to direct large business 
 interests involving details where engineering judgment in a broad sense 
 is the desideratum of success. His special fitness in this regard is 
 beginning to be recognized in very recent years by the business world. 
 Just as fast as engineers have shown executive capacity they have been 
 advanced to such positions, and generally, whenever they have taken 
 hold, the increased efficiency of the management has been marked. 
 
 These men have developed the capacity to direct large affairs only 
 as they have learned to understand their fellow men. Like Antaeus 
 whose strength was renewed each time he touched mother earth, the 
 engineer grows by contact with life which is Nature in her highest and 
 most interesting aspect. As these words are addressed mainly to young 
 men about to enter the profession of engineering, whose ideals for 
 future professional success are, or should be very high, a few words 
 of advice may not be out of place. Every piece of engineering work is 
 ultimately performed by men, skilled or unskilled. The young engineer 
 should endeavor from the start to learn as much as possible about these 
 men who actually do the work. It is not enough simply to supervise 
 their work. You cannot find the real man in such superficial contact. 
 The important thing is to learn the workingman's point of view, how 
 he looks at things, his strong points, his frailties, his real capacity, his 
 sympathies and prejudices. Such a knowledge can come only by work- 
 ing side by side with men, rubbing shoulder to shoulder, by being one 
 of them. Instead of seeking a pleasant position upon an engineering 
 staff, the student should spend his vacation in the shop or on the track 
 or in a constructor's crew. He will learn many small details in prac- 
 tical construction which he can get in no other way, he will get the 
 strong body and physical vigor which are so necessary a foundation for 
 the continuous mental strain of after years, but above all he will acquire 
 a real knowledge of the men whom later on he must direct, organize, 
 and use efficiently. Likewise, young graduates should seek the shops 
 and field crews for their early experience. The chief engineer of a 
 large railway system when he graduated from college, accepted an 
 engineering position where he had to pass upon the work done by con- 
 struction crews. After several years he realized that he did not really 
 understand the work nor the men whom he had to direct. He went 
 to a place where he was unknown and joined a railway carpentry crew ; 
 later went into a blacksmith shop ; then into a foundry ; finally into the 
 mines; always starting as a novice and remaining long enough to be- 
 
224 ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 come a master workman, foreman, or superintendent. After four years 
 of this kind of life he went back to his engineering work and advanced 
 almost immediately into a high executive position ; and the knowledge of 
 men which he gained by this experience makes him one of the leading 
 engineers in the country. Perhaps all men will not respond equally 
 well to this kind of experience. Many will lose sight of the end in the 
 humble routine of elemental life, and tiring of the drudgery turn to 
 something easier and pleasanter. Some may be harmed by the rough 
 life. But it may be asserted that in neither case do these men have the 
 strength of character necessary for success in the highest sense. They 
 would have fallen by the wayside in any event. I am speaking for the 
 men who can really succeed in engineering, who have the ambition, the 
 character, the industry, the staying powers, the mental force. These 
 men cannot but be helped by beginning at the bottom. 
 
 Salary and even comfort should be no consideration during the 
 first two or three years. Call it a post graduate course if you will : 
 what one is after is contact with men and life, full, abundant, complete. 
 Will his ultimate advancement be delayed thereby? Probably not. In 
 some cases it may even be hastened. Will he have forgotten much that 
 he learned in college? Possibly. He went to' college for the mental 
 training and that still abides with him. But he has gained a new and 
 more vital knowledge that of life itself which cannot be acquired 
 from books nor in the classroom. Moreover, if he is the right kind of 
 a man, he will not be scholastically idle during these elemental years. 
 He will seek relief from the rough toil of the day in his books and 
 studies. He will not be stagnating mentally, but will be growing at the 
 roots with amazing rapidity and virility. During this period, while he 
 has been studying the real self of the men who work, he will also learn 
 much about the men who command. As he quickly climbs from the low- 
 est round of the ladder into higher and higher positions, his interest in 
 men will broaden and become universal. Such a man, if placed in high 
 executive positions, will know how to meet and to move men and will 
 understand the capacities of the men under him. Thus a constant and 
 close touch with life is essential for his highest professional good. 
 
 Thus far we have considered success from the standpoint of pro- 
 fessional advancement. But as man is more than vocation, so his real 
 success in life is not to be measured wholly in terms of vocational 
 achievement. It is in this lack of a broad appreciation of the real mean- 
 ing of success that the engineer makes his greatest mistake, leading, as 
 'we have seen, to the narrow type of our early characterization. What- 
 ever broadens the whole man must necessarily better fit him for his 
 special work. The engineer, wrapped in his individualism, imagines 
 
CONSTANT. 225 
 
 himself different from other men and therefore freed from their com- 
 mon obligations. This point of view is fallacious. Many a good phy- 
 sician or lawyer or minister might have become a good engineer if he 
 had started that way, and vice versa. Doubtless the average engineer 
 has a natural mechanical bent drawing him to mathematical and mechan- 
 ical problems; and in some few men this bent is so strong that they 
 may be unsuccessful in any other calling. But few men are so decidedly 
 called to a particular work, and in most cases the final choice is a matter 
 of great conflict of mind. Success in engineering, as in any calling, 
 depends upon hard application and experience. The instinct to con- 
 struct is native-born in most men, clearly manifested in early child- 
 hood. It is certain that the engineer is made from quite universal stuff, 
 his growth depending upon such common elements as intellect, mental 
 training, industry, perseverance, experience. He is above all a man, 
 and our final perspective must consider him from this view point, in 
 which his work as an engineer must take its relative place with all the 
 other activities of his life. It is but a part of the whole, in which all 
 the parts are sympathetically related and all working together for the 
 common end the full development of the man. We cannot therefore 
 get this largest and truest perspective of the engineer unless we also 
 consider him from the standpoint of his common manhood and its rela- 
 tion to other activities of life. He cannot develop in the highest sense 
 as an engineer unless he likewise grows as a man. 
 
 Men are broadly classified in the two-fold way as political and 
 social units. As a political unit the American engineer finds himself 
 a member of a democracy. But democracy means that a grave respon- 
 sibility rests upon each individual, in proportion to his capacity, to take 
 a real part in the government of his country. President Roosevelt said 
 in a recent address at Harvard : "I want you to feel that it is not 
 merely your right to take part in politics, not merely your duty to the 
 state, but that it is demanded by your own self-respect, unless you are 
 content to acknowledge that you are unfit to govern yourself and have 
 to submit to the rule of somebody else as master and this is what it 
 means if you do not do your own part in government." 
 
 The many grave problems confronting the republic will be wisely 
 solved only when every citizen considers himself personally respon- 
 sible for them and applies as much thought to their solution as he does 
 to his private business. The responsibility of citizenship falls heavily 
 upon the engineer, for not only is he especially fitted by his training 
 to handle large problems, but many of the public questions involve broad 
 engineering principles, and too often he is the most listless of citizens. 
 
226 ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 If the engineer will not interest himself in these problems, can he expect 
 others to be more faithful or to find better solutions? 
 
 As a nation we are notoriously selfish in the pursuit of our own 
 private ends, indifferent to its best welfare except when our own in- 
 terests are threatened, thankful if the ship of state will but keep off 
 of the rocks. As a democracy we have fallen far short of the ideal 
 simply because the educated and broad sighted men of the country have 
 not given their efforts in its behalf. The building of a bridge or rail- 
 road is undoubtedly for the public weal. But more important still is 
 the building of the ideal democracy in which all men will truly share in 
 its government and all problems will be solved in the spirit of unselfish- 
 ness and with wisdom. Here is to be found the meaning of true patriot- 
 ism a patriotism which, day by day, in the midst of more selfish in- 
 terests finds the time to work for the country's best welfare. 
 
 The engineer is likewise a member of society, from which he gets 
 much and to which he owes much. Society is the relation of man to 
 man. He gets from it not only the knowledge of life as it exists at 
 present, but the history of its past development as it has left its impress 
 in art, literature, science, and human experience. It alone has made 
 possible the evolution of man from a lower to a higher state. In its rich 
 soil alone the individual soul may germinate and expand into something 
 larger and nobler. Man, and especially the engineer, cannot afford to 
 withdraw from its stimulating influence. 
 
 We have seen how breadth of view is essential to the highest suc- 
 cess of the engineer. So also is a broad liberal culture necessary to the 
 development of the whole man. Truth is not confined to any one branch 
 of human knowledge. She is like the many colored woof of cloth trac- 
 ing its way in and out over the whole field. He who would know her 
 as she truly is must seek her in many habitations. No man can compass 
 the whole of human knowledge, but he can keep himself atune with it, 
 ready to vibrate on all sides. I would counsel the young engineer, fix- 
 ing his ideal at nothing less than the fullest development of the whole 
 man, to let a love for knowledge for truth as seen from many sides 
 spring up and grow alongside of his enthusiasm for engineering. Es- 
 pecially should he seek the so-called humanities, which teach of man's 
 relation to man, for here he will find the mainspring of- human action. 
 Students of engineering should not avoid but welcome occasional sub- 
 jects chosen from this group. I hope the day will come when our en- 
 gineering colleges will require one or two years of academic training 
 for entrance to the technical courses and that even these will be as broad 
 as practicable. 
 
CONSTANT. 227 
 
 A broad culture fits a man for any society. But if the end were 
 simply selfish his own increased enjoyment of life, or greater profes- 
 sional advancement it might not be worth the seeking. But each man 
 should pay back to society something that he takes from it, and his 
 present duty is clear. In spite of ever increasing wealth and prosperity, 
 in spite of great achievements in science and particularly engineering 
 science, bringing increased comfort or luxury to every man, the ideals of 
 society as a whole are disappointingly low. Power and wealth are sought 
 for their own sakes; commercialism and rapid living rule the day. 
 Nearly every one is caught in the tide and, in spite of better judgment, 
 swept along with the current. It is the man of broad culture and high 
 ideals who must lead the way to things better worth while, that the lives 
 of the majority of men may not be wasted seeking baubles. Man may not 
 live by bread alone. The engineer, especially, has been accused of ma- 
 terialistic ideals, and as one whose life is spent in a mechanical atmos- 
 phere and who often controls the spending of large sums, he is prone to 
 over-rate the real value of these things in life. He, too, needs the broad 
 culture that leads to a sane perspective of life and its high ends. 
 
 Our engineering colleges draw many recruits from humble homes 
 in which the stern conditions of life have left no place for culture. To 
 most of these young men the engineering college is the door to a posi- 
 tion, work that is stimulating and interesting, a comfortable living. To 
 many this preachment may seem too idealistic and therefore impracti- 
 cable. They are thankful to get a good position and to enjoy an increas- 
 ing salary. They become valuable to their employers, their living is 
 assured, they are happy. Culture, (they think) is not a concom- 
 itant of engineering; and having started with little, why bother about 
 it at all? The man of narrow view does not understand breadth of 
 view ; the man in the valley has no conception of what the man on the 
 hill top is seeing. It is the men at the top and not those at the bottom 
 (however numerous), who stamp the true character of a calling. The 
 uncultured engineer, finding himself in a numerous crowd, may think 
 that his view includes the whole length and breadth of engineering, 
 and that, like a fraternal order, having once been admitted to member- 
 ship he has been initiated into all its secrets and henceforth may enjoy 
 an equal fellowship. The outside world seeing the large membership 
 of the uncultured imagines that this is the type that all engineers must 
 conform to that it is essentially a narrow and unidealistic calling. 
 
 Of course this opinion is incorrect. Engineering is not a fraternal 
 order, but a progressive vocation with a definite bottom and offering 
 unlimited opportunities for expansion upwards. Many have reached 
 high eminences and have enjoyed the society and friendship of the 
 
228 ENGINEERING AND LIFE. 
 
 greatest men of their time. The names of great engineers have come 
 down to us from all ages along with those of statesmen and generals. 
 In Westminister Abbey there is a memorial tablet to Robert Stephen- 
 son, the great English bridge engineer, whilst in the crypt of the cathe- 
 dral of Glasgow a similar memorial to the same man is the shrine visited 
 by thousands. England honors many of its great engineers with knight- 
 hood. In Europe the engineering profession is regarded with honor 
 and of equal rank with the other learned professions, but in these coun- 
 tries entrance into this, as into any of the professions, requires long years 
 of very rigorous training superimposed upon a broad foundation of gen- 
 eral culture. 
 
 But it is not necessary to turn to Europe to find the true place of 
 engineers in the society of men. This country has a long roll of honor 
 which contains names that any profession or any country might well 
 be proud of ; men who are not only great engineers, but gentlemen of the 
 highest and broadest culture. The young engineer should turn his 
 eyes upward to see what engineering truly is, and from the illustrious 
 men at the top catch the inspiration and ideal for his professional life. 
 He will find these men truly broad both as engineers and as men, and 
 he will find further that it is because of their breadth that they are 
 great engineers. 
 
 Engineering is a noble calling and the men who follow it need 
 not necessarily, if they so mind, be swallowed up in a sea of material- 
 ism. Matter is universal and clothes the seat of thought and spirit. 
 In molding matter to the uses of man the engineer but adapts him- 
 self to the conditions of a material world. The real engineer is the 
 intellectual force and spirit back' of matter. So far from being de- 
 based, he is to be congratulated that his mind may work in such close 
 harmony with nature. His mental processes are sane and true, and 
 drawing their inspiration from nature they find there an unlimited 
 source. He need not be ashamed of his calling; let him see to it that 
 he is worthy of it and that he use the rich opportunity to grow into 
 the full measure of manhood. 
 
LIMITATIONS OF EFFICIENCY IN ENGINEERING 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 By 
 Dr. George Fillmore Swain. 
 
 Although this address was not prepared directly for the benefit 
 of engineering students, but more especially for their instructors, it 
 contains, nevertheless, many matters of interest and value to under- 
 graduates, which alone would be sufficient reason for its reproduction 
 here, even if it were not the sole specimen given of Dr. Swain's writ- 
 ing. Without an example of his diction, the book would be incom- 
 plete; because he is one of the most noted engineering instructors of 
 America. For many years he taught civil engineering at the Mas- 
 sachusetts Institute of Technology, at the same time attending to a 
 large private practice, including membership on important engineer- 
 ing commissions of his State; but lately he has been called to Harvard 
 University to take charge of its post-graduate course in engineering. 
 
 No comment is necessary concerning Dr. Swain's lecture, the high 
 character of his ideas and the forcefulness of his expression being 
 evident to the most casual reader. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 229 
 
LIMITATIONS OF EFFICIENCY IN ENGINEERING 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 By 
 Dr. George Fillmore Swain. 
 
 Our colleges, universities, and technical schools are at the pres- 
 ent time the subject of serious criticism at the hands of many writers, 
 some of them in high authority in educational matters, some of them 
 outsiders with no teaching experience, who judge of the work of the 
 schools by the men that are turned out. Even the presidents of some 
 of our educational institutions, if they have been correctly reported, 
 admit that much of the development of the last few decades has been, 
 if not in the wrong direction, at least incomplete or unsymmetrical, 
 and that important modifications need to be made in regard to methods 
 of instruction and administration, as well as in matters of general 
 educational policy. Critics outside the teaching profession, joining in 
 the complaint, have pointed out what they consider serious faults, and 
 have indicated how, in their opinion, our colleges should be reorganized. 
 
 While most of this criticism has been directed against the colleges, 
 the engineering schools have come in for their share. Engineers of 
 eminence, like Mr. F. W. Taylor, and employers of engineers, like 
 Mr. Crane, have told us that the engineering graduate, when he leaves 
 the technical school or the university, is of little or no use to his em- 
 ployers at least until he has been seasoned by several years of ex- 
 perience in contact with the hard world with the solid facts of life. 
 
 Let me invite your attention for a few moments to a consideration 
 of the questions what the engineering graduate might be and ought 
 to be when he leaves the school, what he too often is, and what some 
 of the difficulties are which prevent the attainment of the ideal; in 
 other words, let us consider some of the limitations of efficiency in 
 engineering education. 
 
 Let me first admit that a long experience in teaching has con- 
 vinced me that there is much truth in the criticisms which have been 
 made. I fully believe, however, that they have been often exaggerated, 
 and, moreover, that many of the defects that have been pointed out 
 are capable of remedy. 
 
 When our technical schools were new, say forty or fifty years ago, 
 the value of a scientific training was not appreciated by manufacturers, 
 
 231 
 
232 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 or even by members of the engineering profession itself. The ma- 
 jority of engineers had not had the advantages of a thorough educa- 
 tion, and indeed, it had not been fully realized that engineering was 
 a science. It was considered a branch of the building art, and its 
 practice was largely empirical. Consequently, engineering graduates 
 often had difficulty in obtaining positions, and their scientific acquire- 
 ments were considered to be of little use; the young graduates were 
 looked upon as theorists, and as inferior to the practical men who had 
 gained their knowledge by experience. A sharp contrast was drawn 
 between theory and practice, as though the two were incompatible; 
 and the practical man, whether engineer or employer, scoffed at the 
 theorist, often only too justly. 
 
 All this, however, rapidly changed; the schools soon realized the 
 fact that they could not make a man an engineer, and that they should 
 confine their attention mainly to giving him the foundation of scientific 
 principles on which he could build, and which would enable him, as he 
 should gain experience, to understand and coordinate what he had 
 learned, and thus to practice his profession in a truly scientific way. 
 The teaching of engineering instead of being done by mathematicians, 
 or men with no practical experience in the things they were teaching, 
 began to come into the hands of men who were practical engineers as 
 well as scientists, and who knew the importance of teaching mathe- 
 matics and mechanics in such a way that they could be used as tools 
 instead of regarded as abstractions. 
 
 Employers engaged in business in which the applied scientist could 
 legitimately be useful, on the other hand, soon learned that many of 
 these young men could do things which were entirely beyond the power 
 of the unschooled man, even with years of experience. Visiting one of 
 our engineering schools some twenty years ago for the first time, one 
 of these employers was quite surprised at what he saw, and at the 
 work which had been done by the students. Upon leaving the presi- 
 dent of the institution, he said that he had been, much impressed, and 
 thought he would take a number of men of the senior class as soon 
 as they were graduated, to which the president replied that he would 
 not take these men, because they all had been already spoken for. 
 
 This change is still going on. The enormous development of en- 
 gineering, and the growing recognition of the fact that a university 
 or college, instead of giving a man so-called culture only, should train 
 him definitely for active work in the world, led to the corresponding 
 development of engineering departments. And, certainly, of the work 
 of the world, a very large part is dependent upon applied science, and 
 the engineering department of a university should be one of its strong- 
 
SWAIN. 233 
 
 est and largest departments. Teaching which is concrete and practical, 
 yet thoroughly scientific, is increasing, and graduates more and more 
 capable of immediate usefulness, and at the same time better trained, 
 are being turned out year after year. 
 
 Mr. Taylor sweepingly declares that the manufacturers of this 
 country do not want anything to do with young men just coming from 
 technical schools, that they would rather not have them, and find them 
 of little use in their business. This, I think, is a great exaggeration. 
 Mr. Taylor has had a long experience, and an opportunity to come in 
 contact with large numbers of manufacturers; nevertheless, I doubt the 
 accuracy of this statement that the graduate is not wanted. Certainly 
 it is not true, according to my experience, in the case of graduates in 
 civil engineering. The railroad companies of this country, who are 
 perhaps the largest employers of engineering graduates, desire all they 
 can get, and some of them make it a rule to recruit their forces, if 
 possible, entirely with such men. Our structural companies prefer 
 them in fact, desire no others if they can get technical graduates 
 personally recommended by their teachers. In hydraulic engineering, 
 sanitary engineering, and all other branches of the civil engineering 
 profession, if we are to judge by the demand for these men, they prove 
 themselves immediately serviceable, and in the vast majority of cases 
 they advance rapidly enough to demonstrate the fact that their technical 
 education has been of great advantage to them. 
 
 A similar condition seems to exist with reference to mining and 
 electrical engineering. I am told that your great electrical company 
 recruits its engineering staff, if possible, entirely with technical grad- 
 uates. As for mechanical engineering, I am sure that the demand for 
 such graduates from at least some of our schools is far above the sup- 
 ply. If, as Mr. Taylor affirms, the manufacturers of the country do not 
 find these men useful, I for one am sorry for the manufacturers. I 
 regret that they are so far behind the procession. If the statement is 
 true, perhaps that is the reason why those manufacturers consider that 
 they need so much protection against the competition of foreign coun- 
 tries, like France and Germany, where the technically trained man is 
 unquestionably fully appreciated, and where technical schools have been 
 longest established. 
 
 President Draper finely expresses the value of a higher education 
 when he says: "With an independent, sane, balanced character, hav- 
 ing the elements of success anyway, the advantage of a college train- 
 ing cannot be over-estimated." This is even more true with reference 
 to a professional education. 
 
234 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 The young man from a technical school should have passed through 
 four years of discipline mental, moral, and physical. 
 
 His physical discipline should have enabled him to restrain his 
 appetites, to govern his passions, to make his hand and eye quickly 
 responsive to his will, to be a master of himself. His step should be 
 firm, his carriage erect, his muscles hard, his body capable of enduring 
 much physical fatigue. 
 
 His moral education should have made him realize the ethical 
 principles which should govern a man's acts in this world and regulate 
 his conduct toward his fellow men. He should have learned to be 
 truthful and honest; thoughtful and forgiving toward others; stern 
 and unforgiving toward himself. He should have learned the supreme 
 lesson of disinterestedness, and should have gained the power of work- 
 ing for the sake of the work and its results rather than for his own 
 selfish purposes ; he should have learned to look down with something- 
 like contempt upon the petty things of this world and to realize that 
 they amount to little compared with the perfecting of his own character. 
 
 His mental training should have enabled him to estimate justly 
 his own powers and to know how to use them. He should have had 
 an opportunity to "find himself" and to study his own tendencies and 
 innate talents ; and he should, therefore, be in a position to direct him- 
 self toward the field of human endeavor in which those qualities will 
 enable him to do the best work. He should have learned thoroughly 
 the fundamental principles upon which are based the branch of en- 
 .gineering which He is to follow, and the power to apply them intel- 
 ligently and correctly. He should be modest, realizing how little he 
 knows and how little experience he possesses, yet self-reliant, feeling 
 that he has mastered the fundamental principles which he is to apply 
 in the world of action. He should be possessed of mental courage, 
 having been taught to study a subject with no preconceived ideas or 
 prejudices, but solely intent on reaching the truth. He should be able 
 to observe accurately, and to reason logically from premises gained 
 by observation or otherwise. 
 
 The average engineering graduate, and especially the college grad- 
 uate, unfortunately falls far short of this ideal, although it is measur- 
 ably within the reach of all. The causes of his failure are partly due 
 to the student himself, partly to his parents, partly to the college. 
 
 Let me call your attention to some of his shortcomings, the reasons 
 for them, and the possible remedies for them, as they appear to me. 
 
 PHYSICAL TRAINING. 
 
 In the first place we are too apt to understand by the term "educa- 
 tion" simply mental education; moral and physical education or train- 
 
SWAIN. 235 
 
 ing do not receive the proper degree of attention. In some of our 
 colleges and technical schools no effort whatever is made to give physical 
 training, to develop a sound physique, to discover and point out physical 
 defects, and to apply some systematic corrective. Athletics, as at 
 present cultivated, affect only the few men who, voluntarily or by 
 solicitation, engage in them. The great mass of students takes no part 
 in them, except to look on and applaud when the home team wins. In 
 my opinion, every college and technical school should insist on some 
 physical training for every one of its students who is not physically 
 incapable of it. A man may, by reason of some hereditary weakness, 
 or accident, be obliged forever to renounce the hope of being physically 
 strong. That is his misfortune, and it may exclude him from the pos- 
 sibility of practicing certain branches of the profession ; but if he has 
 the other qualities which lead to success, he need have no misgivings. 
 In such case, he should, by cultivating temperance in all things, and 
 by careful observance of the rules of personal hygiene, preserve to him- 
 self all the physical vigor possible. The man who is physically most 
 robust may not last the longest, or do the best work in the world. 
 Success depends, not upon one quality, but upon the proper combina- 
 tion, and physical strength is perhaps the quality which may be most 
 easily dispensed with. Probably this is the reason why it has been 
 neglected. 
 
 Nevertheless, physical training should be insisted upon. It should 
 be preceded by a thorough examination of each man, by an expert who 
 should prescribe what exercises will best strengthen the weak spots 
 and develop the physical endurance which is likely to be such a valu- 
 able asset to an engineer. Every student would also gain much were 
 he required to take a course in physiology, so that he may be made 
 acquainted with the laws of personal hygiene, and know how to take care 
 of himself and to regulate his diet. Physical training is perhaps of more 
 importance to the engineer than to members of any other profession, 
 for the engineer is essentially an out-of-door man, or is likely to be 
 one, and his capacity to endure fatigue and hardship if called upon, 
 may be an essential element in his success. It is hoped that such a 
 course would lead the student to abstain from all but the most sparing 
 use of tobacco and alcoholic beverages. He will be fortunate if it leads 
 him to renounce them entirely. 
 
 MORAL EDUCATION. 
 
 In the second place, moral education is, as a rule, much neglected. 
 By many teachers or even institutions it appears to be considered that 
 this should be left entirely to the home and the church that the school 
 should simply train the mind. This seems to me a fundamental mis- 
 
236 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 take. It is sometimes said that the salvation of a democratic country 
 like this lies in a widely diffused and high standard of education. It 
 would seem clear, however, that the kind of education upon which our 
 salvation will depend is moral education rather than mental education. 
 Half knowledge is, proverbially, a dangerous thing; and a smattering 
 of economics, history, language, science, or what not, such as most 
 students acquire, or even a thorough knowledge of them will not enable 
 a man to perform properly the duties of a citizen, if he has failed to 
 become imbued with the moral law, and to realize the supreme im- 
 portance of his duties toward his neighbor, and the necessity of play- 
 ing the game of life fairly. Dishonesty is not confined to the poor or 
 the ignorant; it is doubtful if it is more frequent among them, on the 
 whole, than among the educated and the well-to-do, notwithstanding 
 the many and varied temptations which poverty necessarily brings. 
 
 Not only, therefore, should the college or technical school require 
 some training in subjects which will imbue students with an apprecia- 
 tion of the importance of the moral law, from the professional as well 
 as from the personal point of view, but every teacher should consider 
 himself, so far as consistent, a moral teacher and should seize the op- 
 portunities, which will often come, to enforce a moral lesson. 
 
 MENTAL EDUCATION. 
 
 But coming to what is generally considered as education, that is, 
 mental education, most graduates of our colleges and technical schools 
 are no doubt far removed from the ideal which has been sketched. Not 
 only have many of them failed to master thoroughly the fundamental 
 principles which they are supposed to have learned, but they are not 
 able to observe correctly or to reason logically; and they have, further- 
 more, so little realization of their own defects and are possessed of so 
 little modesty, that they go out into the world with an overweening 
 and unjustified conceit, with an unwillingness to begin at the bottom 
 and learn a business thoroughly, and with an inability to do cheerfully, 
 uncomplainingly, persistently, and enthusiastically, the routine work or 
 drudgery of which the greater part of the world's work consists, and 
 in the proper doing of which the highest discipline lies. They are 
 uneasy if they do not quickly receive promotion ; they are impatient of 
 the self-taught, unschooled men who work by their sides, although these 
 men may be their superiors, and possessed of far more common sense 
 than they ; and because they have wasted a great part of the time which 
 has been devoted to their education perhaps some of it in riotous liv- 
 ing they are unable to appreciate the things which the untaught man 
 may have learned and which they have still to discover. 
 
SWAIN. 237 
 
 MEASURING EFFICIENCY. 
 
 The engineer, in estimating the performance of a machine, measures 
 its value by what is termed its "mechanical efficiency." This is the 
 ratio of the effective work done by the machine to the energy which 
 is put into it. The higher the efficiency the better the machine. The 
 efficiency of a business may be measured somewhat in the same manner ; 
 in this case best, perhaps, by the ratio of net earnings to the total in- 
 vestment, provided that the investment has been properly expended. 
 Of course, one business cannot in this way be compared directly with 
 another on the same basis, for in one sort of business the possible net 
 earnings may be far smaller compared with the total investment than 
 is the case in another kind of 'business. Nevertheless, there is a sort 
 of measure, even if rough compared with the mechanical one. That 
 measure is expressed in dollars. Since dollars are desirable or necessary 
 to those who have invested in the concern, if a low efficiency is shown 
 lower than should reasonably be expected, or lower than is shown in 
 similar concerns similarly situated there will probably be a demand for 
 a change of management. 
 
 I have often asked myself the question: What is the efficiency 
 of education? Unfortunately, however, there is no measure for that 
 efficiency. The manufacturer takes the raw material out of which 
 he manufactures his produce a log of wood, for example ; he pays for 
 this raw material and for the labor expended upon it, in money ; fashions 
 it into the form desired, and sells it for other money. The efficiency of 
 the entire process can be measured, if not with exactness, at least ap- 
 proximately. 
 
 In education the raw material is the student. Labor, enthusiasm, 
 and money are expended upon him. The product is the improvement 
 which results to him mentally, morally, and physically, and this is in- 
 capable of quantitative estimation. Nevertheless, I have for a long 
 time believed that if it could be estimated it would be found that the 
 efficiency of education is in general very small; that the result in im- 
 proved physical strength, morality, power of thought, is but a small 
 fraction of the energy expended. 
 
 But even if the efficiency is small, it does not follow that the work 
 is not worth doing, or not done well. The light given out by the elec- 
 tric light represents less than 1 per cent of the theoretical energy in the 
 coal, yet it does not follow that electrical lighting is not worth while. It 
 depends upon the intrinsic value of the product. So, in education, to in- 
 spire and discipline even a few young men may be worth far more than 
 all the effort expended upon them and others, for it means keeping alive 
 the torch of learning, and feeding the flame of research, so that the 
 
238 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 treasures of thought and the methods of scientific investigation may be 
 transmitted to those who shall follow us, and so stimulate intellectual 
 progress in the years to come. 
 
 It is also essential, before judging of the real value of higher educa- 
 tion, to estimate the necessary limitations of efficiency, to consider the 
 inevitable losses and sources of waste, and thus to refer the final pro- 
 duct, not to a purely theoretical and impossible maximum, but to a 
 practically attainable one; in other words, to consider the reasons for 
 the observed defects, and to ascertain to what extent they are practically 
 remediable. 
 
 These defects seem to arise from four main sources: 1, the student ; 
 2, the parent; 3, the teacher; 4, the adminstration. 
 
 THE DEFECTS DUE TO THE STUDENT. 
 
 The main source of the inefficiency of education and the principal 
 justification for the criticisms which have been made upon its results, 
 seem to me to lie in the students themselves. They go to the college 
 or technical school, where they find afforded them abundant oppor- 
 tunities; but many of them are lacking in will, and are not able to avail 
 themselves of them. 
 
 While the manufacturer, by the application of external power, molds 
 his raw material into the desired form, education cannot so fashion its 
 raw material. The fundamental difficulty with education seems to me 
 to be the fact that the only culture or training which does a man any 
 good is self-culture, that which he imposes upon himself. The teacher 
 may present his subject with perfect clearness, he may give examples 
 to illustrate it, he may impress upon his students emphatically the neces- 
 sity of doing certain things, he may tell them what to do, and what 
 not to do, what mental and moral habits they must cultivate and which 
 they must shun, but he cannot make them follow his injunctions. Many 
 of them will be found to lack the interest and the will to see the neces- 
 sity for self-exertion, and to impose upon themselves the moral and 
 mental discipline without which success in their work will not be at- 
 tained. 
 
 This may not be due to any lack of good intention ; they may be 
 earnest enough, they may work long hours, but many of them will not 
 work in the right way, no matter how often they are shown, nor will 
 they take the trouble to learn the methods of logical thinking. They 
 are lacking in will. They do not realize that their success will depend 
 more upon their wills than upon their brains. 
 
 Dr. W. H. Thomson, in his most interesting book, "Brain and 
 Personality," says "we can make our own brains, so far as special 
 mental functions or aptitudes are concerned, if only we have wills strong 
 
SWAIN. 239 
 
 enough to take the trouble." When to this is added that the will, like 
 any other function of the human being, can be trained, and its strength 
 increased, we have the fundamental principles of self-culture, which 
 do not begin to be appreciated as yet, either by students or by teachers. 
 
 If the attempt is made to force the student into a rigid system to 
 control his every movement, he may be to some extent disciplined, but his 
 interest, his initiative, his spontaneity, and his power of self-control, 
 will not be developed. It is the old question whether a young man can 
 be trained to self-control by keeping him in subjection, whether he can 
 be trained to govern himself except by letting him try which seems to 
 have been decided, and; on the whole, wisely decided, in the negative. 
 
 A certain amount of military training, for instance, is no doubt of 
 advantage to every one ; it develops obedience, promptness, and other 
 similar qualities; but it does not train the will, nor teach self-command, 
 nor stimulate the highest faculties. Soldiers are not noted for self- 
 control as compared with those who have not been exposed to military 
 discipline. Indeed, the moment the usual pressure is relaxed they are 
 only too apt to show the absence of that quality ; nor have many advances 
 in learning or in the arts come from military men. At some time in a 
 young man's life, he must be thrown upon his own responsibilities, and 
 it would scarcely seem wise to defer that point until the end of the 
 college course. If he is not ready to learn that lesson in college by the 
 time he is 17 or 18 years old, there is a strong probability that he ought 
 not to be sent to college at all, but that he should be made to learn the 
 lesson, if possible, in the harder school of the outside world; and let 
 such a man be thankful if it prove a school of hard knocks. 
 
 Right here it may be remarked that much of the criticism of our 
 schools would not be made if it were recognized that the trouble is 
 not alone what they do or what leave undone, but that the right boys 
 are not always sent to college. There are multitudes of young men 
 there who never ought to have been sent who are not qualified to take 
 advantage of the kind of training which the college really ought to give, 
 and which is the very best kind for those who can avail themselves of it ; 
 whose will and whose natural ability will not justify a higher education; 
 one thousand dollar men who are being given a five thousand dollar edu- 
 cation. And there are also multitudes of young men who would take ad- 
 vantage of such opportunities, who cannot afford to do so. 
 
 One of the most hopeful signs in our educational progress, to my 
 mind, is the increasing opportunity for deserving young men to get all 
 the education which they are good for, provided it does not give them 
 more than they are good for. 
 
240 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 Our schools, from the bottom up, should be better designed to pre- 
 pare men for their proper vocations in life industrial, farming, or pro- 
 fessional to guide each man better into his proper field, and to prevent 
 him from entering into fields for which he is not suited. It is far better 
 to be a good mechanic than a poor engineer or lawyer, and there are just 
 as many opportunities for a good mechanic to be advanced to responsible 
 administrative positions as for the poor engineer. One of the main 
 problems of education would seem to be to guide each man into his 
 proper place so far as possible. 
 
 No better proof of what has been said is needed than the fact that 
 so many men who have attained success despite the lack of educational 
 advantages, send their own sons to college, realizing how much they 
 themselves might have gained from such an opportunity. Unfortunately, 
 too many such parents fail to realize how much of their own success has 
 been due to the fact that they were obliged to overcome difficulties ; 
 they do not train their sons to do the same ; they give them too much 
 money to spend, and thus they send them to college unprepared to utilize 
 the advantages presented. 
 
 We talk much of opportunity. We do not sufficiently realize that 
 necessity is, on the whole, a greater element in success, and a better 
 friend, than opportunity. 
 
 There are many other difficulties which arise with the student, but 
 I need not dwell upon them. Many students are "sent" to college ; 
 they do not go, they are sent. They take little interest in their work; 
 their main object is to get through. When they study a subject, their 
 minds are fixed upon the mark which they are to receive, on the examina- 
 tion which they are to pass. Instead of being disinterestedly concerned 
 with getting the most they can out of the opportunity which the course 
 presents, they will procure old examination papers and a tutor, and get 
 themselves coached so that they may be able to scrape through, after 
 which they will promptly dismiss the subject from their minds. A long 
 experience in teaching has convinced me that no amount of effort by 
 the teacher will have much effect in the case of some students in induc- 
 ing them .to take a different attitude. 
 
 The fundamental difficulty, then, with the student, is that discipline 
 and correct thinking are not things which can be imposed upon him 
 from without, but things which he must acquire for himself and which 
 he can only learn to acquire for himself by being given the opportunity. 
 To use a favorite illustration, the school is not a restaurant where a 
 man goes to be filled up, but it is a gymnasium where he finds the appara- 
 tus which, if used as he is shown, will develop him as he ought to be 
 developed. 
 
SWAIN. 241 
 
 THE DEFECTS DUE TO THE PARENTS. 
 
 Right here is where the parent must bear some share of the re- 
 sponsibility for the lack of efficiency of education. Time will not per- 
 mit of an elaboration of this branch of the subject. It will suffice to say 
 that the utmost efforts of the teacher will be of little avail unless with 
 the cordial co-operation and support of the home influences. 
 
 Mental discipline at college cannot win against social and financial 
 dissipation at home, and all the efforts of the teacher to enforce the im- 
 portance of self-culture and training of the will will come to naught 
 if the parents think, as many do, that the son is sent to school to buy 
 an education as he buys a suit of clothes. To a parent who was finding 
 fault with a teacher for the slow progress of his son, the teacher re- 
 plied that he could not put brains and will into the boy as well as in- 
 struction. 
 
 One great difficulty with the student of engineering arises from his 
 lack of knowledge of the practical applications of the subjects which 
 he is studying, and further, from the failure to realize the necessity for 
 a higher education and the fact that there are many men in what might 
 be called the lower ranks of life who are just as bright as he is. If the 
 student from a wealthy family could be made to realize that the son of 
 the blacksmith around the corner has just as good a brain as he, it 
 would not only make him more democratic and a better citizen, with 
 more respect for the opinions of others, but it would also make him 
 realize that if he wishes to win a high place in engineering, it will be 
 necessary for him to get something which the blacksmith's son does not 
 have and cannot easily get. Experience would be open to both of them, 
 but education might be open to only one. 
 
 The necessity of earning his living, the realization that there are 
 plenty of young men in overalls, with as good native ability as he, are 
 two powerful incentives which will make a young man appreciate the 
 value of an education. In order to develop this appreciation, students 
 of engineering should gain some practice in the workshop or in the 
 field ; and they should make it a rule if possible from the time they enter 
 the college or better, from the time they enter the high school to 
 spend their vacations in some occupation in which they will be earning 
 their own way. 
 
 DEFECTS IN THE INSTRUCTION. 
 
 But while the main difficulty, in my opinion, lies with the student 
 himself, and with his parents, there is undoubtedly, in most cases, just 
 room for criticism of the teaching in our schools. Among the defects 
 commonly found, a few may be mentioned : 
 
242 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 1. There is too great prevalence of courses which are informa- 
 tion courses only, and a lack of realization on the part of the teacher 
 that his main object should be to teach the student to think. We may 
 well reflect upon Locke's statement that the objects of education in 
 their relative rank are as follows: 
 
 1. Virtue. 
 
 2. Wisdom. 
 
 3. Good breeding. 
 
 4. Learning. 
 
 Learning to which we almost confine our attention placed last. 
 And even with reference to learning, we often misplace the emphasis. 
 The student must of course be taught many facts, but the main emphasis 
 should be laid upon the use which is made of those facts. Logical 
 thinking is the main object. If the student gains this, he can reason 
 upon new facts and in any subject: if he does not, he simply uses in a 
 rule-of-thumb way the few specific facts which he has learned. 
 
 2. There seems to me to be an undue use of the lecture system. 
 This is a very serious evil, in my opinion, and unfortunately seems 
 to be increasing and to be extending even into the secondary schools. A 
 young man may be interested and may gain some information by listen- 
 ing to a lecture, but he will not gain much mental training. The use 
 of lectures without text books seems particularly futile, except, perhaps, 
 in some special subjects. The student should have a text book whidh he 
 is required to study. The exercises in the class room should consist in 
 finding out whether he has studied it and mastered it, and if not, why 
 not; and a certain portion of time should be taken in enlarging and ex- 
 plaining the subject itself. 
 
 A quiz or a recitation enables the teacher to discover the mental 
 defects of his pupils and to point them out. Such a process is indeed 
 sometimes discouraging to the student. He would prefer to remain in 
 blissful ignorance of his defects, and to go through his courses believing 
 that he understands them and is able to think ; but a knowledge of one's 
 defects is the beginning of wisdom. We all, of course, have defects, but 
 we never remedy them unless we realize that we have them and what 
 they are. The student, if he takes the proper attitude of mind, should 
 realize that one of the main things that he goes to college for is to have 
 his defects pointed out to him, and he should not thereby be discouraged, 
 but should have the will to impose upon himself a discipline which 
 will correct them. 
 
 Grote, in his history of Greece, makes the following statement with 
 reference to the teaching of Socrates: 
 
SWAIN, 243 
 
 "The Socratic dialectics, clearing away from the mind its fancied 
 knowledge and laying bare the real ignorance, produced an immediate 
 effect like the touch of the torpedo. The newly created consciousness 
 of ignorance was alike unexpected, painful, and humilating a season of 
 doubt and discomfort, yet combined with an internal working and yearn- 
 ing after truth, never before experienced. Such intellectual quickening, 
 which could never commence until the mind had been disabused of its 
 original illusion of false knowledge, was considered by Socrates not 
 merely as the index and precursor, but as the indespensable condition of 
 future progress." 
 
 Can we improve upon this principle today? Do we sufficiently ap- 
 preciate and use it? 
 
 Until the lecture system is largely done away with, or reduced to 
 an absolute minimum, many elaborate courses will continue to be ac- 
 companied with little result. Of course there is a difference between 
 subjects ; some require experimental demonstration, and in them lectures 
 may properly form a considerable portion of the course, while others 
 should be conducted almost entirely with the use of the text book and the 
 recitation. The point is. that except for thoroughly disciplined students, 
 who already know how to think and how to govern themselves, lectures 
 should, in my opinion, be reduced in each case to the minimum. 
 
 3. Another fault, which seems very common, is that no attention 
 is paid in many institutions to teaching the student how to study. Young 
 men animated with the best intentions, work hard but ineffectively in 
 the endeavor to master the subjects presented to them. It is not suf- 
 ficiently realized that hard work is not what is needed, and will never 
 bring a man success unless it is also effective work. A man should 
 train himself to work like a well oiled machine, accomplishing a re- 
 sult easily, quickly, and without friction. Some instruction with refer- 
 ence to the proper methods of study would seem to be essential, yet I 
 have rarely known of such instruction being given. 
 
 4. Equally striking is the fact that in many institutions no at- 
 tempt is made to teach methods of reasoning in general, except in so far 
 as it is done in connection with the special courses. In the Middle Ages 
 logic occupied an important part in higher training, and it was generally 
 taught in universities up to within a few decades. Since that time it 
 seems to have largely disappeared, and in some of our higher schools 
 little or no attempt is now made, except, as already stated, in connec- 
 tion with individual courses, to teach the student the general rules of cor- 
 rect reasoning, in other words, the principles of logic. 
 
 It is true that the study of formal logic was carried entirely too 
 far, applied to improper purposes, and, in a word, entirely misapplied 
 
244 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 and exaggerated. It would, be absurd to revive in their old form the 
 dialectics of the schoolmen. But that is no reason why logic should 
 be neglected; and while the capable instructor may teach much logic 
 in a course not sufficiently devoted to that subject, the fact remains that 
 many, if not most, of the graduates of our technical schools are not 
 capable of independent logical reasoning, even on scientific subjects. 
 
 It is, I think, not sufficiently recognized, even by teachers, that 
 there are certain methods of logical thinking, certain fallacies which 
 must be guarded against, certain modes of detecting these fallacies, and 
 certain tests of correct results. Most students seem to think that reason- 
 ing is a natural function of the mind just as walking is of the legs; 
 but even if it be true that "the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes 
 bile" it certainly is not true that it naturally secretes logical thought. 
 Though a man have a mind, it does not follow that he can think cor- 
 rectly. He must have the logical principles upon which correct think- 
 ing depends, and there are many reasons for believing that he will 
 learn them best by consciously studying the subject of logic rather than 
 by taking it as the by-product of other courses. 
 
 Locke, in the preface of his most valuable little book on "The 
 Conduct of the Understanding," makes the following remark: , 
 
 "I cannot think any parent or instructor justified in neglecting to 
 put this little treatise in the hands of a boy about the time when the 
 reasoning faculties become developed. It will give him a sober and 
 serious, not flippant or self-conceited, independency of thinking; and, 
 while it teaches how to distrust ourselves and to watch those prejudices 
 which necessarily grow up from one cause or another, will inspire a 
 reasonable confidence in what he has well considered, by taking off a 
 little of that deference to authority which is the more to be regretted in 
 its excess that, like its cousin-german, party-spirit, it is frequently 
 united to loyalty of heart and the generous enthusiasm of youth." 
 
 : I have talked with many students from many universities, technical 
 schools, and preparatory schools, and the replies received from most of 
 them indicate that during their whole preparatory and college course 
 they have never been given any instruction corresponding to that con- 
 tained in this book. The result is that fallacies which any mind trained 
 in logic would be able to observe, pass the minds of these men without 
 discovery. 
 
 I am aware of -the fact that courses in logic are offered in 
 many of our universities, and taken by a considerable number of stu- 
 dents in the aggregate, but I am also aware of the fact that in many in- 
 stitutions, and particularly in technical schools, no such courses whatever 
 are offered; and furthermore, I do not know of a single institution in 
 
SWAIN. 245 
 
 which such a course is required. I am further aware of the fact that no 
 amount of instruction would even result in making some men think 
 logically. 
 
 I make a plea for the restoration of logic in some specific form as a 
 required subject in the curriculum of every higher institution of learn- 
 ing. 
 
 The study of logic, however, must, of course, be co-ordinated with 
 other studies, and with the training of the powers of observation and 
 mental discrimination as to the facts; for unless we make sure of the 
 facts which constitute our premises, the use of the syllogism may only 
 result in multiplying error instead of disclosing truth. 
 
 5. A further difficulty in education arises from the difficulty of 
 obtaining good teachers, and in some cases from the practical impos- 
 sibility of getting rid of poor ones. A large part of this difficulty is no 
 doubt due to the enormous increase, within the past few decades, in the 
 number of teachers required, corresponding to the remarkable growth 
 of high schools and the enormous expansion of colleges and universities. 
 For instance, in 1860 the number of high schools in the United States 
 was 44; in 1870, 160; in 1880, 800; in 1890, 2,526, and in 1900, 6,005. 
 In 1908 the number of teachers in our higher schools, - including col- 
 leges, was about seven times what is was in 1870. There appears to be 
 a real difficulty in obtaining competent teachers for high schools and 
 colleges, particularly in view of the fact that the remuneration offered 
 in this profession is much less than that which a capable man may 
 expect to obtain in business or in one of the other professions. 
 
 If a man is not possessed of independent means, and if he wishes to 
 marry and bring up a family comfortably, he will find the attractions of 
 the teaching profession from this point of view very small. This is 
 abundantly shown by the statistics recently given in an article in 
 "Science" discussing the status of the assistant professor. The result 
 is that many men probably go into teaching because they would not 
 succeed in the world outside; and in technical subjects such men may 
 often fail to give to the students the qualities necessary for success in 
 the world. 
 
 Furthermore, in many of our institutions there seems to be little 
 or no attempt made to appoint teachers with reference to their teaching 
 ability, or subsequently to exercise any oversight over the conduct of 
 their classes or the methods which they use. A man is appointed to a 
 teaching position and is allowed to conduct his classes as he pleases. 
 This is, of course, more true in some institutions than in others, but I be- 
 lieve that at least the criticism is well founded that not enough care is 
 
246 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 taken by those in charge of our educational institutions or of the depart- 
 ments thereof, to see that really effective teaching is done. 
 
 On the one hand, the teacher may make things too plain to the 
 students. When the student meets a difficulty, the teacher may be 
 either so anxious to show that he understands how to solve it; or, in 
 the kindness of his heart he may be so anxious to help the student, that 
 he lifts him bodily over the difficulty without making him exercise his 
 own powers at all. The only way that we become strong is by overcom- 
 ing difficulties ; we do not gain strength so long as our difficulties are 
 overcome for us by others ; yet this is too often done in teaching. 
 
 Or, it may be that the teacher is entirely unable to see the real 
 difficulty in the mind of the pupil, and therefore, while he may try to 
 explain it, he may only succeed in throwing more obscurity upon the 
 subject. 
 
 I believe it would be desirable if the teachers in our institutions 
 of learning would more often discuss among themselves perhaps at 
 stated meetings the methods of teaching to be used; perhaps with the 
 co-operation and criticism of some of the best students or recent gradu- 
 ates. It stands to reason, of course, that every teacher ought to have 
 had some training in pedagogics ; yet I believe that such training is rare 
 in the teachers in our engineering schools, and it is perhaps too much to 
 expect it. But it is not too much to expect that if they begin the career 
 of teachers they should then devote some time to the study of the 
 subject, or submit for a time, to careful oversight of their work. Un- 
 fortunately, academic freedom is too often interpreted to mean, not simply 
 the freedom of students to do as they please, but the freedom of teachers 
 to do the same entirely without criticism from any one ; and some teachers 
 who may be doing ineffective work would probably strongly resent any 
 suggestion that they should change their methods. The result of this 
 condition is that, in many institutions, courses may be found which 
 have been given for years, which the best students and alumni would 
 admit to be entirely unprofitable, and which, perhaps, the authorities of 
 the institution know to be ineffective ; and yet, with our present methods 
 of university organization, there seems to be no way of remedying such 
 a situation, any attempt to remedy it being considered either as arbitrary 
 interference or a violation of the so-called educational democracy under 
 which every man is allowed to do as he pleases. 
 
 Criticism of educational methods should, of course, always be kindly 
 and it should also recognize the inherent difference between the conduct 
 of education and the conduct of a business enterprise, that in the form- 
 er individualism should be encouraged rather than suppressed. In 
 corporation management it may be desirable or necessary to reduce the 
 
SWAIN. 247 
 
 work of the different departments to a rigid routine; while in education 
 such a proceeding would be most unfortunate. Nevertheless, individual- 
 ism should not be allowed to override the fundamental principles of ped- 
 agogics, nor be carried beyond reasonable limits. It must not be forgotten 
 that the teacher is in a position where he can do not only much good, 
 but much harm, and care should be taken that the latter is not the 
 result of his efforts. 
 
 It is in regard to this phase of the question that the difference be- 
 tween the conduct of an institution of learning and of a business is 
 perhaps most marked. In the latter there is a concentration of re- 
 sponsibility and a supervision of methods. A new president may en- 
 tirely reorganize a railroad system, may cause the accounts to be kept 
 in an entirely new manner, may readjust the relations of the different 
 departments, may require the head of any department to have his 
 work done in an entirely different way -from that in which it had been 
 done before, and all this without offense to any one. Such a method of 
 procedure, even if necessary, would be likely to be considered nothing 
 short of tyranny in an educational institution, and the limitations to acts 
 of this kind have already been suggested ; yet there should be some happy 
 medium, some way by which the relations of teachers to each other, 
 to the head of departments, and to the president, could be easily adjusted 
 and without friction, in such a way that radical innovations might be 
 brought about. 
 
 If a new university president has individual ideas, is there any 
 good reason why he should not be enabled to carry them out, and why 
 he should not be loyally supported in doing so, by trustees and faculty, 
 even though his ideas are contrary to individual opinion? Until this 
 can be done, until responsibility can be concentrated, and until means 
 and methods are under practical control of the persons so made re- 
 sponsible, there will be no hope of obtaining the highest efficiency in 
 education. 
 
 With reference to this matter I do not know of any more forceful 
 statement than that made by Andrew S. Draper in his remarkable sug- 
 gestive book on "American Education," in which he says: 
 
 "The very life of the institution depends upon eliminating weak and 
 unproductive teachers, and upon reinforcing the teaching body with the 
 very best in the world. Unless there is scientific aggressiveness in the 
 search of new knowledge some very serious claims must be abandoned 
 and some attitudes completely changed. No board ever got rid of a 
 teacher or an investigator no matter how weak or absurd except for 
 immorality known to the public. The reason why a board cannot deal 
 with such' a matter is the lack of individual confidence about what to do 
 
248 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 and of individual responsibility for doing nothing. But, with three or 
 four hundred in the faculty, the need of attention to this' vital matter 
 is always present. No board knows where new men of first quality are 
 to be found ; no board can conduct the negotiations for them, or fit them 
 into an harmonious and effective whole. The man who is fitted for this 
 great burden, and who puts his conscience up against his responsibility, 
 can hardly be expected to tolerate the opposition of an unsubstantial sen - 
 timent which would protect a teacher at all hazards, or the more subtle 
 combination of selfish influences which puts personal over and above 
 public interests when the upbuilding of a university is the task in hand." 
 
 There is another point, however, in connection with the teachers 
 which must never be lost sight of, and that is the responsibility of the 
 institution to a teacher who has been kept in his position for a consider- 
 able length of time. Unlike the work of business, the work of teach- 
 ing undoubtedly tends to unfit a man for other occupations. The aver- 
 age teacher is out of contact with business affairs and, as a rule, confined 
 within the narrow limits of his educational activities. It is true, particu- 
 larly in applied science, that many teachers have opportunities for doing 
 a considerable amount of outside work and for building up a consulting 
 practice, so that they are not wholly dependent upon their teaching, 
 and if they should discontinue the latter they would still be able to find 
 profitable employment. The number of such men, however, is compara- 
 tively few, and I think it is fair to say that the man who has remained in 
 teaching for more than ten or fifteen years will generally find himself 
 little adapted for anything else. In this lies the great importance of 
 carefully scrutinizing the work of the" young men in the teaching pro- 
 fession. An institution owes it to itself and to them to keep only the 
 men who show conclusively their ability to succeed in the profession, 
 and to get rid of the others before it is too late. 
 
 If the institution keeps men who are incompetent teachers, beyond 
 the age when they are able to find other employment, it assumes a re- 
 sponsibility for providing for them in some way which it cannot shirk ; 
 yet it is very easy to keep a teacher in a subordinate position from mere 
 force of habit or because no better man seems immediately available, 
 although it might be easily foreseen that the time would come when for 
 the good of the institution he ought to be replaced. 
 
 6. Another common defect in our teaching methods appears to be 
 a lack of coordination. In many of our higher institutions, each teacher 
 seems to be an unrestrained individual, following his own way, not only 
 teaching his own subject in such manner as he pleases, but arranging his 
 course and planning the ground to be covered without regard to any- 
 body else. This criticism, if justified, is more apt to be applicable to our 
 
" SWAIN. 249 
 
 colleges than to technical schools in which a required curriculum is 
 prescribed and in which there must be a sequence of studies; but even 
 in these there appears to be some room for improvement. 
 
 When absolute independence of teaching is combined with the lec- 
 ture system, it may perhaps fairly be said that in many cases the stu- 
 dents simply listen to the individual views of their teachers instead of 
 being submitted to a systematic and continuous course of discipline, 
 which would seem to be the main object of education. It stands to 
 reason that there should be close coordination between all the subjects 
 taught in any institution, so far as they are related to each other. There 
 should be no over-lapping, except as this may, after definite considera- 
 tion, be determined to be necessary or useful for purposes of repetition. 
 One subject should naturally lead to another, and the sequence from the 
 elementary to the difficult should be so continuous that no breaks should 
 be perceptible. Whether the elective system or the prescribed curriculum 
 is in use makes little difference, so long as each student is made to pass 
 through a systematic course, involving continuous mental discipline. 
 
 DEFECTS DUE* TO ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 With reference to administration, the fundamental limitation to 
 efficiency seems to me to lie in a fact which has already been referred to, 
 namely, that the administrators that is to say the trustees have no 
 financial interest at stake. This is the fundamental difference between 
 the administration of a college and the administration of a business con- 
 cern. Where men have no financial interest they cannot be expected to 
 realize fully the responsibility, nor will they be apt energetically to take 
 the necessary steps to insure efficiency. 
 
 For this reason, among others, I do not believe that education 
 ever can be as efficient as business. I am not unmindful of the fact, 
 of course, that there are many men who, if they accept positions on a 
 board of college trustees, will take the same pains and feel the same re- 
 sponsibility as if they were trustees of a business corporation in which 
 their own money as well as the* funds of widows and orphans were in- 
 vested ; but this is somewhat contrary to human nature and must always 
 be the exception. Money, or rather the love of it, may or may not be 
 the root of all evil, but it certainly comes very near being the source 
 of all efficiency. 
 
 This lack of concentration of responsibilty is found not only in 
 boards of trustees, but through the whole educational staff. The sys- 
 tem of faculty government is not conducive to it. Instead of one man 
 being at the head of one branch of the work and being responsible for 
 it, he is in some instances not allowed to carry out his own ideas even 
 in matters which concerns his own branch alone, except in regard to the 
 
250 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 subjects which he individually teaches. His views and perhaps those of 
 the entire staff in his own branch, may be overborne by the votes in 
 the faculty of men in entirely different branches who, perhaps, know 
 little or nothing of the merits of the question involved. 
 
 Of course, this may in some instances prove a benefit, for heads of 
 departments are not exempt from error, and are not always wise. The 
 point is, that responsibility is divided, and if those upon whom re- 
 sponsibility is placed are, as they should be, equal to the task, a division 
 of responsibility is always bad. Again, in the words of Dr. Draper, 
 ''University policies are not to be settled by majority vote. They are 
 to be determined by expert opinion." 
 
 Nothing further need be said with reference to this phase of the 
 question. Without concentration of responsibility, efficiency is undoubt- 
 edly diminished, and without direct financial interest, responsibility will 
 not be heavily assumed. When we combine a lack of direct financial 
 interest in the product of education with the fact that the efficiency of 
 the process is entirely intangible and incapable of any concrete expression, 
 and the further fact that responsibility is divided, we have a combination 
 zvhich necessarily ensures a small percentage of efficiency which con- 
 stitutes its principal necessary limitation. 
 
 I have endeavored to outline what the engineering graduate should 
 be ; what he unfortunately too often is ; and have referred to some of 
 the difficulties which are met in endeavoring to reach the ideal. Many 
 of my remarks apply, of course, with even greater force to the college 
 graduate also. The remedies, so far as remedies are possible, which have 
 occurred to the writer have already been partially suggested. They 
 may be summarized as follows: 
 
 1. Every student in a university or technical school should be 
 given systematic physical training, and instruction in physiology. 
 
 2. Education should not be considered to i>e merely mental educa- 
 tion. Moral development should be kept constantly in mind and every 
 teacher should not only endeavor to make himself a moral example, but, 
 as far as consistent, to inculcate moral lessons. 
 
 3. Educational work is not consistent with such concentration of 
 responsibility as is possible in business, but it should be striven after so 
 far as possible. 
 
 4. Every effort should be made to cause the student to see the 
 necessity for self-discipline and self-exertion, to realize the value of his 
 opportunities, the importance of cultivating proper mental, moral, and 
 physical habits, the fact that his success will depend upon himself alone, 
 the necessity of studying how to work effectively and not simply earnest- 
 ly. If he does not reasonably appreciate these things and take ad van- 
 
SWAIN. 251 
 
 tage of his opportunities, he should be promptly taken out of college and 
 set to work earning his own living. Both parents and colleges are too 
 lenient toward the indolent and the inefficient. 
 
 5. Courses and examinations should be arranged, so far as possible, 
 with the main object of training the student to observe and to think, and 
 also, to a sufficient extent, to manipulate. It should be made impos- 
 sible to pass in a course by rule-of-thumb work, mere memorizing, or 
 cramming. 
 
 6. The lecture system should be reduced to a minimum, so far as 
 practicable. 
 
 7. Students should be taught how to study, how to work effectively, 
 and how to think logically. The systematic study of logic, in some form, 
 might well be required in any engineering course. 
 
 8. Teachers, at all events in the early portions of their careers, 
 should be willing, and not only willing, but glad, to submit to some 
 scrutiny of their methods and results, should welcome kindly criticism, 
 should discuss and study educational methods, and should be willing to 
 modify their own methods. There should be cordial sympathy and 
 harmony between the members of the faculty, and a spirit of earnest 
 cooperation. 
 
 9. Every student should be obliged to follow a carefully planned 
 curriculum, involving continuous and systematic mental discipline. This 
 does not mean that every student should follow the same curriculum, 
 but that each man's course should be systematic in itself. 
 
 10. Students in colleges and technical schools should not idle away 
 their summer vacations, but should devote them entirely or largely to 
 work of some kind. The other vacations during the year are sufficient 
 for the physical needs of boys of 18 or over. Summer work should be 
 either at shop work or at summer engineering camps, or in actual shops 
 or other engineering 'establishments, where the student will see the op- 
 portunities for the practical applications of science, and will also learn 
 that ability and wisdom are not confined to men who go to college, 
 and that if he would surpass the untutored man in the race of life it must 
 be by getting an education. 
 
 But when all is said and done, the necessary limitations to efficiency 
 in education will remain, these being largely due to the student himself 
 and his lack of will, to the parent, who has given the boy no home dis- 
 cipline in the days of childhood, to the lack of financial incentive, and 
 to the fact that efficiency cannot be measured. 
 
 Our colleges, no doubt, have serious defects more serious on ac- 
 count of the extraordinary rapidity of their growth. But they are earn- 
 estly engaged in the attempt to solve a great problem. They may go 
 
252 ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
 
 wrong, they undoubtedly will go wrong at times, but they will dis- 
 cover their mistakes and correct them so far as practicable. They need 
 in many respects to be reformed, and where they need it they will be 
 reformed. They have, on the whole, done much good work, together 
 with considerable poor work, but they will do better and better work as 
 the years go by. 
 
THE RELATIONS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING TO OTHER 
 BRANCHES OF SCIENCE. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 Early in 1904 the Organizing Committee of the International Con- 
 gress of Arts and Science which was founded under the auspices of the 
 Louisiana Purchase Exposition invited Dr. Waddell and Prof. Lewis M. 
 Haupt to represent the profession of civil engineering and address the 
 Congress upon 'The Relations of Civil Engineering to Other Branches 
 of Science" and "Present Problems of Civil Engineering." Although 
 the first of these addresses is of a rather abstract nature to claim deep 
 interest from engineering students in general, still it contains much that 
 can be read with profit by undergraduates of the higher grade, especial- 
 ly when they are truly interested in engineering as a learned profes- 
 sion. It is, therefore, hoped that it will prove to be both interesting 
 and valuable to at least a few of the readers of this compilation of ad- 
 dresses. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 253 
 
THE RELATIONS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING TO OTHER 
 BRANCHES OF SCIENCE. 
 
 An Address to the International Congress of Arts and Science at 
 the Universal Exposition, St. Louis, Mo., September 21, 1904. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 The topic set for this address is "The Relations of Civil Engineering 
 to Other Branches of Science." In its broad sense civil engineering in- 
 cludes all branches of engineering except, perhaps, the military. This 
 is its scope as recognized by two of the highest authorities, viz., the 
 American Society of Civil Engineers -and the Institution of Civil Engi- 
 neers of Great Britain ; for these two societies of Civil Engineers admit 
 to their ranks members of all branches of engineering. It is evident, 
 though, from a perusal of the Programme of this Congress that the 
 Organizing Committee intended to use the term in a restricted sense, 
 because it has arranged for addresses on mechanical, electrical, and min- 
 ing engineering. But what are the proper restrictions of the term is, up 
 to the present time, a matter of individual opinion, no authority having 
 as yet attempted definitely to divide engineering work among the various 
 branches of the profession. To do so would, indeed, be a most difficult 
 undertaking; for not only do all large constructions involve several 
 branches of engineering, but also the profession is constantly being more 
 minutely divided and subdivided. For instance, there are recognzied 
 to-day by the general public, if not formally by the profession, the 
 specialties of architectural, bridge, chemical, electrical, harbor, high- 
 way, hydraulic, landscape, marine, mechanical, metallurgical, mining, 
 municipal, railroad, and sanitary engineering, and possibly other divi- 
 sions ; and the end is not yet, for the tendency of modern times in all 
 walks of life is to specialize. 
 
 Between Tredgold's broad definition of civil engineering, which in- 
 cludes substantially all the applied sciences that relate to construction, 
 and the absurdly narrow definition which certain engineers have lately 
 been endeavoring to establish during the course of a somewhat ani- 
 mated discussion and which would confine civil engineering to dealing 
 with stationary structures only, there must be some method of limitation 
 that will recognize the modern tendency toward specialization without 
 reducing the honored profession of civil engineering to a mere sub- 
 division of applied mechanical science. 
 
 255 
 
256 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 Without questioning in any way the correctness of the Tredgold 
 definition, civil engineering will be assumed, for the purposes of this 
 address, to include the design and construction of bridges ; extensive and 
 difficult foundations; tunneling; retaining walls; sea-walls and other 
 heavy masonry ; viaducts ; wharves ; piers ; docks ; river improvement ; 
 harbors and waterways ; water supply ; sewerage ; filtration ; treatment 
 of refuse ; highway construction ; canals ; irrigation works ; dams ; geo- 
 detic work; surveying; railways (both steam and electric) ; gas works; 
 manufacturing plants; the general design and construction of plants 
 for the production of power (steam, electric, hydraulic, and gaseous) ; 
 the general design and construction of cranes ; cableways ; breakers, and 
 other mining structures; the heavier structural features of office build- 
 ings and other large buildings that carry heavy loads ; the general prob- 
 lems of transportation, quarrying, and the handling of heavy materials; 
 and all designing and construction of a similar nature. 
 
 In contradistinction, mechanical engineering should include the de- 
 sign and construction of steam engines, machine tools, locomotives, hoist- 
 ing and conveying machinery, cranes of the usual types, rolling-mill ma- 
 chinery, blast-furnace machinery, and, in fact, all machinery which is 
 designed for purely manufacturing purposes. 
 
 Electrical engineering should include all essentially electrical work, 
 x such as the designing, construction, .and operation of telephone and tele- 
 graph lines ; electric light plants ; dynamos ; motors ; switchboards ; wir- 
 ing; electric devices of all kinds; transmission lines; cables (both marine 
 and land) ; and storage batteries. 
 
 Mining engineering should include all under-ground mining work; 
 means for handling the products of mines; roasting, smelting, milling, 
 stamping, and concentrating of ores; drainage and ventilation of mines; 
 disposal of mine refuse; and similar problems. 
 
 It is impracticable to draw hard and fast lines between the various 
 branches of engineering, because, as before indicated, nearly all large 
 constructions involve several specialties, consequently no specialist can 
 confine his attention to a single line of work to the exclusion of all other 
 lines. For instance, the bridge engineer encounters mechanical and elec- 
 trical engineering problems in designing movable bridges; railroading 
 in approaches to bridges; river improvement in the protection of piers 
 and abutments ; highway construction in the pavement of wagon bridges ; 
 architecture in the machinery houses of swing spans ; hydraulic engineer-- 
 ing in guarding bridges against fire; and chemistry and metallurgy in 
 testing materials. The railroad engineer encounters architecture and 
 structural engineering in depots, roundhouses, and other buildings; hy- 
 draulic problems in pumping plants and bank protection ; mechanical 
 
WADDELL. 257 
 
 engineering in interlocking plants; and electrical engineering in repair- 
 shop machinery. The mining engineer invades the field of mechanical 
 and electrical engineering in his hoisting, ventilating, and transporting 
 machinery; deals with civil engineering in his surveys; and encounters 
 chemistry and metallurgy in testing ores. Similarly it might be shown 
 that all branches of engineering overlap each other and are inter- 
 dependent. 
 
 It was the general opinion among scientists not many years ago that 
 engineering was neither a science nor a profession, but merely a trade 
 or business ; and even to-day there are a few learned men who hold to 
 this notion some of them, mirabile dictu, being engineers; but that 
 such a view is entirely erroneous is now commonly conceded. He is an 
 ill-informed man who to-day will deny that civil engineering has be- 
 come one of the learned professions. Its advances in the last quarter of a 
 century have been truly gigantic and unprecedented in the annals of 
 professional development. It certainly can justly lay claim to being the 
 veritable profession of progress ; for the larger portion of the immense 
 material advancement of the world during the last century is due pri- 
 marily and pre-eminently to its engineers. 
 
 It must be confessed that half a century ago engineering was little 
 better than a trade, but by degrees it advanced into an art, and to-day, 
 in its higher branches at least, it is certainly a science and one of the 
 principal sciences. 
 
 The sciences may be divided into two main groups, viz., "Pure 
 Sciences" and "Applied Sciences." 
 
 The "Pure Sciences" include: 
 
 1st. Those sciences which deal with numbers and the three di- 
 mensions in space, the line, the surface, and the volume, or in other 
 words "Mathematics." 
 
 2d. Those sciences which deal with inorganic matter, its origin, 
 structure, metamorphoses, and properties; such as geology, petrology, 
 chemistry, physics, mineralogy, geography, and astronomy. 
 
 3d. Those sciences which deal with the laws, structure, and life of 
 organic matter; such as botany, zoology, entomology, anatomy, 
 physiology, and anthropology. 
 
 4th. The social sciences; such as political economy, sociology, 
 philosophy, history, psychology, politics, jurisprudence, education, and 
 religion. 
 
 "Applied Sciences" include: 
 
 1st. Those which relate to the growth and health of organic matter ; 
 such as medicine, surgery, dentistry, hygiene, agriculture, floriculture, 
 and horticulture. 
 
258 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 2d. Those which deal with the transformation of forces and in- 
 organic matter, viz., the various lines of engineering, civil, mechanical, 
 electrical, mining, marine, chemical, metallurgical, architectural, etc. 
 
 3d. Those which relate to economics ; such as industrial organiza- 
 tions and manufactures, transportation, commerce, exchange, and insur- 
 ance. 
 
 Some writers make no distinction between the terms "Political 
 Economy" and "Economics," but in this address they are divided, the 
 former relating to broad subjects of national importance and the latter 
 to minor matters and to some of the details of larger ones. For instance, 
 currency, the national debt, banking, customs, taxation, and the subsidiz- 
 ing of industries pertain to "Political Economy," while economy of ma- 
 terials in designing and of cost of labor in construction, supplanting of 
 hand power by machinery, systemization of work of all kinds, adjustment 
 of grades and curvatures of railroads to traffic, and time and labor saving 
 devices come under the head of "Economics." 
 
 The distinctions between the pure and the applied sciences are at 
 times extremely difficult to draw, for one science often merges almost 
 imperceptibly into one or more of the others. 
 
 The groups of pure sciences that have been enumerated may be 
 termed 
 
 The Mathematical Sciences, 
 The Physical Sciences, 
 The Physiological Sciences, and 
 The Social Sciences, 
 
 while the groups of applied sciences may be called 
 The Organic Sciences, 
 The Constructive Sciences, and 
 The Economic Sciences. 
 
 In what follows the preceding nomenclature will be adopted. 
 The terming of engineering the "Constructive Science" is a happy 
 conception, for engineering is truly and almost exclusively the science of 
 construction. The functions of the engineer in all cases are either 
 directly constructive or tend toward construction. 
 
 The engineer has ever had a due appreciation of all the sciences, 
 imagination to see practical possibilities for the results of their findings, 
 and the common-sense power of applying them to his own use. 
 
 Pure science (barring perhaps political economy) is not concerned 
 with financial matters, and its devotees often look down with lofty dis- 
 dain upon everything of a utilitarian nature, but engineering is certainly 
 the science most directly concerned with the expenditure of money. The 
 engineer is the practical man of the family of .scientists. While he is 
 
WADDELL. 259 
 
 sufficiently well informed to be able to go up into the clouds occasionally 
 with his brethren, he is always judicious and comes to earth again. In 
 all his thoughts, words, and acts he is primarily utilitarian. It is true 
 that he bows down to the goddess of mathematics, but he always wor- 
 ships from afar. It is not to be denied that mathematics is the mainstay 
 of engineering; nevertheless the true engineer pursues the subject only 
 so far as it is of practical value, while the mathematician seeks new laws 
 and further development of the science in the abstract. The engineer 
 does not trouble himself to consider space of four dimensions, because 
 there are too many things for him to do in the three-dimension space in 
 which he lives. Non-Euclidian geometry is barred from his mind for 
 a fuller understanding of the geometry which is of use to ordinary man- 
 kind. The mathematician demonstrates that the triangle is the sole 
 polygonal figure which cannot be distorted, while the engineer, recog- 
 nizing the correctness of the principle, adopts it as the fundamental, 
 elementary form for his trusses. The mathematician endeavors to 
 stretch his imagination so as to grasp the infinite, but the engineer limits 
 his field of action to finite, tangible matters. 
 
 The geologist, purely studious, points out what he has deduced about 
 the construction of the earth ; but the engineer makes the mine pay. 
 
 The chemist discovers certain facts about the effects of different 
 elements in alloys ; but the engineer works out and specifies a new ma- 
 terial for his structures. Again, the chemist learns something about the 
 action of clay combined with carbonate of lime when water is added, and 
 from this discovery the engineer determines a way to produce hydraulic 
 cement. 
 
 The physicist evolves the theory of the expansive power of steam, 
 and the engineer uses this knowledge in the development of the steam 
 engine. Again, the physicist determines by both theory and experiment 
 the laws governing the pressures exerted by liquids, and the engineer 
 applies these laws to the construction of dams and ships. 
 
 The botanist with his microscope studies the form and construction 
 of woods, while the engineer by experimentation devises means to pre- 
 serve his timber. 
 
 The biologist points to bare facts that he has discovered, but the 
 engineer "grasps them and utilizes them for the purification of water 
 supplies. 
 
 In short, the aim of pure science is discovery, but the purpose of 
 engineering is usefulness. 
 
 The delvers in the mysterious laboratories, the mathematical gym- 
 nasts, the scholars poring . over musty tomes of knowledge, are not 
 understood by the work-a-day world, nor do they understand it. But 
 
260 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 between stands the engineer with keen and sympathetic appreciation of 
 the value of the work of the one and a ready understanding of the 
 needs and requirements of the other; and by his power of adaptability 
 he grasps the problem presented, takes from the investigators their 
 abstract results, and transforms them into practical usefulness for the 
 world. 
 
 The work of the engineer usually does not permit him to make very 
 extensive researches or important scientific discoveries; nor is it often 
 essential today for him to do so, as there are numerous investigators in 
 all lines whose object is to deduce abstract scientific facts; nevertheless 
 there comes a time occasionally in the career of every successful .engi- 
 neer when it is necessary for him to make investigations more or less 
 abstract, although ultimately utilitarian ; consequently it behooves engi- 
 neers to keep in touch with the methods of scientific investigation, in 
 order that they may either perform desired experiments themselves, or 
 instruct trained investigators how to perform them. 
 
 The engineer must be more or less a genius who invents and devises 
 ways and means of applying all available resources to the uses of man- 
 kind. His motto is "utility," and his every thought and act must be to 
 employ to the best advantage the materials and conditions at hand. 
 To be able to accomplish this object he must be thoroughly familiar with 
 all useful materials and their physical properties as determined by the 
 investigations of the pure scientists. 
 
 Many well known principles of science have lain unused for ages 
 awaiting the practical application for which they were just suited. The 
 power of steam was known long before the practical mind of Watt 
 utilized it in the steam engine. 
 
 The engineer is probably an evolution of the artisan rather than 
 of the early scientist. His work is becoming more scientific because of 
 his relations and associations with the scientific world. These relations 
 of the engineer to the sciences are of comparatively recent origin, and 
 this fact accounts for the rapid development in the engineering and in- 
 dustrial world of the past half century. The results of this associa- 
 tion have been advantageous to both the engineer and the pure scientist. 
 The demands of the engineers for new discoveries have acted as an 
 incentive for greater effort on the part of the investigators. In many 
 instances the engineer is years in advance of the pure scientist in these 
 demands ; but, on the other hand, there are, no doubt, many valuable 
 scientific facts now available which will yet work wonders when the 
 engineer perceives their practical utility. 
 
 The engineer develops much more fully the faculty of discernment 
 than does the abstract scientist, he is less visionary and more practical, 
 less exacting and more commercial. 
 
WADDELL. 261 
 
 It is essential to progress that large stores of scientific knowledge 
 in the abstract be accumulated and recorded in advance by the pure 
 scientists, so that as the engineer encounters the necessity for their use 
 he can employ them to the best advantage. The engineer must be famil- 
 iar with these stores of useful knowledge in order to know what is 
 available. This forms the scientific side of the engineer's work. 
 While he must know what has been done by investigators, it is not 
 absolutely necessary that he know how to make all such researches for 
 himself; although, as before stated, there are times in an engineer's 
 practice when such knowledge will not come amiss. 
 
 As engineers are specializing more and more, each particular spe- 
 cialty becomes more closely allied with the sciences that most affect it; 
 consequently, to ensure the very best and most enconomic results in 
 his work the engineer must keep in close touch with all of the scientific 
 discoveries in his line. 
 
 The early engineers, owing to lack of scientific knowledge, took 
 much greater chances in their constructions than is necessary for up- 
 to-date modern engineers. There is now no occasion for an engineer 
 to make any hazardous experiments in his structures, because by careful 
 study of scientific records he can render his results certain. 
 
 In future the relations between engineers and the pure scientists 
 will be even closer than they are today, for as the problems confronted 
 by the engineer become more complex and comprehensive the necessity 
 for accurate knowledge will increase. 
 
 The technical training now given engineers involves a great deal 
 of the purely scientific; and it is evident that this training should be so 
 complete as to give them a comprehensive knowledge of all the leading 
 sciences that affiliate with engineering. There is no other profession 
 that requires such a thorough knowledge of nature and her laws. 
 
 Of all the various divisions and sub-divisions of the sciences herein- 
 before enumerated and of those tabulated in the Organizing Committee's 
 "Programme," the following only are associated at all closely with civil 
 engineering : 
 
 Mathematics. 
 
 Geology. 
 
 Petrology. 
 
 Chemistry. 
 
 Physics. 
 
 Mineralogy. 
 
 Geography. 
 
 Astronomy. 
 
 Biology. 
 
262 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 Botany. 
 
 Political Economy. 
 
 Jurisprudence. 
 
 Education. 
 
 Economics. 
 
 Attention is called to the fact that this list contains a number of 
 divisions from the four main groups of pure sciences, viz., the mathe- 
 matical, physical, physiological, and social, and but one division (eco- 
 nomics) from the three groups of applied sciences, viz., the organic, 
 constructive, and economic. The reasons why so little attention is to 
 be given to the relation between civil engineering and the applied sci- 
 ences are, first, in respect to organic science, there is scarcely any 
 relation worth mentioning between this science and civil engineering, 
 and, second, because the inter-relations between civil engineering and 
 other divisions of constructive science have already been treated in 
 this address. 
 
 Of all the pure sciences there is none so intimately connected with 
 civil engineering as mathematics. It is not, as most laymen suppose, 
 the whole essence of engineering, but it is the engineer's principal 
 tool. Because technical students are drilled so thoroughly in mathemat- 
 ics and because so much stress is laid upon the study of calculus, it is 
 commonly thought that the higher mathematics are employed con- 
 stantly in an engineer's practice ; but, as a matter of fact, the only 
 branches of mathematics that a constructing engineer employs regularly 
 are arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and trigonometry. In some lines of 
 work logarithms are used often, and occasionally in establishing a 
 formula the calculus is employed ; but the engineer in active practice 
 soon pretty nearly forgets what analytical geometry and calculus mean. 
 As for applied mechanics, which, as the term is generally understood, 
 is a branch of mathematics (although it involves also physics and other 
 sciences), the engineer once in a while has to take down his old text- 
 books to look up some principle that he has encountered in his reading 
 but has forgotten. Strictly speaking, though, engineers in their daily 
 tasks utilize applied mechanics, almost without recognition ; for stresses, 
 moments, energy, moments of inertia, impact, momentum, radii of gyra- 
 tion, etc., are all conceptions of applied mechanics; and these are terms 
 that the engineer employs constantly. 
 
 There are some branches of the higher mathematics of which as yet 
 engineers have made no practical use, and prominent among these is 
 quarternions. When it first appeared the conciseness of its reasoning 
 and its numerous short-cuts to results gave promise of practical use- 
 fulness to engineers, but thus far the promise has not been fulfilled. 
 
WADDELL. 263 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that the higher mathematics are of so 
 little use to the practicing engineer, this is no reason why their study 
 should be omitted from or even slighted in the technical schools; be- 
 cause when an engineer has need in his work for the higher mathe- 
 matics he needs them badly; besides, the mental training that their 
 study involves is almost a necessity for an engineer's professional 
 success. 
 
 Geology (with its allied branch, or more strictly speaking subdi- 
 vision, petrology) and civil engineering are closely allied. Civil en- 
 gineers are by no means so well versed in this important science as they 
 should be. This, perhaps, is due to the fact that the instruction given 
 on geology in technical schools is mainly from books, hence most gradu- 
 ates find difficulty in naming properly the ordinary stones that they 
 encounter, and are unable to prognosticate with reasonable assurance 
 concerning what a proposed cutting contains. 
 
 Geology is important to the civil engineer in tunneling, railroading, 
 foundations, mining, water-supply, and many other lines of work; con- 
 sequently, he needs to receive at his technical school a thorough course 
 in the subject given both by text-books and by field instruction. 
 
 A knowledge of petrology will enable the engineer to determine 
 readily whether building stone contains iron which will injure its appear- 
 ance on exposure, or feldspar which will disintegrate rapidly under the 
 action of the weather or of acids from manufacturing establishments. 
 
 Next to mathematics, physics is undoubtedly the science most essen- 
 tial to civil engineering. The physicist discovers and formulates the 
 laws of nature, the engineer employs them in "directing the sources of 
 power in nature for the use and convenience of man." The forces of 
 gravitation, adhesion, and cohesion; the pressure, compressibility, and 
 expansibility of fluids and gases; the laws of motion, curvilinear, rec- 
 tilinear, accelerated, and retarded; momentum; work; energy; the 
 transformation of energy ; thermodynamics ; electricity ; the laws of wave 
 motion ; the reflection, refraction, and transmission of light ; and the 
 mass of other data furnished by the physicist form a large portion of 
 the first principles of civil engineering. 
 
 The function of applied mechanics is to establish the fundamental 
 laws of physics in terms suitable for service, and to demonstrate their 
 applicability to engineering construction. 
 
 Chemistry is a science that enters into closer relations with civil 
 engineering than does any other science except mathematics and physics, 
 and as the manufacture of the materials of engineering approaches per- 
 fection the importance of chemistry to engineers increases. Within a 
 comparatively short period the chemist has made it possible by analyz- 
 
264 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 ing and selecting the constituents to control the quality of cast iron, 
 cast steel, rolled steel, bronze, brass, nickel steel, and other alloys. The 
 engineer requires certain physical characteristics in his materials, and 
 obtains them by limiting the chemical constituents in accord with data 
 previously furnished by the chemist. The proper manufacture of 
 cement requires the combined skill and knowledge of the chemist and 
 the mechanical engineer. 
 
 In water supply the chemist is called in to determine the character 
 and amounts of the impurities in the water furnished or contemplated 
 for use. The recent discovery that the introduction of about one part 
 of sulphate of copper in a million parts of water will effectively dis- 
 pose of the algse, which have long given trouble, is a notable instance 
 of the increasing interdependence of these two branches of science, 
 as is also the fact that the addition to water of a small amount of 
 alum will precipitate the earthy matter held in suspension without leav- 
 ing in it any appreciable trace of the reagent. 
 
 In the purification of water and sewage, in the selection of ma- 
 terials which will resist the action of acids and the elements, and in the 
 manufacture of alloys to meet various requirements, a thorough knowl- 
 edge of chemistry is essential. 
 
 A knowledge of mineralogy is requisite for a clear understanding 
 of the nature of many materials of construction, but is otherwise of only 
 general interest to civil engineers. ; . 
 
 Geography in its broad sense is related to civil engineering in some 
 of its lines, for instance, geodesy and surveying, but generally speaking 
 there is not much connection between these two branches of science. 
 
 Astronomy is perhaps more nearly related to civil engineering 
 than is geography, although it is so related in exactly the same lines, 
 for the railroad engineer on a long survey must occasionally check the 
 correctness of his alignment by observations of Polaris, and the coast 
 surveyor locates points by observations of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 Biology is allied to civil engineering mainly through bacteriology 
 as applied to potable water, the treatment of sewage to prevent contam- 
 ination of streams, and the sanitation of the camps of surveying and 
 construction parties. The treatment of sewage has been given much 
 more thorough study abroad than in this country, but the importance 
 of its bearing upon life in the large cities of America is becoming better 
 understood; consequently the progressive sanitary engineer should 
 possess a thorough knowledge of bacteriology. In important cases, 
 such as an epidemic of typhoid fever, the specialist in bacteriology 
 would undoubtedly be called in ; but a large portion of the work of pre- 
 
WADDELL. 265 
 
 venting or eradicating bacterial diseases will fall to the lot of the sani- 
 tary engineer. 
 
 Botany comes in touch with civil engineering mainly, if not solely, 
 in the study of the various woods used in construction, although it is 
 a fact that a very intimate knowledge of this pure science might enable 
 a railroad engineer or surveyor to determine approximately the charac- 
 ters of the soils from the plants and trees growing upon them. A 
 knowledge of botany is of no great value to trie civil engineer, and much 
 time is often wasted on its study in technical schools. 
 
 Political economy is a science that at first thought one would be 
 likely to say is not at all allied to civil engineering; but if he did so, 
 he would be mistaken, because political economy certainly includes the 
 science of business and finance, and civil engineering is most assuredly 
 a business as well as a profession; besides the leading engineers usually 
 are either financiers themselves or advisers to financiers. Great enter- 
 prises are often evolved, studied, financed, and executed by engineers. 
 How important it is then that they understand the principles of political 
 economy, especially in their relations to engineering enterprises! It is 
 only of late years that technical students have received much instruction 
 in this branch of social science, and the ordinary technical school cur- 
 riculum today certainly leaves much to be desired in respect to instruc- 
 tion in political economy. 
 
 Jurisprudence and civil engineering are closely allied, in that en- 
 gineers of all lines must understand the laws of business and the re- 
 strictions that are likely to be placed upon their constructions by 
 municipal, county, state, and federal laws. While most engineering 
 schools carry in their list of studies the "Laws of Business," very few 
 of them devote anything like sufficient attention to this important branch 
 of science. 
 
 Are the sciences of civil engineering and education in any way 
 allied? Aye, that they are! and far more than most people think, for 
 there is no other profession that requires as much education as does 
 civil engineering. Not only must the would-be engineer study the 
 various pure and applied sciences and learn a great mass of technical 
 facts ; but he must also have in advance of all this instruction a broad, 
 general education the broader the better, provided that no time be 
 wasted on useless studies, such as the dead languages. 
 
 The science of education is so important a subject for civil engineers 
 that all members of the profession in North America, more especially 
 those of high rank, ought to take the deepest interest in the develop- 
 ment of engineering education, primarily by joining the special society 
 organized for its promotion, and afterward by devoting some of their 
 
266 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 working time to aid this society in accomplishing its most praiseworthy 
 
 objects. 
 
 The science of economics and that of civil engineering are, or ought 
 to be, in the closest possible touch ; for true economy in design and con- 
 struction is one of the most important features of modern engineering. 
 Every high-class engineer must be a true economist in all the professional 
 work that he does, for unless one be such, it is impossible today for him 
 to rise above mediocrity. 
 
 True economy in engineering consists in always designing and build- 
 ing 'structures, machines, and other constructions so that, while they 
 will perform satisfactorily in every way all the functions for which they 
 are required, the sum of their first cost and the equivalent capi- 
 talized cost for their maintenance, operation, and repairs shall 
 be a minimum. The ordinary notion that the structure or machine which 
 is least in first cost must be the most economical is a fallacy. In fact, 
 in many cases, just the opposite is true, the structure or machine involv- 
 ing the largest first cost being often the cheapest. 
 
 Economics as a science should be taught thoroughly to the student 
 in the technical school, then economy in all his early work should be 
 drilled into him by his superiors during his novitiate in the profession, 
 so that when he reaches the stage where he designs and builds inde- 
 pendently, his constructions will invariably be models of true economy. 
 
 It has been stated that the relations between civil engineering and 
 many of the pure sciences are very intimate, that the various branches 
 of engineering, although becoming constantly more and more specialized, 
 are so interdependent and so closely connected that they cannot be sepa- 
 rated in important constructions, that the more data the pure scientists 
 furnish the engineers the better it is for both parties, and that a broad, 
 general knowledge of many of the sciences, both pure and applied, is 
 essential to great success in the engineering profession. 
 
 Such being the case, the question arises as to what can be done to 
 foster a still closer affiliation between engineering and the other sciences, 
 and how engineers of all branches and the pure scientists can- best be 
 brought into more intimate relations, in order to advance the develop- 
 ment of the pure sciences, and thus benefit the entire world by increas- 
 ing the knowledge and efficiency of its engineers. 
 
 One of the most effective means is to encourage the creation of such 
 congresses as the one that is now being held, and so to organize them 
 and arrange their various meetings as to secure the greatest possible 
 beneficial results. 
 
 Another is for such societies as the American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science and the Society for the Promotion of Engi- 
 
WADDELL. 267 
 
 neering Education to take into their membership engineers of good 
 standing, and induce them to share the labors and responsibilities of the 
 other members. 
 
 Conversely, the various technical societies should associate with 
 them by admission to some dignified grade (other, perhaps, than that 
 of full member) pure scientists of high rank and specialists in other 
 branches of constructive science, and should do their best to interest 
 such gentlemen in the societies' objects and development. 
 
 A self-evident and most effective method of accomplishing the de- 
 sired result is to improve the courses of study- in the technical schools 
 in every possible way ; for instance, by bringing prominent scientists and 
 engineers to lecture to the students and to tell them just how scientific 
 and professional work -of importance is being done throughout the 
 world, by stimulating their ambition to rise in their chosen profession, 
 by teaching them to love their work instead of looking upon it as a 
 necessary evil, and by offering prizes and distinctions for the evi- 
 dence of superior and effective mental effort on the part of both students 
 and practicing engineers. 
 
 There has lately been advanced an idea which, if followed out, 
 would aid the development of engineering more effectually than any 
 other possible method, and incidentally it would bring into close contact 
 scientists in all branches related directly or indirectly to engineering. 
 It is the establishment of a great post-graduate school of engineering 
 in which should be taught in every branch of the profession the most 
 advanced subjects of all existing knowledge that is of real, practical 
 value, the instructors being chosen mainly from the leading engineers 
 in each specialty, regardless of the cost of their services. Such spe- 
 cialists would, of course, be expected to give to this teaching only a 
 few weeks per annum, and a corps of regular professors and instructors, 
 who would devote their entire time and energies to the interests of the 
 school would be required. These professors and instructors should be 
 the best that the country possesses, and the inducements of salary and 
 facilities for investigation that are provided should be such that no 
 technical instructor could afford to refuse an offer of a professorship 
 in this school. 
 
 Every modern apparatus needed for either instruction or original 
 investigation should be furnished; and arrangements should be made 
 for providing means to carry out all important technical investigations. 
 
 It should be the duty of the regular faculty to make a special study 
 of engineering literature for the benefit of the profession; to prepare 
 annual indices thereof; to p'lt into book form the gist of all technical 
 writings in the transactions of the various engineering societies and in 
 
268 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 the technical press that are worthy of being preserved and recorded in 
 this way, so that students and engineers shall be able to search in books 
 for all the data they need instead of in the back files of periodicals; to 
 translate or assist in the translation of all engineering books in foreign 
 languages, which, in the opinion of competent experts, would prove 
 useful to engineers or to the students of the school; and to edit and 
 publish a periodical for the recording of the results of all investiga- 
 tions of value made under the auspices of the institution. 
 
 In respect to what might be accomplished by such a post-graduate 
 school of engineering, the following quotation is made from the pamph- 
 let containing the address in which the project was advanced:-* 
 
 "The advantages to be gained by "attendance at such a post-graduate 
 school as the one advocated are almost beyond expression. A degree 
 from such a school would always ensure rapid success for its recipient. 
 Possibly for two or three years after taking it a young engineer would 
 have less earning capacity than his classmates of equal ability from the 
 lower technical school, who had gone directly into actual practice. How- 
 ever, in five years he certainly would have surpassed them, and in less 
 than ten years he would be a recognized authority, while the majority of 
 the others would be forming the rank and file of the profession, with 
 none of them approaching at all closely in reputation the more highly 
 educated engineer. 
 
 "But if the advantages of the proposed school to the individual are 
 so great, how much greater would be its advantages to the engineering 
 profession and to the entire nation! After a few years of its existence 
 there would be 'scattered throughout the country a number of engineers 
 more highly trained in the arts and sciences than any technical men who 
 have ever lived; and it certainly would not take long to make apparent 
 the impress of their individuality and knowledge upon the development 
 of civil engineering in all its branches, with a resulting betterment to 
 all kinds of constructions and the evolution of many new and important 
 types. | ;i. [jj , Xj 
 
 "When one considers that the true progress 01 me enure civilized 
 world is due almost entirely to the work of its engineers, the impor- 
 tance of providing the engineering profession with the highest possible 
 education in both theoretical and practical lines cannot be exaggerated. 
 
 "What greater or more worthy use for his accumulated wealth could 
 an American multi-millionaire conceive than the endowment and estab- 
 lishment of a post-graduate school of civil engineering." 
 
 *Higher Education for Civil Engineers. An Address to the Engineering 
 Society of the University of Nebraska, April 8. 1904, by J. A. L. Waddell, 
 D. Sc., LL. D. 
 
WADDELL. 269 
 
 Another extremely practical and effective means for affiliating civil 
 engineering and the other sciences is for engineers and professors of 
 both pure science and technics to establish the custom of associating 
 themselves for the purpose of solving problems that occur in the en- 
 gineers' practice. Funds should be made available by millionaires and 
 the richer institutions of learning for the prosecution of such investi- 
 gations. 
 
 Another possible (but in the past not always a successful) method, 
 is the appointment by technical societies of special committees to inves- 
 tigate important questions. The main trouble experienced by such com- 
 mittees has been the lack of funds for carrying out the necessary 
 investigations, and the fact that in nearly every case the members of 
 the committees were unpaid except by the possible honor and glory 
 resulting from, a satisfactory conclusion of their work. 
 
 Finally, an ideal but still practicable means is the evolution of a 
 high standard of professional ethics, applicable to all branches of en- 
 gineering, and governing the relations of engineers to each other, to 
 their fellow workers in the allied sciences, and to mankind in general. 
 
 As an example of what may be accomplished by an alliance of en- 
 gineering and the pure sciences, the construction of the proposed 
 Panama Canal might be mentioned. Some years ago the French at- 
 tempted to build this waterway and failed, largely on account of the 
 deadly fevers which attacked the workmen. It is said that at times 
 the annual death rate on the work ran as high as six hundred per 
 thousand. Since the efforts of the French on the project practically 
 ceased, the sciences of medicine and biology have discovered how to 
 combat with good chances for success the fatal malarial and yellow 
 fevers, as was instanced by the success of the Americans in dealing with 
 these scourges in the City of Havana after the conclusion of the Span- 
 ish-American war. 
 
 The success of the American engineers in consummating the great 
 enterprise of excavating a navigable channel between the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Oceans (and concerning their ultimate success there is almost 
 no reasonable doubt) will depend largely upon the assistance they re- 
 ceive from medical science and its allied sciences, such as hygiene, bac- 
 teriology, and chemistry. 
 
 Geological science will also play an important part in the design and 
 building of many portions of this great work, for a comprehensive and 
 correct knowledge of the geology of the Isthmus will prevent the 
 making of many costly mistakes, similar to those that resulted from the 
 last attempt to connect the two oceans. 
 
270 CIVIL ENGINEERING AND OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 Again, the handling of this vast enterprise will involve from start 
 to finish and to an eminent degree the science of economics. That 
 this science will be utilized to the utmost throughout the entire work is 
 assured by the character and professional reputation of both the Chief 
 Engineer and the members of the Commission. 
 
 Notwithstanding, though, the great precautions and high hopes for 
 a speedy and fortunate conclusion of the enterprise with which all con- 
 cerned are starting out, many unanticipated difficulties are very certain 
 to be encountered, and many valuable lives are likely to be expended 
 on the Isthmus before the first steamer passes through the completed 
 canal. Engineering work in tropical countries always costs much more 
 and takes much longer to accomplish than is first anticipated; and 
 disease, in spite of all precautions, is very certain to demand and re- 
 ceive its toll from those who rashly and fearlessly face it on construc- 
 tion works in the tierra calicntc. But with American engineers in 
 charge, and with the finances of the American Government behind the 
 project, success is practically assured in advance. 
 
 What the future of civil engineering is to be, who can say? If it 
 continues to advance as of late, by almost geometrical progression, the 
 mind of man can hardly conceive what it will become in fifty years 
 more ! Every valuable scientific discovery is certainly going to be 
 grasped quickly by the engineers and put to practical use by them for 
 the benefit of mankind, and it is only by their close association with the 
 pure scientists that the greatest possible development of the world can 
 be attained. ' - i * 
 
COLLEGE TRAINING OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 By 
 Professor Arthur C. Scott. 
 
 This paper, which was published in the Electrical World of April 
 18, 1908, is partially reproduced here, primarily, because of its real 
 value and, secondarily, to give herein some representation to electrical 
 engineering. 
 
 The Editors endorse heartily Professor Scott's plea for longer time 
 in which to give electrical engineering courses ; and they consider that 
 the said plea applies equally well to the curricula of all other branches of 
 engineering instruction. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 271 
 
COLLEGE TRAINING OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 By 
 Professor Arthur C. Scott. 
 
 Lord Kelvin said that the first object of an education is "to enable 
 a man to live," and the second, "to assist other men to live." The 
 truthfulness of this statement is nowhere more apparent than when 
 considered with respect to the engineer of the present time; to him is 
 due, more than to any other, the great improvements in communication, 
 transportation, illumination, and sanitation, which so manifestly assist 
 other men to live. Moreover, it must be admitted that the phenomenal 
 advance made in electrical engineering within the past few years has 
 brought comforts and luxuries to the public at large never before con- 
 sidered possible. 
 
 It has been well said that "the recent rapid development of the 
 electrical industry owes its vitality to the engineering school. Its gradu- 
 ates have done the designing, constructing, operating, and directing 
 which have made possible the rapid progress and wise extension in 
 the use of electricity." , ' . 
 
 Granting that this is true, the questions of vital interest and im- 
 portance at present are: 
 
 Does the average university or college technical school properly 
 prepare its students for their life work as engineers? 
 
 Does the sequence of courses taught, and do the methods of teach- 
 ing afford the maximum opportunity for the student, when viewed from 
 a common meeting point of the psychological and pedogogical standards 
 'within the college, and the practical or operating standards outside it? 
 
 Such questions as these, or something akin to them, have of late 
 been the source of voluminous, and no doubt profitable discussion, al- 
 though a digest of papers recently published in the American Institute 
 transactions, the Electrical World and the proceedings of the Society for 
 the Promotion of Engineering Education, appears to show that no com- 
 mon ground of agreement has yet been reached. 
 
 A few years ago the manufacturers and heads of corporations 
 gave the college graduate but little encouragement because they did 
 not appreciate the value of concentrated theory; the probable reason 
 why today they are saying, "Give us technically educated men," and 
 are filling vacancies in their factories and systems with college men, is 
 
 273 
 
274 COLLEGE TRAINING OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 on the one hand that the college is constantly endeavoring to improve 
 methods of instruction, including such practical testing and laboratory 
 work as will be more in line with their requirements, and on the other, 
 the manufacturer or corporation manager is becoming educated to rec- 
 ognize the importance of sound theoretical training. 
 
 The most potent criticisms by large manufacturers and property 
 managers of their college graduate employees, at the present time, ap- 
 pears to be that they lack a certain kind of human common sense, and 
 that they do not know how to adapt themselves to new conditions, or to 
 adjust their personalities to the wishes of their superiors ; that they 
 lack most decidedly the ability to direct men and are loath to assume 
 responsibility which requires originality or initiative on their part. 
 
 To meet such deficiencies several of the large concerns have estab- 
 lished special apprenticeship courses, and it has recently been shown 
 that with one large company, of those who finished the apprenticeship 
 course, 50 per cent are now with the company, and the others are 
 with operating or electrical supply companies, or acting as consulting 
 engineers or instructors. 
 
 The apprenticeship course attests the validity of the criticism, but 
 there are grades of adverse criticism, and it appears that the sort 
 presented is the best, for the following reason : A student passes from 
 three or four* years of cramming, memorizing effort in the high school 
 to the college. During the first two years of his college course he is 
 likely to go on memorizing as in the high school, and does not really 
 learn how to study or concentrate his mind on the work before him 
 until some time during the junior year, or possibly the senior year. 
 As a matter of fact, it appears that there is not sufficient time for him 
 to obtain a knowledge of the fundamental principles underlying a broad 
 education in engineering, and at the same time carry on work involving 
 much originality, or the direction of men. Therefore, the criticism of 
 the manufacturers in general of college graduates is what one familiar 
 with professional college work might expect. There appears to be no 
 doubt, however, in the minds of all that fundamental principles of 
 mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, English, foreign languages, 
 and political science are a necessary part of the engineering graduate's 
 proper training, as well as the more specialized subjects of engineering. 
 
 One writer representing a large manufacturing company says : 
 "Engineering students usually hate rhetoricals and language courses. 
 They should remember that engineers are sometimes called upon to 
 fill positions which are worth more than $75 per month, and that in such 
 positions they will need to know how to speak and write the English 
 language." 
 
SCOTT. 275 
 
 In attempting then to answer the question as to whether the aver- 
 age university or college technical school properly prepares its stu- 
 dents for their life work as engineers, a noteworthy distinction should 
 be made between the technical courses of the colleges and the technical 
 courses of the trades schools. While the latter may take the student 
 as far in the strictly technical subjects of engineering as do the college 
 courses, these schools do not assume to spend any time upon the so- 
 called culture studies that are required in college courses in engineering. 
 If the culture studies were removed from the college courses, there 
 would be more time available for the student to develop originality 
 in his work and possibly to obtain some instruction concerning the 
 direction of men, and commercial accounting. 
 
 Under these conditions, however, he is likely to become narrow- 
 minded concerning his work ; he gains nothing socially which a knowl- 
 edge of the culture studies may accord him ; he is limited to a direct 
 line of work because he has insufficient training to give him the con- 
 fidence in himself to start in any other. His earning capacity "in the 
 long run" is decreased proportionally, as has been well shown by sta- 
 tistics collected some time ago by James M. Dodge. 
 
 It appears that it is unwise for the university technical school 
 to attempt to go much farther toward the manufacturers in attempting 
 to turn out students who shall just suit them at the start. In the 
 first place it is impossible to graduate men who would suit the re- 
 quirements of all the manufacturers or employers. Methods are differ- 
 ent in different places, and require time and attention spent on them 
 by anyone, whether student or not, before he is in a position to show 
 much originality or power of direction. 
 
 It stands to reason that the general aim of the courses of the 
 average technical college at the present time is commendable; namely, 
 the thorough training of the student in all subjects fundamental to 
 engineering, with the introduction of such culture subjects as will serve 
 to place the student on an even footing, intellectually and socially, with 
 men in other professions, and in so far as this result is accomplished 
 .the college directs its students in the proper way. In other words, the 
 graduates have the rudiments of their profession, and the essentials 
 of cultured citizens: personal characteristics, environment, and time are 
 depended upon for final results. 
 
 The time is at hand, however, when the engineer should be so edu- 
 cated as to appreciate the artistic possibilities in his product, and to 
 exhibit esthetic sense in design. When the great engineering feats 
 of today become the ordinary products of tomorrow, the public will 
 demand beauty of design, as well as rigidity and utility of construe- 
 
276 COLLEGE TRAINING OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 tion and installation. And when the demand is made the men who 
 have finished an A. B. course in the university, followed by a full en- 
 gineering course, will occupy first positions because of the important 
 cultural training which they possess. 
 
 I am thoroughly of the opinion, therefore, that the average tech- 
 nical college does not properly prepare students for their future work 
 as electrical engineers. The chief reason is that an attempt is made 
 to complete subjects in a four-year course, which, if properly taught, 
 would require fully six years. It is no wonder the student does 'not 
 develop the spirit of original research he has no time to do anything 
 but attend lectures in the morning and laboratory practice in the after- 
 noon for six days per week, and even at that pace does not properly 
 cover the ground. The electrical engineer must be more of an all- 
 round engineer than any other; he must not only have the funda- 
 mental knowledge of theoretical and applied electricity, but in addition 
 must be reasonably familiar with much of civil, steam, hydraulic, and 
 gas engineering^ 
 
 Moreover, he should have some general instruction concerning the 
 public service corporation methods of the division of labor, accounting, 
 and general policy toward the public; on the law of contracts; and on 
 the interpretation of specifications and plans concerning both buildings 
 and equipment. 
 
 Many of the universities are recognizing the fact that the engineers 
 are doing from one-third to one-half more work during the four years 
 taken to graduate than are the academic students. This, of course, 
 is largely due to the relatively great number of hours spent in the 
 laboratory, and commendable changes are already being made in sev- 
 eral technical colleges, substituting a five or six year course for the 
 four-year course heretofore required. 
 
 With the ever-increasing additions to the present great 'store of 
 technical knowledge, I have no hesitancy in expressing my belief that 
 the institutions that are in the lead with a five or six year technical 
 course will readily find better positions for their graduates than will 
 the others. It certainly appears reasonable that in an institution having 
 well-equipped laboratories and a corps of competent instructors, it 
 is possible for the student during the one or two extra years to do 
 much more for himself than would be possible in the same time after 
 leaving at the end of a four-year course with what amounts to a too 
 hastily swallowed dose of everything taken; this is -evidenced not infre- 
 quently by cases of acute mental indigestion and, as complained of by 
 the manufacturers, an utter lack of originality, judgment, or logic in 
 meeting shop requirements. 
 
SCOTT. 277 
 
 The longer course gives the student time for some attention to 
 athletics, social functions, perusal of current engineering literature, 
 a better training in culture subjects and a much more thorough train- 
 ing in theoretical and applied engineering, than a four-year course. 
 My view of the situation, considering the best interests of the students, 
 is that any college offering technical courses leading to an electrical 
 engineering degree, should require the equivalent of a five-year course 
 to obtain the B. Sc. degree in electrical engineering, with the further 
 provision that the E. E. degree be allowed for an additional year of 
 study involving a thesis covering original research work; maintaining 
 the standard entrance requirements as at present and the same for all 
 students. 
 
 I venture to presume that the two additional years thus covered 
 by the student in the university would be of more benefit to him even- 
 tually than the first five years following the completion of a four-year 
 course if spent elsewhere. 
 
 The answer to the first question involves to some extent the answer 
 to the second. It is evident, if the presumption be granted that four 
 years is too short a time for the college man to complete an electrical 
 engineering course, that the methods of teaching might be improved. 
 It does not necessarily follow, however, that an increase of time required 
 would involve a change in sequence of subjects. 
 
 So far as laboratory courses are concerned, I believe it to be pos 
 sible to meet the criticisms of employers of students to some extent. 
 In some of the engineering laboratories the students have nearly all 
 connections made for them and their chief duty one and all in a 
 test is to read instruments and record their readings. I think that is 
 the limit of poor laboratory instruction. The student regards it as a 
 special dispensation at the time, but if he is required to direct a shop 
 test later on, he will no doubt act as though devoid of "human common 
 sense." He does not know what to do, much less how to direct others. 
 The laboratory course that will most nearly meet the adverse criticism 
 of employers today is the one wherein the students are required to- 
 make all machine and instrument connections, and also that requires 
 some one of the members of a section to act as director of the test 
 at every period, and be responsible to a reasonable extent for the use 
 of machines and instruments. This arrangement is not intended to re- 
 lieve the instructor from his duties in the least; on the contrary, it may 
 add something to them, for the student whose turn it may be to direct 
 the test should confer with him beforehand in order to be sure that he 
 
278 COLLEGE TRAINING OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 understands the test completely, and also to learn what instruments are 
 available for the test. 
 
 It is only by actually directing men that one learns how to do it, 
 and if the students gain some practice in this way in the laboratory, they 
 
 may be less criticised after entering practical work. 
 
 * * * * * # * * * * 
 
 To sum up, then, finally: 
 
 (1) The demands of present-day electrical engineering are such 
 as to make the extension of the normal college course of four years to 
 five years highly desirable. 
 
 (2) To stimulate the interest of the students in professional engi- 
 neering early in their college course, and to bring the students into 
 contact with professional electrical engineers, the head of the school 
 or an associate professor should give a course in electrical engineer- 
 ing physics to first-year men. 
 
 (3) Conference hours should be held in connection with theoreti- 
 cal work; one conference hour for each two or three hours' lectures 
 to juniors and seniors on engineering subjects. 
 
 (4) Laboratory courses in electrical engineering strictly, should 
 require the students to arrange all connections to instruments and 
 machines in the electrical laboratories, or the connecting of all auxiliary 
 apparatus for tests in steam or gas engineering laboratories, together 
 with the direction of the section on each test performed by some one of 
 the section previously designated by the instructor. 
 
 Such changes, I believe, would materially assist the engineering 
 students to attain the scholarship rank of students in other university 
 departments and also more successfully to meet the demands of com- 
 mercial practice. 
 
THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE ENGINEERING PROFES- 
 SION AND HOW FT MAY E IMPROVED. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 This address was delivered on January 18, 1911, at the 'University 
 of Nebraska on the occasion of the dedication of its new Engineering 
 Building. While it is not intended specially for students, nevertheless 
 they ought to be interested in it, because it treats of a question of vital 
 interest to all members of the engineering profession, both present and 
 prospective. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 279 
 
THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE ENGINEERING PROFES- 
 SION AND HOW IT MAY BE IMPROVED. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 While engineering is certainly the oldest of all the professions, in 
 that it dates back to the time when prehistoric man first performed his 
 simple constructions in stone and timber, it is really the youngest of 
 the so-called learned professions. In fact, it is only of late years that 
 it has been admitted into that honorable company. Not more than 
 a generation or two ago it was claimed, even by some engineers, 
 that engineering was not a profession but merely a trade; and, truth 
 " to tell, there was some reason in the statement; but today all that is 
 changed, because not only is engineering truly a profession, but it is 
 undoubtedly the greatest and most important of them all, in that the 
 wonderful progress of the world during the last century has been 
 effected mainly by the work of engineers. Where would civilization 
 stand today without railroads, electric power, the telegraph, the tele- 
 phone, the steam engine, steamboats, irrigation, water-supply, bridges, 
 steel buildings, mines, and many other important necessities and luxuries 
 too numerous to mention ? All these have been evolved in the engineer's 
 busy brain and have been developed by his untiring energy. 
 
 But because of its youth as a learned profession, engineering in 
 the public mind has not that status which justly is its due; and for the 
 same reason it is materially and unnecessarily hampered in several ways. 
 Among the various handicaps under which it is still laboring may be 
 mentioned the following: 
 
 First: Engineers as a class are insufficiently paid, especially for 
 important work. 
 
 Second: The engineer on any construction is not as well protected 
 by law, in regard to his compensation, as is either the workman or the 
 furnisher of materials. 
 
 Third: There is no established written code of engineering ethics 
 to govern the members of the profession in their relations with each 
 other and with the public. It is true that there is an unwritten code, but 
 it is far from being effective. 
 
 Fourth: The engineering profession is not properly respected by 
 the general public. 
 
 281 
 
282 PRESENT STATUS OF ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 In regard to the first complaint, viz., that engineers are insuffi- 
 ciently paid that is mainly through their own fault. In this particular 
 they are not as well off as masons, bricklayers, or even common labor- 
 ers, all of whom have organizations to ensure their being properly com- 
 pensated for their labor. However, there is now being effected in New 
 York City a society termed "The American Institute of Consulting En- 
 gineers," whose main object will be to regulate the minimum rates of 
 compensation among independent practitioners for all kinds of engineer- 
 ing services and to determine exactly what expenses should be borne by 
 the client and what by the engineer. Although the "Institute" is un- 
 doubtedly governed by selfish motives and may, perhaps, correctly be 
 termed a "union" or "guild," it is, nevertheless, a worthy organization; 
 and, in my opinion, it is destined to effect considerable good, provided 
 that its members will hold together and be governed in their conduct by 
 the rules and regulations which it adopts. As great innovations gener- 
 ally come slowly, it will probably be several years before the influence 
 of the "Institute" begins to be materially felt. 
 
 As for the second complaint, it will take much strenuous and con- 
 certed effort by a number of the leading engineering societies before the 
 laws of the country can be so changed as efficiently to protect engineers 
 against the dishonest practices of unscrupulous employers. The labor- 
 ers and furnishers of materials for any construction are protected in 
 respect to their compensation by their ability to place liens upon the 
 work; but the engineer is not. Whenever a company engaged in con- 
 struction gets into financial difficulties, the first man on the job to have 
 his pay withheld is the engineer, and he is generally the last under such 
 circumstances to receive his compensation in fact, often he fails ever 
 to get it. This is because he recognizes only too well the law's delays 
 and the expense of -litigation, and that generally, after the other em- 
 ployees' accounts are settled, there is nothing left with which to pay 
 him. 
 
 Concerning the third complaint, viz., lack of a code of ethics, the 
 speaker has a right to consider himself an authority upon the evil effects 
 thereof ; for a large portion of the work of his partner and himself is the 
 protecting of the firm's interests against the attacks of unscrupulous con- 
 tractors and engineers. 
 
 Over and over again, in his career, has he been forced temporarily 
 to lay aside the actual work of planning important structures which had 
 been awarded to him (the finalities of contracts not having been com- 
 pleted) in order to meet the opposition of brother engineers and to frus- 
 trate attempts on their part to take away such contracts and secure them 
 for themselves 
 
WADDELL. 283 
 
 That the public should fail to recognize the high position of the 
 Engineer and his consequent rights and dues is deeply to be regretted; 
 but that his co-workers in the profession should fall so far short of the 
 true measure of nobility is a matter of much greater importance. The 
 former condition may be due to ignorance, and therefore excusable; but 
 the latter is a flagrant violation not merely of professional ethics, but of 
 the common justice and fair play which should always govern between 
 man and man. 
 
 This is a condition and not a theory which confronts us; and it must 
 be met by engineers in a noble, manly, and generous spirit, each resolv- 
 ing within himself to devote his influence and energy to the advance- 
 ment of mankind in general and the profession and his fellow members 
 thereof in particular by all means in his power, and never to be found in 
 that body of carping critics, back biters, and unscrupulous antagonists 
 whose sole effort is to pull down and destroy the works, reputations, or 
 characters of those who have been successful in their practice or who 
 are endeavoring to do what is right and just in thought, word, and deed. 
 
 The carrying forward of any code of ethics is mainly an individual 
 matter, and the responsibility for its success lies with each engineer. 
 Therefore let each one decide for himself that no possible gain of repu- 
 tation or riches is great enough to bias or prejudice him in regard to the 
 rights of anyone, and especially of a brother engineer. 
 
 Not until such a rule of conduct becomes general and firmly estab- 
 lished among engineers, will the public grant to the profession the rec- 
 ognition which is due to it because of the importance of the work which 
 its members perform. 
 
 During the last two years there has been on the tapis an endeavor 
 to form a professional association of the highest order with the object 
 of correcting all the evils from which engineering is suffering and to 
 make it a real power in the land. Unfortunately, the organization is not 
 yet quite perfected, consequently I do not feel at liberty to mention to- 
 day its title nor the names of its principal promoters who have been 
 chosen from the leading American engineers in all divisions of the pro- 
 fession. However, I am permitted to speak to you of its scope and ob- 
 jects ; and ere long these will be made known to the public through the 
 technical press. 
 
 Quoting from the proposed constitution, "Its objects shall be: To 
 dignify and exalt the profession of engineer in the broad sense, and to 
 place it upon the highest plane amongst the liberal professions ; to bring 
 the different branches of the engineering profession into closer touch 
 and harmony with each other ; to bring American and foreign engineers 
 into closer relations with each other ; and to secure for the engineering 
 
284 PRESENT STATUS OF ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 profession as a whole the recognition commensurate with the importance 
 of its services to the world. 
 
 "It will strive to accomplish these objects by all proper, honorable, 
 and legitimate ways and means ; by fostering, stimulating, and encourag- 
 ing the growth and development of the highest professional spirit, 
 ideals, and ethics uniformly in all branches of engineering; by promot- 
 ing a better understanding and sympathy between these different 
 branches; by advocating more homogeneous and consistent rules and 
 precepts for their guidance in their relations with each other and with 
 the rest of the world; by working for general co-operation and solid- 
 arity ; by fostering an esprit de corps in the profession as a whole ; by 
 doing all in its power to elevate the standard and promote the interests 
 of the profession ; and by urging its claims, or those of its more distin- 
 guished and eminent votaries, to due and proper consideration for public 
 or private honor or recognition." 
 
 That great results can confidently be expected from the work of this 
 proposed organization may be concluded from the type of men chosen 
 and still to be chosen for membership and from the interest in the move- 
 ment thus far shown. To give you some conception of the class of men 
 who will belong to this association, the following further quotation is 
 made from the proposed constitution : 
 
 "The qualifications of a candidate for Member shall include the fol- 
 lowing requirements : 
 
 "He must be a citizen of the United States of America. 
 "He must be at least forty years of age. 
 
 "He must have a degree from a University or Technical School of 
 recognized standing. 
 
 "He must have a reading knowledge of at least one European lan- 
 guage, or else of Esperanto, besides the English language. 
 
 "He must be a member, in good standing, of the highest grade, in 
 at least one national engineering or technical society in the United 
 States of America. 
 
 "He must have practiced or else taught engineering, or some cog- 
 nate branch of technology (such as chemistry) continuously for a period 
 of not less than fifteen years, and he must be still engaged actively in 
 practicing or teaching or both. 
 
 "He must have been in responsible charge of engineering or tech- 
 nical work or design for a period of not less than five years. If teach- 
 ing, he must have been in charge of a department in a school of rec- 
 ognized standing for a period of not less than ten years. 
 
WADDELL. 285 
 
 (In the case of candidates who have taught and practiced at dif- 
 ferent portions of their careers, two years of teaching shall be con- 
 sidered the equivalent of one year of engineering practice.) 
 
 "He must have been identified with work of importance either by 
 reason of its magnitude or else because of its novel or special character ; 
 and it must be shown that he has made a satisfactory record and has 
 obtained a good standing in his branch of the profession through his; 
 technical work. 
 
 (In the case of a teacher of engineering or of technology, the pub- 
 lication of original books relative to his branch or branches of the pro- 
 fession shall be taken as the equivalent of engineering work.) 
 
 "He must be the author of at least one important original pub- 
 lication on some subject or topic related* to at least one branch of en- 
 gineering. 
 
 "He must have a personal as well as professional record, reputa- 
 tion, and standing entitling him to the highest consideration as a pro- 
 fessional gentleman who is devoted to the progress and advancement 
 of the engineering profession and who is interested in promoting the wel- 
 fare and sustaining the dignity of that profession. 
 
 "In general, the intellectual status of the candidate, and the personal 
 traits or qualities making him a credit and an ornament to the profes- 
 sion of engineering, and, especially, his zeal and devotion to that pro- 
 fession, shall be the paramount considerations in determining his fit- 
 ness. His financial status shall be of no consideration whatever. 
 
 "Any of the foregoing requirements may be waived in any par- 
 ticular case in behalf of a candidate otherwise very desirable; but the 
 said waiver shall be only by the unanimous vote of the Board of Di- 
 rectors." 
 
 Two of the preceding clauses quoted from the constitution set forth 
 clearly and concisely the main objects of the proposed association; but 
 there are many minor or subsidiary objects, which were mentioned in an 
 address of mine delivered at the first meeting, from which address per- 
 mit me to quote, with a few slight and at present unavoidable altera- 
 tions, as follows: 
 
 "The augmenting of individual effort among engineers of all 
 classes by setting before them in membership in this organization a goal 
 to attain and a distinction well worth striving for. 
 
 "Such a result is the inevitable sequence of the materialization of 
 our project and it will come at once, without delay. 
 
 "The establishment of a court of last appeal in all matters relating 
 to the profession. 
 
286 PRESENT STATUS OF ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 "While our association, of course, could not properly suggest its 
 services in this direction, the call will assuredly come; but it will take 
 time to establish the organization as the natural means of settling dis- 
 puted professional matters. 
 
 "The influencing of legislation, both state and national to promote 
 the development of the profession and to take action in worthy enter- 
 prises which involve engineering. 
 
 "If our association were to give its formal endorsement to any 
 proposed measure, such approval would carry great weight in securing 
 legislation ; but extreme caution would have to be exercised in all cases 
 in order to avoid endorsing projects of doubtful utility and those of a 
 chimerical nature. 
 
 "The choosing of engineers for special services, both public and 
 private. 
 
 "Here again our association could never legitimately take the initia- 
 tive, but it would soon become customary, among those needing expert 
 services and not knowing how best to secure them, to appeal thereto for 
 advice. Such advice should invariably be given after due deliberation; 
 and all decisions should be absolutely unbiased by personal leanings. 
 Those most fit for the work contemplated should always be chosen; and 
 where several names are recommended for the same position, it should 
 be made clear whether all are considered to be of equal fitness or else 
 what is the gradation. 
 
 "The extending of American engineering influence abroad, especial- 
 ly to the Latin-American republics. 
 
 "This object is one of exceeding importance, not merely to the en- 
 gineering profession in the United States, but also to the Nation, for 
 with the engineers will undoubtedly go trade. 
 
 "The inauguration of a code of ethics for engineers in general. 
 
 "No engineering society has yet been strong enough to establish 
 such a code, but our association in time could succeed where other 
 organizations have failed. It is an object well worth striving for, al- 
 though certainly difficult of accomplishment. 
 
 "The exchanging of ideas with engineers of foreign countries. 
 
 "This could be done best through the honorary members, who should 
 be encouraged to send yearly statements of the progress of engineering 
 in general that has been effected in their respective countries during the 
 past twelve months. One honorary member in each country repre- 
 sented should be appointed as a committee to report thus. 
 
 "Increase of compensation for engineers. 
 
 "Although at first thought this might seem a rather sordid object 
 for our association to foster, it is really not so; because by increasing 
 
WADDELL. 287 
 
 the value of engineers' services the public is impressed with the im- 
 portance of the profession. In my opinion, we should employ every 
 legitimate means to further this object. 
 
 "Improvement in engineering literature. 
 
 "By bringing into closer touch the practicing engineers and the 
 professors of engineering and by encouraging them to work together on 
 engineering literature, great improvements in its quality and scope could 
 be effected. 
 
 "Encouraging of original research. 
 
 "Our association by giving its endorsement to any proposed inves- 
 tigation of a praiseworthy nature could aid greatly in securing the 
 necessary financial aid therefor, -either from Governmental or private 
 sources. 
 
 "Establishment of testing apparatus. 
 
 "An endorsement by our association of any proposed apparatus for 
 testing any of the materials used in engineering would be of service in 
 securing the requisite funds for its construction. 
 
 "Many improvements, reforms, and innovations would naturally 
 be brought about through papers presented to the association; and in 
 fact such presentation would be the most logical procedure to secure 
 action on anything of the kind. To show you that there are numerous 
 proper subjects for such papers, permit me to suggest the following 
 topics : 
 
 "1. The Study of Foreign Languages in American Technical In- 
 stitutions. 
 
 2. The Ethics of Engineering. 
 
 3. Latin-America as a Field for American Engineers. 
 
 4. China, ditto. 
 
 5. Africa, ditto. 
 
 6. How to bring American Engineers into Closer Relations with 
 those of Foreign Countries. 
 
 7. How to Bring American Engineers of the Various Groups into 
 Closer Relations with Each Other. 
 
 8. How to Avoid the Possibility of Disaster to all Great Public 
 or Private Constructions. 
 
 9. Engineering Fees. 
 
 10. The Best Technical Books for Engineers in the Various Spec- 
 ialties. (This would be a series of papers or a combined paper by a 
 specially appointed committee representing the various specialties in 
 engineering.) 
 
 11. How Best to Enhance the Dignity of the Engineering Pro- 
 fession in the Minds of the General Public. 
 
288 PRESENT STATUS OF ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 12. How to Improve Future Engineering Literature. 
 
 13. Engineering Degrees. 
 
 14. Expert Engineering Evidence in Courts of Law. 
 
 15. Punishment for Unprofessional Conduct. 
 
 16. Post Graduate Schools for Engineers. 
 
 17. How Best to Encourage Original Research in Engineering. 
 
 18. The Necessity for Great Testing Machines and Engineering 
 Research Facilities, and How to Procure Them. 
 
 19. How to Improve the Methods of Inspection in the Manufac- 
 ture of Steel Construction. 
 
 20. What Should be Done to Develop American Ship-building? 
 
 21. Suggestions as to the Best Manner of Developing the Pos- 
 sible Water Powers of the United States. 
 
 22. The Advisability of Improving and Developing the Great 
 Waterways of the United States. 
 
 23. Sea-Level versus Locks for the Panama Canal. 
 
 24. How Best to Develop the Resources of Alaska. 
 
 25. How Best to Develop the Resources of the Island Posses- 
 sions of the United States. 
 
 26. Improvement in the Teaching of English in Technical Schools. 
 
 27. The Needs in Engineering and Technological Courses of In- 
 struction to Attain their Fullest Development. 
 
 28. How Best to Conserve the Supply of American Timber and 
 to Economize in its Use. 
 
 29. The Conservation of the Coal Supply of the United States. 
 
 30. How to Bring Engineers into Closer Relations with the Pure 
 Scientists. 
 
 31. The Extent to which Students in the Various Lines of Engi- 
 neering Should be Taught Mathematics, and How. 
 
 32. How Best to Develop a Proper Enthusiasm for the Profession 
 in Engineering Students and Young Engineers. 
 
 33. The Relations Between Engineering and Political Economy. 
 
 34. The Relations between the Engineering Profession and Law. 
 
 35. How Best to Control and Limit the Pollution of American 
 Rivers and Streams. 
 
 36. Engineering and Sociology. 
 
 37. Engineering and Politics. 
 
 38. Aesthetics in Engineering Constructions. 
 
 39. The Study of True Economy in Engineering Designs. 
 
 40. The Relations Between Engineering and Architecture. 
 
 41. The Beautification of American Cities. 
 
WADDELL. 289 
 
 42. The Preparation of a Dictionary of Technical Terms used in 
 American Engineering and their Equivalents in Various Foreign Lan- 
 guages. 
 
 43. How Best to Develop and Control the Irrigation of the Arid 
 Lands of the United States. 
 
 44. The Preparation of a History of Engineering, either as a whole 
 or as developed in the United States. 
 
 45. Smoke Prevention. 
 
 46. Uniform Engineering Terminology for English-Speaking 
 Countries. 
 
 47. The Furthering of Legislation Conducive to the Advance- 
 ment of Engineering and of Public and Private Enterprise. 
 
 "This is a pretty long list of subjects, but it might easily have been 
 made still more extensive. Enough topics have been enumerated, how- 
 ever, to show that there will be no dearth of matter to occupy legiti- 
 mately the attention and energies of the members of our association. 
 
 "Some of you may have noticed that many of the topics proposed 
 come under the scope of political economy; and it may be objected that 
 such is not engineers' work, but with that objection I beg emphatically 
 to differ. Political economy is a subject that can be treated only by 
 men of years, learning, and experience; and what body of men can 
 there be found so well developed in these lines as the members of our 
 proposed organization? It is the engineers who make the world move, 
 and who so competent as they to say in what manner it should be made 
 to move? There is, in my opinion, no other class of men so well fitted 
 as engineers to deal with questions involving political economy. 
 
 "It would be eminently right and proper for our association to dis- 
 cuss such subjects of great public interest as the Panama Canal, even 
 when unsolicited; because it is the right of every American citizen to 
 have his say about how the money which he helps to furnish for such 
 enterprises shall be spent. An unsolicited opinion from our association 
 on such matters would carry great weight with both the public and the 
 Government." 
 
 I trust that you will pardon me for devoting most of the time 
 allotted my address to a discussion of this proposed organization, be- 
 cause I am so deeply interested in the success of the movement, and also 
 because I believe it is destined to do far more for the advancement of the 
 engineering profession than anything that has ever been attempted. 
 
THE ENGINEER'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 By 
 Rear Admiral Geo. W. Melville, U. S. N., Ret. 
 
 This paper, which was presented in July, 1910, to the American 
 Society of Mechanical Engineers, is by one of America's most vigorous 
 technical writers; and the elegance of its diction is strikingly apparent. 
 Moreover, it treats of a subject of the utmost importance to the de- 
 velopment of the Engineering Profession, consequently it should prove 
 interesting reading for technical students. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 291 
 
THE ENGINEER'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 By 
 Rear Admiral Geo. W. Melville, U. S. N., Ret. 
 
 Doubtless everyone present has read Macaulay's famous chapter, 
 in his History of England, which describes the conditions obtaining 
 in 1685. This chapter is one of the most wonderful descriptions in 
 all literature, giving as it does the details of every feature of the life 
 of that time, some 200 years ago. I refer to this account because I 
 want you to contrast it with the conditions of today, to which we are 
 so accustomed that it requires some effort to remember that the com- 
 fort and conveniences of the poor man of today are beyond the wildest 
 dreams of the wealthiest men of the period described by Macaulay. 
 At that time there were no sidewalks, and the streets were unlighted; 
 the highways became bogs in rainy weather, and highway robbery 
 was almost a recognized profession ; sanitation and sewerage were 
 unknown, and refuse heaps accumulated under the windows of the 
 great and the wealthy; it was dangerous to go out alone at night; and 
 it was still legal to hang the unfortunate who stole a loaf of bread. 
 
 Macaulay remarks in one place that at such fashionable watering 
 places as Bath, the nobility had to put up with accommodations at which 
 their servants in the year 1850, in which he was writing, would turn 
 up their noses. 
 
 Now when we compare the two periods and remember that there 
 is hardly a branch of human activity in which there has not been the 
 greatest improvement, we are naturally led to ask to whom is the im- 
 provement due. 
 
 In all fairness, we should doubtless have to say that most of the 
 professions have had a part in the amelioration of conditions, although 
 the student of history remembers with regret how the great lawyers 
 opposed the remission of the death penalty for what we would now 
 consider minor offenses. 
 
 Physicians are undoubtedly entitled to much credit for advances in 
 medicine, surgery, sanitation, and hygiene ; and we might go on and give 
 credit to others. It seems to me, however, that when some future 
 Macaulay describes the condition of the United States at the beginning 
 of the twentieth century and attempts to award the credit for the exist- 
 ing comforts and conveniences, the major part must be given to the 
 
 293 
 
294 ENGINEER'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 profession of engineering. Within 100 years after the time described 
 by Macaulay, Watt had so far perfected the steam engine as to bring 
 about the beginnings of the factory system, making possible the low 
 cost of clothing and of articles of manufacture of every kind. In a 
 century the steamboat and the railroad had come into being. Then we 
 had gas for illumination and the telegraph for rapid communication, and 
 so on down the line to the present day with its electric light, electric 
 railroad, and telephone, every one due to the engineer. 
 
 Added to the superior facilities of communication by railroad and 
 steamer came mechanical refrigeration, which enables the densely 
 populated countries of the old world to be supplied with meats from 
 the great plains of the new, and these superior means of transporta- 
 tion have provided the rapid movement of food products so that the 
 whole world contributes to the delicacies of our table, no matter where 
 we are. 
 
 The contrast between the conditions of the great cities of the period 
 described by Macaulay with those of to-day is startling. Cities were 
 without the conveniences which a country town of moderate size would 
 now consider absolute necessities. The systems of water distribution, 
 sewerage, street paving, etc., are all the work of the engineer, and nitra- 
 tion plants obviously are engineering works, even if we consider their 
 inception to be due to the medical men. 
 
 Perhaps you ask why I should go into these details which are 
 common knowledge, when their mention can give little additional in- 
 formation. My reason is that I want to emphasize the facts as a basis 
 for the discussion of the question: What does the engineer owe to 
 society when society owes so much to the engineer? 
 
 In the early history of the race, when war was the almost con- 
 stant condition, it was inevitable that the great warrior should become 
 the leader and ruler of the people. As time went on, the engineer 
 developed, as we know from the wonderful works of antiquity like 
 the great aqueducts, the bridges, tunnels and roads; but, from the past, 
 had come the tradition lodging leadership in the warrior caste, where it 
 remained for many centuries, and, indeed, has still a tendency to remain 
 in monarchical countries. 
 
 During the last century, wars have been less frequent, and, due 
 to the engineer, commerce has become so prominent that while the 
 hereditary nobility still linger on the scene, their titles have become 
 almost meaningless. This was particularly noticeable when one of the 
 English dukes served in the quartermaster's department during the 
 Boer war in a subordinate capacity, and still more so in the war between 
 
MELVILLE. 295 
 
 Russia and Japan, when only one Russian general was a member of the 
 nobility. 
 
 I think you will see the point to which I am leading; namely, 
 that in this "age of the engineer," he should not rest content simply 
 with doing the work which makes for our comfort and happiness, at 
 the command of others (men who are lawyers or simply business men), 
 but that the engineer himself should take a vital and directing part in 
 the administration of affairs. I know the objection that an engineer's 
 professional work is so engrossing and exacting that he cannot become 
 a politician in the sense that a politician is a man who gives all his time 
 to pulling wires and rilling offices. This is doubtless true, but where 
 it is a matter of self-interest, the engineer, like other men, can find time 
 for this extra work. 
 
 We Americans are fond of claiming that we have the greatest 
 country and the most free and best government in the world. That 
 government, however, for its efficiency and integrity depends upon us 
 as citizens, and it ought to be a matter of the greatest pride to every 
 American to do his part, so far as lies in him, to make the country 
 and its government better and happier every year. 
 
 In view of the enormously important part which the engineer plays 
 in the life of today, it is incumbent upon him, more than upon most 
 other men, to take a vital interest in the work of government and to lend 
 his trained ability and judgment to its perfection. I do not mean, of 
 course, that the engineer should do routine professional work for the 
 government without compensation, but that in the discussion of public 
 improvements and the administration of governmental departments, he 
 should take an active public stand to 1 influence and guide the non-expert 
 part of the population. 
 
 It is notorious that enormous amounts of money have been squand- 
 ered on great public works because they were undertaken in a way 
 which every engineer knew must be inefficient and uneconomical. If 
 all of us as engineers had a keen sense of our duty in this respect, 
 and would properly utilize our experience and ability through the daily 
 press, the magazines, and the reviews by public discussion and in the 
 daily intercourse of life, as well as by impressing the truth upon our 
 representatives in municipal and national affairs, I believe we should 
 accomplish an immense amount of good. 
 
 It will be understood, I am sure, that in this I refer almost entirely 
 to the relations of engineers to society in general, and not to other pro- 
 fessional men. For many years engineers have been most generous in 
 making public to their technical brethren the results of their experi- 
 ence, and our own Proceedings are full of instances. It would be im- 
 
296 ENGINEER'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 possible to name more than a few, but perhaps the most notable case 
 was that of Past-President Taylor in the publication of the results of 
 his life work of research on the Art of Cutting Metals. 
 
 A problem of foremost importance at the present time is the 
 management of labor to secure efficient work and satisfied men. It 
 is probable that the direction of more than 90 per cent of the skilled 
 labor is in the hands of engineers. Most emphatically is this a case 
 where engineers owe a great duty to society. It is, therefore, an es- 
 pecial pleasure to recognize that some of our own members have played 
 a foremost part in the best work that has been done in devising plans 
 for compensating labor which will stimulate the men to their best 
 efforts and reward them adequately. The names of Halsey, Taylor, 
 Gantt, and Emerson will at once occur to you. 
 
 It would be inappropriate in this brief address to attempt a de- 
 tailed discussion of the labor problem, but I feel that I shall voice the 
 sentiment of every one present when I say that the effort of every 
 patriotic American should be exerted to maintain absolute freedom of 
 contract in labor matters as in all others. Just as we are opposed to 
 monopoly by capital, so we are to the same thing by labor. 
 
 No reasonable man objects to labor organizations, as such. They 
 have undoubtedly been the cause of much benefit to the men. The 
 danger with them, as with political organizations, is the formation 
 of a machine which utilizes the organization solely for the selfish in- 
 terests of the members of the machine. There can be no doubt what- 
 ever that many strikes are against the real wishes of the majority of the 
 men, who are overborne by the machine and its adherents; and it is 
 also true that the net result of nea'rly all strikes is an actual loss to the 
 men. The problem is an exceedingly difficult one and requires the great- 
 est wisdom, patience, and tact for its complete solution; if, indeed, 
 taking human nature as it is, we can ever hope for its removal from the 
 list of worries of the manager of great enterprises. 
 
 Many questions prominently before the public are peculiarly such 
 as require engineering knowledge for their proper understanding and 
 regulation. The word trust has come to have such a sinister meaning 
 that it is only necessary to fasten it upon an enterprise to render it 
 criminal in the popular estimation. We have recently heard a great 
 deal about the so-called Water Power Trust, the charge being that all the 
 available power sites were being grabbed so as to subject our citizens 
 at some future time to the payment of tribute for electric power de- 
 rived from them. I am not concerned, at the moment, with a discus- 
 sion of monopolies, which we all deprecate, but to point out that engi- 
 neers know these water powers cannot be made available except by the 
 
MELVILLE. 297 
 
 expenditure of large sums of money. Indeed, it would be easy to 
 point out the fortunes that have been lost in the attempted exploitation 
 of these supposedly lucrative natural gifts. The general public is ut- 
 terly misled, by statements that these power sites are obtained for 
 nothing, the idea being that the development is a matter of small ex- 
 pense. Here the engineer can do a work of real benefit by disseminat- 
 ing correct information.- 
 
 Again, in the consideration of public service corporations, the en- 
 gineer knows the cost of installation and operation, and so can discuss 
 intelligently whether rates are fair or exorbitant, and whether capital 
 represents real investment or water. These are problems of the great- 
 est importance, and for their proper solution, the electorate needs train- 
 ing that c,an be given by no one else so well as by the engineer. 
 
 About a year ago, at our Washington meeting, I did what I could 
 along this line by pointing out mistakes in connection with navy yard 
 organization, and this illustrates very clearly what I am advocating for 
 all engineers. Here was a great department of the Government for 
 which the annual appropriation now exceeds one hundred millions of 
 dollars. Its administration had 'fallen into the hands of a man who 
 started to make changes in the entire administration which would have 
 been ruinous to efficiency; and yet, hardly a voice was raised in opposi- 
 tion. I even heard of a case where one of our leading engineering 
 journals refused to publish a criticism of this system submitted to them 
 through a man whom they knew and esteemed most highly, but who 
 stated that the author was so situated that he could not permit his name 
 to be used. Not only would the magazine not print the article but they 
 did not take enough interest in this most important subject to study it 
 for themselves and comment upon it. 
 
 I do not mean to imply that engineers never show publk spirit 
 in such ways as I have suggested: there are too many instances to the 
 contrary. Our own Society and others which have taken part in the 
 movement for conservation of our national resources have set a good 
 example, and other cases could be cited where individual engineers 
 have shown commendable enthusiasm. These, however, are mostly cases 
 of unusual importance and relatively infrequent. What I am pleading 
 for is a habit of mind that will cause engineers to take an active part 
 in all public questions, great or small, where their knowledge and 
 experience will enable them to contribute to the common good. 
 
 The movement which has been set on foot by Congress to estab- 
 lish a Bureau of Mines suggests an opportunity for the engineer to 
 take an active part in public affairs. I question whether this idea 
 might not be developed a little further by providing for a department 
 
298 ENGINEER'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 with a Cabinet officer at the head, to be called the Department of Mines 
 and Manufactures, with the scope implied by the title 1 . 
 
 When we think of the enormous values represented by the indus- 
 tries which would come within the purview of such a department, it 
 seems only reasonable that they should be under the care of a Cabinet 
 officer. If we are told that there is already the Bureau of Corpora- 
 tions, I would point out that the object of this proposed new depart- 
 ment is quite different from that of the existing bureau which thus 
 far, in the estimation of many, has clone little or nothing to advance the 
 interests of manufacturing, but has, in their opinion, disclosed a spirit 
 which is almost inimical. The department that I have in mind would 
 aim to stimulate improvement and progress in manufacturers and indus- 
 tries generally, in somewhat the same way that the Department of 
 Agriculture has done for the farmers. 
 
 We have often heard engineers complain that the profession 
 did not receive due praise and credit for its splendid work. This is 
 true enough, but is the reason not very largely because the engineer 
 hitherto has been content to do the work and then fade into the back- 
 ground, leaving the talking and the management to the lawyer and 
 ' the politician? With the advance of technical education, engineers 
 are more and more becoming the high officials of our large corpora- 
 tions. It is to these men, whose talents and trained ability have made 
 them the leaders in manufacturing and in business, that the country 
 has the right to look for leaders in the affairs of government, and not 
 until the engineer of all grades has done his part towards the promo- 
 tion of the highest efficiency of the Government can he truly say that 
 he is, in the fullest sense of the term, a good citizen of the Republic. 
 
 1. This address was prepared more than a month ago, and since that 
 time the bill in Congress referred to above has become a law. The news- 
 papers have published an item that consideration was being given to the 
 formation of a Department of Public Works. This is along the same general 
 lines as my suggestion above for a Cabinet officer to head a department of 
 Mines and Manufactures. 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 By 
 Walter C. Kerr, M. E. 
 
 This address, which was delivered to the graduating class of Stev- 
 ens Institute of Technology on June 16, 1904, and the two following ad- 
 dresses are from the pen of one of America's most prominent mechan- 
 ical engineers, whose early death a short time since was a severe loss 
 to the engineering profession. Mr. Kerr was a member of the well 
 known engineering firm of Westinghouse, Church,. Kerr, and Company, 
 which has engineered so many great enterprises in this and other coun- 
 tries. As can be seen by his writings, Ivlr. Kerr was a man who was 
 truly interested in the development of the engineering profession, and 
 especially in the welfare of its student members. 
 
 The teachings of this paper are so sound that every student of en- 
 gineering should familiarize himself with them and apply them in his 
 work as both student and engineer. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 299 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 By 
 Walter C. Kerr, M. E. 
 
 It is a pleasure to talk to a lot of young men who are about to 
 become engineers. It was not so long ago that I came to your age less 
 well prepared, perhaps, then any of you. When I look back at the 
 engineering education through which men of my time were launched, 
 and then consider the training you have had and the opportunities be- 
 fore you, I have reason to wonder why I am here. 
 
 I hesitate to advise you. You have already had so much advice that 
 I do not know whether you can hold more. What I can say in a few 
 minutes will amount to little, hence let me use these minutes to suggest 
 that you advise yourselves along certain lines which I will propose by 
 way of point of view. If you look straight you will see straight. You 
 cannot think wrong and act right. Your perspective will be distorted if 
 you haven't the right point of view. 
 
 You are leaving a good institution for a good world. Your Alma 
 Mater has built up around you excellent facilities for giving you what 
 you need, and other institutions have likewise cared for their own. 
 
 The so-called liberal education has always been highly academic. 
 Trade school engineering has been strictly non-academic. The two 
 have joined hands fortuitously in our modern institutions. The liberal 
 education has become less and the technical more academic, with ad- 
 vantage to both. There is, however, danger . of engineering education 
 growing too academic, for several reasons : One is the disposition to 
 include in technical training a liberal education, which of itself is not 
 undesirable. Another is that engineering professors often lean unduly 
 towards academic views and processes, and thus lose touch with the 
 spirit of the engineering world. Greater than either of these is the 
 tendency of all things to move in the line of least resistance; and all 
 learning which depends upon the intellect alone is more easily acquired 
 than that which depends upon other sources. The proof of this need go 
 no further than to remember that no literature is finer than that written 
 two thousand years ago; no philosophy has fundamentally improved 
 upon that of the Ancients; the highest flights of intellect and mathema- 
 tics were reached during the ages in which the world was observed 
 to be composed of four elements earth, air, fire, and water. 
 
 301 
 
302 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 A review of knowledge shows the great preponderance of the in- 
 tellectual over the material, and it is only within late centuries, in fact 
 almost the past century, that the human mind has seemed capable of 
 turning from the lesser resistance of intellectual attainment to the greater 
 capacity for physical observation and comprehension. We have but re- 
 cently came to the era of intense mental operations, dealing with laws 
 and principles which require insight greater than the intellect can grasp 
 unless aided by the senses. Contrary, therefore, to common belief, I 
 assert that the highest refinement of knowledge follows from the highest 
 use of the senses ; and that it has taken thousands of years of pure intel- 
 lectual development to attain a state in which the powers of nature 
 can, through the human intellect, be made useful to mankind and add 
 largely to knowledge. Do not, therefore, get a wrong view of the 
 faculties involved in science, in the application of the laws of nature, 
 applied mechanics, and the powers of comprehension which underlie en- 
 gineering. There is still room for doubt not debatable here as to what 
 constitutes liberal education. 
 
 I hope for the time when the spirit of engineering as found in 
 practice will form a more definite part of engineering education. This, 
 I think, must come through the professor keeping in close practical 
 touch with the engineering world. There are various ways in which this 
 may be accomplished, but I know of none better than by each professor 
 doing a reasonable amount of practical work for commercial purposes. 
 Under some conditions, this may be consistently accomplished during a 
 portion of his time, but I am inclined to think that eventually our pro- 
 fessors will devote all their time to instruction while they teach and go 
 periodically into the world, a few years at a time, for practice. Thus the 
 professorial life would not be so exclusively educational, and our grow- 
 ing engineering institutions may be enabled to enlarge their faculties by 
 the devotion to teaching of a portion of the time of men who are primari- 
 ly engaged in commercial work. 
 
 Now that you have your so-called education, what are you going to 
 do with it? I cannot tell you, but I can suggest some points of view. 
 
 Begin by forgetting yourself. All thought of self is some form of 
 selfishness, and selfishness never produced anything better than more 
 selfishness. It often breeds something worse. Genius is all right 
 in its way, but it will not do your work. Get a right idea of work. 
 Remember that time is the essence of most things, and is not inconsistent 
 with thoroughness. 
 
 We hear much about opportunities. They are everywhere plentiful. 
 Remember that your opportunity is the little one that lies squarely in 
 front of you, not the large one which you hope to find further along. 
 
KERR. 303 
 
 Many a man is surrounded with opportunities who never seizes one. 
 There are traditions that Adam, William Tell, and Sir Isaac Newton 
 each had an affair with an apple, but with different resujts. 
 
 Your first duty is always to that which lies across your path. The 
 only step which you can take in advance is the next one. This leads 
 to a simplicity of action which is commendable. Don't ramble. 
 
 The refinement of thought which is apt to follow high training often 
 leads the mind to overlook simplicity and even to seek complexity. The 
 wealth of modern appliances tends likewise ; and it is thus easy to acquire 
 that over-refinement, often termed theoretical, as against the simplicity 
 which is called practical. 
 
 From one point of view all graduates . can be divided into two 
 classes : those who think their knowledge is a little long for their op- 
 portunities; and, those who think almost anything is a little long for 
 their knowledge. Both are apt to think that the knowledge they have 
 acquired will become the essence of performance. You will soon find 
 that knowledge hasn't much to do with effectiveness. It is necessary, 
 only as words are essential to the expression of thought. You will find 
 knowledge a good tool, but not the vital force with which you perform. 
 You will fall back upon human effort and action, and find that it is the 
 human-engine and not the knowledge-engine that does the work. 
 
 Cultivate singleness* of purpose. This is more important than you 
 may think. It is intuitive with the comparatively ignorant, and often 
 absent in the highly trained. We are frequently surprised at the great 
 competency of the ignorant contractor or foreman, on whom judgment 
 is often passed by saying that he is a practical man and gets results. 
 Analysis will show that his best quality is singleness of purpose, which 
 leads him to do vigorously the one thing before him, without distrac- 
 tion following from knowing or thinking about too many other things. 
 The broadening power of education and training increases the range of 
 contemplation, but unless the power of concentration is cultivated, there 
 follows a tendency to scatter instead of to acquire that singleness of 
 purpose which leads to effective action. David Starr Jordan has said : 
 "The purpose of knowledge is action. But to refuse action is to secure 
 time for the acquisition of more knowledge. It is written in the very 
 structure of the brain that each impression of the senses must bring with 
 it the impulse to act. To resist this impulse is to destroy it. * 
 This lack of balance between knowledge and achievement is the main 
 element in a form of ineffectiveness which, with various others, has 
 been uncritically called degeneration." Thus President Jordan shows 
 how even much more than a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing. 
 The highly-trained man, therefore, needs, as a complement to his train- 
 
304 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ing, unusual powers of concentration, in order that the virtue of single- 
 ness of purpose may not be lost. This faculty a man must have or ac- 
 quire himself. It is not in the books. It cannot be taught. It can only 
 be suggested by precept and example. 
 
 From directness of purpose naturally follows diligence in getting 
 what you go after, and not being easily turned aside by resistance. When 
 you are getting what you go after, get it all. Avoid the mediocrity of 
 compromise. Be thorough and stand for full competency in everything, 
 from main essentials to details. Just so far as education, assisted by 
 concentration, contributes to singleness of purpose it is useful, but where 
 by length, breadth, or depth it dilutes human effort, it lacks value. It 
 is, therefore, not so much the question how much educational training 
 you have as it is how you use it. Some can use a little with great effect, 
 because their point of view is right; others scatter so badly that they 
 cannot use their knowledge at all; while some distorted minds seem 
 to have a faculty for misapplying a large amount of acquired knowledge 
 through complicated processes full of error. To be right, you must be 
 100 per cent, right. Charity may pardon human nature its percentage 
 of delinquency but this is a human matter. The laws of nature, 
 mathematics, and engineering do not pardon anything. The man may, 
 therefore, be absolved from censure, but his work must stand the rigid 
 test of inviolable law. Nor is it too much to say that you must be 
 right the first time. Much of our engineering is only done once, and 
 it must be done right that once. A man who has learned by experience 
 to do a thing deserves no credit for doing it right. He is then only 
 a repeating machine. Real power is characterized by ability to per- 
 form right the first time that which a man never did before. Such 
 performance involves the power to assimilate and adapt experiences, of 
 more or less like or unlike kind, in a way to bring forth correct re- 
 sults. This is the true use of experience, wherein a man is a thinking, 
 active power, and not a mere repeater. 
 
 Clearness of thought is an essential often lacking. This, too, fol- 
 lows from concentration and singleness of purpose. Many minds con- 
 fuse themselves with a wealth of ideas, grading from the well formed 
 to hazy, indistinct conceptions. You can clear your mind by proper 
 habits of thought. Train yourself to separate essentials and non- 
 essentials and confine your consideration to the essentials, to dis- 
 tinguish between what you know and what you only vaguely surmise, 
 clearly eliminating opinion from facts. Nothing is more helpful than 
 conference with yourself, in which you determine what you think of 
 your own thoughts. This is aided by the moderate cultivation of sys- 
 tem thinking in an orderly manner, beginning at the beginning, end- 
 
KERR. 305 
 
 ing at the end, and being sure to have a middle. With this there should 
 be no slavery to system, but let each find his own logical way. 
 
 Besides what are commonly known as ideas, men have intuitions 
 sometimes called impressions or opinions which they cannot readily 
 prove. These, I believe, are identical with reason, except that while 
 reason is composed of a sequence of distinct ideas, each capable of 
 expression, intuitions follow from the capacity of the human mind to 
 integrate small ideas and impressions, each of which is too small to 
 stand alone, or to be readily expressed, but which integrated form a 
 concrete mental impression, called an intuition, and which is of exactly 
 the same character as reason, except that it is composed of smaller and 
 almost intangible units. Do not, therefore, discard intuitions as in- 
 ferior to reason. Analysis will sometimes develop intuition into an ex- 
 pressible logical thought. 
 
 You have all had ideas and you will have more of them. Some 
 ideas seem bigger than others. These mental forces, like other forces, 
 only do work when in motion. Hence your ideas are only valuable when 
 put into execution, and this often requires more talent than to originate 
 them. Some men seem to consider their ideas so good that they will 
 execute themselves. 
 
 A point of view is involved in the power to rationalize. This again 
 is a thing which each man does for himself in his own best way, and 
 its essence consists in asking one's self whether the thing is reasonable. 
 It is a great check upon error. It applies equally to nearly everything 
 of which engineering is composed. It is the power of the human mind, 
 after performing in more or less systematic and conventional ways, to 
 stand off and look at results and ask one's self whether they are reason- 
 able. One man will figure that certain material weighs two hundred 
 tons, and believe it. Another will say that there is something wrong 
 in that, for it all came on two cars. 
 
 Every young man comes sooner or later upon a dilemma, in which 
 he is more or less drawn in opposite directions by his confidence on the 
 one hand and timidity on the other ; a desire to perform backed by the 
 courage of his convictions, but on the other hand resisted by his in- 
 ability to see his way through in orderly progression to a desired end. 
 This is about the time to show your nerve. Don't be dazed and baffled, 
 but make a start. Use your wits and you will get somewhere, and if 
 you cannot always see the end it will constantly get nearer and plainer 
 when you go as far as you can see and then see how far you can go. 
 
 Another point of view concerns engineering expression. This may 
 be through designs, drawings, mathematical determinations, or words, 
 and finally by work done. The lamest of these is words. All engineer- 
 
306 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ing is so non-literary in character that the use of language is too much 
 neglected, leading to expressions that do not properly convey thought. 
 In engineering, it is not rhetoric but diction that makes expression 
 clear, and diction is best learned from the dictionary. It is well for a 
 young engineer to cultivate his vocabulary, and learn to use words in 
 their right sense. They are then usually understood, even by those 
 who have less knowledge. A word of caution, however, against assum- 
 ing that a lack of facility of expression can cloak an absence of know- 
 ing what you think. Engineering documents, specifications, and letters 
 are full of mis-statements due to the careless use of language. Con- 
 ciseness cannot be over-estimated. Brevity is desirable, but not at the 
 expense of clearness. Conversely, a certain degree of facility should 
 be acquired in reading the words of others. Some seem incapable of 
 understanding plain language when spoken or written. Anyone per- 
 sistently failing to understand the language of others has limitations 
 needing correction. 
 
 One of the worst attributes in engineering, and which is funda- 
 mentally born of conceit, is the tendency to fasten error, censure, and 
 responsibility on others. There are times when a man needs to stand 
 himself up in front of himself .and ask: What is the matter with me? 
 The capacity of any man to admit his own error and frailty of judg- 
 ment is a measure of strength rather than weakness. 
 
 Perhaps no personal attributes are of greater importance in the 
 conduct of the business affairs of an engineering life than good cheer 
 and non-contentiousness not only because these are right and agree- 
 able, but because they enable a man to work better and to be better 
 understood, and because they add weight to his opinions. There is a 
 certain reasonable optimism of manner which makes a man and his 
 ideas welcome, even though they must of necessity sometimes be criti- 
 cal. To vote aye and believe that things can be done makes a man 
 helpful to others and to enterprises. Discontent is not a sign of pro- 
 gression. 
 
 Each of you probably has a preconceived notion of following some 
 line of engineering. Be careful about your self-analysis. The field 
 is large and has room for all of the various types of men, some of 
 whom incline to constructive operations, others toward inventive, some 
 to the contemplative. Again, within all these divisions, some tend to- 
 ward professional and others toward trade work. No one can ad- 
 vise what is best for you. This you must find out for yourself. .1 
 cannot help, however, a certain predilection in favor of a young man 
 being just an engineer, and not any particular kind of an engineer 
 not specializing while too young, but developing along versatile lines, 
 
KERR. 307 
 
 ready to turn his hand equally well to any task within his general 
 scope. In this, there is a good deal in the point of view, and the man 
 who believes he can apply himself in one direction about as well as 
 another will come nearer doing it than one who thinks he cannot. 
 
 When you start your practical work, you will doubtless try to 
 improve things. That is a legitimate purpose, if not overworked. I 
 am not going to 'attempt to tell you what needs improvement, but the 
 one improvement that most things need is in the line of sufficiency. 
 You can think this over for yourself and apply it where it fits. 
 
 There is another point of view seldom considered. It relates to 
 environment and the power to vary. It is pertinent to engineering. 
 Man ascended through and exists under the laws of an organic evolu-i 
 tion, which occurred almost entirely in early geological ages, under 
 water, within a few miles of shore, under substantially constant tem- 
 perature, constant pressure, and uniform food supply, and thus in aboiit 
 the simplest possible environment. It was caused, primarily, through 
 the force known as the power to vary; and the reason that evolution 
 spanned the space from the simple cell to the vertebrate animal in so 
 short a time was that this power was not resisted by complex environ- 
 ment. When organisms emerged from the water to the more complex 
 environment of the land, and as environment grew constantly more 
 intricate, its resistance retarded evolution and resulted in fixation of 
 species until ordinal evolution practically ceased. It is the complexity 
 of the environment of the world that presses upon you and tries to hold 
 you back from the exercise of your native power to vary. A good 
 environment is certainly less harmfully resistant than a bad one, but 
 remember that environment is not a force. It is not a producer. You 
 are the producer. Whatever your power to vary, environment will only 
 resist and reduce it. 
 
 Therefore, remember that all the good you accomplish is going to 
 come out of yourself. You cannot borrow it, and you cannot make it 
 out of that which has been poured into you by education or otherwise. 
 All that you receive is only a certain quantity of knowledge, acquired by 
 education, experience, or other training, which will have a certain in- 
 fluence upon what comes out of yourself as your own. It is the in- 
 herent capacity to perform with your own brain which will make you 
 what you become, and not the mere transmission of that which you 
 have acquired. Your knowledge, therefore, is of little avail until you 
 make it inherently a part of yourself through mental assimilation and 
 utilization. The clearer you comprehend these things, the more readily 
 you can make use of them as against the process of mere acquirement 
 with a vague motive that in some way or other what you acquire may 
 
308 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 be of benefit or that environment will be the force that makes your 
 talent effective. Some have gone through experience without acquir- 
 ing it ; and many a man who has received an education has not got any, 
 because he allowed it to be a thing apart from his personality and it 
 slipped away. 
 
 
KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION. 
 
 By 
 Walter C. Kerr, M. E. 
 
 This address was delivered on June 8, 1906, to the graduating class 
 of Staten Island Academy. It gives in very condensed form much 
 sensible advice to young men, 'and is conspicuous for the wisdom of 
 the author's statements, reasoning, and conclusions. His utterances 
 are well worthy the attention of every thinking man, young or old, 
 technical or non-technical. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 309 
 
KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION. 
 
 By 
 Walter C. Kerr, M. E. 
 
 Some days come so seldom that they become occasions of special 
 mark. The day of graduation is one. It sometimes seems as if young 
 people come to halls of learning with little, and in a few years take 
 away much. This is not quite what happens. You come with much 
 or little as- the case may be and you take away just what you brought, 
 except for the pruning, training, and straightening out which your 
 natural possessions have undergone by the process known as education. 
 Meanwhile, you have acquired some facts and these are, of course, 
 an added measure to what you formerly had. Many of these you will 
 unfortunately forget, but do not think that they have not done you 
 good while they stayed with you, nor that their effect is measured only 
 by their endurance. 
 
 The only objection I have to commencements, whether of academies 
 or colleges, is the intimation that they are the end of education and 
 the beginning of the world. Education is a continuous performance, 
 the first acts of which are within halls where systematic guiding gives 
 direction and method to personal endeavor. One reason why many 
 who have had much schooling are poorly educated is that they stopped 
 learning, and by a strange anomaly they seemed to stop at commence- 
 ment. 
 
 The education you get through books and teachers is elementary. 
 That which you gain yourself may be profound. Profoundity is wholly 
 a matter of quality, not quantity. The world is too full of a number of 
 things, and you will find more tendency to scatter than to concentrate. 
 It is, therefore, well to do whatever you do with all your might and 
 regard nothing as too small to be done the best you know how. Clever- 
 ness will not accomplish much. Brilliancy only serves permanently to 
 polish good things and temporarily to polish bad ones. Grace and 
 culture lend charm to anything, but none of these things make for 
 progress. Advancement only comes through good hard work, diligent 
 application, faithful performance, correctness, accuracy, and that fine 
 display of judgment which flows only from a well ordered mind, capable 
 of thinking independently, acting resolutely, and fearing nothing. 
 
 311 
 
312 KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION. 
 
 At this commencement time it is well to commence to forget the 
 standards set by the completion of printed pages and the measure fixed 
 by examinations. The world's problems do not come systematically and 
 in the preferred order of easy ones first, followed by a gradation of the 
 most difficult. They come by chance and they hit you endwise, side- 
 ways, and with all degrees of percussion. You must meet them, solve 
 them, get good out of them, and utilize them as the means to further 
 achievement. 
 
 Some persons devote much time to passing opinions stating what 
 they think. It does not make much difference what you think about 
 things. It is what you do about them. There is even danger of think- 
 ing too much unless thought is intuitively coupled with action. Your 
 thoughts may sometimes wander harmlessly, but your acts need be right 
 all the time. If you can now begin with the elementary education you 
 have received in a good academy, or even. the more extended but still 
 elementary education which some of you will receive in college, you 
 can proceed to make your personality effective in doing those things 
 which your natural tendencies lead you to do best. You will then, in 
 the course of perhaps twenty or more years, become fairly educated as 
 measured by the standard of human performance related to the average 
 span of life. 
 
 Humanity is composed of all kinds of people possessing widely 
 different temperaments, tastes, and abilities. It is well they are not 
 all alike. Anyone will achieve the greatest effectiveness through the 
 opportunities and training which develop native powers. Any other 
 training is liable to stunt the natural growth. Variation in progressive 
 development should be in the direction in which one tends to vary. 
 This assists in the survival of the fittest, the survival of the unlike, the 
 survival of the effective. 
 
 Manifestly there must be as many kinds of education as there are 
 types of people, and fortunately the number is not so great but that 
 they can be readily supplied at least within our higher institutions. So 
 long as education was confined to one channel, those whom the channel 
 precisely .fitted were greatly benefited ; those whom the channel some- 
 what fitted were somewhat benefited; those to whom the channel was 
 a misfit were injured, because during the formative period of their de- 
 velopment their native power to vary was resisted, their minds forced 
 away from their natural trend, and energies which could have been 
 potent for good in certain directions were dwarfed by the compulsory 
 exertion of uninteresting, unproductive effort. This results in a kind 
 of mediocrity which is stagnation. You can't make anything good of a 
 
KERR. 313 
 
 man except to make him better in that which he is. You can't unmake 
 him and make him over again. 
 
 If it be held that one must needs have the so-called -liberal educa- 
 tion in order to be well rounded, it is pertinent first, to determine wheth- 
 er roundness is what is really wanted and the fitness of the subject to 
 the end: We don't build walls of round stones. We hew them square 
 some are better rough hewn and others are better when polished. 
 It is not well to attempt to take all the corners off humanity. They 
 should be left on to dent something. 
 
 When it is observed that in our modern universities which offer 
 to students wide ranges of educational courses, less than one-quarter 
 follow classical pursuits when left to free choice, and that over three- 
 quarters elect professional and industrial education, there is good reason 
 to believe that this is about the proportion in which minds are fitted to 
 receive benefit from the acquirement of the respective classes of knowl- 
 edge and training. I, therefore, maintain that instead of decadence 
 in the humanities they are elevated by this natural selection, because 
 their representatives become only those whose minds are fitted to take 
 such education and who will, therefore, conspicuously represent the best 
 possibilities of classical training applied to those to whom it is adapted. 
 
 In addition to the several agreeable and desirable attributes of 
 classical training, its fundamental benefit comes through the melting 
 down and recasting of thought, which to some minds is a stimulating 
 and cultivating process. There are other processes of like kind and 
 quality that are adapted to other minds, notably the melting down of 
 the laws of nature and recasting them as applied science. Another 
 cultivating and most useful process, too little practiced, is the melting 
 down of one's own thoughts and so recasting them that they can be 
 understood. 
 
 We have heard too much about knowledge for its own sake versus 
 knowledge for use. All knowledge is for use. All education is for 
 action. The engineer uses mechanics and thermo-dynamics in a certain 
 direct way. The architect uses art and constructive knowledge in a 
 similar way. The lawyer uses his knowledge in a less material way. 
 The classical or philosophical man uses his acquirements in a different 
 way, but if he does not use them they are useless. The older I grow 
 the more I think there is no such thing as liberal education, liberal arts, 
 or liberal anything, as distinct from specialized departments of knowl- 
 edge. As to the so-called specialized courses, these are only names. 
 They are no more special than the humanities. Some are scarcely so 
 highly specialized. All education is liberal or all is technical, accord- 
 ing to our definitions, but all is for use. 
 
314 KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION. 
 
 We hear too much about standards. They are all right in their 
 way, if they do not tend to crystallize error. What we want are best 
 methods. They can never become quite fixed, but must always be 
 getting better in order to be the best. They must be effective and 
 efficient rather than old or new. Precedent has no inherent merit. 
 Only merit has merit. Times, conditions, and arts change so rapidly 
 that the presumption is against rather than for the older methods. 
 
 One must have the reserve power to do more than conventional 
 duties, to double or treble the pace when necessary; but there should 
 be no wasting of energy by trying to do it all the time. In large 
 organizations, men of fair attainments but who have shown no surplus 
 capacity are dropped to make room for others who may be more avail- 
 able in time of emergency. 
 
 There are many who would rather rest on an excuse than find a 
 way. Too many find reasons for not doing things. As Grant once said 
 regarding the first requisite of a general, he must love to fight, be- 
 cause there are always as many reasons for not fighting as for fight- 
 ing, and one must fight to win. So you must prefer to do things and 
 not be content with reasons why you can't. 
 
 To youth this old world is always a new country. Pioneers must 
 plunge in : turn over what to them is new soil, and make of it the best 
 they can, always in the spirit of industry and honesty, with that aspira- 
 tion for betterment which invariably turns for good that which is worthy 
 and turns to naught that which is undesirable. Thus you plunge, step, 
 or wander into a new world; and the impetus with which you enter it 
 is a factor in the vis viva with which you will carry through. Repose 
 has its virtues, but you will always find it easier to slow down than to 
 speed up. 
 
 One-half of all human performance is composed of perception, 
 and the other half is acting upon what you perceive, Never mind the 
 formula. Go straight for what you see and you will always find your 
 duty right in front of you. ' Stay by it until it is done. Do it simply 
 and you will do it easily and well. Never mind your knowledge. It 
 isn't your power. It is only a tool and it. is inert. You are the power, 
 and if you don't exert yourself and assert yourself you can't wield 
 anything. Your own human effort is the only thing which will appeal 
 to and move others, and it is only when you move others that you move 
 anything. Don't be impersonal, but be yourself with all the fire that 
 nature gave you, and don't be afraid to be yourself your best self 
 and let the world judge as it may. You are never so, much yourself 
 as when you forget yourself, and you are then unselfish. 
 
KERR. 315 
 
 All things are more or less hard to do. and work only will do 
 them. Get a right idea of work. Don't trust to cleverness. It is 
 worthy, but it will not do your work. Accomplishment demands single- 
 ness of purpose and concentration. All exterior forces tend to diver- 
 sion from these essentials. Here you come in again to show your 
 triumph of personality over environment. No matter what you do, 
 from the humblest incidental thing of the moment to the consummation 
 of your greatest ambition, the same principles of human activity apply. 
 All will be clear sailing until you meet resistance and sometimes you 
 will run against it hard. Then you will find whether you have nerve 
 or nerves. No one can help you much. Your measure is being taken 
 and you win or lose upon the cumulative ability which you can muster 
 as the total assemblage of native talent and all that has become a part 
 of you through all the influences that ever entered your life. See to 
 it that they all shape one way. You will meet some disappointments 
 through your own faults and some because the world is not exactly 
 just, but whoever gets approximate justice in the world is doing very 
 well. The perfectionist has a hard time. He meets continual disap- 
 pointment, especially if he is chiefly worried about the imperfections 
 of others. 
 
 The nearest you will ever get to perfection is when you get out of 
 your powers all that there is in them. You will find them stronger the 
 less you dilute them with borrowed force. The good you accomplish 
 must be a part of yourself, and whatever you may receive by way of 
 knowledge, experience, and training must be assimilated until it is a 
 part of your own living being before it can be made productive. The 
 capacity to perform is essentially a human creative function and not an 
 act of transmission of what you may have acquired. 
 
 You are going to breast a gale, of advancing and ever changing 
 arts, with all their complexities, anomalies, and uncertainties, where 
 "nothing there is can pause or stay." Thus duty is made harder to per- 
 form than if you lived in the quiet conventionality of a less enterpris- 
 ing land. Difficulties and their overcoming bring opportunities, and 
 who would ask for ease at the price of stagnation? I believe it was 
 Tacitus who created a solitude and called it peace. However powerful 
 and individual you make your personality it must in general conform 
 to the well determined laws of effective human procedure. Freaks 
 never win. You may more or less follow the systematized results of 
 practice, but you must obey the laws of purpose, of motive, of integrity, 
 of unselfishness,, of diligence, faithfulness, and fidelity to trust. Trans- 
 gression of these will be punished, while decadent variation will only 
 produce an imitation of the real thing, and all imitations are bad. 
 
316 KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION. 
 
 I assume that those to whom I am talking are capable of being 
 many times as good and effective as they are now. Effectiveness gets 
 fairly weighed and compensated, financially or otherwise, by the world's 
 scales. You will never be paid for what you are going to do, and you 
 will be only partially compensated for what you have done. There must 
 be a profit in everything, and therefore ability to perform must be 
 bought at one price and sold for another. With growth compensation 
 will grow, and no small part of growth is the ability to rise and do the 
 things that need be done, no matter what they are; to rise from sel- 
 fishness to unselfishness, from smallness to greatness, and from anything 
 to competency. 
 
 There is a wrong notion in the world as to the sequence of some 
 things. You must first perform and re-perform and prove that yon 
 can perform and keep it up before you will get credit for performing. 
 A large proportion of the people in the world cannot do certain things 
 because they have never tried, and many have thought they could not 
 because they did not do very well the first time they tried. There is 
 nothing pertaining to your general conduct in the world that you can't 
 do. People become what their motives lead to. Consciously or un- 
 consciously your motives make you, and your practice will follow from 
 what you have thus been made. The personal shaping of one's self 
 along lines however worthy cannot be accomplished through initial in- 
 tent alone. It requires a burden upon the mind, a mission in the heart 
 and a continuous motive in life's work. 
 
 If these things be good, then they are good to contemplate, but 
 contemplation of itself avails nothing. If you ever expect to get any- 
 where you must move on. It is not always necessary to step lively, 
 but keep moving. There is a tendency in human nature to expect to 
 find a stopping place. The spirit of moving on is the spirit of pro- 
 gression; the spirit of optimistic dissatisfaction. It is necessary to 
 cultivate restlessness in order to have a moving spirit. The fault and 
 the fate of the rolling stone is not so much because it rolls as it is that 
 it usually rolls down hill. When you move be sure of your direction. 
 
 Progress should mean something. It should mean real advance- 
 ment in thought, habit, and action perceptible to one's self and to 
 others. This moving on may be adapted in one form or another to 
 suit different temperaments. To some it should mean moving onward 
 within few and perhaps limited lines. To others the onward move- 
 ment will involve the constant taking up of new and broad lines of 
 effort. To many it is refreshing as they progress from one period of 
 life to another to awaken new interests, to have new ambitions, new 
 fields to conquer. While to some the activity of this added effort might 
 
KERR. 317 
 
 seem too strenuous, there is little doubt that to others it is an enrich- 
 ing process which by recreative and interesting variation revives and 
 stimulates mind and body to a condition of existence in which they last 
 longer than if allowed to go to seed. 
 
 The least duty of everyone is to make the world just a little better. 
 This can't be done by merely approving and imitating what others have 
 done. You will never do it looking backward. Ambition seeks new 
 seas to sail. 
 
 No one should dare to prejudge what any person may do, and to 
 everyone is open all the possibilities of all that has not yet been per- 
 formed. The lessons of the beaten paths are yours for the pains of 
 acquirements. The inspiration of the successful achievement of others 
 is yours for the heed. The opportunities of the future belong to yon 
 for the seizing. All things are always possible and your aspirations 
 should ask 
 
 "Is the day of our hope not near when we 
 
 "Will seek for the truth and find 
 "That the soul's best gifts are lost in the waste 
 
 "Of a backward looking mind? 
 "Shall we make new paths where none are made, 
 
 "Shall we strive and at last prevail, 
 "And at some time build our ship, please God 
 
 "Where there are new seas to sail?" 
 
THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 By 
 Walter C. Kerr, M. E. 
 
 This address of Mr. Kerr's gives much sensible advice to young 
 men about to start on the practice of their profession and tells them 
 something of what to do and what not to do, guiding them in the right 
 direction and pointing out the stumbling blocks and pitfalls that lie 
 in their path. Few papers concentrate as much solid advice and valu- 
 able precepts in such a small a space as does this one. To appreciate 
 it thoroughly one should read it several times in order to impress its 
 many wise suggestions deeply upon his memory. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 319 
 
THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 By 
 Walter C/Kerr, M. E. 
 
 This is an important day to nineteen of those whom I am address- 
 ing, and it is just as important as any other day to the rest of us. 
 Perhaps the most important moments in our lives are those in which 
 we resolve to do something, and the importance is made permanent 
 when action follows the intent. 
 
 I am not going to say much about education . You have perhaps 
 heard as much about that as is good for you, and I have no doubt you 
 have received some, even much. In a way, I am interested in educa- 
 tion, but I have more interest in those who receive it. 
 
 Educators and institutions are seeking the ideal education, and 
 they will find it when they find ideal men, collected in ideal groups, 
 and doing everything in an ideal way. 
 
 There can be no doubt that some methods are better than others, 
 and some facilities excel others, but after all the best thing for any 
 man is that which fits him best. Men differ through so wide a range 
 that about the best approximation to high excellence is the presence 
 of large opportunity, facility, and the personality of many men. With 
 these factors related by force of gravity, attraction, cohesion, friction, and 
 other physical and mental phenomena each person gets that which best 
 fits him and sticks the closest to him. 
 
 Therefore in a certain way the ideal education is the education 
 you get, and from a certain set of conditions one man gets one kind 
 and another man another. In these relationships, apparently similar 
 causes do not necessarily produce similar effects, and the effects dif- 
 ferentiate largely along the line of the characteristics of the receiving* 
 body. 
 
 Each of you, therefore, operated upon by similar forces during the 
 past few years, has acquired a different kind of education. This is not 
 so apparent now, amidst the levelling tendencies of the conventionalities 
 by which you are all brought to a certain stage at a certain age, sur- 
 rounded by the same conditions, and therefore apparently all more or 
 less alike. 
 
 321 
 
322 THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 This day, however, marks your individual departure from condi- 
 tions common to you all, and five years will find you translated along 
 many different radii. Ten years will find you far apart. 
 
 Up to this time, some one else has done the directing. Hereafter, 
 you will direct yourselves. Perhaps, under certain terms and condi- 
 tions of employment, you will think some one else is directing you in 
 a rather firm way, but after all you will find that you are directing your 
 own destiny, and the apparent direction of others is but the incidental 
 utilization of your best proclivities and a desirable restraint of your 
 worst ones. 
 
 About the first practical thing you will now do is to enter em- 
 ployment, and practically the next thing you will do will be uncon- 
 sciously to create an impression of what you are good for. That im- 
 pression will be best made if you will attend strictly to what you are 
 given to do. Do it faithfully, cheerfully, and to your best ability, with- 
 out trying to create an impression. We all know there is something 
 about a boy that will make him climb a tree faster when the girls are 
 looking on than when they are not, and the momentary stimulation of 
 ambition is likely to produce a fall. When you start out into the world, 
 don't get excited and overdo, nor feel that all eyes are upon you. No 
 one is looking very hard, nor caring much. So just take care of the job 
 you are on, and consider that it is the only thing eyeing you. 
 
 Those who have had large experience in dealing with engineering 
 graduates have found them a pretty good lot. They ought to be. 
 Any man who is not has something the matter with him. Whatever 
 he has by the grace of nature, with the addition of what he has ac- 
 quired by way of fact and instruction, coupled with the training which 
 this has given him, ought to make him capable to an acceptable degree, 
 even if his experience has not yet so rounded his judgment and tem- 
 pered his acts as to render him proficient. 
 
 The employer expects of the young man, fresh from his technical 
 education, ability to understand, capacity to think, the possession of 
 ordinary facts regarding ordinary things, logical procedure in his acts, 
 faithfulness in performance, accuracy in observation, and general in- 
 telligence. He does not expect ripe judgment, practical knowledge of 
 technical procedure, trained commercial astuteness, nor does he expect 
 broad perception of the myriad of things more or less correlated with 
 those on which he directly serves. These latter attributes follow from 
 experience, and they will surely follow if the former attributes are pos- 
 sessed and practiced. 
 
 It is almost impossible to specify those qualities which most quickly 
 lead a young man to rise from the lower position he first fills to the 
 
KERR. 323 
 
 next and the next until he becomes a valued assistant and on the high 
 road to leadership, but there is no one thing which so marks a young 
 man in any organization as to be wanted. Young graduates enter 
 manufacturing establishments, engineering offices, or construction corps, 
 starting evenly in the race. Soon it develops that here and there is a 
 man who seems to be wanted by every department. It would be dif- 
 ficult for those who want him to define exactly why. The man is as 
 yet too young and his characteristics are too unformed to warrant any 
 firm determination of his ability, but in some way or other he is wanted, 
 and opportunity follows want, whether long felt or shortly realized, 
 Cheerfulness in all things is not the least of the factors that enter into 
 "being wanted." 
 
 When a man steps up because he is wanted, he must "make good," 
 because this early and only half-formed choice is not firm enough to 
 stand unless warranted by performance. The burden, therefore, upon 
 the man who is chosen is far greater than upon him who is not. 
 Through his ability, diligence, perception, and capacity to render his 
 potential possibilities in the form of practical service, he will find the 
 rising steps always in front of him and will need spend no part of his 
 energy to find them. 
 
 As he proceeds further on his way, he may feel that he is doing 
 much and doing it well, and this is about the time that self-centered 
 youth forgets that after all it is only assisting. Some one else is carry- 
 ing the responsibility. Some one else is the leader, and the effort of 
 the young man has not yet been called to its greatest obligation, be- 
 cause as yet there has not fallen upon it the burden of final responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 The day you get your first serious responsibility will be a far more 
 important day even than this, because that is the day you will either 
 carry the load or not. No one can help you much in preparing for it. 
 This is something you must do for yourself. When the time comes 
 that you take the burden, no Herculean effort of the moment will make 
 you capable of sustaining it. All that you have ever done, are doing 
 now, or are going to do up to that day will or will not prepare you 
 for it, as the case may be, and the ability to carry responsibility is the 
 whole test of leadership. It is not knowledge, skill, brilliancy, nor even 
 genius that makes a man a leader, but only the power to carry re- 
 sponsibility successfully. 
 
 This requires a series of attributes beginning with proper self- 
 confidence and ending with wisdom. Somewhere in the line will be 
 found courage, firmness, honesty, and everything that composes high 
 
324 THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 character. Each man must, therefore, cultivate that which is within 
 himself and make of it the most to this end. 
 
 You are going out into the world at a time in which many things 
 differ from their previous condition. One of the most important is that 
 within recent years the whole civilized world has turned from the 
 struggle for existence to the adaptation of the world's needs to the 
 available men to fill them. It is the passing from the ages of insuf- 
 ficiency to a period of surplus. 
 
 Orginally in the struggle for existence men fought for food. The 
 race multiplied while the material and facilities for its subsistence lag- 
 ged. When any tribe or nation succeeded in getting a little more than 
 it needed, some other nation or tribe attempted to take some part away 
 from it. The effort of the -individual and the welfare of the nation 
 were practically a struggle for existence. The development, however, 
 of civilization, the arts, and the sciences has produced a rich world. 
 The land more than supports the people. The industries give employ- 
 ment to all who are willing to work, and at a good wage. Broadly 
 speaking, poverty is unknown. Individually, it only exists as a pitiful 
 extreme of incompetence. The world is affluent. Farmers are pros- 
 perous. Science has unearthed mineral wealth. Manufacturers are 
 industrious. Enterprise is almost rampant. Everywhere the world is 
 calling for men to do things, and it is willing to pay well for capacity. 
 It is the age of surplus, in which the farmer and the artisan have bank 
 accounts and a few, even many, are rich. Men are not seeking work, 
 but work on every hand is seeking men. This condition is so very re- 
 cent that it is perhaps not fully realized, but it has come with the 
 present generation, and will have an influence and a favorable one on 
 all rnen now beginning their world's work. 
 
 Meanwhile transportation and all that attends it has increased the 
 radius of individual action, and therefore of personal opportunity. A 
 man can now pass from one grade of employment in a given locality 
 to a higher grade in another locality of a land three thousand miles 
 broad quite as easily as in the early days he could make the change from 
 one neighboring city to another. 
 
 Conditions of life too are more fixed, and change of location, even 
 of occupation, involve less of risk, hardship, or of social, physical, or 
 mental disturbance than heretofore. All conditions have, therefore, 
 grown more favorable for every man, with opportunity increasing in 
 geometrical ratio as related to the abilities of different men. The 
 premium on marked ability has, therefore, increased, while the reward 
 for capacity has become more assured. With this, the standards of 
 performance rise as responsibilities grow greater; but to meet this the 
 
KERR. 325 
 
 facilities enabling the man to make the most of his potential ability at 
 an early age, proportionally increase. 
 
 You are, therefore, going out to a well formed world, in which more 
 has been done to prepare it for the exercise of your ability than you 
 have done in the cultivation of your own talent. I do not mean by this 
 that all of the roads have been straightened and the ways paved. The 
 world is still humpy and bumpy, and you will find it hard in spots. 
 Human nature remains unchanged. You will meet the resistance of 
 men and the imperfections of material in this age the same as in any 
 other. You must be strong not only strong enough to meet the en- 
 countered resistance, but so much stronger as to meet it easily and 
 carry a surplus inertia. 
 
 It is easy to see beyond the point of good vision. There are condi- 
 tions under which it is wise to be long headed, but it is also easy to 
 overlook many things close to one's eye, which are the essence of what 
 should be perceived. There is always a bit of added grandeur to that 
 which comes from a distance. The man of high estate from a distant 
 country seems more elevated than the one we know near home. The 
 expert from afar seems more expert than the man we know too well. 
 It is trite to remark that "Familiarity breeds contempt," but it is too 
 often forgotten that "Distance lends enchantment." 
 
 There is something about effectiveness which has to do with grasp- 
 ing things which are within reach and using them, and not speculating 
 on something that is beyond grasp. The possible benefits which can 
 arise through unattainable conditions are of no value. Power is the 
 quick adaptation of things at hand to needed ends. Therefore vision 
 must not be too long. See the things that are near and see them right. 
 See their possibilities and recognize their limitations. Act with refer- 
 ence to them, use them, and keep the horizon within practical working 
 range. This for action, but as a matter of mental gymnastics, as an 
 expanding function, as a matter of mind training, it is well to use the 
 imagination to reach out to any length and to what may lie beyond. 
 Then, before action, draw in the lines to the radius of action which 
 can be made practically effective. 
 
 Much has been said from time to time about the inferiority of 
 knowledge gained piecemeal as against its acquirement in substantial 
 masses. The former is liable to be superficial and incorrect; the latter 
 profound and competent. 
 
 The scattering of knowledge into little bits covering a wide ran^c 
 is catered to by many forms of literature, whether general or specific, 
 which finish a subject almost before it is begun. 
 
326 THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 This tends to the scattering of brain effort, the 'splitting rather 
 than the cementing of intelligence, and to the fickleness of flitting from 
 thought to thought and motive to motive in a manner leaving no fixed 
 imprint on the mind thus operating. It gives also, little more than the 
 appearance of a brilliant film or veneer of learning to those who view 
 its results. It encourages suffusion and dilution instead of concentra- 
 tion. 
 
 On the other hand, the concentration required to hold to one sub- 
 ject, and to acquire one class of knowledge through a considerable 
 period of time and carry it over a broad area in which the units of sur- 
 face are of somewhat like kind, tends to profound acquirement. In 
 quantity, enough is gained to be useful, and in quality it is dense enough 
 to have substance. 
 
 All this in a certain way has a bearing upon creative work, and it 
 is creative work only that makes the world move on. 
 
 There is no merit in breadth obtained at the expense of depth. 
 All mental effort, acquirement, and knowledge need the strength, con- 
 stancy, and power which come only by dealing with large masses 
 through reasonable periods of time. This to some extent accounts for 
 the power manifested in some men who have studied little, but what 
 they know is theirs and theirs for use, as against others who have scat- 
 tered over so broad a range that they have a little of much, not much of 
 anything, and nothing for use. The old maxim of "Do a little and do 
 it well" may be improved into "Do much and do it well." 
 
 Science and 'engineering cannot be picked up from popular expres- 
 sions or the rambling through attractive descriptions of novelties, but 
 only from the study of the fundamental principles. Therefore read 
 books. Study principles, not novelties. Think theory and work prac- 
 tice. Turn to real sources, not to the tricks of words and platitudes 
 which so often catch one's fancy, and in a superficial way lead to no- 
 tions rather than to logic. 
 
 There is something in the very system of education that constrains 
 one to think that everything must be done systematically. It is hard to 
 say anything disparaging of so good a thing as system. It surely has 
 its place. It has merit. It should be cultivated. But again, it has faults. 
 It has the strange anomaly of being both natural and unnatural. It is 
 natural because all nature grows systematically, evolves systematically, 
 and all profound things move more or less systematically. Neverthe- 
 less, much is encountered that seems to know no law, and chaos is 
 not always best met with system. Many things from warfare to com- 
 merce show that system vigorously and profoundly applied will win 
 against force used indiscriminately, but, whatever of such truth may be 
 
KERR. 327 
 
 derived from generalization, one should not lose sight of the plain con- 
 crete fact that a refinement of system does not always best fit practical 
 conditions as they exist. Such conditions often demand going straight 
 at the obvious mark regardless of system. 
 
 It may be* observed that system is cultivating, and it is, there- 
 fore, well to cultivate system, but with it cultivate the capacity to 
 break through it temporarily, effectively, and for good cause. 
 
 To succeed, you must above all things be what the world calls 
 practical. The practical man is the one who understands the things 
 about him. 
 
 Foresight is the carrying beyond present view the knowledge of 
 things within view. It is the practical man who displays foresight 
 and thus is called wise, or prudent, because through the knowledge of 
 things about him he can extend his judgment to those beyond. 
 
 Knowledge in the form of learning is inferior to knowledge in 
 the form of discernment, because it is less effective. The former 
 may be admired, but the latter is followed. 
 
 The boy who "wants to know" is the right kind. Get next to 
 everything next to you. You can't successfully deal with large 
 things far removed unless you understand the small ones near by. 
 
 The practical man thinks quantitatively and qualitatively, while 
 the impractical man thinks qualitatively only. 
 
 The failure to recognize quantitative analysis in mental action is 
 responsible for many misconceptions, poor judgments, and worse acts. 
 
 Too many men allow their minds to form judgments on a quali- 
 tative basis only, so neglecting the quantitative as to reach wholly 
 wrong conclusions. The question of many things is not whether, but 
 how much. To realize that one thing is better than another is of 
 little importance unless one determines how much better it is. The 
 value of the fact that one cost is greater than another is measured 
 wholly by how much it is greater. Perspective is a relation between 
 size and apparent size. The effective man has an ever present sense of 
 proportion. The dreamer does not so relate things to each other as to 
 make their ratios real. The habit of quantitative analysis and the 
 attaching of quantitative values is of even more importance than a 
 general idea of qualitative relationship. 
 
 Express yourselves. There must be an impulse to expresssion. 
 Follow it without fear. Thinking twice may be overdone. Think 
 right once and act. The impulse to act on every point of knowledge 
 is inspiring even if conditions restrain action. It is the desire to act 
 that causes activity, and nothing but action can produce results. 
 
328 THE NEXT STEP. 
 
 As a last short word, I ask you to be individual. Base your in- 
 dividuality on correct knowledge of fundamental principles. Make 
 them your own and not merely things that were told to you or what 
 you may have read about in books. Make them your own so firmly 
 that you understand them with the fullness of your, own nature. I 
 not only mean the natural laws of physics, chemistry, and economics, 
 but the laws of right and wrong, the principles of equity and inequity, 
 the comprehension of the essence of things as distinct from the inci- 
 dents; a realization of commercialism and its ever constant relation 
 to the effective application of all laws ; a clear perception of facts, 
 and ability to use the five senses as well as the one brain. 
 
 Never mind conventionalities except so far as they are good when 
 measured in terms of higher laws than set forms. At least one-hall 
 of all conventional methods in the performance of the technical arts 
 consists of the persistence of inferior methods utilized only because 
 retained through precedent. 
 
 Above all, be courageous, consistent, considerate, and cheerful 
 in order that your talents and the best attributes of your nature mav 
 have fair play in a world that wants your service so long as you render 
 it in the right spirit. 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 
 By 
 
 Dr. Julian Kennedy. 
 
 This address was delivered on June 3, 1909, to the graduating 
 class of Stevens Institute of Technology, and was repeated a week 
 later to the graduating class of the Pennsylvania State College. Dr. 
 Kennedy is one of the most distinguished of America's numerous me- 
 chanical engineers, his specialty being connected with the manufacture 
 of steel. Everywhere, both at home and abroad, blast furnaces, steel 
 works, gas producer plants, rolling mills, slab mills, plate mills, tube 
 mills, power plants, railway bridges, sugar mills, hydraulic dredges 
 and tall buildings bear evidence of his rare constructive skill. 
 
 In consequence of his wide experience, extending over a period of 
 thirty-six years, his advice to young men about to start in the practice 
 of engineering ought to prove of immense value. Anyone following 
 it is certain to obtain great benefit, and it may prove the means of his 
 attaining professional success. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 329 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRES3. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Julian Kennedy. 
 
 Assuming that the majority of you will follow engineering pursuits, 
 it may not be amiss to mention some things which you will have to deal 
 with in your future work. It is entirely unnecessary for me to remind 
 you that most of you are not at the present time engineers. Those 
 of you who have properly utilized your opportunities have received a 
 splendid mental training, together with some knowledge of engineering, 
 which equips you to go on and acquire the vast amount of practical 
 knowledge necessary to the engineer. You will soon find that many 
 kinds of knowledge which you have perhaps considered useless, are 
 important and essential in your professional work. It is a mistake 
 made by most students, and I have no doubt many of you have made 
 it, to think that the Faculty of the school has introduced too many 
 general studies into the course instead of giving all, or nearly all, of 
 the time to purely technical studies and practical work closely related 
 to engineering. To those of you who have had this feeling, I would 
 only say that your views will change as you go on and in ten years 
 from now you will think more of the judgment of the Faculty in these 
 matters than you do at present. There is no doubt that your instructors 
 could map out a course which would turn out graduates who would 
 be able to start in practical work with much more ease and readiness 
 than you can, in fact any boy who had spent the four years you have, 
 spent here, in the field or drawing room learning practical engineer- 
 ing, would, other things being equal, be able to do routine work in 
 an engineering office much better than you could do it, but, on the other 
 hand, in a very few years you should be far ahead of him. In other 
 words, your instructors have been wise to give you a broad and liberal 
 training, and to forego teaching you some of those things which would 
 come nearest to making engineers of you at the time you finish your 
 course in order to give you more of the broad and fundamental princi- 
 ples, the mastery of which will enable you in a reasonable time to 
 become much abler and more valuable engineers than if your training 
 here had aimed to teach you the maximum amount of that kind of 
 technical information which is supposed to be most immediately useful 
 
 331 
 
332 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 
 
 to the young graduate. It is much better for you to have a broad, liberal 
 education and a little engineering knowledge when you leave here 
 than to have a much greater amount of practical and technical knowl- 
 edge without a liberal education. In your future work you will learn 
 that it is much easier to find among technical graduates good designers 
 of machinery or fine mathematicians than it is to find those who can 
 write a satisfactory contract or even a good business letter. 
 
 At some stage of your career some of you at least will be called 
 upon to purchase large amounts of machinery and materials, when yon 
 will find that the ability to write a contract from which not one word 
 can be omitted and of which not one sentence can be construed in more 
 than one way, will be of more value to you than even a knowledge of 
 the method of least squares, which some of you may perchance have 
 forgotten by that time. Not only will your opinion of the judgment 
 of the Faculty change, but your general impressions of them will also 
 be radically revised. In my student days there was a song, the refrain 
 of which was, "There'll be no Faculty there," but after graduating 
 you will begin to appreciate the Faculty and year by year this appre- 
 ciation will grow stronger until you will finally arrive at a somewhat 
 adequate idea of what you owe to them and to realize that not to 
 its buildings, not to its endowment, not to its alumni does your insti- 
 tute owe its greatness, but more than to all of these combined to 
 that noble, earnest, unselfish, self-sacrificing band of men, its Faculty, 
 and as the years roll round you will appreciate how many of them 
 have given up the chance of much greater material reward in other 
 lines of work in order to do the more important work of fitting you 
 to be an honor to your school and a benefit to the world, and at the end 
 of a quarter of a century those of you who are living will be amazed 
 at the interest taken in you one and all by the Faculty, who, like a 
 mother, never forget their boys and grieve over their misfortunes and 
 glory in their success. 
 
 Speaking of mothers brings to mind mothers-in-law. Like college 
 faculties, they are often the subjects of jokes, but if you will observe 
 carefully and accept the verdict of those who have had experience, you 
 will learn that one of the truest and best friends a man has in this 
 world is apt to be his mother-in-law. In this connection I may say 
 that one of the things most essential to his success, which a young en- 
 gineer should do not too late in his career, is to acquire a mother-in- 
 law. 
 
 I have spoken of the engineers purchasing materials and making 
 contracts, which leads to the thought that a large part of engineer- 
 ing is commercial, and that commercial considerations must be given 
 
KENNEDY. 333 
 
 weight in all engineering work. We are sometimes inclined to forego 
 these and strive to produce something ideal, without reference to the 
 question of whether it will be profitable or not. The man who puts in 
 an elaborately designed machine to displace two laborers in a plant 
 and finds that instead of them he has one skilled man operating the 
 machine and two high-priced machinists keeping it in repair, may be 
 a genius and a skilled mechanician, but he is not accomplishing what is 
 generally wanted. You will be surprised when you get into actual 
 work to find how often commercial conditions are ignored by engineers, 
 and not by engineers only. It may be your experience at some time to 
 work hard for weeks at the urgent demanS of a board of directors to 
 try to reduce the cost of labor in a plant by five or ten cents per ton of 
 product, and you may spend many thousand dollars to accomplish this, 
 while at the same time the output of the works is being sold year in 
 and year out at a dollar or two a ton below the price it ought to bring. 
 You will find also in many cases that costly machines are installed to 
 effect savings which are offset many times over by the interest on the 
 cost of the machinery and its maintenance. You will also find installed 
 elaborate and intricate machinery to effect the highest ultimate saving, 
 which because of the complication becomes unreliable and subject to 
 breakage, and you will be surprised to find in how many cases an 
 hour's stoppage of a machine which forms part of a large and highly 
 organized plant will cause a loss of more money than would be saved 
 in a year by this highly efficient machine as compared with a less effi- 
 cient but thoroughly reliable one. The larger and more complicated 
 a plant is and the more highly organized the sequence of operations 
 carried on in it, the more important it is that all machinery in it should 
 first of all be as reliable as it can be made. It should, therefore, be your 
 aim to acquire as rapidly as possible, in addition to your mechanical 
 ability, good commercial judgment and a wide experience, enabling you 
 to judge which of several different paths is apt to lead to commercial 
 success. In purchasing materials the engineer often has to act as the 
 agent of his clients as well as a referee between them and the seller. 
 It is, of course, his duty to get materials as cheaply as possible, but 
 he should never forget that he ought to be absolutely fair to both par- 
 ties, and the engineer who maintains this attitude will in the long run 
 best serve the interests of his clients as well as his own. In doing 
 business he should remember that nine-tenths of the litigation in this 
 world is caused by vague or incomplete understandings between buyer 
 and seller, and he should exercise great care to see that everything con- 
 nected with the specifications and contract is so fully and clearly ex- 
 pressed that there can be no misunderstanding regarding them, and he 
 
334 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 
 
 will find that to do this is by no means an easy or simple undertaking. 
 
 In starting out as engineers, you should all bear in mind that you 
 are largely dependent upon others. The field of engineering is so 
 vast that no one can cover a very large part of it, and no one can 
 accomplish much unless he has the faculty of availing himself of the 
 work and knowledge of others. The man who makes one of the great- 
 est failures in the mechanical world is he who spends his life inventing 
 complicated machines, only to find that others had invented them 
 years before. In many lines of work it is just as important to know 
 what has already been done as it is to possess great ability to originate 
 new designs, and as between' the man who is an expert special designer 
 in any department of engineering and the one who has the faculty of 
 utilizing the work of many other men in many departments, the latter 
 will be the more valuable man, will be more sought after, and will rise 
 higher in his profession. In other words, it is not so much what a 
 man can do himself as what he can get others to do that makes him 
 valuable in carrying on large undertakings. 
 
 In your work as engineers you will be called upon to make reports 
 on properties, processes, etc. You will, of course, in such cases be 
 sure that you understand the subject, after which it will be wise for 
 you to write your report so as to say in it all you desire to say and 
 write it on the theory that anyone may read it. You may be asked 
 sometimes to vary the wording of your report on the ground that 
 it is not to be published, but only shown to A or B. In such cases you 
 will be wise to make no changes which you would not want read and 
 criticised by anyone, and to bear in mind also that the funds of widows 
 and orphans may be invested in enterprises on the strength of your 
 report. Your written report, should, of course, be complete in itself, 
 and should not need to be supplemented by oral explanations, and it 
 should be so concise and clear that there is no possibility of anyone 
 warping or distorting the meaning of it. While most business men 
 Want straight, honest reports, there is quite a respectable (as to num- 
 bers) minority who will try to have you warp the truth just a little, and 
 who are very plausible and specious in the way they go about it. In work of 
 this kind you will find that commercial knowledge and good judgment play 
 a very large part, and you will possibly learn that expert accountants r 
 like many other kinds of expert specialists, are very narrow in their 
 views and more or less feeble in grasping broad principles. To be 
 successful in this line of work it is necessary that you should acquire 
 a great deal of general information in connection with accounts, con- 
 struction of plants, and their operation. You will also find many thing.? 
 in works which cannot be seen, and for your information in regard to- 
 
KENNEDY. 335 
 
 them you will be dependent upon other people, and your success in 
 getting accurate information will depend largely upon your judgment 
 of men, your tact and ability to elicit correct information from them. 
 Owing to the large number of things which have to be examined some- 
 times in a very short space of time, it will be necessary for you to 
 acquire a faculty of seeing things quickly and accurately, as well as of 
 judging of their conditions and their methods of operation. This is a 
 faculty which varies greatly in different men, but one which can be 
 cultivated to a marvelous extent. 
 
 You have doubtless seen men who could walk through a factory 
 and come out with a wonderful amount of information regarding the 
 workings of a large number of intricate machines, whereas another man 
 may have passed through at the same time and not seen a hundredth 
 part as much of the actual inwardness of the mechanism. In making 
 reports in regard to works or plants, you should be as concise and 
 clear in your descriptions as possible, bearing in mind that bankers 
 and financial men generally are apt to place upon a report a value in 
 inverse proportion to its length. I remember seeing a report on a large 
 plant containing some miles of railroad trestle, which gave in exact 
 detail the size of every sill, every post, cap, corbel, and stringer in the 
 entire works, the list occupying a good many pages of legal cap; 
 and the entire trestle was rotten to an extent that it was not even 
 fit for firewood, and the only thing that was really necessary to know 
 about it was the expense of pulling it down and hauling it away. The 
 man who made this report was probably a very painstaking engineer, 
 but lacked something in his makeup. 
 
 You will in your future work, doubtless, be called on to testify 
 as experts in the courts in cases involving mechanical considerations 
 and patents. There has been a good deal of criticism of the system 
 of having experts on each side of a case, and many have recommended 
 that the court should engage its own expert, but all things consid- 
 ered, I have no doubt that a fuller, broader, and fairer knowledge is 
 gained by the court if it listens to two experts each putting forward 
 the strong arguments for his own side of the case, than if only one 
 expert is heard, as he is liable not to see all sides of the question, and 
 may, with the. best intentions in the world, give a very incomplete and 
 erroneous opinion on the technical points of the case. This is less likely 
 to happen where each expert sets forth his own side of the matter, 
 and is cross-examined by the other side. Should you have occasion 
 to act as an expert in this line you should first of all be sure that 
 you have a thorough knowledge of the subject; in other words, that 
 vou are a real expert in it. Next you should endeavor to be entirely 
 
336 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 
 
 fair in your testimony. It is not expected that you should volunteer 
 aid or assistance to the other side, but you should answer all ques- 
 tions fully and fairly, and, above all, you should be absolutely honest 
 in regard to your opinions. As a general rule, it is wise not to enter 
 a case unless a preliminary study of it convinces you that you can be 
 of service to your client, and at the same time adhere strictly to your 
 honest opinions throughout. You will find it essential in this kind of 
 work to be patient, to have absolute control of your temper, and to 
 meet the most insulting and irritating cross-examination with un- 
 ruffled composure and with retorts courteous. Where the facts are 
 against your side, you should not try to dodge the issue, but remember 
 that frank admissions of those things which plainly favor the opposi- 
 tion in most cases help your side more than they hurt it. Remember 
 always that although it may be impossible to prove that a statement 
 of an opinion is not truthful, yet an experienced judge in reading the 
 testimony will almost infallibly detect any tendency to untruthful- 
 ness or unfairness in a witness. 
 
 In your engineering work you will possibly have to direct large 
 bodies of men, and here you will need judgment, tact, and knowl- 
 edge of human nature, together with firmness and decision and a spirit 
 of fairness. In addition to handling men successfully, you should make 
 it a rule to learn from them, and you will be surprised at the great 
 amount of information you can gather in this way, especially among 
 mechanics. Twenty or thirty years ago there was, among the so-called 
 practical mechanical men of this country, a good deal of contempt for 
 the technical graduate. This feeling has to a large extent ceased to 
 exist, but on the other hand I fear there is a tendency on the part of 
 the technically trained men at the present time greatly to underestimate 
 the value of the knowledge of the first-class mechanic acquired by long 
 practical experience. Many engineers would rise much higher in their 
 profession if they had the faculty of absorbing useful knowledge from 
 the working mechanics, many of whom have wonderful ability and 
 can give most valuable information. In a still wider sense engineers 
 can get a great deal of information from their brother engineers, and 
 team work is just as essential in carrying on engineering work as it 
 is in winning a game of football. As you can obtain a large amount 
 of aid from other engineers, so it should be your duty and your pleasure 
 to impart information to your engineering brethren, especially to the 
 younger members of the guild. Make friends among men of high 
 standing and greater experience than your own and hold them. Always 
 see a desirable position ahead of you, and strive to be prepared for it 
 mentally and physically. Remember that often a strong constitution 
 
KENNEDY. 337 
 
 and vigorous brain will cause you to win where others have failed. Bear 
 in mind that booze and business do not mix, and that the demand for 
 sober, steady men grows stronger. In men as in machinery what is 
 most wanted is reliability. In all things so shape your actions that if 
 failure comes to you, you shall have done better than to achieve success 
 by deserving it, and so that you can inscribe upon the dismantled mill 
 or the abandoned mine "all is lost save honor." 
 
 Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, I congratulate you upon the 
 future which looms up before you. The great advances in science, 
 mechanics, and all of the forms of material and mental development 
 achieved during the last fifty years will be dwarfed by those of the 
 next half century. Your native land possesses most marvelous resources 
 and boundless possibilities. Its great forests which should be conserved 
 and increased, its vast water powers to be developed, its great stores 
 of fuel to be economically utilized, and other natural resources too 
 numerous to mention, all of which should be used in the most efficient 
 manner, call for earnest, faithful, and intelligent engineering work. 
 
 A part of this work it will be your good fortune to do, and I have 
 no doubt you will do it vigorously and faithfully, and will receive the 
 reward which follows work well done. You will find discouragements, 
 but these come to others as well as to engineers. The financial rewards 
 of your work may seem small as compared with those common in other 
 professions, but there are other rewards besides these. The man who 
 builds a successful machine enjoys a pleasure which the owner of it 
 does not, and the engineer who sees scattered over the country great 
 plants which he has designed, doing their work well, obtains a great 
 reward even if the financial return to him is small compared with that 
 received by the stockholders. 
 
 In addition to the work which you will find to do in the line of 
 engineering, it is to be hoped that your influence will be widely felt 
 in other directions. There are many problems in connection with the 
 municipal, state, and national government that will require solving 
 in the years to come, and no class of men should be more able to cast 
 their influence in the right direction in the solution of these than the 
 engineers. When you consider that the cost of building and main- 
 taining one modern battleship is greater than the amount necessary to 
 endow and operate Harvard University, Yale University, and Stevens 
 Institute, or again that the first cost of one of these vessels would build 
 five thousand model workmen's homes costing $3,000 each, and when 
 we see further the insane rivalry between such great powers as England 
 and Germany to see who shall have the most of these engines of de- 
 struction, while at the same time both countries are rapidly drifting 
 
338 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 
 
 toward bankruptcy, it seems as though the time were ripe for educated 
 men and everyone else to use their influence on every possible occasion 
 against this species of folly. 
 
 When we further notice the so-called alleged statesmen who repre- 
 sent the various portions of our country at Washington quibbling over 
 .trifles and striving with all their might to get all the plunder out of the 
 public crib for their own districts, and failing to take any action on the 
 great questions which would be of untold benefit to their country, it 
 impresses us with the fact that there are needed in this country a great 
 many clear-headed, courageous men who can think straight and are 
 not afraid to express their opinions. There are, and will be, many im- 
 portant questions arising, and it should be your duty and your pleasure 
 to use your influence at all times in favor of any policy that will make 
 for the good of your country and your fellow man. 
 
 I trust you will not be content to be simply skilled mechanical spe- 
 cialists of the type that looks with contempt upon Shakespeare and 
 Milton because they knew nothing of alternating current generators 
 or Pelton water wheels, but that you will strive to acquire a broad and 
 liberal culture, kindly sympathy, and sound judgment; that your in- 
 fluence will be steadily exerted in behalf of all things that are of good 
 report in social, civic, and national life, and that, wheresoever you may 
 be, at all times and in all places your Alma Mater may be proud of you, 
 and that your country and the world may be better for your having 
 lived in it. 
 
 To you, Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, who, by successfully 
 completing the thorough and strenuous course demanded of you by this 
 Institute, have demonstrated that you have the ability and industry to 
 acquit yourselves with credit in any work your hand may find to do. 
 my parting greeting is, 
 
 "Well done and go forward." 
 
STUDY MEN. 
 
 By 
 John F. Hayford, C. E. 
 
 This address, which treats of a most important subject not only 
 for young engineers but also for all young men, was given in 1907 to 
 the graduating class of the Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School of 
 Technology. Mr. Hayford then held the important official position of In- 
 spector of Geodetic Work and Chief of Computing Division in the Coast 
 and Geodetic Survey Department at Washington, D. C. 
 
 The introductory portion of this address treats of the magnitude 
 and importance of the engineering profession, a subject that cannot 
 well receive too much attention in the curricula of technical schools, 
 but which unfortunately as a rule, is generally ignored. 
 
 The advice to study men is the soundest of the sound. Doing 
 so will enable you not only to benefit by the labor of others but also so 
 to mould your own character as to incorporate in it the good traits of 
 others and reject the objectionable ones. There is an important de- 
 duction to be made from Mr. Hayford's discourse something in the 
 nature of a -corollary viz. "Study the lives of eminent successful 
 engineers" in order to learn how and why they succeeded; and 
 before reading any technical treatise learn all you can concerning the 
 life history of its author. This, to say the least, will make the study of 
 the book more interesting, and probably also more profitable. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 339 
 
STUDY MEN. 
 
 By 
 John F. Hayford, C. E. 
 
 We are met to celebrate the graduation of a group of young men 
 from this institution, the Clarkson Memorial. 
 
 I congratulate you, graduates, on your entrance upon your life 
 work in the noble profession of engineering. It is a profession in which 
 there are great opportunities for service. 
 
 Your predecessors who have done their part as engineers in turn- 
 ing the forces of nature to the use of man have changed this world 
 from one in which the winner was the man with the brute strength 
 and physical bravery which gave him the power to win in a hand to 
 hand battle. It was a world in which all, even the fighters who secured 
 the spoils and the kings who ruled the fighters, lived in comparative 
 discomfort. It was a world in which the higher thoughts, aspirations, 
 and the impulse to render unselfish service which are the essence of 
 civilization, came to but very few. The mass of humanity were too 
 heavily loaded with hard labor, with real oppression from the classes 
 above them, and with the effects of ignorance and superstition, to have 
 a part in the crude civilization which existed. It was a world in which 
 men knew only their nearest neighbors, in which nations perpetually 
 fought against each other, in which each people was densely ignorant 
 of every other and correspondingly suspicious. 
 
 By turning the forces of nature to the use of man, your predeces- 
 sors as engineers have changed this into a world in which the winner 
 is. the man who thinks clearly, controls himself, and may be depended 
 U p 0n , the man who serves rather than the man who fights. It is 
 now a world in which millions live in greater comfort and security than 
 did even the kings of the ages before the engineer. It is now a world 
 in which the average man works such short hours and under such 
 comfortable conditions that he has abundant opportunities within his 
 reach to share in the real benefits of civilization, to develop himself to 
 his full capacity. 
 
 Perhaps you think I have exaggerated in crediting the engineer 
 with all these changes. In terse statements there is apt to be some 
 exaggeration. But, the more carefully you study this matter the more 
 
 341 
 
342 STUDY MEN. 
 
 evidence you will find of the truth of these statements and the more 
 enthusiastic you will become over your profession. 
 
 Think for a moment how the steam engine and other machines 
 are the basis of your comfort. Think of the .large part they have 
 played in furnishing you the light and heat you have in your houses, 
 the clothes you wear, the food you eat. 
 
 The locomotive, the marine engine, the printing press, and the 
 telegraph, have made all the peoples of the world acquainted and 
 changed them from enemies into friends. The people of the United 
 States and the Japanese, living on opposite sides of the world, are 
 better acquainted and more friendly today than were the French and the 
 Prussians one hundred years ago, living as close neighbors. 
 
 The engineer by producing powerful weapons and the means of 
 concentrating troops quickly has made war so costly and so deadly 
 that we must credit him with being a most efficient peacemaker. 
 
 In improving personal morals, as well as national morals, and 
 thereby advancing civilization, the work of the engineer is extremely 
 powerful. He builds a smooth steel road and a one hundred ton loco- 
 motive which draws a massive train at a mile a minute. Then it is 
 found that the safety, the lives, of the hundreds of passengers on 
 the train depends upon the quick and certain action of the man in the 
 cab of the locomotive. He must not only see the faint danger signal 
 within a few seconds, every time it appears before him, he must not 
 fail to act promptly and with good judgment, or pay the forfeit with 
 his own life and possibly with the lives of many others. This and 
 other situations, created by the engineer, in which certainty and quick- 
 ness of action of the nerves and brain are absolutely necessary, be- 
 cause great responsibility is concentrated on one man, have been most 
 powerful influences in changing this from an irresponsible, drunken 
 world into a responsible, temperate one. You never heard of a rail- 
 road company claiming that it needed to provide a canteen to keep its 
 employees sober. 
 
 I congratulate you on joining a group of men who are doing great 
 service for the world, a service much greater than the world appre- 
 ciates it to be, a service much greater than the engineers themselves 
 realize. One of the prominent characteristics of the average engineer 
 is that he is so wrapped up in his work as to see only its immediate 
 results and to fail to see its much greater indirect effects. He fails to 
 realize fully that he is working through men and for men, that the 
 most important effect of his work is its influence on the onward and 
 upward progress of man. 
 
HAY FORD. 343 
 
 It is because this is my opinion of the engineer and his work that 
 I have all that I can possibly do to live up to the title C. E. 
 
 I come to urge you to study men. Why? Because much of your 
 learning is done through other men, because you will do your work 
 through men, and because men are so difficult to understand that care- 
 ful study is required. Men are the most important objects of interest 
 that will come within your sphere of knowledge. I urge you, gradu- 
 ates, to study men because I am safe in saying that there are some 
 among you who will fail to be useful in the world simply because you 
 will fail to understand men until it is too late. 
 
 Please note that you are urged to study men for perfectly unmoral 
 reasons. You are not urged to study men to learn how to improve 
 their morals, not for any effect it may have upon your own morals. You 
 are urged to study men in order to make yourself more efficient as an 
 engineer, the purpose for which you study steel or concrete. 
 
 I have said that you should study men because much of your learn- 
 ing is done through men. Have you ever considered how large a pra- 
 portion of the stock of knowledge and wisdom you have gathered has 
 come to you through other men's brains? 
 
 You, graduates, have been under the continuous influence of the 
 teachers in school and college for 16 to 20 years, for more than 
 three-fourths of your life. You have acquired through their efforts. 
 They have guided, encouraged, and inspired you. To a large extent 
 your knowledge has been selected by them and your views colored by 
 them. You have learned from and through your teachers rather than 
 from direct contact with facts. 
 
 During this school and college period you have learned much from 
 books rather than from teachers. But a book is simply the ideas of a 
 man made visible and explained in the way which seems best to him. 
 You seldom think of the man behind the book. But when you read 
 and study a book you are learning through the brain of that man. 
 Your ideas are influenced, guided, colored by him. To get the full 
 value of the book you should know the man. 
 
 If you prove to be a successful engineer, you will pass through 
 three periods with reference to the acquisition of knowledge and wis- 
 dom. First, the school and college period when you acquired through 
 books and teachers. Second, the period comprising the first ten or 
 more years after you leave college, the period during which you will 
 occupy subordinate positions and be in close contact with material 
 facts. By that close contact with facts you will gain experience which 
 will remedy, to a considerable extent, the inevitable defects of any edu- 
 cation furnished by books and teachers alone. 
 
344 STUDY MEN. 
 
 Just as rapidly and as certainly as you gain real success by show- 
 ing ability to make yourself useful in the world, and by using your abil- 
 ity, you will find your responsibilities increased, the demands upon you 
 increased, and will find that you cannot, if you are to accomplish most, 
 remain in direct contact with all the facts of your daily work. You 
 will enter into the third period with respect to the acquisition of knowl- 
 edge and wisdom. You will find yourself in a position where you 
 must acquire knowledge through your subordinates who are themselves 
 in more direct contact with the facts. The chief engineer of a rail- 
 road, the chief engineer of a great government engineering bureau 
 like the Reclamation Service, the head of a great technical school, 
 necessarily sees the facts of the work for which he is responsible mainly 
 through the eyes and brains of his subordinates. In the third, or 
 executive, period then, as in the first, or school period, the successful 
 engineer acquires knowledge and wisdom by utilizing the brains of 
 other men. 
 
 When you are in school and college you are, as a rule, learning 
 things which were well known long before your time, you are acquir- 
 ing knowledge which is well organized by the successive efforts of many 
 men, teachers, and authors. Because it is well organized knowledge, 
 already worked over by many men, this concentrated experience comes 
 to you from the past with comparatively little coloring due specifically 
 to the last author and the last teacher in the series through which it 
 passed to you. But it does come to you with high coloring and in a 
 distorted form, because the long series of authors and teachers have, 
 as a rule, belonged to one profession, teaching because they have all 
 been thinkers, rather than doers. It is within your power, to a great 
 extent, to remove the inevitable false coloring, and to round out the 
 inevitably distorted form by heeding your own experience to be gained 
 in the second period already referred to, the period during which 
 you are to be in engineering in subordinate positions in close contact 
 with facts. 
 
 But as you gradually, by being successful, pass into the third period 
 in which you again depend upon utilizing the brains of others, yon 
 will find that the facts you must deal with have not been known long, 
 that they are not well organized, that they come to you through one 
 man or through a short series of men only, and that as a rule the re- 
 lations between the facts are but dimly perceived by the men from 
 whom you get them. Under these conditions the facts and principles 
 come to you highly colored and greatly distorted and but dimly out- 
 lined because of the peculiarities of the man, or the few men, through 
 whom you get them. It becomes, therefore, of prime importance to 
 
HAY FORD. 34$ 
 
 you to understand that man, or those men. To be entirely successful 
 you must study men. 
 
 I say, advisedly, that the facts with which you must deal in the 
 third period are of this character. The well known and well organized 
 facts and principles will be dealt with by your subordinates without 
 coining to you for attention. 
 
 ********** 
 
 I have urged that you study men because you learn through men. 
 When you have learned and come in turn to do, you will find that your 
 work must be done through other men, as a rule. 
 
 An engineer does very little directly without the intervention of 
 other men between him and his accomplishment, even when he is in 
 minor, subordinate positions. Even the levelman is dependent on his 
 rodman and recorder. The inspector on construction may see with 
 his own eyes, but he produces changes only by operating through a 
 foreman or perhaps a chain of several men, including the engineer to 
 whom he reports, the contractor, the contractor's foreman, and finally 
 the workmen. The draftsman may seem to be directly in contact with 
 his work but he really accomplishes something only as he succeeds by 
 means of drawings in guiding the skilled workmen whom perhaps he 
 never sees. In each of even these simple cases the effectiveness of the 
 engineer is conditioned in part on his accurate understanding of the 
 thoughts and feelings of the men through whom he works. 
 
 As an engineer rises higher in the organization with which he 
 works, his field of influence becomes larger, but the line of men through 
 whom he works 'to produce material results also lengthens. He works 
 to an increasing degree through other men and it is of increasing im- 
 portance that he understands other men. Or, if he fails to know men 
 he is apt to fail to rise. 
 
 An engineer works through other men not connected with him in 
 any organization by convincing them of the correctness of his view, 
 and of the advisability of doing certain things. He produces results in 
 these cases by convincing. It may seem at first sight th'at in this re- 
 spect a man works in a different way through other men according to 
 whether they are his subordinates in a close organization or are out- 
 side the organization. But experience will show you that there is no 
 real difference. You can be effective in producing results through 
 your subordinates in an organization only by convincing them that you 
 are right, though it may not be necessary that they understand why 
 your decisions are right. If you do not convince, your subordinates 
 will accomplish whatever is within their native ability to accomplish 
 unguided, but no part of that accomplishment will be due to you. 
 
346 STUDY MEN. 
 
 If you are to succeed, to be valuable in the world to know is 
 not enough, you must make others to know. Your power of passing 
 knowledge from your own into another man's mind depends largely 
 upon your understanding of that man. Hence you must study him. 
 If you understand him and have a thorough mastery of the topic in 
 hand then your success in convincing him still depends largely on your 
 skill in using language, in making words effective carriers of ideas. 
 Language is one of the tools of an engineer, a tool which he has fre- 
 quently neglected because he has as frequently failed to realize that 
 men are also his tools. 
 
 As soon as you are well started in studying men you will find 
 yourself studying the need and purpose of organization. For as soon 
 as you fully realize what great differences there are in their principal 
 characteristics, and even how widely the capabilities of a given man 
 may vary at different stages of his life, you will realize why and how 
 it is that a group of men working together as an organization may ac- 
 complish much more than the same men could if they worked inde- 
 pendently, as individuals. 
 
 A very common conception of organization is that it is an arbitrary 
 arrangement by which orders are transmitted by various steps, 
 through different groups of officials, from the man at the head of the 
 organization to the many men who form the rank and file and do the 
 actual work. Many graduates have shown that they believe that the 
 way for a man in a high position to get a thing done is to order it 
 done. Poor and inefficient administrators may do it that way. The 
 successful administrators are men who act on the principle that their 
 business is to administer unto those below them in the organization in 
 three ways. First, by putting them into such places and under such 
 conditions that they can do their best; second, by giving them orders 
 necessary to show what is expected of them; and, third, by enlisting- 
 their wills as well as their bodies and minds in the work of the organi- 
 zation so that they will do their best. The first and third of these, 
 the average graduate has never seriously thought of. He sees in the 
 administrative officer the man who orders. The successful adminis- 
 trator finds his time so thoroughly filled with the first and third kinds 
 of administration, with putting each man in the place and under the 
 conditions most favorable to his effectiveness, and with enlisting in the 
 service the will of the man, that orders fill but a small part of his 
 horizon. 
 
 The men near the top in an organization normally do the most 
 difficult work. Normally they are the men who work most intensely 
 and for the longest hours. In the great organization with which I am 
 
HAY FORD. 347 
 
 connected, the civil service of the United States, this is so commonly 
 recognized that it calls forth no comment to see the rank and file leave 
 at four-thirty and come at exactly nine, while others who are in re- 
 sponsible control of the organization work early, late, and strenuously. 
 I have urged you to study men, and especially to study men from 
 a certain point of view, the point of view of one who wishes to attain 
 success as an engineer. You may properly ask how it is proposed to 
 study this subject. Study it as you should study any other engineering 
 topic. Use the best books you can find, study current practice as shown, 
 in current literature, study the facts and principles directly whenever 
 you can. 
 
 You will find at the outset that no one existing book will serve as 
 a text-book. There certainly are fundamental principles, capable of 
 being put into words, which are daily being applied by successful ad- 
 ministrators. But these administrators do not put them into words 
 themselves. They are too busy. Some of them will tell you that they 
 act by intuition. If the principles are put into words it will be done 
 by some one who makes that his chief aim for the time being, some 
 one who will study carefully the words (spoken and written) and the 
 acts of successful administrators, and perhaps failures in that line also. 
 That is the way the excellent text-books on various courses in engi- 
 neering have been built up, and the transition made from the time, only 
 two generations ago, when Mahan's Civil Engineering was the single 
 text-book, to the present state of affairs when we have complete and 
 well written text-books in each of many lines of engineering, as, for 
 example, Masonry Structures, Bridges, Hydraulics, Sanitary Engineer- 
 ing, and so on. It was the teacher rather than the successful engineer 
 who put into clear, definite, teachable form the principles used by en- 
 gineers. So you must not expect the man who is successful in dealing 
 with men, the successful administrator, to tell you how he does it. You 
 must directly, or through others, watch his actions and their effects, 
 listen to his spoken words, and read his writings on all sorts of topics. 
 
 To sum up: You have in your four-year course been studying 
 material things, the facts of nature and the laws of nature. You have 
 been acquiring -that engineering knowledge, knowledge of the forces 
 of nature and the strength and properties of materials, which is abso- 
 lutely essential to your success as an engineer. You have studied man 
 comparatively little. You have acquired your engineering knowledge 
 largely through men and will continue to do so. The soundness of 
 your engineering knowledge depends in part upon your knowledge of 
 men; but what is still more important the effectiveness with which you 
 will use your engineering knowledge depends very intimately upon 
 
348 STUDY MEN. 
 
 your knowledge of men. Hence, you are urged, as you do your part 
 in the world, to study men as well as engineering. You are urged to 
 pay attention to all phases of the men around you, to see and appreci- 
 ate them as literary and artistic men, as well as technical men, as men 
 of feeling as well as men of thought, as incarnated motives as well as 
 thinking and working machines. 
 
 To attain to the highest success as an engineer you should not only 
 be able to reach correct conclusions quickly when you have the facts 
 before you for direct observation. You should also have the power to 
 draw correct conclusions quickly from information which comes to you 
 through other men. This power comes largely from knowing men. 
 
 To attain to the highest success as an engineer you must not be 
 the type of man who knows how to do things excellently but cannot 
 tell others how to do them, 'the man who gets knowledge abundantly 
 but can apply it only through his own fingers. Instead of devoting 
 your energy simply to increasing your own output by fifty or even one 
 hundred per cent, it is far better, you make yourself more useful to 
 the world by using your energy to increase the output of each of one 
 hundred men by ten per cent. The world recognizes this by awarding 
 the prizes to the administrators. 
 
CRITICISM OF THE ENGINEERING SCHOOLS. 
 
 By 
 
 Professor Dugald C. Jackson. 
 
 Unfortunately, most of this address, which was delivered in 1910 
 to the graduating class of Stevens Institute of Technology, is hardly 
 suitable for the purpose of this book. A few extracts from it, however, 
 may be read by students to advantage, and they are here reproduced, 
 both on account of their value and to provide a specimen of the technical 
 writing of one of our leading instructors in electrical engineering. Prof. 
 Jackson occupies that chair in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
 nology. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 349 
 
CRITICISM OF THE ENGINEERING SCHOOLS. 
 
 By 
 Professor Dugald C. Jackson. 
 
 How many of you young men, students of engineering, composing 
 this audience have reflected upon the meaning of the profession which 
 you are intending to follow, or of the duties which are associated 
 with it? How many of you have in mind a clear-cut definition of the 
 character of the mental processes used by experienced engineers in 
 executing their duties? How many of you have a clear recognition 
 of the distinctions of mind and method which compose the differences 
 between an engineer and a well-educated mechanic of unusual skill? 
 You must reflect on all of these points and come to adequate convic- 
 tions before you can become of the ablest and most distinguished 
 ranks of engineers. These things can be organized in one's mind only 
 by the thoughtful reflection which arouses the imagination. Thought- 
 ful reflection is, to paraphrase Lowell, as needful for the imagination 
 as society is wholesome for the character; and an engineer's education 
 can be scarcely begun until he learns that an exact and truthful imag- 
 ination is one of his most important professional possessions. 
 
 * * * * * * * #s|e # 
 
 But we must also remember that a truly influential man must know 
 something of literature, biography, history, art, and music. He must be 
 a man of complete living. "To prepare us for complete living," Her- 
 bert Spencer said in his interesting book on educaiton, "is the function 
 which education has to discharge; and the only rational mode of judg- 
 ing of any educational course is to judge in what degree it discharges 
 such function." Spencer also defines what he means by complete living, 
 and every able, reflecting man may give a similar definition out of his 
 own consciousness and experience: An education for complete living- 
 includes training the faculties of self-preservation, the faculties of 
 self-support, the faculties of the domestic life and proper parentage, 
 the faculties of good citizenship including interest and activity in the 
 betterment of our political and social relations, the faculties of properly 
 enjoying one's leisure and lending enjoyment to others. 
 
 The study of science and its applications as carried on in the atmos- 
 phere of our better engineering schools may surely be made an impor- 
 
 351 
 
352 THE ENGINEERING SCHOOLS. 
 
 tant stimulus to each of the powers and faculties which are required for 
 complete living. It has been asserted that it lends itself more particu- 
 larly to the earlier and less disinterested ones; but that this is necessary 
 I must deny. The profession of the engineer demands a creative im- 
 agination cultivated to the sober clear sight which sees things as they 
 are, and from which springs an appreciation of art, literature, and 
 music which rivals that produced in any other manner. But the physi- 
 cal sciences and their applications, even when coupled with desirable 
 dilettantism, are not adequate to the requirements of engineering in 
 its broadest sense; and the political and social sciences must be added 
 to the list. 
 
 In this latter respect"- most of our engineering curricula have been 
 startlingly deficient. I even lay the charge at the door of your own great 
 Institute ; an Institute which has instructed the spirit of many who have 
 become of the nation's leading engineers. Will you look through that 
 list of distinguished engineers and tell me how many have become not- 
 able for activities in the political and social affairs of the nation? We 
 can count to your credit your distinguished alumnus and President and 
 a few others of corresponding public spirit, but they are few when noted 
 in comparison with the importance of the engineer's work in civilization 
 and civic life and the important influence which the Institute has borne 
 in American engineering. Remember that the existence of civilization 
 as we know it, and to a large degree its advancement, depend upon trans- 
 portation and intercommunication, which are fundamentally engineering 
 industries. Are the engineers then to allow those important political and 
 civic activities which cling around civilized life to fall under the sole 
 direction of others? 
 
 It is an easy answer to say that the engineers are too busy in work- 
 ing and directing the economic advances of civilization to afford at- 
 tention to the way in which political and civic activities are guided ; but 
 this answer is inadequate. The lawyers, the physicians, the merchants 
 are also busily engaged in affairs of importance, in their kind, and they 
 might make a similar excuse for abstaining from political and social 
 activity; in which case, I think we must all admit, our forms of gov- 
 ernment would soon break down from want of adequately trained and 
 disinterested leaders. 
 
 * # # * * * * * * * 
 
 I take the ground that it is desirable for students as well as faculties 
 to recognize, reflect on, and understand the human shortcomings of the 
 courses of training. By no other means, it seems to me, can earnest stu- 
 dents be stimulated to make the most of their opportunities and belie 
 the charge of inefficiency that is sometimes laid at the door of engineer- 
 
JACKSON. 353 
 
 ing graduates. I think there is no doubt that the engineering courses 
 make the best preparation for engineering and industrial life that has 
 been devised. Good engineers lived before the engineering schools ; but 
 the engineering schools are doing a tremendous work in providing men 
 with the mental means to extend engineering knowledge and advance 
 engineering practice. 
 
 One of the things that students, to their disadvantage, commonly 
 fail to keep constantly in mind is the fact that a man of ability and 
 courage can usually make of himself that which his ambitions dictate. 
 If you set your ambitions right there need be no fear of your reasonable 
 success. Failure by a man of ability and courage, who also has the ad- 
 vantage of education, is scarcely to be condoned. The only sufficient ex- 
 cuse is an inadequate physique or ill health caused through no fault of 
 the individual. In engineering nothing is ordinarily sufficient to excuse 
 failure. 
 
 ********** 
 
 If a man concentrates his efforts, is honest, is patient, performs his 
 duties with thoroughness, masters the principles relating to his employ- 
 ment, and thinks (it is remarkable "How many never think, who think 
 they do"), he is sure to succeed. True success is a great achievement, 
 and great achievements require long expenditure of well-directed en- 
 deavor for their erection. 
 
 ::***** * * 
 
 V \ 
 
ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE SCHOOL 
 OF ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 This address was delivered in 1893 by one of the Editors and lis- 
 tened to by the other, who was then a student of K. U. No comment 
 is permissible; but the reader's attention is called specially to the advice 
 given to young graduate engineers to obtain a wide, general experi- 
 ence in comparatively low positions before settling down to one particu- 
 lar line of work. This experiment has been tried by a number of men 
 and with great success. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 355 
 
ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE SCHOOL 
 OF ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 In an address like this, it is, I suppose, in order for me to give to 
 you, who are about to undertake the duties of practical life, some good 
 advice based upon my personal experience, which, by the way, covers 
 about eighteen years of practice in various branches of engineering, in- 
 cluding that of civil engineering education. Unfortunately, it is a fact 
 that, in general, people are more fond of giving advice than of taking 
 it ; and I have found on a number of occasions that advice given to stu- 
 dents was unheeded. It is. an old saying that each one must "dree his 
 ain weird," and there is a great deal of truth in it ; nevertheless I have 
 seen occasions when advice from older men was eagerly sought after 
 and appreciated when given. To many minds the receiving of advice 
 and acting upon it is an indication of mental inferiority, or at least of 
 a lack of strong-mindedness ; but I have noticed that the individuals who 
 are governed by such ideas generally make a failure in both professional 
 and business life. Self-reliance is a very good thing, if not carried too 
 far, and, in fact, is an essential to success in any calling; nevertheless, 
 its possession should not debar one from profiting by the experience of 
 others. 
 
 I can look back to a portion of my life when some sound, practical 
 advice from an older engineer would have been of the greatest benefit to 
 me, in that it would have been the means of preventing me from wast- 
 ing considerable valuable time, simply because I did not know how to 
 employ it advantageously. 
 
 Let me hope, then, that my words to-day will not be entirely wast- 
 ed, but that some of you will benefit by them, and that in the years to 
 come I shall occasionally run across one of you who will tell me that 
 my advice was good, and that it has proved useful to him. 
 
 Please remember that it is based upon my personal experience as 
 well as upon observation of the careers of others, and that it is drawn 
 from both successes and failure; because there is always a great deal 
 to be learned about "how not to do it." Please remember, also, that I 
 am in great sympathy with students of civil engineering ; for at heart I 
 am still a professor, and some day after I have earned sufficient money 
 
 357 
 
358 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 in the practice of engineering to permit me to indulge in such extrava- 
 gance, I should like again to occupy a professor's chair. To my mind 
 there is no more useful or higher branch of the engineering profession 
 than that of instruction, notwithstanding the openly avowed opinion of 
 many practicing engineers to the contrary. It is not sufficient, though, 
 to recognize for oneself the equality of professors and practicing en- 
 gineers; but it is necessary to make the world at large acknowledge 
 the fact. Steps in this direction, I am happy to say, are now being 
 .taken; and to-day the professor of civil engineering takes higher rank 
 in the American Society of Civil Engineers than he did a few years ago. 
 But to return to the subject in hand, viz., advice to young engin- 
 eers. On account of the kindly feeling I entertain toward all engineer- 
 ing students, especially those who are earnest and ambitious, I shall 
 speak to you very freely and openly, giving you of the best that I have, 
 even if by so doing I lay myself open to adverse criticism. 
 
 But to accomplish what I have in mind I must drop all formality 
 in addressing you, and meet each of you as man to man upon a most 
 intimate footing in fact I must speak as if I had known each one of 
 you for years and had taken a personal interest in your welfare. I shall 
 take it for granted that you will permit this liberty, and shall govern 
 myself accordingly. In following this method I shall have to reduce my 
 address to a rambling discourse, ruining it perhaps as far as elegance is 
 concerned, but at the same time rendering it the more useful. 
 
 As Commencement Day approaches, each engineering student of the 
 graduating class, as soon as he has assured himself of his graduation, be- 
 gins to think more and more of the work that he shall do after finishing 
 his course of study, and of the position that he will obtain. He natural- 
 ly gauges the positions that he hears of by the amount of salary offered 
 in each case ; and strives to obtain the one to which the highest salary is 
 attached. In so doing he makes a fundamental and most serious mis- 
 take, because the true ultimate value of any position offered to a newly 
 fledged engineer is an inverse function of the salary paid. This sounds, 
 perhaps, like a very strange and wild statement, but it is, nevertheless, 
 a true one; let us look into the matter a little, and perhaps you will 
 agree with me. The highest salary in this country paid to young engin- 
 eers immediately after graduation is, as far as my experience goes, one 
 hundred dollars per month ; and this amount is given only in very flush 
 times when there is a great demand for assistants in the field. To earn 
 such a salary at the start, the young engineer must be already well post- 
 ed on the practical part of the work in addition to being versed in the 
 theory. Now what practical work is there on which students are posted ? 
 
WADDELL. 359 
 
 Why, simply elementary surveying! Consequently the fortunate or un- 
 fortunate young man (according to the point of view of the person con- 
 sidering the case), who receives one hundred dollars per month to begin 
 with, will have his attention confined to the laying out of town lots for 
 speculators or to surveying farms; and how much, pray, is to be learned 
 on that kind of work? Something, of course, because no one can do 
 work of any kind without increasing the amount of his knowledge and 
 experience ; but how little it is in comparison with what is to be learned 
 in the higher branches of engineering! Again, what future prospects 
 are there in such work as surveying? It is seldom indeed that a sur- 
 veyor makes more than a bare living, and when times are bad the young 
 engineer engaged in this line is very likely to lose his position or have to 
 spend many idle days without pay. 
 
 Railroading offers a better field to the recent graduate than does 
 land surveying, and at the same time the pay is fair. For instance, any 
 man on a railroad survey can really earn for his employers forty or 
 fifty dollars per month besides the cost of his subsistence, even if it be 
 only by dragging chain or driving stakes ; because the life is a hard one 
 physically, and manual labor can always command a certain amount of 
 pecuniary compensation. But the young engineer who works in a sub- 
 ordinate position on a railroad survey will have to spend a great deal of 
 time in a manner that is profitable to his employers, but not so profitable 
 to himself. He will be gaining some experience, of course, but not the 
 greatest possible amount or the highest grade of experience. Notwith- 
 standing this, I believe there is no more attractive opening, and often- 
 times no more truly profitable one, to the recent graduate than a posi- 
 tion on a railroad survey. Coming as he does from a sedentary life, and 
 too often worn out both physically and mentally by overwork, the active 
 exercise in the field proves to be exactly what he needs ; and after a few 
 days, when the physical exhaustion attendant on unaccustomed bodily 
 exercise has passed away, he feels like a new man, the mere acts of liv- 
 ing and breathing become a pleasure, the sun appears to shine more 
 brightly than it has shone for years, and he experiences a new phase of 
 existence. Such a life is most seductive, and unless one is careful, it is 
 apt to divert his tastes and ambitions from higher to lower things. The 
 truly ambitious young man can, however, improve his time in such a 
 position by picking up stray bits of knowledge here and there, not only 
 on his work, but by conversation with the other members of the party. 
 
 An experience of this kind at the outset of one's career will give 
 him a taste for out-of-door life which he will retain as long as he lives. 
 On this point I speak from personal experience; for shortly after grad- 
 uating I took a position on the Canadian Pacific Railway that caused me 
 
360 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 to spend eighteen months in the wilderness to the northwest of Lake 
 Superior, where, in addition to my strictly professional duties, I had to 
 work harder physically than any day laborer in civilization. Now, 
 strange to say, there is no portion of my professional career to which I 
 look back with as much pleasure as I do to those eighteen months spent 
 in the wilds. There is something peculiarly attractive and inspiriting in 
 such a rough life, with its hard work, long tramps through the swamps 
 in summer and on snow shoes in winter, its hardships, which include 
 coarse and sometimes not overplentiful food, uncomfortable lodgings 
 (generally consisting of a leaky tent carpeted with hemlock boughs to 
 serve as a couch), innumerable insect pests, wet weather in summer and 
 extreme cold in winter ; its jolly evenings spent over the camp fire, where 
 past experiences in bush-life are narrated, and even its dangers, which 
 give spice to the whole life. Such dangers were by no means imagin- 
 ary ; as many a poor fellow has lost his life in that country through forest 
 fire, severe cold (the temperature often passing below the freezing point 
 of mercury), drowning by falling through the ice of early winter, or by 
 the capsizing of a canoe; or worse still through being lost in the woods 
 and perishing slowly from starvation. 
 
 This early experience of mine in railroading, together with still 
 earlier experiences in camping out, gave me such a taste for bush life 
 that even today I would rather spend one month in hunting and fishing 
 among the Rocky Mountains ithan twelve months on a pleasure trip in 
 Europe. 
 
 But to return to the question of compensation for services imme- 
 diately after graduation. There are various lines of engineering where 
 an inexperienced man can earn a living at office work, but the pay is 
 necessarily small ; because the work can be done by cheap draftsmen 
 who are content to accept a small wage, and are in truth generally worth 
 no more than they get. Such positions will eventually lead to something 
 higher, but the young engineer will be compelled to do a great deal of 
 drudgery in order to earn the money which his employer pays him. 
 In any case, though, an engineer needs sufficient experience in draft- 
 ing to enable him to learn how to put his ideas on paper rapidly, and how 
 to make a presentable drawing, consequently such experience is bene- 
 ficial ; 'but one should avoid having too much of it, in order not to be- 
 come a mere drafting machine. 
 
 But now let us suppose that our new alumnus enters the office of 
 an engineer who is doing a large amount of practical work in one of the 
 higher branches of engineering, what do you suppose his services are 
 really worth to his employer? Candidly, except in most uncommon 
 cases, they are worth absolutely nothing ; yes, oftentimes less than noth- 
 
WADDELL. 361 
 
 ing, because not only has a great deal of his work to be done over again, 
 but also his employer has to devote considerable time to his instruction 
 in fundamental principles and practical methods, one day of which time 
 is worth in dollars and cents more than a whole month of the young 
 man's service. But see what the young man is gaining not a day, not 
 an hour passes without his learning a number of valuable principles, 
 facts, and methods, so that at the end of a month he will have acquired 
 a greater amount of valuable knowledge than he would have obtained 
 in a year when working on a fair salary at routine work. In such an 
 office the newcomer who has had no practical experience seldom receives 
 any salary; and the time is not far distant when in this country an in- 
 experienced young man will have to pay for the privilege of working in 
 such an office. This has been the custom for many years in England, but 
 it is a custom that has been abused by the employers, who have thus 
 brought the system of apprenticeship into ill repute. 
 
 And now have I said enough to convince you of the correctness of 
 my statement that "the true ultimate value of any position offered to 
 the newly fledged engineer is an inverse function of the salary paid?" I 
 shall leave each one of you to answer this question for himself, after 
 thinking over at his leisure what I have said on the subject. 
 
 Now let us take up the question which each of you has undoubted- 
 ly propounded to himself many times of late, viz., "What branch of 
 engineering shall I adopt as my life's work?" You have found it a dif- 
 ficult one to answer have you not? I do not see how it could well be 
 otherwise; for you have as yet had very little opportunity to see what 
 the various branches of the profession are like, and of what their work 
 consists. Some of you may be able to answer the question to-day to 
 your satisfaction, or at least you may think you can, but the majority 
 of you have been unable to make up your minds. In my opinion, it is 
 not advisable for you to try to do so at present. This is no time for 
 you to choose a specialty; ana even if you do choose one, you ought 
 not to settle down now to practice it to the exclusion of all other work. 
 The old definition of an engineer, viz., "a man who knows a great deal 
 about something, and something about everything," was not a bad one, 
 and still holds good even in these days of specialties. There is no 
 branch of engineering that is separate and distinct from all other 
 branches, consequently the more general the experience obtained in 
 youth, the greater will be a man's capacity and the broader his mental 
 grasp during his best working years. On this account I would advise 
 all of you who can afford to do so, to spend a few months, or at most 
 a year, on one class of work, mastering as many details as possible, then 
 drop it and take up another branch, and so on until you have obtained 
 
362 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 a wide, comprehensive, and thorough experience in general engineering. 
 Meanwhile, make up your mind as to what specialty you will choose, or 
 at least as to what line of engineering you will follow; and as soon as 
 you have decided finally, let your studies and practice tend continually 
 more and more toward that chosen line, until eventually you abandon all 
 others for it and make it your life's work. Be content for a while to 
 earn a bare living, provided that you are obtaining the experience you 
 desire. If you do this, take my word for it, you will find that at middle 
 life you will outrank professionally those who started in with you but 
 who adopted the policy of confining themselves to one line of work and 
 thought, thus rendering themselves men of one idea or rather one set 
 of ideas. 
 
 Some of you, perhaps, on account of pecuniary obligations, con- 
 tracted in obtaining your education, or family responsibilities, cannot 
 take this advice; but will have from force of circumstances to settle 
 down in one place with the object of earning as quickly as possible an 
 income that will suffice to pay off your indebtedness or maintain your 
 family. If there be any of you so situated, I would urge upon you the 
 importance of extensive technical reading in other branches of the pro- 
 fession than the one in which you engage, in order that you may pre- 
 vent yourselves from becoming fossilized and incapable of taking inter- 
 est in anything outside of your special line of work. 
 
 To all of you I would say, "Don't leave school with the idea that you 
 have completed your technical education; for, no matter how thorough 
 your course may have been, your technical education has merely begun." 
 It is true that you have had enough book learning to enable you to earn 
 a living without further study, but you can never attain professional dis- 
 tinction without continuing your studies. I recognize the fact that it is 
 quite difficult to carry on a course of technical reading when one has to 
 work long hours in either the office or the field, but I have proved by per- 
 sonal experience that it is practicable. The method that I adopted was 
 to take a certain treatise, mathematical or otherwise, and arrange to read 
 it through thoroughly and understandingly in a certain number of days, 
 laying out beforehand the amount of each day's reading, and basing it 
 upon the average time that I had to spare and the character of the book. 
 If for any reason I failed to complete the reading allotted for any day, I 
 read an extra amount the next day, and sometimes read ahead of my al- 
 lowance so as to anticipate possible interference with my plans. In this 
 way I accomplished the entire reading in the allotted time ; and it paid. 
 It is a good practice to carry in one's pocket some technical book to read 
 at odd moments, for instance, during the noon hour in the field or while 
 waiting for a railway train or even while traveling on the cars, although 
 
WADDELL. 363 
 
 I cannot really commend the latter practice because of its injurious effect 
 upon the eyes. 
 
 It is essential that you read the principal technical newspapers and 
 periodicals in order to keep abreast of the times, also the transactions of the 
 leading engineering societies, especially those papers therein which treat 
 of subjects allied to your line of work. There is one point on which 
 I wish to caution you, viz., that an article is not necessarily valuable be- 
 cause it is composed wholly or partially of mathematics. As a rule, most 
 of the mathematical papers on engineering subjects that one runs across 
 are mere rubbish ; but occasionally a really good mathematical engineer- 
 ing paper appears ; and this ought to be read. After a little experience 
 you will find no difficulty in sifting the wheat from the chaff. Do not 
 misunderstand me in this matter of mathematics, for I would be the last 
 one to advocate abandoning the study of that science after graduation. 
 I merely wish to warn you against wasting valuable time on investiga- 
 tions which are too often based on false assumptions, or that treat of 
 matters which could be settled more simply in some other manner. 
 
 In determining upon a course of reading, one should not confine him- 
 self entirely to technical books and papers, but should choose some stand- 
 ard literary works for the purpose of improving his style in writing; 
 for, alas! it must be confessed that most writers on engineerng subjects 
 have a great deal to learn concerning correct literary style. 
 
 In my opinion, it is the duty of each member of the engineering pro- 
 fession to add his mite to engineering literature; although one should 
 never write a book or paper merely for the sake of producing some- 
 thing. The most valuable information that the profession possesses is 
 to be found in papers published by engineering societies, and describing 
 works completed, the difficulties encountered during construction, and 
 the methods adopted for doing the work. Each of these papers, to- 
 gether with the discussions evoked by them, not only marks a step in 
 constructive progress, but also indicates how the next steps should be 
 taken. Abstract papers or those of a generalizing nature are also of the 
 greatest value ; but there are only a few men who are competent to 
 prepare such papers, consequently their number should be limited. It 
 takes a bold man to write such a paper; and he is likely to get into 
 trouble because of it, hence I should advise you to confine your literary 
 efforts to descriptions of work done or the treatment of minor details 
 until your experience has accumulated sufficiently to warrant you in 
 an endeavor to generalize. 
 
 In preparing engineering papers, cultivate a clear, terse, and con- 
 cise literary style, so as to express your ideas in the fewest words con- 
 sistent with a due consideration for fluency and elegance of diction. 
 
364 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 Cut out all padding from your writings, because engineers are too busy 
 to spare time to read anything that is unnecessary. The proper age at 
 which to commence writing technical papers is not easy to fix, but in 
 general it is safe to advise that one's early efforts be presented to minor 
 or local engineering societies ; then if these be well received, future 
 papers may be presented to the engineering periodicals or to the national 
 engineering societies. There is nothing which a young engineer can 
 do that will advance his professional standing so much as the writing 
 of a good, sound technical article for publication; and there is nothing 
 that he can do which is more detrimental to his reputation than to write 
 an incorrect or weak one. When contemplating the writing of a paper, 
 it is a good plan to ask one's self these questions : "Is this paper really 
 needed?" "Will it fill a gap?" and "Will it prove useful to the profes- 
 sion?" If the answers be in the affirmative, write the paper; if not, 
 don't. 
 
 As for the writing of a technical book, better postpone such work 
 until you have had at least eight or ten years' experience ; and do not 
 even then undertake it, unless you see that there is a need for such a 
 treatise as you contemplate writing, and that you have exactly the right 
 information to present to the profession. 
 
 While it is true that there are a great many technical books pub- 
 lished which should never have been written, it is equally true that 
 technical literature is far behind engineering practice, and that there 
 never was a time when sound engineering treatises, prepared by 
 thoroughly posted, practical, and educated writers, were as much need- 
 ed as they are to-day. You see, therefore, that for those of you who have 
 literary tastes and tendencies, there is plenty of occupation ahead. Un- 
 fortunately, there is no money to be gained directly in such work; but 
 on the other hand there is reputation to be made, and that means even- 
 tually money, although, it is a mistake to connect the two at all closely 
 even in one's thoughts. Professional reputation in itself ought to be 
 sufficient incentive for a young engineer of the right sort; but the fact 
 that the obtaining of it will ensure pecuniary success is undoubtedly an 
 extra stimulus to exertion. 
 
 Let me advise you to pay special attention to the study of specifica- 
 tions and contracts for engineering works, and to learn how to prepare 
 them for yourselves. You can learn readily the style of such documents, 
 but it takes years of experience to enable one to prepare them so that 
 they shall cover the entire ground in a perfectly satisfactory manner. 
 The more experienced an engineer the more thorough will be the speci- 
 fications that he writes ; but from this it does not follow that in compar- 
 ing specifications prepared by two engineers their values will vary di- 
 
WADDELL. 365 
 
 rectly as the amounts of experience of the writers; because some engi- 
 neers seem to be unable ever to learn to write good specifications. This 
 is due to a want of literary training in their early education ; and a most 
 deplorable and grievous fault it is. 
 
 Post yourselves on legal decisions of interest to engineers, and let 
 some of your miscellaneous reading include the laws of contracts. 
 
 Study business methods as much as possible, and learn how accounts 
 should be kept. These things are important, and they need not demand 
 very much time ; because with all the mental training you have had, 
 and will have in your practice, you ought to grasp readily all such com- 
 paratively simple matters. A good way to master them is to consult 
 with men of business, bookkeepers, etc., with whom your work throws 
 you in contact. They can show you often in a few minutes what might 
 take you hours to study out by yourselves. 
 
 And here let me give you a little piece of sound advice. Never be 
 too proud to learn from the most ignorant. Even the navvy who handles 
 a pick and shovel can give a young engineer valuable information con- 
 cerning earthwork; and the stonecutter and quarryman will generally 
 be found well posted on many matters of importance in masonry con- 
 struction that are not treated in the text books. 
 
 Whenever you have an opportunity, study how to manage men, and 
 how to get the greatest amount of useful work out of the workmen. A 
 little tact will often accomplish results that could not be obtained in any 
 other way than by its use. While it is necessary to be firm in dealing 
 with workmen, and in fact with all employees, it is well to treat them 
 reasonably and not to lay down the law too severely. The better the 
 understanding between employer and employees, the greater will be the 
 amount of work accomplished. 
 
 Post yourselves concerning the money values of all kinds of engi- 
 neering construction; nothing gives the general public more confidence 
 in an engineer's ability than to perceive that he is well versed in the 
 cost of all kinds of work. 
 
 Immediately after graduating each one of you should enter the 
 American Society of Civil Engineers as a Junior, and should get his 
 grade advanced to that of Associate Member, and finally to that of Mem- 
 ber, as soon as he can qualify. As a member of any grade in that 
 Society you have the right to take part in the discussion of any paper, 
 and to present to the Board of Direction for acceptance any paper of 
 your own. You are also entitled to receive the Transactions of the 
 Society and to attend all of its meetings. 
 
 If you are stationed for any length of time in any city where there 
 is a local engineering society, it will pay you to join it. and to take as 
 
366 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 active a part in the proceedings as your practical experience will 
 warrant. 
 
 You will find that all through life it will pay you to make for future 
 reference systematic notes concerning not only your own work, but also 
 that of others; but to be of any practical value these notes should be 
 transferred from time to time to an index book, so that any particular 
 subject can at any time be found without delay. It is very important 
 to know where to look for any required published information, and for 
 this the various indices which have recently been issued will be found 
 valuable. 
 
 After finishing any large piece of work, and while it is still fresh in 
 your mind, it is well to write out an epitome of knowledge gained on it, 
 indicating the methods used, improvements to be made in them on future 
 work of a similar character, mistakes to be avoided, etc., then have a 
 number of copies of this struck off on a typewriter to keep for future 
 reference for yourself and perhaps for others. 
 
 In my practice I have found it very convenient to carry in the pocket 
 a note book for recording "things to be done," so that whenever a new 
 idea strikes me, or when I think of something that I wish to do, I make 
 a note of it on a list ; and whenever I finish doing anything so recorded 
 I draw a line through the item.. When the list becomes too much erased, 
 I prepare a new one by collecting the items that have not been crossed 
 out. By the use of such a list I find that I can accomplish a great deal 
 more than I could had I nothing but my memory to rely upon ; for when 
 I have an idle minute, which, by the way, is not very often, I pull out 
 my note book and see what there is that I can do. I would suggest that 
 vou give this method a fair trial. 
 
 Some engineers believe in keeping a diary. I do theoretically but 
 practically I have failed to keep one, although sometimes I wish I 
 could remember what I was doing on a certain day, and cannot. It 
 would be well to give the diary a trial also. 
 
 You will find as you go through life that earnestness of purpose is 
 the main-spring of success, and that if you set your mind on attaining 
 any object within reason, you will, if you keep on trying, eventually suc- 
 ceed in attaining it. I am a firm believer hi the French proverb "Tout 
 vient a celui qui salt attendre," because I have tested it, and have never 
 yet found it fail to be correct. 
 
 In all your work develop and employ constantly such a perfect sys- 
 tem of checking and counter-checking as will render you as nearly abso- 
 lutely proof against making mistakes as it is possible for fallible humani- 
 ty to become. By so doing you will save yourselves infinite worry and 
 trouble. I know of no more unpleasant sensation than that which one 
 
WADDELL. 367 
 
 experiences immediately after ascertaining that he has made a blunder; 
 and, moreover, the sensation does not pass away as quickly as one might 
 wish. I have known cases in which the duration extended over years. 
 
 Do not be discouraged by failure, but endeavor to profit by it; and 
 do not be afraid to tell brother engineers of your failures. It will do 
 you no harm, -and may do them good. It takes a brave man to acknowl- 
 edge a mistake or a failure, but a man who is deficient in that kind 
 of courage would do well to keep out of the engineering profession. 
 Mistakes of both oneself and assistants are the bete noire of a conscien- 
 tious engineer, but I find that the longer one is in practice the fewer 
 mistakes will escape his observation. 
 
 Become acquainted with as many engineers as possible, and try to 
 establish yourselves on such a friendly footing with a few prominent 
 members of the profession that you can occasionally go to them for 
 advice. It is a fact that if an engineer of established reputation takes 
 a personal interest in any bright, active, energetic, and ambitious young 
 engineer, he can be of the greatest assistance to him, and can help him 
 to advance with almost phenomenal rapidity in the profession. 
 
 Should you desire at any time to obtain some general knowledge that 
 cannot be found in print, do not hesitate to ask other engineers for it. 
 The chances are that it will be given to you most cordially ; for any pro- 
 fessional man of the right stamp is always glad to help a brother engi- 
 neer with advice and to give him the benefit of his greater experience. 
 It may happen occasionally, though, that you will be snubbed. Unfor- 
 tunately, one cannot make such a sweeping statement concerning engi- 
 neers as it is customary to make concerning sportsmen, viz., that "all 
 sportsmen are good fellows." I will say this, however, that as far as my 
 personal experience is concerned "most engineers are good fellows," 
 and I think you will find that there is less jealousy and more good fellow- 
 ship among engineers than among the members of any other profession. 
 
 It is hardly necessary for me to touch upon the converse of this, 
 viz., that you should be ever ready to aid a brother engineer in every 
 way that lies in your power. 
 
 Avoid all petty professional jealousies, and remember that to rise in 
 the world it is not necessary to push others down. If it were for no other 
 reason than mere policy, it is generally better to say a good word for 
 another engineer than to speak against him; but this is no reason for 
 one's stultifying himself when asked if he can recommend for a position 
 someone of whom he does not approve. It is too often the case that 
 when an engineer is discharging an employee for whom he has no use, 
 he gives him a written general recommendation, merely for the sake 
 
368 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 of parting pleasantly. This is a mistaken policy; because it tends to 
 detract from the value of a): written recommendations. 
 
 Assistants on engineering work may be divided into two classes, 
 those who work for the almighty dollar, and those who, as it is termed, 
 work for glory. Those of the first class adhere to certain fixed hours, 
 and as soon as quitting time comes, or a little before, they get ready to 
 stop work for the day. Moreover they always appear afraid of doing 
 too much for their money. They reach the climax of their career when 
 they obtain a position worth about five dollars per day. Those of the 
 second class work more for the knowledge and experience to be obtained 
 than for the salary, and seem to pay but little attention to office hours, 
 continuing their labors far into the night when interested in what they 
 are doing, or when there is any necessity for extra exertion. Such men 
 rise steadily and often rapidly to responsible, well-paid positions; and 
 the less they say about increase of salary the oftener it appears to be 
 raised. It is unnecessary for me to advise you as to which of these 
 classes you should join. 
 
 Of course there are times in a man's professional career when it may 
 be advisable for him to assert himself and demand proper compensation 
 for his services, if he thinks that they are not adequately remunerated; 
 but this should not be during the first few years of his practice, when 
 he is in reality serving his apprenticeship. Later on, especially after 
 marriage, when the welfare and comfort of wife and children depend 
 upon the amount of his earnings, it becomes a man's duty to look out for 
 the dollars. 
 
 And this brings me to another point upon which I desire to touch, as 
 it is an important one, viz., the best age for an engineer to marry. The 
 young man who immediately after graduating rushes blindly into matri- 
 mony, regardless of how it will affect his professional career, makes a 
 serious mistake; for the care of a family will prevent him from going 
 from one class of work to another in order to obtain a varied experience, 
 and will tie him hand and foot, necessitating his grinding day after day 
 on work that perhaps he detests, and on which there is nothing more to 
 learn, because the dear ones at home are dependent upon his daily earn- 
 ings. If circumstances permit, it is well for the young engineer to wait 
 until he is twenty-eight or thirty years old before he puts on the matri- 
 monial yoke, but it is not advisable to delay much longer than this, if he 
 intends ever to marry at all ; because the longer he waits the more set 
 in his ways will he become, which condition, as we all know, is not com- 
 patible with the principles of American home rule. 
 
 Let me take the liberty of advising you to endeavor always to 
 save a portion of your earnings and to invest it in some good security 
 
WADDELL. 369 
 
 which will bring you in a fair rate of interest. Any investment which 
 promises more than six or eight per cent, should be looked upon with 
 suspicion; for while one such scheme succeeds, three others will fail. 
 You may consider me an authority on this point, as my experience is 
 personal and has been paid for. It may be difficult to save money when 
 one is traveling from place to place obtaining his professional training 
 in the manner which I have suggested; but still it is practicable, even 
 if the amount be as small as five or ten dollars a month. Here, too, I 
 am speaking from experience, because as a young man I spent practically, 
 all I earned, and the time came when I wished that I had been more 
 economical. After marriage you will find that this matter of saving 
 money becomes an absolute necessity, so why not begin it at once? 
 Remember that I do not advise niggardliness nor parsimony; for such 
 attributes are incompatible with American manhood ; but on the other 
 hand extravagance is unnecessary and uncalled for. 
 
 I should like to call to your attention a series of papers and dis- 
 cussions on the subject of "engineering ethics" which the technical press 
 has been publishing lately. The importance of this subject cannot be 
 over-estimated. The engineering profession needs a code of ethics in 
 order to raise itself in the public opinion to the position it ought to 
 occupy. I fear it is going to take time to establish such a code ; but the 
 day will surely come when we shall have one; and then our profession 
 will be recognized as the highest of all, in that it takes the lead in the 
 progress and development of the entire civilized world. Until this code 
 be established, there is nothing for each of us to do except to have a little 
 code for himself, consisting of a single principle, viz., "Do the square deal 
 by everybody under all circumstances." At times it may be difficult to 
 decide as to what is exactly the best thing to do; but, if one uses his 
 judgment and endeavors to put himself mentally in the other man's 
 place, his decision cannot be far from right. 
 
 The engineer in charge of construction stands in a peculiar relation 
 to both his employers and the contractors; and the true relation is not 
 generally recognized. It is that of arbitrator, and not that of oppressor. 
 No one who employs an engineer has a right to think that he purchases 
 that engineer's conscience when he pays him his salary. It is as much 
 an engineer's business to look out carefully for the rights of the con- 
 tractor as it is to see that his employers receive the full value of what 
 they pay for, and that all work is properly done. Believe me, no engi- 
 neer ever yet made a success professionally by oppressing contractors. 
 I consider it the engineer's duty to aid the contractor in every legitimate 
 manner, and to save him expense whenever it is possible to do so proper- 
 ly. Unless a contractor be satisfied with the profit he is making out of 
 
370 KANSAS UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 
 
 a piece of work, the chances are that he will slight it. In letting work it 
 never pays to award the contract to any competitor for less than actual 
 cost plus a living profit. The older an engineer grows, the more con- 
 vinced will he become of the correctness of this statement. 
 
 Let me call your attention to the importance of systematizing 
 your work. The most successful engineer is he who can obtain the 
 greatest amount of correct work out of those whom he employs, and it 
 is only by looking ahead and laying out systematically the work of each 
 individual and of the entire corps that this can be effected. 
 
 Let me counsel each one of you to set for himself sooner or later 
 an ultimate object to be accomplished, and let it be a great one, but still 
 well within the realms of possibility; and let him ever strive toward its 
 attainment. If he succeed, he will be well repaid by the satisfaction of 
 feeling that he has done some material good for his fellow mortals ; but 
 if not, he will still feel that he has done his best, and that his life has 
 not been spent in vain. 
 
 But after all, there are many important things in life for you other 
 than professional advancement and success; although you may judge 
 from my discourse that I have forgotten this, or that I do not even 
 recognize it. Believe me, I would by no means counsel you to neglect 
 the many social and other pleasures that are within your reach. It is 
 bad policy to reduce one's self to a mere working machine ; and if you do, 
 you will be sure to find that the machine is likely to break down or to 
 run badly for want of a little lubrication. Every hard working man is 
 entitled to an occasional holiday; and to do him the most good he 
 ought to spend it in the manner which will afford him the most enjoy- 
 ment. In the end, no time is lost; because the reviving effect of the 
 vacation will enable him to work all the harder when he settles down 
 to business once more. 
 
 Again, a man has certain obligations toward his fellow men; and 
 one of the most important is that he make himself agreeable and enter- 
 taining when in company. This he cannot often do, if he be a mere 
 drudge and a slave to his occupation. 
 
 In the rapid development of humanity which is taking place at the 
 present time, it is necessary that each individual take a deep and absorb- 
 ing interest in one certain subject; but it is equally important that the 
 people as a whole concern themselves with a variety of subjects, thus 
 necessitating that each individual have a number of topics in which he 
 takes at least a passing interest. 
 
 Unless such were the case, the whole mass of humanity would be 
 working without any coherent purpose, each unit being independent of 
 
WADDELL. 371 
 
 all the others, and following a path of its own regardless of how that 
 path interferes with those of the other units. 
 
 A professional man is liable, on account of the intense interest he 
 feels in his work, to overlook these facts ; and it is on this account that 
 I make a point of advising each of you to mix as much as possible with 
 his fellows, and to endeavor to make himself appreciated by them as 
 something more than simply a hard-working engineer. 
 
LAST WORDS TO THE CIVIL ENGINEERING SENIORS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Ira O. Baker. 
 
 The kindly advice given by Dr. Baker to his young friends who 
 were about to lose his guiding care is of extremely great importance and 
 value. It is as good and sound to-day as when it was offered in 1894; 
 hence it is to be hoped that the readers of this compilation of addresses 
 will derive much benefit from Dr. Baker's wise and friendly words. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 373 
 
LAST WORDS TO THE CIVIL ENGINEERING SENIORS. 
 
 By 
 
 Dr. Ira O. Baker. 
 
 Address to the Civil Engineering Club, University of Illinois, 
 
 June 11, 1894. 
 
 When the program committee asked me if I would present some- 
 thing here this morning. I immediately thought that perhaps I might use 
 the opportunity for a few final words with our graduating members. 
 Frequently the circumstances and conditions under which anything is 
 said give it an attention and weight which it would not otherwise have. 
 
 When the traveler through an unknown country comes to the 
 brow of a hill, if he is wise he surveys the landscape, selects an objective 
 point ahead, decides upon his path through the valley below, and then 
 proceeds step by step to find his way down the hill, through the valley, 
 and up on the other side. Obviously the time to decide upon the path 
 through the valley is when we are upon the hill top, and we are more 
 sure to rea^,h the goal by the shortest route if we keep our eye steadily 
 fixed upon our mark ahead. 
 
 You, members of the graduating class, are upon a hill top this 
 morning. You are shortly to break off old relations and enter upon 
 new ones. Let us see if we can find a worthy objective point ahead 
 which shall serve as a help and inspiration while you wend your way 
 through the valley. 
 
 I am fully aware that this is the last time that I shall ever address 
 you in the relations of teacher and taught, and it is with mixed feelings 
 of regret and pleasure, of solicitude and anticipation that I bid you 
 adieu ; and I fain would reveal to you some of the feeling that a teacher 
 has when he sends his boys out into the world to test their powers 
 and his. But the occasion demands a higher motive than merely per- 
 sonal pleasure, so I ask your kind indulgence while I try to teach one 
 more lesson. I make this attempt knowing that the occasion and your 
 thoughts will more clearly reveal to you the truth I wish to teach than 
 can 'my words. 
 
 It is not necessary to remind you that recitations are ended; but 
 I do want to urge upon you that you do not cease to be a student. 
 Whatever the kind and stress of your occupation, keep a little time for 
 study and reading. If your work here has been well done, you have barely 
 
 375 
 
376 LAST WORDS TO SENIORS. 
 
 reached that point where you are able to gain knowledge by self-di- 
 rected effort. ' You will doubtless have many painful illustrations that 
 you do not know it all, but your daily work will compel study of the 
 practical details of your business. You will be compelled to get these 
 matters, or you will not get work. I expect you to succeed reasonably 
 well in these particulars ; but I desire to urge upon you that you con- 
 tinue to grow, to expand, to increase your powers. You ought always 
 to have in hand some subject upon which you are doing thoroughly 
 downright hard study. Such a course is absolutely necessary for in 
 tellectual vigor and activity. In the next few years you ought to study 
 professional subjects as a matter of course, but you ought also to 
 broaden your education and extend your horizon by the study of scien- 
 tific and literary and historical subjects. I have time only to assert this 
 point, not to prove it. 
 
 Undoubtedly you will be tempted to say that you haven't time for 
 such study, but I say you must make the time. If I had time I should 
 like to illustrate this by giving you some of the particulars of the lives 
 of Gladstone, and Garfield, and Lincoln, whose labors and cares were 
 simply prodigious ; and yet they found time for an astonishingly wide 
 range of reading and study. To make this matter definite, let me urge 
 that you regularly and conscientiously give one-half hour each day to 
 the study of some subject which will broaden your knowledge and ex- 
 tend your horizon. 
 
 The world moves. New problems are continually arising which 
 must be solved. The state and the nation have been very liberal to 
 you, and have a right to demand that you shall meet these new obliga- 
 tions when they arise. You are expected to find new and better solu- 
 tions to old problems, and to lead us into unexplored and undiscovered 
 fields. You have given to you five talents. Will you lay them away in 
 a napkin, or will you use them and gain five other talents? 
 
 By all means do not fail to cultivate the ability to write and speak 
 your mother tongue correctly, forcibly, and even elegantly. Even an 
 engineer has frequent use for this power, and his ability as an engineer 
 is continually being judged by his written and spoken language. Eads 
 is not infrequently ranked as the leading American engineer, but his 
 reputation as an engineer is due as much to his ability in writing and 
 speaking as to his knowledge of engineering. 
 
 One precaution. Do not become a man of books to the exclusion 
 of affairs. Society is all the time struggling with industrial questions, 
 social reforms, and political problems which you, having received your 
 education as a gift from the state, should help to solve. I have only 
 time to hint this. 
 
BAKER. 377 
 
 In one respect your free education is liable to do you harm.* You 
 have received information more cheaply in the past than you ever can 
 in the future. Do not be afraid to spend your money in travel to see 
 things and men. There is a wonderful stimulus in whetting against other 
 men, particularly those engaged in the same business as yourself. Do not 
 fail to use travel as a means of continuing your education. Remember 
 that there is a scattering abroad that increaseth and a withholding that 
 impoverisheth. 
 
 Allow me to offer a few hints to guide you in your intercourse 
 with your professional associates. 
 
 1. Be patient and don't try to get on too fast. You may be 
 over-estimating your own abilities. It takes all summer to ripen the 
 best apples. 
 
 2. Be liberal in the measure of your work. Don't even think of 
 excusing yourself from doing what you reasonably can, by saying that 
 you are doing as much as you are paid for. As long as you hold the 
 position and accept the pay, do good, honest, faithful work. If the 
 labor demanded is too great, make a courteous, frank, straightforward 
 protest, or offer your resignation. 
 
 3. Be courteous and generous to your subordinates. In this 
 matter let the golden rule guide your action. One of the ways in which 
 this rule is violated is in passing judgment upon the works of others, 
 in the way of fault-finding and belittling them, picking flaws, making 
 small criticisms of design and method. Does any engineer imagine he 
 raises himself in the opinion' of others by so doing, or in any way ad- 
 vances his own prospects of success? Criticism for the purpose of 
 suggesting improvements is a good thing, but criticism for any other 
 purpose is unworthy a true man. The world on the whole is fair in 
 its estimate of men; it recognizes the generous everywhere, and is just as 
 sure to condemn the opposite. 
 
 4. Guard as carefully as life itself a high standard of profes- 
 sional honor and integrity : whatever the measure of your professional 
 success, whether wealth and reputation crown your career, or disap- 
 pointment and poverty be your constant and unwelcome companions, 
 let no taint of suspicion attach to any professional act or utterance. As 
 young engineers you are nearly certain to have some severe trials in this 
 matter. In his relations with contractors, in his recommendation of 
 patented or special devices, in preparing reports that may influence the 
 markets, the engineer is liable to have his judgment warped by subtle 
 and corrupting influences. You will save yourself much annoyance and 
 possibly some danger, if you will at all times maintain a character of 
 unquestionable integrity. It should not be difficult for the conscientious 
 
378 LAST WORDS TO SENIORS. 
 
 engineer, jealous of his professional honor, to decide what is right and 
 what is wrong. 
 
 Now I think I can show you an objective point ahead by means of 
 which you shall be able to find a way of safety and honor through the 
 darkest valley of trial and temptation. I ask, then, what is your highest 
 aim as engineers? Is it to stand at the head of your profession, and 
 secure wealth and honor? Or is is scrupulously, conscientiously, and 
 faithfully to discharge the duties of the positions in which you are 
 placed ? If it is the former, then you have many chances of failure to one 
 of success, for such success will often depend upon circumstances en- 
 tirely beyond your control. If your highest ambition is conscientiously 
 and faithfully to discharge the duties of your position, then success 
 depends upon yourself, for it is assured by simple and constant attention 
 to the requirements of each occasion as it arises. 
 
 Ability, wealth, position, are all excellent things to possess. They 
 mean, or may be made to mean, influence, weight, and power; but they 
 are not the things which determine the essential value of a man. The 1 
 true worth is measured by his character; not by his abilities, not by 
 his positions, not by his successes, but by what he himself is. 
 
 We may all reach this most perfect manhood by simply doing all 
 our work under the fullest appreciation of the meaning of that one 
 word duty. That you may all through your life be actuated by this 
 high motive, is my earnest petition. 
 
THE ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 By 
 Nelson Peter Lewis, C. E. 
 
 The dicta of any man who has risen to high rank in the engineer- 
 ing world ought to command the attention and respect of all technical 
 students and young engineers ; hence the opinions expressed herein 
 by M|r. Lewis, who has risen gradually in America's metropolis to the 
 exalted position of Chief Engineer of the Board of Estimates and Ap- 
 portionment, ought to receive deep consideration from our readers. 
 
 This address was delivered in 1910 at the Annual Commencement 
 of the Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School of Technology. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 379 
 
THE ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 By 
 Nelson Peter Lewis, C. E. 
 
 If the importance of a profession is to be judged by the number 
 of those engaged in or preparing for it, by the number of institutions 
 offering courses leading to it, or by increase in the facilities and equip- 
 ment needed for giving such courses, it would not be extravagant 
 to say that the engineering profession in its several branches has 
 lately assumed the first rank in this country. It is realized that the 
 development of our material resources is dependent in a large degree 
 upon engineers or upon men with engineering training. A quarter of 
 a century ago it is probable that a majority of the graduates of our 
 engineering schools looked for their first practical experience to the 
 work of railway construction, or that incidental thereto, which was 
 very active at that time and which reached its climax in 1887, with a 
 record of 12,878 miles of steam railway built during that year. The 
 country having become fairly well supplied with railways, and the 
 products of field, forest, and mine having been brought within reach 
 of the consumer, the shipper, and the manufacturer, there succeeded 
 an era of internal development, of betterment, of reclamation, and of 
 conservation which is now well under way and which will doubtless 
 continue for many years. The development of power, its conversion 
 and transmission ; increased facilities for transportation ; the reclam- 
 ation of arid lands through irrigation involving great impounding 
 reservoirs and distributing ditches; the improvement of existing and 
 the construction of new waterways; the development of our mineral 
 resources; the creation of manufacturing plants and of great railway 
 and shipping terminals ; the increasing use of steel and concrete in 
 building construction, offer splendid opportunities for the engineer. 
 There has lately been a marked tendency among all civilized people 
 to concentrate in cities, a tendency which has caused surprise and which 
 to many appears somewhat alarming. We are inclined to think of 
 this tendency, as especially noticeable in the United States, but such is 
 not the case. On the other hand, it is a world movement. A compari- 
 son of the growth from 1889 to 1900 of six German and six American 
 cities shows surprising results. The. cities of each country were selected 
 at random, and the population of each pair was about the same in 1880. 
 
 381 
 
382 ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 They are: Cincinnati and Breslau, Buffalo and Cologne, New Orleans 
 and Dresden, Louisville and Hanover, Providence and Nuremberg, 
 Rochester and Chemnitz. Not only has the German city in every in- 
 stance increased more rapidly than the American city of the same size in 
 1880, but the lowest excess in the rate of increase is found to have been 
 23% in the gain of Cologne over that of Buffalo, while in two instances 
 the increase in population of the German city has been 140% greater 
 than that of the corresponding American city, namely, that of Dresden 
 over New Orleans, and of Nuremberg over Providence. 
 
 While this increase in the population of the German cities has 
 been most remarkable, the same tendency will be found throughout 
 all Europe, in Moscow and Warsaw, in Vienna and Buda Pest, in Rome 
 and Naples, in Marseilles and Lyons, in Brussels and Antwerp, in Rot- 
 terdam and Amsterdam, in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, and 
 Belfast ; while in the New World to the south of us we see the same 
 thing in Mexico, Rio Janerio, and Buenos Ayres. 
 
 Reference has been made to the anxiety manifested in some quar- 
 ters of this concentration of population in large cities. It is often point- 
 ed out that many, if not most, of the conspicuously successful men have 
 come from the farms, and the cry has gone out "Back to the farms 
 if we would save our civilization." It is true that a large proportion 
 of our successful men have come from the farms, but it is in the great 
 cities that they have found the opportunities of which they have been 
 able to avail themselves by reason of the habits of industry, frugality, 
 and self denial which they learned on the farms. Many of these men, 
 after having attained success, are going back to their old homes with a 
 new realization of their responsibility to their fellows. Better facilities 
 for communication with centres of population, the distribution of scien- 
 tific information concerning improved methods of agriculture, the gen- 
 eral use of the telephone and the automobile, are greatly improving the 
 conditions in the rural districts, but there will be no abatement of the, 
 growth of the cities. It is there that the great social and economic 
 problems of the age must be worked out, and from them will emanate 
 the uplifting influences which will make the world better. 
 
 The solution of the physical problems presented by this great 
 urban development will call for the highest skill and the most intel- 
 ligent effort of the engineer. Who is to give our cities the physical 
 aspect which will correspond with the important part they are to play 
 in the national life? The architect who will design buildings, giving 
 them beauty and dignity? Yes, but before him must come the engineer 
 who will create such a plan that the buildings of the architect may be 
 
LEWIS. 383 
 
 seen to advantage. What would Washington have been without its 
 L'Enfant, Paris without its Haussmann? 
 
 Who is to make our cities healthful, our brothers of the medical 
 profession? They will combat disease and relieve suffering, but pub- 
 lic health depends not upon the physician, but upon the man who is 
 responsible for a pure and wholesome water supply, for an adequate 
 system of drainage, and for such care, disposition, or treatment of the 
 wastes of a city that they will not menace the health of its own people 
 or of those of other cities. Comfort and decency depend upon the 
 proper cleansing of streets and disposal of household wastes without 
 unnecessary offense. It was once thought that; anyone with fair ex- 
 ecutive ability and the proper political affiliations could satisfactorily 
 do work of this kind, but the people who pay taxes and expect results 
 are no longer satisfied with such an arrangement. The disposition or 
 destruction of wastes now calls for expert knowledge, and more and 
 more we find technically trained men entrusted with such work. 
 
 The people of our great cities must be taught the duty they owe 
 to the state, the municipality, and their fellows, and there are many 
 great preachers and teachers to show them this duty both by precept 
 and example. But will the people listen and profit by this teaching 
 when they return to homes in narrow, dark streets, to squalid tene- 
 ments where human beings are herded together in such a manner that 
 decent living and intelligent citizenship are well nigh impossible? The 
 gospel of light and air, of sanitary housing and clean streets will be more 
 effective with the denizens of the slums than any other kind of preach- 
 ing. 
 
 No human being can be healthy and moral if he has not some 
 opportunity for recreation. Parks and playgrounds are therefore nec- 
 essary. You may say that this involves simply a selection of park 
 areas and a sufficient expenditure for their acquisition and improve- 
 ment. True, if our parks are to be laid out in that way our choice 
 will be restricted to such sites as are available, while in order to supply 
 breathing spaces in densely built up sections, valuable improvements 
 must be destroyed at enormous expense. Suppose, on the other hand, 
 our park reservations are included in the original city plan with due 
 regard for their natural beauty and their accessibility, how much more 
 satisfactorily will be the result and how much expense will be saved! 
 
 Our cities require ease of transportation by horse-drawn or self- 
 propelled vehicles and by railways. If the city is a port, provision 
 must be made for such adequate wharves and piers with railroad con- 
 nections as will attract and retain commerce. Not only the planning 
 and construction of these various improvements that go to make up 
 
384 ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 the modern city, but the administration of the departments and bureaus 
 controlling them are becoming more and more completely delegated to 
 the engineer. A former Mayor of the City of New York in testifying 
 before a legislative committee made the statement that if he were to 
 be confined in his selection of heads of Departments to men who could 
 assume their duties and be prepared at once to administer the work of 
 the several Departments efficiently, without devoting a considerable part 
 of their term of office to learning what was expected of them, he would 
 be obliged in a large proportion of cases to name civil engineers. 
 
 It needs no argument beyond a mere recital of the facts to show 
 that abundant opportunities await men of technical- training who will 
 rise to the occasion. 
 
 What sort of training is best calculated to produce engineers who 
 will be capable of assuming and satisfactorily performing the various 
 duties which have been hinted at rather than enumerated? There 
 are characteristics which are sometimes due to very early training or 
 even to heredity, while they also may be acquired or developed through 
 collegiate education. It is difficult to name those which are of peculiar 
 value to the engineer and which should be the special objects of his 
 training, but there are some to which particular importance may be 
 attached, and among these I would lay special emphasis upon the 
 following : 
 
 Industry, intelligent application, accuracy both in work and ex- 
 pression, self reliance, tactfulness, integrity. 
 
 These are all qualities which every professional man hopes to 
 possess or acquire. Not one of them will he consider unimportant or 
 even non-essential, but combined they spell success, they are a guaran- 
 tee of achievement. For their attainment the ordinary course in college 
 or technical school will not suffice. Some of them are to be acquired- 
 only in the harder school of life and through intimate contact witli one's' 
 fellows. But let us be somewhat more precise in our definitions and 
 take the time to consider what each one of them means and to realize 
 its importance. The necessity of industry is so important that it is 
 scarcely worthy of emphasis. No success can be achieved without it. 
 The world's prizes do not go to the drones and the laggards, but to 
 those who devote their best energies and abilities to the tasks before 
 them, whether they be great and calculated to arouse enthusiasm or 
 apparently unimportant and suggest drudgery. 
 
 A fair degree of industry is essential successfully to complete the 
 course in a modern engineering school. Without it the student knows 
 that he cannot secure the coveted degree, but when the young graduate 
 gets his first position it will soon be apparent whether or not he is in- 
 
LEWIS. 385 
 
 dustrious from habit. If he is content to render the least service pos- 
 sible to enable him to secure his monthly salary check, he is not in- 
 dustrious ; it will not take his employer long to discover the fact, and his 
 promotion will be slow. It is not quixotic to say that a young man 
 should consider that day ill spent in which he has not rendered to his 
 employer service of a value greater than the pay which he is to re- 
 ceive. 
 
 But mere dogged application will not lead to the greatest success 
 unless combined with intelligent application, which is nothing more 
 nor less than industry guided by good judgment and aided by a sense 
 of proportion or perspective. 
 
 To fritter away one's time and exhaust one's energies over unim- 
 portant details that a subordinate can do just as well, is neither wise nor 
 commendable. Do not interpret this as encouragement of indifference 
 to minor details. Every young engineer at the beginning of his career 
 must expect to do his full share of seemingly trivial things, but when 
 the time comes for him to assume greater responsibilities he should look 
 at them in a broader way. This does not mean that the accuracy of 
 the work of subordinates should be taken for granted, but there are 
 other ways of determining this than doing it all over again one's self, 
 When the accuracy and reliability of subordinates have been demon- 
 strated, their results can be accepted as the foundation upon which more 
 important conclusions may be predicated. 
 
 There are emergencies when concentrated effort continued through 
 day and night almost to the point of exhaustion are required to ac- 
 complish important results, and the resiliency of youth is such that a 
 moderate rest will restore the faculties to their normal condition, 
 but habitual intemperance in work is sometimes as injurious as other 
 excesses. When the brain is tired and fails to respond, it is time for 
 recreation and diversion. There are some men who boast that they 
 have never taken a vacation, but if the amount and quality of their 
 work were carefully estimated, it would probably appear that it would 
 have been better both for themselves and their employers if they had 
 done so. 
 
 Inaccuracy is, perhaps, the greatest sin next to dishonesty, of 
 which the engineer is capable. Its results are waste of money, dan- 
 ger, accident, and frequently loss of life. Failing bridges, broken 
 dams, collapsed buildings, are likely to follow the misplacing of a 
 decimal point or the omission of some essential in computation. But 
 accuracy in calculation or in execution are not sufficient to avoid trouble. 
 Accuracy in expressing conclusions, clearness in recommendations, and 
 precision in describing the work to be done in contract and specification, 
 
386 ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 are of the utmost importance. Serious loss and an enormous amount 
 of litigation result from looseness and lack of clearness in description of 
 the work to be done and the relative obligations to be assumed by own- 
 er and contractor in the specifications commonly prepared by engineers 
 and architects. Purely technical training may result in accurate think- 
 ing through the medium of formulae and in a proper regard for inexor- 
 able natural laws, but it will not give facility of expression in language 
 which cannot be misunderstood. This is an accomplishment which can 
 only be acquired by what are known as the culture studies and by more 
 or less familiarity with good literature. A curriculum which is con- 
 spicuous by the absence of such culture courses, or which has not been 
 preceded by a fairly liberal training is not likely to produce the kind 
 of engineers we are endeavoring to describe. 
 
 Self-Reliance. This does not mean self-satisfaction or self-con- 
 ceit, nor does it imply unwillingness to take advice or profit by the 
 opinions and experiences of others. It means that after having se- 
 cured the available information upon the subject under consideration, 
 after being assured as to the soundness of theory and having tested 
 the accuracy of calculation, one's conclusions should be defended with 
 confidence and enthusiasm. It means, further, that when in trouble 
 the first thing to do is not to call for help, but to get oneself out of 
 his trouble as quickly as possible. The man who does not believe in 
 himself and in the soundness of his theories and conclusions will find 
 it difficult to induce others to accept them. 
 
 One of the most valuable assets in any professional or business 
 career is tactfulness, and to no one is it of greater value than to the 
 engineer. His theory may be all right, his plans may be excellent, 
 his projects may be well conceived and carefully thought out, but it 
 may be presented in such a way that it will not appeal to a superior 
 officer, a commission, or a board of directors. Natural difficulties may 
 be overcome by technical skill or by sheer force of energy and persis- 
 tence, but prejudices and antagonisms may be aroused which will prove 
 insurmountable. In dealing with men as with nature, it is well to follow 
 the lines of least resistance. If incredulity be met with scorn, if irrele- 
 vant questions be ignored or answered with contempt, if objection be 
 treated with impatience, the best matured plans are apt to 'come to 
 naught. It is always possible to make concessions with respect to non- 
 essentials which the layman is frequently unable to distinguish from 
 essentials; in fact, it may sometimes be well to have a supply of non- 
 essentials to trade with. When a moral principle is involved, the man 
 who will stand or fall by it is always to be commended, and the instances 
 are rare in which he will not win. But it often happens that we can- 
 
LEWIS. 387 
 
 not get all that we would like, and in such cases it is well to get the 
 best we can under the circumstances. You may say that the man who 
 will do this is an opportunist. Well, most men who attain results are 
 opportunists. In fact, it may be said that the tactful man is court- 
 eous, considerate of others' opinions and even of their prejudices, is 
 willing to go around rather than through an obstacle, and is an oppor- 
 tunist. 
 
 The qualities which we have considered may be thought enough 
 to insure success, but to make success substantial and well worth 
 attainment, one other is necessary, and that is integrity. Not honesty 
 which is merely good policy, not a relative degree of rectitude which is 
 measured by that of other professional or business men, but a devotion 
 to the highest ideals of truth, honor, and justice. 
 
 The engineer is often, yes, usually, called upon to safeguard the 
 interests of a client which may be an individual, a business or public 
 service corporation, a State or a Municipality, and also to act in a 
 judicial capacity between his client and the contractor. It matters 
 not from which of the parties to the contract he receives his compen- 
 sation, his duty is to decide questions in dispute with entire fairness 
 and equity to both. This is often a trying position, and the man who 
 occupies it is sometimes subjected to great temptations and subtle 
 influences which are not easily recognized. Only a keen sense of 
 honor and a realization of his responsibility will guide a man aright under 
 such circumstances. 
 
 The engineering profession is an exacting one; he who follows it 
 deals with natural laws, the infraction of which means disaster; his 
 deductions must be based upon premises which are incontrovertible and 
 which can lead to but one conclusion ; polemics and casuistry have no 
 place in his mental equipment. His moral nature should reflect his 
 mental habits, and in all his relations there should be no compromise be- 
 tween truth and falsehood, between uprightness and moral obliquity. 
 You may say that the professional standard implied by the qualities and 
 habits just enumerated is very high and beyond the reach of most men. 
 It is high but it is not beyond the reach of any man who is determined 
 to attain it. 
 
 We have considered only those qualities which most intimately re- 
 late to one's duty to himself, his fellows, and his profession. But for the 
 man who would most "effectively serve the public and who would em- 
 phasize the dignity and importance of his profession, still more is neces- 
 sary. There is a feeling all too common that the work of the engineer 
 is strictly utilitarian, and that if his designs are structurally sound 
 there is little need for him to concern himself with artistic appearance, 
 
ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 that if his client wants beauty he can go to an architect or a specialist 
 in landscape work. The engineer with the liberal training, the import- 
 ance of which it has been my purpose to emphasize, will readily ap- 
 preciate the necessity of making his work as attractive in appearance 
 as is consistent with utility and economy. Symmetry of form, harmony 
 of color, and consistency in detail, do not necessarily involve additional 
 expense. The American people are coming to realize that beauty is a 
 valuable asset. In this respect the Latin races have been far ahead of 
 us, while the Germans, in their city planning and embellishment, have 
 lately taken, perhaps, the first rank. A checkerboard city plan, with no 
 emphasis laid upon important streets, and entirely lacking in eligible 
 sites for public buildings, as is inevitable in such a plan, would not be 
 considered in a European city, and all over this country there is now 
 being manifested a keen desire to correct our mistakes in city planning 
 and to add at enormous expense the dignified thoroughfares and open 
 places which were omitted when the cities were laid out. You are doubt- 
 less familiar with the ambitious plans of San Francisco, Chicago, Cleve- 
 land, and other cities to substitute something dignified and beautiful for 
 what is now distinctly commonplace. In one of these cities the plans 
 are well on the way to realization. The engineer must train his own 
 taste in such matters, and he should also be willing and anxious to 
 collaborate with the architect and the artist in order to produce satis- 
 factory results. 
 
 Plutarch tells us that when the Athenians protested that Pericles 
 was squandering the public money in his efforts to beautify their city, 
 he replied: "Since it is so, let the cost not go to your account, but 
 to mine, and let the inscriptions upon the buildings stand in my name." 
 At this they cried aloud, bidding him to spend on and lay out what he 
 thought fit from the public purse and to spare no cost till all were 
 finished. These old Greeks had an appreciation of the value of beauty to 
 their city which we of the Anglo-Saxon race and traditions have been 
 slow to realize. A French writer has put this in epigrammatic form 
 when he said: "The beautiful is often more useful than the useful.'' 
 This acknowledgment of the greater appreciation of artistic value 
 shown by the Europeans, and of the more satisfactory results of their 
 city planning must not be construed as advice that we should imitate 
 them and try to improve our cities by destroying what we have and 
 making them over in conformity with Old World models. My plea 
 is that the engineers who are charged with the duty of planning our 
 new and extending our present cities see to it that the necessity for this 
 costly work of destruction and reconstruction is avoided. 
 
LEWIS. 389 
 
 Proper equipment for the highest usefulness in the engineering- 
 profession depends in large degree upon the use a young man makes 
 of his opportunities during his professional course. There are a 
 great number of excellent technical schools in this country, and the 
 work done in some of them is doubtless more effective than that in others ; 
 but after all, the results depend chiefly upon the man himself. I want, 
 however, to emphasize the special advantages of a small institution 
 such as this, where the student has a better opportunity to gain that 
 inspiration from the teacher which close personal contact is likely to 
 promote. Elaborate equipment and large endowment are not every- 
 thing; in fact, they are but a poor substitute for the small classroom 
 unit and the resourcefulness which comes from the necessity of work- 
 ing things out for oneself without the aid of too much demonstration. 
 
 Permit me also to caution both teacher and student against the 
 tendency to undergraduate specialization which has lately been shown 
 in some of our engineering schools. There is a temptation so to 
 mould one's course as to fit him for the greatest earning capacity im- 
 mediately after graduation. Most of you will follow some special line 
 of engineering work. What that is to be will depend largely upon 
 circumstance, opportunity, or even environment. Students should not 
 restrict their future usefulness by a one-sided preparation for a par- 
 ticular kind of work. It is true that their earning power might be some- 
 what greater during the first few years after graduation, but the man 
 who is thoroughly trained in the fundamentals of engineering education 
 will find himself far better able to avail of the opportunities which 
 may come to him. 
 
 Thorough preparation is essential to one who would gain the 
 maximum of benefit from his professional course. An academic de- 
 gree is not within reach of most engineering students, but if by any 
 sacrifice of time and money it can ,be attained, it will be of enormous 
 value. If it is out of the question, and the student has not had the 
 advantage of a fairly liberal preliminary training, then my advice is 
 to avoid the institution whose course is entirely technical, with no 
 place for culture studies. There was a time, not many years ago, 
 when engineering was scarcely considered as a profession, when the 
 engineer was thought to be little more than an educated mechanic. 
 That time has passed; engineering is now recognized as the great 
 creative profession, and its dignity and emoluments have correspond- 
 ingly increased. Let us insist that it also be classed as one of the 
 learned professions. 
 
 Members of the Graduating Class: I have endeavored to em- 
 phasize the importance and dignity of the engineering profession and 
 
390 ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MAN. 
 
 the prominent part which the engineer must play in the further de- 
 velopment of this country. I congratulate you that you have chosen 
 this profession for your own. You have probably received a great 
 deal of advice, especially during the last few days. All of it has 
 doubtless been good; much of it you will forget; some of it you will 
 remember. I am not here to preach to you, and yet I will venture a 
 few personal words in conclusion. 
 
 You have done faithful work in this Institution and are about to 
 be rewarded by receiving its degree. This does not mean that you 
 are now engineers. It means that you have received such training 
 that by intelligent application of what you have here learned you may 
 soon become engineers. Your education is not completed, it has only 
 begun. Thus far it has been secured at the expense of parents or 
 other relatives ; possibly some of you have paid for most of it your- 
 selves. See to it that it is not completed at the expense of your em- 
 ployers or clients. You will doubtless make some mistakes and will 
 profit by them, but he is fortunate who is able to profit by the mistakes 
 of others as well as his own. It will be well for you to keep in touch 
 with your professional brethren, to identify yourselves with profes- 
 sional organizations, and to make yourselves familiar with current 
 professional literature, but do not limit your acquaintance to engineers 
 or your reading to engineering books and periodicals. 
 
 If you should enter -the public service, do not think that influence 
 will take the place of industry and honest endeavor. The day of the 
 political engineer has passed. You will be called upon to exercise 
 functions which are judicial in their nature ; strive to be absolutely 
 fair and just. Do not deceive others, do not let others deceive you, 
 and do not deceive yourselves. Your profession is an intensely prac- 
 tical one, but there is every reason why the engineer should be an 
 idealist, provided he is not a doctrinaire. 
 
 Be loyal to your profession, loyal to your Alma Mater, loyal to you; 
 God, and you will attain true success. Such success I wish you all. 
 
THE ENGINEER AND THE COMMUNITY. 
 
 By 
 Dr. William McClellan. 
 
 Most of Dr. McClellan's address, which was delivered in 1909 at 
 the Annual Commencement of the Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School 
 of Technology, is in the main similar to other commencement addresses 
 herein given; but his conclusion deals with a subject that needs empha- 
 sizing, hence it has been reproduced. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 391 
 
THE ENGINEER AND THE COMMUNITY. 
 
 By 
 Dr. William McClellan. 
 
 * (( It is important therefore, if 
 
 we are to rise to the full dignity of our profession and exercise in the 
 community the greatest possible influence, that we recognize our re- 
 sponsibilities. We must understand that we make our impression on the 
 community not in some but in all our activities, our walk, our clubs, 
 our societies, our diversions, our expressed opinions, and our inter- 
 views. We must remember that while working with materials we are 
 working for men. We must understand that while called upon to ex- 
 amine details carefully we must at all times discard trivialities. We must 
 learn to cultivate that chief faculty of a really great man, his ability to 
 distinguish the essential from the non-essential. We must learn especially 
 to keep the tools of our profession out of sight, and sharpen them in 
 private, or putting it differently, let us dwell more on the things we do 
 and their effects rather than on the beauty of the technicalities in- 
 volved. 
 
 We are expected to have opinions, and must be able to express 
 them. Opinions, however, are not manufactured off hand, but are the re- 
 sult of thinking. If the opinions are to be broad and comprehensive, 
 they can only be so as a result of continuous broad thinking. If they 
 are to be expressed forcibly and intelligently, it can only be done be- 
 cause we have practiced this art consistently. Get rid of the idea so 
 prevalent among engineers that talkers are not doers. This is all wrong, 
 and history proves it, but when you do talk say something, and only 
 after proper consideration. 
 
 All this is comprehended in the general direction. Be an EN- 
 GINEER, without adjectives, without limitations, broad, well rounded, 
 far beyond the millwright stage. Realize the full meaning of the title 
 and work towards it. Glory in it, and strive for the time when you 
 can honestly bear it. Some engineers have done this and they are not 
 complaining about recognition by the community. It knows their names, 
 and is proud of them. ^ 
 
 393 
 
THE HUMAN SIDE OF A MINING ENGINEER'S LIFE. 
 
 By 
 Edmund B. Kirby, E. M. 
 
 This address was delivered to the graduating class of 1908 at the 
 School of Mines and Metallurgy of the Missouri State University. It 
 is reproduced in part not merely because of its undoubted excellence 
 but also to give representation to the line of mining engineering. 
 
 Mr. Kirby is the General Manager of the Federal Lead Company 
 of Flat River, Missouri. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 395 
 
THE HUMAN SIDE OF A MINING ENGINEER'S LIFE. 
 
 By 
 
 Edmund B. Kirby, E. M. 
 
 You have now reached the time when the care and sacrifices of 
 your families are at an end, when faithful instructors have completed 
 their labors, when the State has performed its duty. It is now in 
 order for you to stand upon your own feet and to go your own way. 
 
 You are assembled here today to say farewell and to receive a few 
 directions about the trail ahead. At such a moment we need no words 
 from you to know the inquiry in every mind "Which way lies success 
 for me ?" To this question so old and yet so new, the answer must ever 
 be the same "No man knows." We can, however, tell you where the 
 chances are best and the dangers least. We can give pointers on equip- 
 ment and a few friendly suggestions which will aid your journey. 
 
 So, first of all I say to you, that the way is long and hard. It 
 leads over rough mountains and through treacherous swamps, and, dis- 
 appearing, leaves you to break your own trail. Therefore, travel light. 
 Look first to your load. Study the handicap which nature and fortune 
 have placed upon you. So far you have not been responsible for this, 
 but henceforth you are. Give it thought and care and little by little, by 
 that persistent effort which never fails, you may throw it off and travel 
 free. 
 
 And next, I would call your attention not to the Technical, but to 
 the Human field before you. I do this, because it is so often neglected 
 by mining engineers, and because this neglect is so apt to bring delay, 
 disappointment, or failure. The special work of an engineer is to apply 
 the discoveries and methods of science to the practical business of the 
 world. Often he forgets how many-sided a man must be for this end, 
 and then, enthusiastic and absorbed in technical details, he overlooks the 
 fundamental requirements of life. 
 
 I urge you, therefore, not to forget that the world is made up of 
 things and of folks, and nine-tenths of your business is going to be 
 with folks. Science is a fascinating but exacting goddess, and she 
 brooks no rivals. She weaves a mystic spell about her devotees and 
 normal Human motives disappear. The love of gold, the dream of 
 power, the hunger for social position, are all forgotten. They find 
 themselves impelled by strange, mysterious forces, unknown to the 
 
 397 
 
398 MINING ENGINEER'S LIFE. 
 
 multitude, and by themselves but dimly understood. They pursue truth 
 for truth's sake. They discover realities through the insatiable desire 
 to know. Enthralled by the passion for exploration and discovery, 
 they give profound intellectual effort, they expend lives of unsparing 
 labor for a mere existence, often without the aid of recognition or of 
 sympathy. Such men live apart and in a higher world. 
 
 The enthusiasm kindled in the student's heart by contact with the 
 scientific spirit can never die out. It is and must always be the inspira- 
 tion of the mining engineer. But his own life work is of a different 
 nature it is most sternly practical. It is the production of wealth 
 from the forces and materials of nature. It leads out of the library and 
 the laboratory, and into the busy world of men and affairs. Year by 
 year it calls more and more, not for the intense and narrow specialist, 
 but for many-sided ability, for the well-balanced man. The practical 
 business of an engineer seldom requires profound technical knowledge, 
 but it does demand a working knowledge of men and skill in dealing 
 with them. He can often prosper without the former, but without the 
 latter his chances are small. The special word I bring you today, 
 therefore, is to seek for success among Human beings, and throw off 
 the personal defects which handicap you in the world of men and 
 women. 
 
 This school has done what it could for your equipment. It has 
 performed the duty for which it was created; it has awakened and de- 
 veloped your intellect; it has acquainted you with the methods and re- 
 sources of science and of your profession. You represent the con- 
 scientious labor of earnest men who have brought you all to a certain 
 standard of mental and technical equipment. But your social equip- 
 ment, that combination of personal qualities which is to help or hinder 
 your career, has been left to chance. Fortune has bestowed upon you 
 the accumulated result of individual heredity, of early associations and 
 of other environments, and in no two men is this result alike. The only 
 common training has been that due to your own student life, together 
 for four years. This has knocked off corners and rubbed down rough 
 places, and is generally recognized as one of the chief objects of a col- 
 lege education. So, as you stand today, varying in these personal quali- 
 ties, I call your attention to the fact that henceforth you are your own 
 architects and can re-construct as you please. To youth all things are 
 possible, and you can, if you really wish it, change these qualities in 
 any way you like. 
 
 You will gradually learn what is wanted. The business world is 
 not interested in the details of your education. It is generally under- 
 stood that the completion of a course like yours indicates that the man 
 
KIRBY. 399 
 
 has made good in his first test, that he has carried through successfully 
 his first serious undertaking. This gives promise for the future, and 
 the fact of technical training assures ease in breaking a new man into 
 the business. But you do not ye,t know that the questions an employer 
 asks are merely these: Has he good sense above the average? What 
 are his personal bearing and address? 
 
 You will find that a diploma is of little interest to others, but a 
 likeable personality is a passport, good for life and in all countries. 
 In time you are to discover that tact and diplomacy solve more prob- 
 lems than engineering formulas ; that a memory for names and faces 
 will help you more than one for minerals and rocks. Sooner or later 
 you will know that good sense, that ability to decide which of any two 
 things is the more important, is an asset beyond price. You will awake 
 to the fact that valuable as is skill in the higher mathematics, it will 
 never push you to the front like the ability to write a letter which will 
 really do its work. How will you deal with people if not through 
 language, that means by which your thought and will may reach the 
 consciousness of others, that delicate and subtle medium necessary for 
 the most simple affairs of daily life, yet capable under a Master's touch 
 of swaying a multitude, of moving the world? How far have you 
 learned its use? You have studied the reactions of chemistry, but how 
 much have you learned of those subtle human reactions which break 
 down indifference and create friendship? 
 
 If your training as engineers has been effective, it has bred in 
 you the impulse to search out facts, however unpleasant they may be, 
 and to look them squarely in the face. In sorting over your equipment, 
 you who do not find yourselves compendiums of all the virtues will 
 not be lonesome. You have, moreover, the consolation of knowing that 
 anything lacking is yours for the effort, if you want it hard enough. 
 
 But you say this wanders from engineering matters. These are 
 the winning qualities for all men. I answer "Quite so, the sucessful 
 mining engineer is the successful man." 
 
 * * * * * * * * * * 
 
 And now a few suggestions about your life work. 
 
 There are men who shut themselves up, and out of their inner con- 
 sciousness evolve some great work, such as an invention, or a book. 
 Occasionally also, men go into the wilderness and discover a mine. 
 But such individual play is rare and its chances are small. The real 
 business of the world is done by team-work, and you must qualify for 
 this. It is done by innumerable bodies of men, each of which is under 
 some kind of organization, intended to combine its units into an efficient 
 human machine, capable of the business on hand. Now, every such 
 
400 MINING ENGINEER'S LIFE. 
 
 machine, whether it be a baseball nine, a section gang, the force of a 
 great steel-plant, a railway system, or an army, works more or less 
 badly. The individuals who compose it, from the general to the private, 
 from the business head to the lowest employee, have human weaknesses 
 which are much alike, and the results are friction, loose joints, lost mo- 
 tion, and sand in the gears. Nevertheless, the outfit goes creaking along, 
 and usually gets there, often to its own surprise. 
 
 There are weak points in abundance, not only on the Human, but 
 on the Technical side of every business. There is a best way t> do each 
 operation, from the handling of a shovel, up, and it is not always done 
 in the best way. Moreover, methods, processes, and machines are con- 
 stantly changing, constantly advancing. These two conditions, the im- 
 perfection of technical methods, and the faults of Human organization, 
 will provide your openings. It is because of them that the world is so 
 full of opportunities for men who have the combinations of sound tech- 
 nical training and good sense. 
 
 When, therefore, you hold a job, do not waste time in complaints 
 and fault finding. You will continually see waste and loss, things which 
 are wrong, things which need improvement. Others see them too. If 
 you have sense you will notice everything, but will keep your mouth 
 shut. Some day your chance will come. Your advice will be asked. 
 Some day you will be given charge of a small piece of work, of a few 
 men, and may then bring out your ideas by doing this work better and 
 more cheaply than the man before you. 
 
 An able man will move up from any job and there are no rules for 
 fortune. But in your profession the chances are generally somewhat 
 better for those who are able to start as workmen, or in positions close 
 to the working force. If the machine of which you are a part is too 
 bad, get out, but while you are in any business^ organization, be loyal 
 to it, hold up the hands of those above you, and keep your own work 
 as free as possible from the faults you notice elsewhere. 
 
 Your duty now is to get busy. Get into action somewhere, if 
 you cannot at once find work in the line desired, take anything tempo- 
 rarily. Concentrate yourself upon your job until sure that you are 
 holding it down, and then turn your attention to other men and other 
 work. Beyond this you will play the game as fortune and your own will 
 dictate. 
 
 Play it straight. This may sound easy to you, fresh from the 
 wholesome influences of your homes and the fair-play of boy democracy, 
 but in years to come, when the passions of the fierce struggle take 
 hold of you, when copy book maxims fail, when you see men around you 
 winning safety, fortune, and power by unscrupulous methods, unless 
 
KIRBY. 401 
 
 you have higher motives for honesty than the belief that it generally 
 pays, you are quite likely to resign from the Straight Men's Association. 
 It is gratifying to be able to tell you that you will find your profession 
 much above the average in its percentage of clean men. 
 
 It may sometime be of service to know that to be fired from a 
 job is often the best thing that can happen to a man, if he is really 
 built of the right stuff. It galvanizes him into life, jerks him out of a 
 rut, tests his own resources, and makes him start fresh in new surround- 
 ings and with new people. 
 
 Throughout your career you will make errors and have occasional 
 bad falls. Avoid the delusion that such occurrences are fatal. No 
 error is serious, unless you fail to learn its lesson, or allow it to weaken 
 your courage. Some of the most successful men I have known had 
 failed so many times that they stopped remembering. Because they 
 stopped, they succeeded. If by the caprice of fortune, any of you should 
 eventually meet with disappointment, if you should fail to realize your 
 hopes and ambitions, you will by that time, have learned that your only 
 failure has been to escape the common lot of man. You will by that 
 time understand the Arizona epitaph, "Life ain't in holding a good hand, 
 but in playing a poor one well." 
 
 Under normal conditions your status will long be simply that of the 
 Human animal, struggling for the existence of self and family, differing 
 .from other animals only in the complexity of itself, its environment, and 
 its struggle. This struggle for existence is your first duty, and may 
 long demand your whole attention. But for those of you who respond 
 to the spirit of the age, the time should come, by middle life if at all 
 when your eyes will be lifted from the details of self seeking. You 
 will suddenly become conscious of the great Human organism of which 
 you are a part and of your relations to it. You will have attained in- 
 telligence. Thenceforth a part of the awakening soul of humanity, you 
 will see through the surface and into the injustice and unhappiness of 
 the world around you. When this awakening comes, with the new 
 duties it imposes upon your conscience, follow them. Choose what line 
 of action you please, but do something. You may elect either to pick 
 up wounded, or to get into the fighting line somewhere, but get busy. 
 Join those who are trying to make the world a decent place to live in. 
 
 Your destinies will be determined by the mingled influences of 
 ability, hard work, and pure luck. Capricious fortune will deal kindly 
 with some of you and roughly with others. Some of you will reach 
 wealth and power, others will not. As your head swells with success, 
 do not forget how much of it is due to chance. Do not forget a 
 struggling classmate. In a few months the petty differences and 
 
, 
 
 402 MINING ENGINEER'S LIFE. 
 
 jealousies of your college life will have passed into oblivion, but the 
 man who has rubbed shoulders with you through that experience has 
 a grip and pass- word that you cannot forget. Throughout the world, 
 among the yellow, the brown, the black, and the white, it is the law that 
 the call of a comrade must be heard. 
 
 And now, gentlemen of the Class of 1908, in behalf of the Profes- 
 sion of Mining Engineers, I welcome you to its ranks. No profession 
 is more important, no one has a brighter future. It is your special 
 work to bring forth the hidden treasures of the earth, and to convert 
 them to the use of man. Yours is the mother of industries. Where 
 mines are opened, there the wilderness blossoms into towns, railways, 
 agriculture, manufactures, homes, and all the varied forms of civilized 
 life. Yours is the creative work of pioneers, and your field is the 
 world. Within a few years you will be scattered from the east to the 
 west, from the tropics to the frozen regions of the north. Your duties 
 lead you to the forest, to the mountains, and upon the desert. You are 
 to labor in the roar of machinery, in the smoke of furnace-fires, and in 
 the cities of candle-light. In time you are to become leaders of industry 
 in distant places, to be entrusted with power over men under many skies. 
 Wherever this may be, whether in the centers of our American civiliza- 
 tion, or among strange peoples and amid strange tongues, the State of 
 Missouri expects you to bring honor to her name. Our profession looks 
 to you to uphold and to advance its standards. 
 
SUCCESS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. M. E. Cooley. 
 
 Dr. Cooley, who occupies the chair of Mechanical Engineering in 
 the University of Michigan, is one of our foremost technical educators. 
 He is a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and he 
 served in the navy for a number of years before taking up teaching as 
 a specialty. As he is a practicing engineer as well as an instructor, 
 his dicta concerning the important topic of "Success" ought to carry 
 conviction. His thrilling words in this address ought to arouse the 
 enthusiasm of every young man who reads them and develop in him 
 worthy aspirations of the highest order. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 403 
 
SUCCESS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. M. E. Cooley. 
 
 It has occurred to me that I could do no better in this my final 
 word to you than to try to answer a question which each and every- 
 one of you has asked himself, or should ask himself ; viz. How best 
 can I succeed in my chosen field of work? What should I do to make 
 of myself the greatest success? It is not an easy question to answer, 
 for, like many an algebraic problem, the unknown quantities are greater 
 in number than the equations embracing them. Moreover, it is difficult 
 for a young man to see himself as others see him. It would be for- 
 tunate indeed if the young man could write down on paper the several 
 equations of himself so that he could study them deliberately and then 
 apply the principles of mathematics to their solution. The problem 
 would be found to embrace such elements as inertia, velocity, accelera- 
 tion, momentum, vis viva, and maxima and minima. Indeed a knowl- 
 edge of your limitations is of the first importance. The whole problem 
 may be stated in two words: Know thyself. 
 
 The first and most important question to ask one's self is what did 
 God intend I should do in the world's work? Many, if not most failures 
 can be charged up to not having learned the answer to that question. 
 If on a close analysis of yourself the answer points to something different 
 from what you had planned to do, do not hesitate to change, and to 
 change at once. For be assured that if you do the work you were in- 
 tended for you will make a success of it, and nothing can prevent it. 
 
 It will require courage in many instances to accept the result of 
 such an analysis of one's self, but remember the physics of the problem, 
 and that as naturally as water runs down hill, and requires power to 
 force it up hill, so with you in your work if selected with regard to 
 your fitness, success will flow readily, and if not, power will be con- 
 tinually required to bring about success. 
 
 A young man was graduated from this University in engineering 
 in 1905. He came here off a farm and helped himself through col- 
 lege by work. He applied himself faithfully to his chosen profession 
 for nearly five years, and was fairly successful. He paid back the 
 money he had borrowed while in college, helped bear some of the ex- 
 
 405 
 
 27 
 
406 SUCCESS. 
 
 penses at his old home, and saved the rest of his money. He has now 
 gone back to the farm in the belief that for a man of his temperament 
 a greater measure of success could there be obtained than in engineering. 
 I know that young man intimately and am sure he has made no mis- 
 take. He probably would never have been more than just a good aver- 
 age engineer, but he will make a success as a farmer. His education 
 has not been wasted. It will be a great comfort to him in the years to 
 come; and even if it has done no more for him than to enable him to 
 settle the one great question, it was amply justified. 
 
 It is important to know just what constitutes success. Do not make 
 the very common mistake of measuring success by the amount of money 
 you can earn. One must have money and enough to live on, but it is 
 not the all important thing at the beginning of life. It becomes really 
 important only when one's working days are drawing to a close, and 
 enough must be had to bridge over the shoals to the deep water where 
 the ferryman waits for the final passage. 
 
 In one sense success is the realization of one's ambition. It is 
 the achievement of the result of one's plans and labor. It is 
 the bringing about of the end sought to be accomplished. We are 
 sometimes confused, I think, by the surgeon who says the operation 
 was successful notwithstanding that the patient died. In the arts we 
 may have its parallel in the case of a machine which produces the result 
 intended, but fails because there is not enough demand for the product, 
 or because of insufficient raw material to work upon. 
 
 Professor John E. Sweet, the father of the Straight-line Engine, 
 used to tell the story of the man who designed and built a most per- 
 fect machine for manufacturing pins. It was a wide step in advance 
 of the art. A large factory was built in Syracuse, and when completed 
 the proprietors went into the market for pin wire. The price quoted 
 was so high as to lead to the remark that at such a price the wire 
 cost as much as the finished pins. "Oh," said the wire merchants, "if 
 you would like to have the wire run through the pin machines and 
 made into pins, it can be done at the same price." There was a case 
 of a success which, owing to other circumstances, resulted in failure. 
 
 Failure itself is often success. Such a case is found in the prob- 
 lem which one has attempted to solve expecting a certain result, and in 
 the solution of which it was completely demonstrated that no such re- 
 sult is possible. It may be quite as much of a success to prove that a 
 thing can not be done at all, and it may be more of a success, than to 
 achieve a partial result which leads on to the expenditure of more time 
 and money with the final result a failure after all. 
 
COOLEY. 407 
 
 In measuring success in life I would like to start with citizenship. 
 Let everyone, first of all, be a good citizen, one who commands the re- 
 spect of his neighbors ; one who has ideals and is successful in inspiring 
 them in others, so that the community and the home are all better for 
 those ideals. A man who conducts himself so as to maintain his self- 
 respect is a great success. A man who lives his life within his income 
 and meets his obligations is a success. The man who by his example 
 creates in his neighbor a desire to emulate him is a success. A man 
 who never shirks responsibility, and takes upon himself duties to be 
 performed and does his best in performing them is a success. In none 
 of these things need money be considered, except sufficient to live on 
 and do the things which come to hand. 
 
 I do not mean in my definition of success to omit the truly great 
 things, but everyone knows of them, and they need not be mentioned. 
 I want you, young men, to go out into the world prepared to credit 
 yourselves with being successful, even if you do not acomplish some- 
 thing which the world would call truly great. 
 
 One of my old friends wrote me the other day a most interesting 
 letter concerning himself. After graduating from the Arts Department 
 here at Michigan, he attended an eastern engineering school. He had 
 often wondered why he did not get along better in the world. The 
 lesson is so valuable and so pertinent to the spirit of my remarks this 
 morning that I have taken the liberty of quoting parts of his letter. 
 Understand it is from a man now nearly or quite fifty years old. This 
 is his letter: 
 
 "It has just entered my head that many engineering graduates 
 might be the better for a little bit of advice, or perhaps, warning, in 
 regard to the necessity of discriminating between knowing how work 
 should be done, and knowing how to get it done. I have suffered all 
 my life from knowing how things should be done, and leaving them 
 for some other fellow to finish ; and it is only within the last year that 
 I have had my eyes fully opened to the folly of such a plan of action. 
 The extra work of completing the job is nothing to the man who has 
 done the preliminary work and laid out the completion of it. But the 
 man who actually gets it done and sees that it is finished, who has to 
 go over the other man's preliminary work and become familiar with 
 the plan for its completion, before he starts, is the one who gets all 
 the credit, and moreover he has a right to it. He is the man who gets 
 the money anyhow. 
 
 "I never discovered this little secret until I struck the sales end of 
 the engineering business, and found that unless I carried my work 
 clear through to where I could say, 'Here! Make this, as shown and 
 
408 SUCCESS. 
 
 specified. Deliver here on such a date, for such a price, to be paid on 
 such a date,' the work was not complete and I could claim no credit 
 for it, unless, of course, conditions were such that it was a physical 
 impossibility for me to get all the data myself and attend to the wind- 
 up before it was turned over to the production end. 
 
 "The man who took the trouble to teach me this, is fifteen years 
 younger than myself and never saw the inside of a technical school. He 
 got his engineering in the shop, and at sea, and was absorbing business 
 principles all the time. Eight years ago he was working under me 
 at the 'Brown-Hoist' in Cleveland, and when I went to work for him a 
 year ago, I found he had been analyzing my character while working 
 for me, and had his whole plan prepared for reconstructing the inside 
 of my head, and he has done it. I have for some time been puzzled 
 to know just what it was that I had learned that made me succeed as 
 I had never done before, and have concluded that it is simply this: 
 Carry whatever you do to a conclusion, to a point where you can turn 
 over something concrete, so that all that remains is simply an order or 
 a set of directions, the origin of which need not be investigated, and 
 in which there is nothing to be checked. In other words, to do the 
 work so that you can tell the next man just what he is to do, and so 
 that he can hold you responsible for what has been done up to the 
 time he receives the order. 
 
 "I suppose to many, even very young engineers, these are self-evi- 
 dent truths, and to them it might seem childish to put such things 
 into words, but from my own unpleasant experience, I suspect that the 
 majority of young men are not alive to the matter, and that many do 
 not get wise till quite late in life, like myself, and some (a good many) 
 never learn it." 
 
 There is one rule I have always tried to follow. It may not add 
 much to one's success as measured by money, but it has at least afforded 
 a great amount of personal satisfaction. Often when an engineer is 
 called upon in a consulting capacity, he is asked to produce a particular 
 result, and not infrequently is told that no other result is needed or de- 
 sired. This I have as a rule declined to do, and when urged to hurry 
 my report have said, "I can not give you my report until it is finished. 
 While you may be satisfied with the work already done, I am not. When 
 I am satisfied you also will be satisfied." Work should always be carried 
 on to a point which will enable the engineer to advise in light of all 
 the things developed during the investigation. That is particularly true 
 of a new project. If reported on after only a partial investigation, work 
 might have been commenced and money expended along lines found, 
 after a complete investigation, to be entirely wrong. 
 
COOLEY. 409 
 
 It is an engineer's duty to work out problems for his employer which 
 will show conclusively all that can be known for and against a pro- 
 ject. Moreover it is a duty one owes himself, for one's reputation should 
 not be jeopardized. A reputation is an engineer's capital. Properly 
 treated it will bear a good return, but ill treatment will not only diminish 
 the return but ultimately destroy the principal. Young men, you must 
 cherish your reputation above all things, if you are to continue in the 
 practice of engineering. 
 
 A young engineer once handed me a letter in which he was offered 
 a contract in a certain way, and asked "What would you do about it?" 
 I replied, "Young man, if you expect to continue in engineering work, 
 only one course is possible; if you plan to go into other work two 
 courses are possible." He smiled and is still engaged in engineering 
 work and very successfully. Once an engineer has been purchased, 
 it speedily becomes known among salesmen, and sooner or later among 
 the engineer's employers, and that is the beginning of the end, if not the 
 end itself. 
 
 And now a final word. Be true to your employer. You may not 
 agree with him or with his policies. You may dislike him, but as long 
 as you work for him and receive his pay, be true to him. Such conduct 
 will win for you your employer's respect, and he will aid you when 
 you go from his service. Always give your employer ample notice of 
 your intention to leave, and give him the true reasons if he asks them. 
 Make a sacrifice, if necessary to prevent any embarrassment which might 
 result from your leaving. These are little things, but they win. 
 
 Be content with moderate or even small pay, if there is a future 
 in sight. Oftentimes the small beginning makes the most satisfactory 
 ending. It is better to start at $45 or $50 a month and advance steadily 
 upward with no limit in sight than to start at $75 or $80 with a known 
 limit of advancement ahead of you. Put by a part of your earnings, 
 10% at least. Put it in a separate bank and do not touch it until you 
 have to. If your pay is $50, put by five of it and if $100, put by ten. 
 When the accumulation makes $500, take it out of the savings bank 
 and buy a good bond. In a short time you will have two or three bonds. 
 Then when you want to raise money, to go into business it may be, 
 you can offer your bonds as collateral and get the money without ask- 
 ing anyone to go on your note with you. It gives a fine feeling of 
 independence and enchances one's manhood. 
 
 Probably no better example of the qualities which make for success 
 can be found anywhere than in that little story entitled "Carrying a 
 Message to Garcia." When asked if you can do a certain thing, let 
 your answer be "Aye, Aye, Sir," then go about it and do it. If in the 
 
410 . SUCCESS. 
 
 attempt you find yourself in a hole, climb out. If you can't climb out, 
 then die in the attempt. Don't be a coward, be courageous and brave 
 and always in a manly way. Let me give you, in closing, the lines of 
 John Trotwood Moore entitled 
 
 SUCCESS 
 'Tis the coward who quits to misfortune, 
 
 Tis the knave who changes each day, 
 Tis the fool who wins half the battle, 
 
 Then throws all his chances away. 
 
 There is little in life but labor, 
 
 And tomorrow may find that a dream; 
 
 Success is the bride of Endeavor, 
 
 And luck but a meteor's gleam. 
 
 The time to succeed is when others, 
 
 Discouraged, show traces of tire ; 
 - The battle is fought in the homestretch 
 And won 'twixt the flag and the wire. 
 
SOME OF THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. Chas. Sumner Howe. 
 
 To supplement Dr. Cooley's inspiring words, some extracts from 
 Dr. Howe's address on a like subject to the 1910 graduating class of 
 the School of Mines and Metallurgy of the Missouri State University 
 are here reproduced. Dr. Howe is President of the Case School of 
 Applied Science, the recipient of numerous academic degrees of the 
 highest order, and an engineer of acknowledged ability and experience. 
 Want of space prevents the reproduction of the entire address, which 
 certainly is interesting and valuable from start to finish. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 411 
 
SOME OF THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 ' " By ;. 
 
 Dr. Chas. Sumner Howe. 
 
 A few weeks ago I listened to an address upon the subject "En- 
 gineers as Leaders." The speaker proceeded to compare the number 
 of prominent engineers with the number of men prominent in other 
 professions, and then drew certain comparisons from his figures. I 
 have never felt very much interest in the question of preparation in a 
 technical school for leadership, either among engineers or in the world 
 at large. Only a few can be leaders, the large majority must hold sub- 
 ordinate positions. If the technical school made a special business of 
 trying to educate the leaders, it would not properly educate the great 
 bulk of its students, for they will be obliged to carry on the everyday, 
 ordinary work which falls to most engineers. But there is one point 
 in regard to education which does interest me exceedingly; that is, 
 education for success. Now, success is a very much abused term. It 
 has a certain definition in the dictionary, but its meaning to an individual 
 generally depends upon his views of life. One man considers that suc- 
 cess does not come to him unless he acquires great wealth ; another, to 
 be successful in his own estimation, must receive honors from his fellow 
 citizens; another must reach the top of his profession, and so on. It 
 is evident that if these are the views of all men in regard to success, 
 few of them will attain their goal for comparatively few can be very 
 wealthy, but few can hold distinguished rank, but few can be at the top 
 of their professions. 
 
 My definition of success is this : A man is successful when he con- 
 tinually does all that it is possible for him to do. All men are not alike. 
 One man may have greater intellectual power than others; another may 
 have greater bodily strength ; another may have a faculty of keen insight ; 
 another may have the peculiar quality of getting along well with other 
 men. Now, the man of medium ability cannot hope, as a rule, to reach 
 the same high goal that can be attained by the man of great intellectual 
 endowments; but I claim that if the former accomplishes all that his 
 powers will enable him to accomplish, he has been just as successful as 
 the latter, although he may not have done as much of the world's work. 
 
 413 
 
414 . ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 Whether you agree with me or not in my definition of success, you will 
 at least allow that every man should try to accomplish as much as pos- 
 sible that he should at all times do his very best. 
 
 * * $ * * * * * * * 
 
 I believe it is generally true, that if a man is ready for promotion, 
 sooner or later it will come to him. Most of you undoubtedly have heard 
 men say, "No, I am not going to work any harder; I am doing now all 
 I am paid to do." The man who achieves success and secures advance- 
 ment always does more than he is paid to do ; that is the kind of man 
 any firm wants. No employer will hire a man unless he can make money 
 out of him, and the more money he can make, the better pleased the em- 
 ployer is with the man and the more desirous he is to advance him. 
 This is one of the paths to success do more than you are paid to do, 
 and do it cheerfully. 
 
 The young engineer must know more than his own work or the 
 work of the man just ahead of him. He should study the work of his 
 company or his firm, and find out its relation to that of other companies 
 and firms. He should know where the firm's raw material comes from, 
 approximately what it costs, all the steps in its treatment, what the final 
 product is, where it is sold, what it is used for ; in fact, he should en- 
 deavor to gain a comprehensive idea of the whole business. 
 
 The successful engineering graduate will subscribe for the leading 
 technical magazines in his line of work, and he will not only subscribe 
 for them he will read them, in order that he may keep posted in re- 
 gard to what men in his profession are doing, not only from the engineer- 
 ing standpoint, but from the manufacturing standpoint as well. Too 
 many technical graduates never take a technical journal. They say 
 they do not need it for the work they are doing, which is probably true, 
 and if they continue in that frame of mind, the probability is, they will 
 never need to take the journals, because they will not rise to positions 
 of high enough responsibility to make it necessary. The successful man 
 the man who is doing all that is in him to do must know what other 
 men are doing, and he must put this knowledge to use in the work which 
 he does from day to day. 
 
 I believe every engineering graduate should keep a card catalog of 
 articles and books which he reads, and these cards should give the in- 
 formation under so many different heads that it surely can be found 
 when needed. Almost every man has at some time in his career wanted 
 very much some article which he remembers having read but cannot 
 place. Usually, this occurs to men every week or every day. Knowl- 
 edge is valuable only as it can be used. No one can remember every- 
 thing which he has read; no one can know all there is to be known; 
 
HOWE. 415 
 
 but every engineering graduate should know where to go to find the in- 
 formation necessary in the successful pursuit of his profession. This 
 means knowing how to search encyclopedias, magazines, books, etc., 
 and I ihink the practice of keeping a card catalog of the important 
 things read will pay for itself many times over. Do not be afraid of a 
 little extra work of this kind. 
 
 The man who is looking for the highest success should study men 
 who have been successful, to find but the secret of their success. Suc- 
 cessful men have many qualities. I believe it will always be found that 
 they are educated. Now, this does not mean that they have had a col- 
 lege education, but it means that they have educated themselves for the 
 things they have had to do and the lives they have had to lead ; and this 
 is the kind of an education that every man must have if he is to rise 
 above his fellow-men, no matter whether he has previously received a 
 college education or not. A technical education does not necessarily 
 mean success ; there are many other essentials. Very frequently parents 
 think that if a boy goes through college he ought to become a success- 
 ful man, and they sometimes intimate as much to college faculties. But 
 the fact is, if a college is to make a successful engineer out of a student, 
 the boy must have some brains to start with. Mental ability, correct 
 habits of thought and work, intelligence, power of application, the 
 ability to get along with men, love of work, high character, are all 
 necessary for success, and I am not sure that a technical education is 
 more essential than any one of these. These qualities should be cul- 
 tivated by the one who would win success, because they are necessary, 
 if the highest goal is to be reached. All men do not have these qual- 
 ities to the same degree, and a man is not to be held accountable for 
 natural qualities which he does not possess. He is, however, to- be held 
 accountable for the way in which he uses and improves the natural en- 
 dowments which are his. It is this use and improvement of that which 
 nature has given him which I have termed "Success." It is possible 
 for every man to develop his powers to the highest degree, and that 
 is all that any one can expect him to do. 
 
 Again, if a man is to be successful in this world, he must have the 
 ability to do things. The American nation demands results, and much 
 will be forgiven him who secures them. A strenuous president may 
 make enemies by some of the things he does, but the nation at large 
 will overlook many mistakes if he is one to whom accomplishment has 
 become a habit. The engineer must do things, because if he does not he 
 is not an engineer. It is the business of men of this profession to take 
 the materials and forces of nature and to use them for the benefit of 
 mankind. The materials may lie in inaccessible places; they may not 
 
416 ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 be in the form or shape necessary for use. But the engineer must 
 overcome these difficulties and transport the material to the place where 
 it can be used and change its form or substance so that it will be ser- 
 viceable to man. He may run up against some pretty stiff natural 
 laws, and these laws will not change nor step out of the way because 
 the man who wishes to use them is a graduate of a technical school. 
 He must use the laws in the way in which they were intended to be 
 used, and he must make one force counteract another until the desired 
 result is reached. In fact, he is constantly doing things, and this is 
 what makes him such an effective unit in the society of the present age. 
 I have spoken of some of the individual characteristics which make 
 for success, but the progress of the nation is of much more importance 
 than the well-being of an individual. A man's work cannot be called 
 successful, no matter what it brings to him, if it is detrimental to the 
 nation at large. 
 
ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE ROSE 
 POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 This address was delivered in 1902, nine years after the preceding 
 one, to the students of Kansas University; and therefore it represents 
 the conclusions of the author's more mature judgment. Mr. Harrington 
 in compiling Dr. Waddell's "Principal Professional Papers," takes 
 issue thus with him on one of the matters treated. 
 
 "Serious exception may be taken, however, to the strictures against 
 municipal service. The work for which cities employ engineers is 
 of the highest importance and requires something of the skill and tact 
 of the politician, as well as engineering knowledge. It is true that 
 'practical polities' is commonly odious to the scientific man who is 
 intent upon rendering the best possible service, but it is rare indeed that 
 the engineer is free to act according to his best judgment, no matter 
 what his position. If he be in the employ of a manufacturer or a con- 
 tractor, competition forces him to adopt many methods which fall 
 short of the best. Even the consulting engineer is often vexed by 
 restrictions which his clients force upon him. In no case is one abso- 
 lutely free to act according to his judgment except, possibly, in some 
 private matters. 
 
 "But there is great public work to be done, and honest capable men 
 must be employed to do it. The civil engineer who enters the employ of 
 a public corporation will encounter many annoying obstacles. Politicians 
 will endeavor to force incompetent assistants upon him; with good in- 
 tent and bad, his work will be unfairly criticised; due honor and credit 
 will be denied 'him; he may even be persecuted for taking his stand 
 against corruption ; but in spite of these unpleasant features of his 
 position, he is in duty bound to conduct his office for the benefit of his 
 employer, the public. The more difficult the position, the more credit 
 is due if it be honorably filled. The harder the battle, the stronger the 
 victor will be." 
 
 The placing of the office of city engineer under civil service rules, 
 which is fast coming into vogue, removes most of the objections which 
 Dr. Waddell used to hold against municipal engineering. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 417 
 
CALIFORNIA, 
 .UHNS 
 
 , CAUFGBN! 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GRADUATING 
 
 CLASS IN THE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF 
 
 THE ROSE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 GENTLEMEN: When your worthy President did me the honor 
 of inviting me to address you on this auspicious occasion, I was sorely 
 tempted to decline, because of the vast amount of professional work 
 with which my associates and I are at present struggling. This is 
 by far the busiest period of my entire career, and possibly you know 
 that my life has not been an idle one. Notwithstanding this state of 
 affairs, I concluded to accept your President's invitation, because I 
 recognize that it is an important part of an old engineer's duty to aid 
 young engineers in making their start in life. 
 
 I feel that I must begin with an apology for reading to you a 
 type-written address, assuring you that, as an extempore speaker, I am 
 an utter failure, unless it be when lecturing on technical subjects ; and 
 I think that you will agree with me that a fair written address is pre- 
 ferable to a poor extempore one. 
 
 Your President has left me the choice of a subject, merely sug- 
 gesting that I ' give the boys some good advice and try to make my 
 remarks of general interest so as to reach others than the engineering 
 graduates. With the first portion of this suggestion I most readily 
 comply ; but I must beg to be excused from the second, as I am no 
 hand at making popular speeches. My remarks then, young gentle- 
 men, will be directed to you solely, hence those of my hearers who do 
 not belong to the graduating class are destined, probably, to have a 
 stupid time, but I can promise them that it will be comparatively short. 
 
 An engineer's success in life depends greatly upon two things: 
 First, the thoroughness with which he has pursued his studies at his 
 technical school ; and, second, the start that he makes immediately after 
 leaving there. 
 
 In respect to the first matter, I assume that the conditions here, 
 like those that have always existed at that other and older R. P. I. (of 
 which, by the way, I have the honor to be an alumnus) are such that 
 no student who has failed to attend strictly to business during his four 
 years' course is able to be present to-day in the graduating class, and 
 
 419 
 
420 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 that, consequently, you all are in good shape as far as the first requisite is 
 concerned. It is of the second, therefore, that I shall now proceed to 
 treat, by giving you some wholesome advice, based not only upon my 
 own professional experience, but afso upon that of other engineers of 
 my acquaintance, and having due regard to both successful and unsuc- 
 cessful careers. 
 
 Generally speaking, advice to young men is a wasted effort, for 
 it goes into one ear and comes out of the other (concerning this I 
 can speak authoratively, for I am trying to rear two boys of my own) ; 
 but in your case I hope for better things than ordinarily, as this is a 
 momentous period in the life of each of you. Let me assure you. young 
 gentlemen, that there is nothing which will be so conducive to your 
 professional success as good advice from older engineers, whether they 
 be successful men or not. In the case of the former, they can tell you 
 what they did in order to reach the desired goal ; and in the case of the 
 latter, you can learn what they failed to do and what mistakes they 
 made. Hence let me begin my suggestions by counseling each of you 
 to become intimately acquainted with one or more successful engineers, 
 and, craving their advice and opinion from time to time, follow both. 
 
 Young men just leaving their alma mater naturally feel thai the 
 whole world is before them, and that their success is almost an assured 
 fact; but I tell you that you are very liable to find it otherwise, that 
 you will undoubtedly experience many hard knocks, that at times you 
 will feel very dubious as to what is best to do, and that you will often 
 long for counsel from some friendly member of the profession whose 
 opinion you can trust. 
 
 It is on this account that I advise you to become acquainted with 
 your brother engineers as far as lies in your power and to impress 
 upon each of them favorably your individuality, that later on you may 
 not be forgotten. Time spent in visiting older members of the pro- 
 fession is by no means wasted ; therefore take it whenever you can do 
 so without neglecting your duties ; and endeavor to confine your con- 
 versation with such men mainly to technical subjects, preferably those 
 in which they are specially interested. A young engineer can often aid 
 an older one materially by assisting him in some of his calculations 
 and in the preparation of papers for technical societies. What would 
 often be drudgery to the older engineer would prove to be valuable 
 experience to the younger, consequently never hesitate to undertake, 
 in such case, tedious computations which will lead eventually to valu- 
 able deductions, even though your reward be apparently nil. An engi- 
 neer of the right kind (and I am happy to be able to assure you that 
 
WADDELL. 421 
 
 most of them can be so classed) is only too glad to give full credit to a 
 younger man who has helped him in his investigations. 
 
 Concerning the benefit to be derived from an older engineer's 
 opinion and the need for it, I can speak from experience; for many a 
 time have I received kindly help and encouragement from my good 
 friend, Professor Burr; yet in the old days when we were associated 
 together at Rensselaer, being of nearly the same age, we often got 
 beyond our depth and would have given much for some sound advice 
 from engineers of high standing; but unfortunately it was not at our 
 command. I can look back upon many a wasted hour in my early 
 days, when, active, energetic, and ambitious, I desired most earnestly 
 to devote my attention to investigations the results of which would 
 prove useful to our profession and would tend to establish my repu- 
 tation as an engineer and a technical writer. But alas ! there was no 
 one to direct my energies into a proper channel or to show me how to 
 employ my time. 
 
 Enforced idleness for an engineer is the greatest curse in ex- 
 istence ; and there ought to be no excuse for a member of our profes- 
 sion having a single, necessarily-idle hour; because he should always 
 have laid out for the future more things professional to investigate 
 and accomplish than he can possibly perform. It is a serious thing 
 for an energetic young fellow (and all engineers of any account, both 
 young and old, are energetic) to run short of work for any length of 
 time. I well remember a period of eight months of enforced idleness that 
 I experienced a few years after graduating, during which time I nearly 
 wore myself out with worry and restlessness, not having had sufficient 
 practical experience to enable me to write more than a paper or two. 
 It is true that I had saved up quite a little money, enough to tide me over 
 the bad times without having to appeal to my father for assistance, 
 and that during that period I obtained a pretty sound knowledge of 
 the French language; nevertheless I succeeded in worrying myself 
 absolutely ill. I assure you that I would not go through those eight 
 months again for untold wealth. They are the only part of my life 
 that I look back upon as truly unhappy. 
 
 You young men are, in a way, much more fortunate than I was, 
 in that I started my professional career during the depressed years 
 of 75, 76, and 77, while you are entering upon yours at the most 
 prosperous time ever known in the history of America. Never before 
 were engineers in such demand, never before was the compensation 
 for professional services so good, never before was the country so 
 wealthy, and never before were the prospects for the future so bright. 
 Our great republic (and believe me, although alien born, I can truly 
 
422 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 appreciate its greatness) has entered the world's arena with the in- 
 tention of taking quickly the first place among nations; and in the 
 peaceful strife that is to ensue, American engineers of all lines will 
 be found in the van, bearing the brunt of the struggle and, even in the 
 most remote corners of the earth, forcing foreign nations to adopt our 
 methods and to purchase the manufactured products of our country. 
 
 Ours is truly the greatest of all of the professions! With it none 
 other can compare! It, and it alone, is essentially the profession of 
 progress ! To whom is due the unparalleled world-advancement of the 
 last half century? Who are the men who have developed the resources 
 of the North American continent? To whom are we indebted for all 
 the great luxuries of modern life? To these questions there can be 
 but one answer : the civil engineers, using the term in its true and 
 broad sense, so as to include all engineers except the military. 
 
 Compared with all other professions, ours is by far the most desir- 
 able. Lawyers, of necessity, lose one-half of their cases ; therefore 
 about fifty per cent, of their total work is failure ; while all engineering 
 work is, or should be, successful. Half of the time lawyers are retained 
 to disguise the truth or so to distort it as to win cases for their clients, 
 while the engineer is essentially a searcher after truth. 
 
 The doctor too often gropes blindly in the dark, using tentative 
 methods and relying upon nature to help him out of his difficulties; for 
 medicine is anything but an exact science; while engineering comes 
 nearer being such than does any other profession. 
 
 The military man's main object in life is to destroy, while the engi- 
 neer's is to construct. 
 
 The minister deals with things based on faith, while the engineer 
 in all his works is governed by the laws of nature, which, as a rule, he 
 understands fairly well, and with which he must comply in order to be 
 successful. 
 
 Civil engineering is the youngest of all the learned professions ; 
 and until quite lately many people, including even some of its promi- 
 nent members, maintained that it was not a profession at all, but simply 
 a trade. However, all that is a thing of the past, and engineers are now 
 not only considered to be professional men, but are looked up to by 
 the populace. "Straws show which way the wind blows," hence, to 
 learn the world's opinion of engineering and the civil engineer, we can 
 consult the light literature of the past and present. It is not many 
 years ago that the English novelists sneered at the engineer, terming him 
 a "greasy mechanic" and placing him outside the pale of polite society. 
 At that time American novelists either simply ignored the engineer 
 by leaving him out of their dramatis personae, or, when he did come in- 
 
WADDELL. 423 
 
 cidentally .into the plot, considered him about on a par with a boss 
 carpenter. To-day all this is changed. Many of the prominent modern 
 novels have civil engineers for their heroes; and in all of them the 
 members of the engineering profession are invariably treated with the 
 greatest consideration. In France and in French literature the civil 
 engineer has always been recognized with due esteem, as is witnessed by 
 the works of Jules Verne and other French writers. There is perhaps 
 good reason for this, because the civil engineer in France for the last 
 hundred years has always been a polished, highly educated gentleman, 
 and generally a graduate of a school of world-wide reputation. 
 
 In our country any man or boy who can use a surveying instru- 
 ment or even drag a chain or handle a rod, has the privilege of dubbing 
 himself a civil engineer, thus lowering the profession in the minds of 
 the public, which generally fails to distinguish between a graduate 
 engineer and one who has risen from the ranks. Nevertheless, nowa- 
 days in this country in order to attain anything beyond mediocre suc- 
 cess in engineering, a young man must be a graduate of a technical 
 school, and the higher the reputation of the school the better are his 
 chances. It is true that we have in the profession many prominent 
 men who never had a technical school training, but they are almost 
 invariably of advanced years. 
 
 In England there have been until lately no special schools for 
 engineers in the opinion of writers and society people; nevertheless, 
 his education by the crude and faulty system of apprenticeship. On 
 this account there may have been some reason for the low standing of 
 engineers in the opinion of writers and society people; nevertheless, 
 the English engineer of to-day ranks in his own country second to no 
 other professional man. Again, the Institution of Civil Engineers 
 of Great Britain is certainly the greatest and most influential engineer- 
 ing society in the world; and some of America's most eminent engin- 
 eers are proud to be able to write M. I. C. E. after their names. 
 
 Yes there is in my mind no doubt about it ours is the most 
 satisfactory profession of them all, .notwithstanding its numerous phys- 
 ical hardships, its grave responsibilities, and its exacting demands 
 upon one's time and energies. Never once since graduation, over a 
 quarter of a century ago, would I for an instant have considered any 
 proposition to abandon the profession of my choice, and never once 
 have I regretted that choice this notwithstanding the fact that my 
 early experience was anything but an easy one, involving as it did 
 small pay, excessively hard work, long hours, continued exposure to 
 rain and snow, occasionally extreme hunger, unappreciated effort, and 
 sometimes imminent peril to life. Many of these things at the time 
 
424 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 were intensely disagreeable ; but now I look back upon them .with great 
 satisfaction, feeling that they were indeed blessings in disguise. Hard 
 knocks tend to develop a man and to bring out the best that is in him; 
 hence if in the near future any one of you have occasion to feel that 
 the world is treating him badly, or that he is "out of luck," he should 
 not worry about it, but should proceed upon the even tenor of his way, 
 having confidence that all will come right ere long, and that later he 
 will have occasion to feel thankful for all his unpleasant experiences. 
 
 The question that naturally interests you most just now is what 
 work you will start with and possibly what compensation you will re- 
 ceive ; hence a few suggestions from an old fellow who has been in 
 harness for many years will perhaps be acceptable. 
 
 It is far more important that. you obtain good experience than that 
 you receive at the outset a large salary. The services of a newly-fledged 
 engineer are as a rule of little or no account. On some work they have 
 a positive value, on other work they are worth zero, and on still other 
 work they have a negative value. The higher the branch of engineer- 
 ing that the recent graduate enters, the less valuable to his employers 
 will be his services. For instance, in any work of surveying the young 
 engineer from the very first day can earn as much as a teamster, axe- 
 man, rodman, or general roustabout, and in a few weeks considerably 
 more; in more complicated work, such as waterworks, sewerage, or 
 railroading, for a few months at least, the value of his services will be 
 approximately zero; while in extremely complicated work, such as 
 bridge designing, the drafting that he does at first either has to be 
 done all over again, or requires so much time for correction as to ren- 
 der it practically worthless ; and at the same time he occupies the at- 
 tention of those whose services cost considerable money and who 
 possess large earning capacity. In our office we estimate that it takes 
 three months to bring the value of the recent graduate's services up to 
 zero, and three months more to recoup the office for its loss on his in- 
 struction ; hence it is not until after six months that his work really 
 begins to become remunerative. 
 
 Each of you must judge for himself what class of work is best 
 suited to his needs and conditions. Fortunately for you, it is practic- 
 able to-day to enter any branch of engineering that you may choose, 
 as engineers of all kinds are in great demand, everybody having more 
 work than he can really do in the short time that is almost invariably al- 
 lowed on the engineering portion of enterprises. 
 
 Some of you are perhaps in need of money, possibly to pay debts 
 incurred in obtaining your education. These I would advise to take 
 positions on railroad surveys, where good salaries are paid at the out- 
 
WADDELL. 425 
 
 set, and where up to a certain point promotion is rapid for a man of the 
 right type. Or if field work be not to your taste, comparatively large 
 earnings can be made at once by entering as draftsman the employ of 
 a bridge manufacturing company. Here the promotion is slow, and 
 the professional advancement is still slower, as it is naturally to the 
 company's advantage to keep a man continuously at one kind of work 
 as soon as he becomes proficient in it. Comparatively good positions 
 can be obtained by joining the engineer corps of a large railroad com- 
 pany, and working up step by step; but the progress is slow, and the 
 plums that can be reached at the top of that tree are only two or three 
 in number. 
 
 It is not a bad idea to take a subordinate position in some large 
 manufacturing concern, and work up ; for there the possibilities of 
 promotion are better, and there is always a chance of making your 
 services so valuable that you will eventually be taken into the company. 
 
 Government positions are fair enough in a way; but they are diffi- 
 cult to obtain, and do not offer much of a field to an ambitious man. 
 About the poorest and most unsatisfactory position that one can take 
 is in the employ of a city, not only because the pay is generally small, 
 but mainly because the tenure of office is so uncertain. Believe me, I 
 would prefer a position as boss grader on a dump to that of city 
 engineer, and I would rather work as a navvy with a pick and shovel 
 than accept a subordinate position in the engineering department of a 
 city. Avoid all political positions; they are badly paid, insecure, and 
 in every way unsatisfactory. It degrades a man, in his own estimation 
 at least, to feel that he is at the mercy of every log-rolling, wirepulling 
 ward-politician who may for any reason take offense against him. En- 
 gineering positions in municipalities ought to be placed above the con- 
 trol of politics ; but how to accomplish such a desideratum is more than 
 I can suggest. 
 
 As far as the attainment of knowledge and ultimate high advance- 
 ment are concerned, the best positions to take are those in the employ 
 of consulting engineers of established reputation. Ordinarily these are 
 very hard to get ; but at present it is otherwise. In England a young 
 man has to pay handsomely for the privilege of entering such an office 
 and working there for several years without any salary whatsoever; 
 but this custom does not exist in America, owing to the fact that such 
 good training is given in our technical schools. 
 
 No matter what branch of engineering you choose, aim always to 
 obtain valuable experience rather than large pay; the latter will follow 
 as a matter of course after the former is acquired. 
 
426 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 If I were once more a young man just leaving my alma mater, and 
 if I were not cramped for means, I would, for at least five or six years, 
 work in subordinate capacities, for a few months at a time in each 
 position, leaving just as soon as I had mastered the principal engineer- 
 ing features of the work, or just as soon as the daily attainment of 
 knowledge failed to satisfy my desire, and taking up another line of 
 work, in order to secure for myself a sound, practical knowledge of a 
 number of branches of engineering. Meanwhile, I would be deciding 
 on my specialty and gradually turning my energies towards the chosen 
 line of work, to the ultimate exclusion of all other lines; and I would 
 not rest content until after I had acquainted myself with every minor 
 detail of my adopted specialty, so that, after settling down to a private 
 practice of my own, I should feel master of the situation on each new 
 piece of work as it comes up, and should never have any reason to 
 fear that my ignorance of any detail would prejudice me in the opin- 
 ion of my clients. It would take courage and plenty of it to follow such 
 a course as this; but the ends to be attained would be worth the effort. 
 It is a great mistake for a young engineer to choose a specialty before 
 he has had several years of general experience. What a source of dis- 
 satisfaction it must be for a middle-aged man to feel that he has chosen 
 the wrong line of work, and that it is too late to make a change! 
 
 It is possible that I am wrong in giving you advice based upon the 
 supposition that you all desire intensely to rise high in the profession, 
 and that you will eventually reach the top of the" tree. It is true that all 
 cannot be first and that all have not equal ability ; or, to quote the senti- 
 ments if not the exact words of a poet who is to-day almost forgotten, 
 
 "Order is Nature's law, and this confessed, 
 Some are and will be greater than the rest." 
 
 Nevertheless, in my opinion, it is better to strive constantly for a high 
 ideal and fail to attain it completely, rather than to jog along contented 
 with small things and mild ambitions. At any rate, the actual results 
 attained by the former method are almost sure to exceed materially those 
 accomplished by the latter. 
 
 From personal experience, I can assure you that it is within your 
 power to attain ultimately your heart's desire for professional advance- 
 ment and distinction, no matter how lofty your ambition may be, pro- 
 vided that you strive for it faithfully and never despair. To be a suc- 
 cessful engineer, one should establish in his own mind (and generally 
 keep them strictly there) certain objects to be attained in both the im- 
 mediate and the distant future, adding to them from time to time as his 
 experience increases, and never resting content until they 'are accom- 
 plished. Earnestness of purpose is a sine qua non for success ; with- 
 
WADDELL. 427 
 
 out it one may as well consider himself at the outset out of the race. 
 Above all things, don't work by the clock and quit the moment time is 
 up; for if you do, you will soon establish for yourself with your em- 
 ployers and associates the reputation of being a mere time-server. I 
 have on several occasions seen a navvy with a pick poised for a blow, 
 drop the tool upon the first blast of the whistle announcing quitting 
 time. Such an action may be excusable in an ignorant workman, but 
 it would not be so in a member of the civil engineering profession. 
 
 Some engineers pay their assistants for overtime, while others do 
 not. I have tried both ways, and am able to say which is the better 
 method; and this is my judgment: The overtime system is more sat- 
 isfactory to the average draftsman, and at the same time is really better 
 for the employer; because he then pays for only the hours actually spent 
 on the work, counting out all lost time, and because he feels no hesita- 
 tion in asking his men to work nights and even Sundays when occasion 
 demands. Nevertheless, I have noticed that the young engineers who 
 have risen the most rapidly are those who have never been paid for 
 overtime ; and this stands to reason, because an employer of the right kind 
 feels that in common decency he must promote rapidly any employee 
 who shows such an interest in the work as to labor overtime without 
 thought of extra compensation. 
 
 In all your work cultivate to the utmost the attributes of reliability 
 and accuracy, and never let any computations be used unchecked, the 
 checking being done either by an independent computer or by an en- 
 tirely different method of figuring. I cannot impress upon you too 
 earnestly the importance of a thorough check on all work. Without it, 
 mistakes, and sometimes serious ones, are sure to occur, for the man who 
 makes no mistakes is the man who does no work. 
 
 Some students of technical schools look down upon drafting as 
 being infra dig., and think it not worth while to perfect themselves 
 therein, assuming that immediately after graduation they will obtain 
 positions outranking those of draftsmen. No greater mistake than this 
 can be made. If any of you have gone through school with this idea 
 in mind, I advise that before beginning actual practice you take a post- 
 graduate course in the mechanical part of drafting. It is by no means 
 enough to know how to outline a design; it is absolutely essential that 
 you be able to finish the drawings neatly and thoroughly, so that the 
 blue prints made from your tracings will be a credit to the office where 
 they were prepared. Drafting is by no means beneath the dignity of an 
 engineer, and unless he be truly proficient therein he is likely to fail to 
 attain success. 
 
428 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 This reminds me of an amusing incident that occurred the other 
 day in my practice, and I shall relate it as an illustration of the point 
 I am trying to make. 
 
 A middle-aged engineer of considerable experience but who was 
 temporarily out of work, applied to me for a position in our office, vol- 
 unteering several times the information that he was an engineer and 
 not a draftsman. He dwelt so much upon this point that I felt con- 
 strained to inform him that nearly all the draftsmen in our employ were 
 engineers and several of them very good ones indeed. Although sadly 
 in want of office assistance, we had no .position to offer the gentleman. 
 
 There is no part of an engineer's work that is infra dig., and I as- 
 sure you, young gentlemen, that there are many valuable things which 
 you can learn from the illiterate workman who labors in the ditch with 
 his pick and shovel, or who mixes concrete on the platform. There is 
 no part of construction work that is of too menial a nature for you 
 to learn. 'Knowledge of every kind will stand you in good stead 
 sooner or later. There is a certain amount of drudgery that all have 
 to do, and it should always be done willingly and good naturedly. The 
 harder you work on it, the sooner it will be finished ; therefore get right 
 at it and do not shirk. 
 
 Every young engineer should make a practice of reading the leading 
 technical papers, at first covering almost the entire practice of engineer- 
 ing, but gradually omitting those articles in which he is not peculiarly 
 interested, until finally, after his specialty is chosen, his reading will 
 cover only the items of general news and those papers which pertain to 
 his particular line of work and thought. One must discriminate in 
 reading of all kinds, for otherwise much valuable time will be wasted. 
 There is certainly a deal of technical trash written ; hence it is necessary 
 to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff. 
 
 Are some of you congratulating yourselves with the thought that 
 your four years of hard study are at last over, and that after you enter 
 the actual practice of engineering there will be no further need for 
 study? If so, please proceed at once to disabuse your minds of this idea, 
 for it is fundamentally and essentially wrong. If you fail to keep up 
 and to carry on your studies, good-bye to all hopes for professional dis- 
 tinction or even mediocre success. Engineers have to be students all 
 their lives, and the younger they are the greater their necessity for study- 
 ing from books. Believe me, you have still a great deal to learn; 
 therefore I advise each of you to devote at least one hour per day, or 
 preferably two hours, to the continuation of your technical studies and 
 to the reviewing of your mathematics, both pure and applied. The day 
 when you will no longer be able to continue such studies will come only 
 
WADDELL. 429 
 
 too soon; consequently I counsel you, while you are still young, to 
 devote to them what time you can spare. 
 
 Lay out in consultation with some professional friend a course of 
 study in both theoretical and practical subjects, and stick to it con- 
 scientiously.- Set a certain time for a certain amount of reading, and if 
 you fail to cover it in the given period, work harder in the next period 
 so as to catch up with your programme. No matter what your oc- 
 cupation may be, you will be able to find time for study as long as you 
 continue to be an employee, because no employer can expect to occupy 
 more than a reasonable amount of your time in excess of the usual 
 hours of labor, even if he does compensate you for it with extra pay. 
 
 Study well the English language and obtain a thorough command 
 of it, in order that you may be able to speak and to write it with con- 
 ciseness and vigor. Perfect yourself in style by reading well written 
 books, even if they come under the denomination of light literature. 
 A little of the latter affords relaxation, and, when really good, can do 
 no harm to a professional man, unless he becomes so addicted to its 
 perusal as to neglect more important reading. Nowadays there are 
 many American and Canadian writers of good fiction, whose command 
 of the English language is excellent, hence, there are plenty of good, 
 interesting books from which to choose. 
 
 As a rule the graduate engineer has no time to devote to the study 
 of foreign languages; and it is questionable whether it be advisable to 
 devote to them much time at the technical schools. The plea for their 
 retention is that there are many good technical books in these languages 
 that the student ought to be able to read. My reply to this is that there 
 are more good technical books in the English language than a man can 
 ever find time to study, and that all valuable technical works in for- 
 eign languages are soon translated into English. In my opinion, a 
 knowledge of French is only a gentlemanly accomplishment, and one 
 that a man is very liable to lose for want of use, and a knowledge of 
 German is of no advantage whatsoever to an American engineer. There 
 is one foreign language, though, that I believe it would be a good policy 
 to teach to technical students, and that is the Spanish; but the instruc- 
 tion given in it, to be of value at all, should be so thorough as to enable 
 each student to read, write, and speak it with ease and fairly correctly. 
 Is such a course practicable? I answer most decidedly, "yes," but the 
 methods of teaching foreign languages now in vogue in technical and 
 most other schools would have to be abandoned and a more practicable 
 method adopted instead. The reason for teaching Spanish in tech- 
 nical schools is that American engineers are beginning to monopolize 
 the principal engineering positions in the Latin-American countries; 
 
430 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 and, as the latter develop, the demand in those countries for American 
 engineers will surely increase. A man going to such a country with- 
 out any knowledge of the Spanish language is badly handicapped. 
 Eventually he will learn by contact enough of it to get along ; but owing 
 to lack of time for study and the unavoidable disability of advancing 
 years, he will never be a master of even the rudiments of the language. 
 It is far easier for a boy to learn a foreign language than it is for a 
 middle-aged or elderly man. Concerning this matter I am speaking 
 from experience, because for the past three years a large percentage 
 of my professional work has been located in Mexico and Cuba, and I 
 have spent fully one-third of that time in the former country. How 
 often have I wished that I had studied Spanish properly in my youth 
 instead of wasting my time on Latin and Greek, both of which I have 
 long forgotten! 
 
 In laying out a course of post-graduate study, be careful to choose 
 only those subjects that will have a practical value, and beware of 
 abstruse mathematical calculations, for these too often are based on 
 false hypotheses and in consequence produce unreliable results. Mathe- 
 matics should be treated as a servant and not worshipped as a god ! 
 Some men appear to think that a technical paper, to be of any account, 
 should be filled with abstruse mathematical calculations, on the same 
 principle which many old English writers adopted when they interlard- 
 ed their writings with numerous Latin and Greek quotations, simply 
 to show that they had received a polished education. This is all 
 wrong; for the less mathematics a technical paper contains and the 
 simpler the mathematics, the better, in my opinion, is the paper. Now 
 don't go off with the idea that I am not a believer in the higher math- 
 ematics and in the necessity for their study. Although as a rule the 
 mathematics in an engineer's practice are of a very simple and elementary 
 character, yet there occasionally occurs a problem which will set him 
 to thinking and to brushing up on the mathematics of his school days. 
 It was only a few weeks ago that I ran across one of these cases, and 
 I shall now describe it to you in order to illustrate a practical man's 
 habit of making short cuts to obtain results. 
 
 From a point on .a bridge tangent out in a river, three hundred 
 and forty feet from its intersection with a base line which cuts it at 
 an obtuse angle, starts a twelve-thirty curve. The problem was to 
 locate exactly the intersection of the curve and the base line. I made 
 several attempts by both trigonometry and analytics to get an exact 
 equation, but each time found that I had too many unknown quantities 
 for the number of my equations. While I was thoroughly convinced 
 that an exact, direct solution of the problem was feasible, for lack of 
 
WADDELL. 431 
 
 time I simply fudged it by establishing an equation of only one un- 
 known quantity, viz., the angle included between two radii of the curve, 
 one passing through the starting point and the other through the inter- 
 section of the curve and the base line. One side of this equation in- 
 volved the sine of this angle and the other side the cosine ; consequently 
 by measuring the angle very accurately on the plot and making three 
 or four trial substitutions in the equation, I was able to obtain its true 
 value with ail the necessary accuracy. I had given the problem to one of 
 our assistants, a bright young fellow who graduated last year from 
 the Industrial University of Arkansas (an institution, by the way, which 
 has turned out two or three engineers who are second to none in their 
 specialties) ; and he by taking plenty of time succeeded in rinding the 
 exact equation, but it was an appalling one. Both equations were used 
 in preparing the construction diagram, and afforded an excellent check 
 on the correctness of the calculations. 
 
 Let me give you another example of practical mathematics. Sev- 
 eral years ago we had occasion to send as transitman on the construc- 
 tion of a large bridge a young engineer new to our employ. One of 
 the first difficult problems that he encountered was the daily determi- 
 nation of the various errors in position of a pneumatic caisson during 
 the process of sinking. The mathematical problem was too much for 
 him ; and he telegraphed to our office for a demonstration. My partner 
 replied that I was then on my way to the bridge site and would give him 
 the information desired; hence upon my arrival I found the problem 
 awaiting me. Hitherto I had left to my resident engineers the task of ascer- 
 taining daily the position of each caisson, and they had always solved 
 the problem by some means or other in a manner satisfactory to them- 
 selves; consequently I had never before had occasion to demonstrate 
 the method. I asked the young man to let me see his figures, and found 
 that he had accumulated a mass of sines, cosines, and tangents of the 
 utmost complication without obtaining any result. I thereupon, sat down 
 and worked out in an hour or two a practical solution, then handed it 
 over to him to check. He did not get very far with his figures before 
 he exclaimed, "Here, this is all wrong. You have assumed two lines as 
 parallel when they are evidently not so; for if they were, there would 
 be no error in the direction of the horizontal axis of the caisson." To 
 this I replied, "Yes, I know the two lines are not truly parallel, but 
 how much error have I made in the demonstration by assuming them so ? 
 Moreover, granting that the lines are not even approximately parallel, 
 the erroneously calculated error of position will be close enough for an 
 approximate correction during the next day's sinking, and in your next 
 solution of the problem the effect of the false assumption will be almost 
 
432 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 infinitesimal." Since that time all of our resident engineers have been 
 furnished with blue prints containing this "faulty" mathematical 
 demonstration; and some day, when I have time, I am going to insert 
 it in a second edition of De Pontibus. 
 
 It is strange what a distaste practical engineers develop for long 
 and complicated formulae and for making intricate mathematical inves- 
 tigations. This is an excellent reason for giving in technical schools 
 thorough courses in both pure and applied mathematics, and for young 
 engineers to continue their mathematical studies after graduation. 
 
 Every engineer should keep constantly in his pocket a note-book 
 in which to record, as soon as he thinks of them, things to be done ; 
 and whenever he runs short of work, even for a few minutes, he should 
 look over the list and pick out something that can be finished during the 
 interval. As soon as one of the items has been attended to, he should 
 draw a line through it; and when the list gets too long and too much 
 scratched, he should transfer the remaining items to a new list and 
 start afresh. It is surprising how much can be accomplished in this 
 way. Some people claim that this habit is absolutely destructive to 
 one's memory. This may be true ; but it is a fact that a busy engineer's 
 memory is the most unreliable feature in his entire constitution; hence 
 the damage done by the note book is of little consequence. 
 
 One should endeavor to utilize all of his spare time in either work or 
 amusement, as time simply idled away is an absolute loss to both one- 
 self and the public. An engineer should not even understand the ex- 
 pression "to kill time." As I often tell people who delay me unneces- 
 sarily by failure to comply with instructions, "Time is the most valu- 
 able thing I possess, and you have robbed me of some of it by not doing 
 as you were requested." Even when traveling one can utilize his spare 
 time; for example, this address was blocked out on a Pullman car and 
 written in hotels during a business trip in the South about a month ago. 
 
 It is an excellent plan for an engineer to keep a diary and record 
 therein daily (not weekly or even on alternate days) all events of impor- 
 tance, work done, progress of construction, etc. Such a diary will prove 
 of great service in many ways, especially on field work. 
 
 Every young engineer should join the leading technical society in 
 his branch of the profession, starting in as a Junior immediately after 
 graduation and changing grade as soon as he qualifies, until he reaches 
 the highest. He should also take an interest in the Society's affairs 
 and contribute to its proceedings by writing for it papers descriptive 
 of his work, or recording the results of original investigations, or 
 compiling scattered knowledge. Don't write until you have some- 
 
WADDELL. 433 
 
 thing interesting and valuable to present; but make it your business to 
 find something of the kind as soon as possible. 
 
 It is a good thing for a young engineer, after he has been from 
 three to five years in practice, to spend a year or two in teaching engi- 
 neering in a technical school, for no experience can impress things on 
 one's mind so thoroughly as does teaching; besides, a year or two thus 
 employed offers the young engineer an excellent opportunity to make 
 investigations based on his practical experience, thus contributing to the 
 general fund of professional knowledge as well as aiding to establish 
 his reputation as an investigator and a technical writer. It does not do, 
 however, to spend many years at teaching, unless one intends to make 
 it his life's work. No greater mistake can be made than to start teach- 
 ing in an engineering school immediately after graduation. The 
 newly-fledged alumnus is fit to teach no part of the curriculum, un- 
 less it be pure mathematics, and he could teach even that much better 
 after having had a few years of practical engineering experience. 
 
 Every engineer who has any literary gift whatsoever should 
 cherish the ambition to write a technical book. Good technical books 
 are needed to-day, and will always be in demand. Their lives are of 
 necessity short, as practice is constantly changing; but the funda- 
 mental principles of design and construction never change; therefore 
 he who deals with these in his writings will produce works that will 
 continue to be useful perhaps long after he has passed away. 
 
 In your practice do not hesitate to try new methods or to depart 
 from established custom, provided that after thorough consideration 
 you feel sure that the departure would be a wise one and in the line 
 of improvement. If all engineers followed precedent, how little 
 progress would be effected! Should you, peradventure, come to grief 
 in any of your experiments or departures from the beaten track, don't 
 try to hide your failure, but publish it generously so that others may 
 be warned by your experience. Believe me, the confession of such 
 a failure will not harm you in the least, but will give others confi- 
 dence in your honesty and courage. 
 
 In all that you do, remember that you have the reputation of 
 the greatest of all professions to uphold, that your integrity must ever 
 be beyond question, and that there is never an excuse for untruth 
 of any kind. Business shrewdness is all very well in its way, especi- 
 ally for those who go into contracting; but falsehood is always need- 
 less. On the other hand, an uncompromising bluntness is unneces- 
 sary; and, in dealing with people, a cultivation of policy and tact is 
 a virtue. Because you think a man is a fool that is no reason for 
 telling him so; and, when you see that an individual is cherishing 
 
434 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 some pet notion which is erroneous, it is far better to lead him 
 gently to a recognition of his error than it would be to tell him im- 
 periously that he is wrong, or that he does not understand the matter. 
 Policy and tact are just as essential to success in engineering as are 
 ability, energy, and integrity. By means of the last three attributes 
 one is enabled to do his work thoroughly and well, but it takes the 
 two former to enable him to secure it. 
 
 Never repudiate a promise or engagement of any kind, but per- 
 form what you have agreed to do, even at pecuniary loss to yourself. 
 If you adhere strictly to this rule, it is evident that it will be necessary 
 for you to beware of making rash or hasty promises. 
 
 I had intended speaking to you at length upon the subject of 
 engineering ethics, but time will not permit. It is a matter which is 
 still in embryo. We have no established code of ethics in our pro- 
 fession; consequently, until the solons who are now discussing the 
 matter decide upon one, all that an engineer can do is to treat squarely 
 everybody with whom he comes in contact, to try to make others 
 happy whenever it is possible, and always to act according to the dictates 
 of his conscience. 
 
 No matter how small your earnings may be, always endeavor 
 to save and put in bank a portion of them, for the money thus saved 
 will assuredly prove useful some day. Avoid fancy investments of 
 your savings and dabbling in projects that promise enormous profits. 
 They nearly always fail, and the money invested is usually all lost, 
 with occasionally Considerably more. Engineers do not make good 
 investors, because their attention is so devoted to their profession 
 that they fail to obtain the necessary experience to care properly for 
 their possessions. It is far better to invest in good first-mortgages or even 
 government bonds than to sink your earnings in the most promising 
 schemes. In this matter heed the advice of one who speaks from sad 
 experience. 
 
 If one is in the employ of a good, substantial, manufacturing 
 or contracting company, it is well to invest at least a portion of his sav- 
 ings in the stock and securities of that company, especially if these 
 be offered at a low figure as an inducement to the young man to take 
 an interest in his work. Such an investment tends to the employee's 
 advancement, and may eventually lead to a high official position. An 
 excellent example of the good effects of such a system is given by the 
 Carnegie Steel Company, most of the present officers of which started 
 in at the bottom of the ladder in the company's employ, and worked 
 their way up by becoming stockholders. In spite of all the talk one 
 hears about soulless corporations, good, efficient, faithful, and willing 
 
WADDELL. 435 
 
 service is nearly always recognized and retained; hence I would by 
 no means discourage any young engineer from working for a large 
 manufacturing company which employs civil engineers. 
 
 Make a practice of studying true economy in your designing. 
 It is far better to build a structure which is cheap and has no pre- 
 tensions to permanency, rather than a quasi-permanent one that is 
 cheapened by ignoring the first principles of design, and that will surely 
 wear out or fail sooner or later on this account. 
 
 The writing of specifications is one of the most difficult tasks 
 that you will encounter in your practice. At first it will be best for 
 you to adopt, if possible in ioto, the standard specifications of older 
 engineers, or use these as a guide in preparing your own, until such time 
 as you can produce some which will be better than any others. Don't 
 make changes, though, for the sole purpose of producing something 
 original, but only for the sake of effecting improvements. Specifica- 
 tions should be clear, concise, complete, and free from all unnecessary 
 repetition. 
 
 Study the science or art of systemization, for it will aid you ma- 
 terially in your practice. If it be not improper in an address of this 
 kind for the speaker to quote from one of his own published works, I 
 would like to repeat the following from the chapter on "First Principles 
 of Designing" in my "De Pontibus": 
 
 "The systemization of all that one does in connection with his 
 professional work is one of the most important steps that can be taken 
 towards the attainment of success." 
 
 If you have the opportunity, do not fail to take post-graduate de- 
 grees or any other degrees or professional distinctions that are within 
 your reach. They cannot possibly do you any harm, are a source of 
 great satisfaction to the recipient, and carry weight with most of the 
 men whom one meets. 
 
 I may get into trouble by stating it, but I am firmly convinced that 
 early marriage is not conducive to a successful career in engineering, 
 for the reason that it confines a young man too much to one locality and 
 causes him to strive for the almighty dollar rather than for ultimate 
 professional advancement. 
 
 And now before closing there is possibly an apology due my hear- 
 ers for the marked personality of this address. If so, please consider 
 the same made most truly and humbly. In writing it, I felt that I 
 could get nearer to you all by referring occasionally to my own experi- 
 ence, dropping all formality, and speaking from the standpoint of a 
 brother engineer, nor do I think that I have been wrong in so doing; 
 
436 ROSE POLYTECHNIC ADDRESS 
 
 nevertheless I should not be surprised if I be criticized adversely for 
 this, especially if my address appear later in print. 
 
 By this time you all have probably come to the conclusion that you 
 have been listening for the last half hour or more to an old fogy, who 
 thinks that there is nothing in life worthy of consideration but work, 
 work, work, and who can talk on nothing but technical subjects. If 
 this be so, I by no means blame you, for you would seem to have reason 
 on your side ; nevertheless you would be entirely in the wrong, because I 
 am a firm believer in legitimate relaxation of every kind and in a man's 
 getting all the pleasure he can out of life. Perhaps, too, I could talk 
 of things that are far from technical, such as hunting the great game 
 of the Rocky Mountains, canoeing on lake and stream, the shooting of 
 rapids, travels in foreign countries, gunning for wild fowl in the marshes, 
 sports afield with dog and gun, fly fishing for trout in the streams 
 of the far North, and struggling with the gallant tarpon on the waters 
 of the Gulf of Mexico; -but it was not to discuss such subjects as these 
 that your President brought me here, consequently I shall desist, only 
 remarking that the more you mix these things and other sports and 
 amusements in with your work, the better will it be for you both physi- 
 cally and mentally, the longer will you live, the more will you accom- 
 plish, the more satisfactory will be the results of your work, the better 
 men and citizens will you become, and the more interesting and agree- 
 able will you prove to all with whom you are thrown in contact. 
 
 Certainly mine has been a decidedly rambling discourse ; but I hope 
 you will pardon this feature of the address for the reason that "scattered 
 shot hits most birds," hence perhaps I have bagged several of you with 
 some of my pellets; while, had I used a choke bore by adhering stead- 
 fastly to one subject, I might have missed my aim altogether, or at best 
 succeeded in capturing only one individual. 
 
 In conclusion I beg to say, gentlemen, that it has given me sincere 
 pleasure to meet and address you ; that if in the future I can serve you 
 either collectively or individually, I shall be at your command; that I 
 hope some of my remarks may some day prove of benefit to you, and that 
 I wish for each one and all of you the greatest satisfaction in life 
 a truly successful, professional career. 
 
GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH. 
 
 By 
 Professor Chas. H. Benjamin. 
 
 In the seventh paper of this series Mr. John Lyle Harrington 
 deals at length with the question of the "Necessity for Continuing Study 
 after Graduation," and shows conclusively that the graduate engineer 
 cannot reach any eminence in the profession unless he continues his stud- 
 ies after the completion of his technical course. 
 
 The present paper by Prof. Benjamin, who is Dean of the Engi- 
 neering Faculty at Purdue University, supplements most forcibly all that 
 Mr. Harrington has said, although it is addressed primarily to those 
 specializing in engineering education. As quite a large percentage of 
 technical graduates spend at least a portion of their professional careers 
 in teaching, the reproduction here of Dean Benjamin's valuable paper 
 ought to prove well worth while. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 437 
 
GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH. 
 
 By 
 Professor Chas. H. Benjamin. 
 
 On first graduating from college, the young man is sometimes in- 
 clined to believe that his education is finished and that all he has to do 
 is to realize on his investment. If he goes into practical work outside 
 of the University, he is soon disabused of this idea. Contact with men 
 and things in the outer world has a tendency to convince him that his 
 education is just beginning. If he can but succeed in establishing a 
 connection between his college training and the requirements of his 
 profession, he is fortunate. 
 
 The best technical schools can only give the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of science and engineering with but a brief attempt at application. 
 On the foundation thus provided, the graduate must build his own super- 
 structure and must adapt his style of architecture to his environments. 
 If he has been educated and not "filled up" or as one writer puts it, 
 if he has been a "sponge and not a bucket," the building will be easy. 
 
 For the graduate who leaves professional life and becomes a teach- 
 er, the incentives to study and investigation are not so immediate. He 
 is teaching the same things that were taught him and in about the same 
 way. There are no outside pressure and competition to stir him and to 
 spur him. The university wall and the college atmosphere deaden 
 the sounds of traffic and bustle from without and leave him in a world 
 of his own. Under such circumstances there is danger of stunted 
 growth and dry rot. 
 
 In the live, progressive sciences of to-day, there is no such word as 
 rest. The information acquired in college, like the United States Con- 
 stitution, must be a rudder, not an anchor. The close contact between 
 our leading technical educators and the affairs of the outer world is a 
 sufficient refutation of the claim that the instruction given in our col- 
 leges is academic and not practical. When manufacturers, farmers, and 
 business men in general come to the professors in .the universities for 
 the solution of difficult problems in their several lines of work, no argu- 
 ment is necessary to prove the practical worth of college trained men. 
 These men have not become what they are by simply floating along with 
 the current and just keeping their heads above the surface of their 
 
 439 
 
440 GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH. 
 
 every day work. The training and knowledge which command the 
 respect of the practical man of affairs were not obtained in this way, 
 but were the result of hard work and continuous application. 
 
 Three requirements must be met by the university man who would 
 have the confidence and respect of his compeers outside: 
 
 1. He must have a broad culture to enable him to meet men on 
 their own level. 
 
 2. He must have a good store of information on all subjects in the 
 line of his profession. 
 
 3. He must know more than most other men in college or out of 
 it, about some one thing. 
 
 As John Stuart Mill put it, (rather strongly perhaps), "He should 
 know something of everything and everything of something." To the 
 overworked, underpaid instructor, this may seem too remote a mirage 
 to be worth considering. But I want to say to you right here that you 
 must make this your goal ; you must start on this way, for it is the way 
 and the only way to professional salvation. When you spend from six 
 to eight hours at the university each day and when you have lessons 
 to prepare and papers to correct, it may seem that you have no time for 
 further work or study. Be this as it may, your only chance to rise 
 above the level of mediocrity is by independent study and research. I 
 would not urge any man to overstep the natural boundaries between 
 bodily health and ill health. Each must be his own judge of his physical 
 limitations. Often a judicious admixture of physical exercise with men- 
 tal application will enable one to accomplish the otherwise impossible. 
 Systematic use of the time at one's disposal for work and for play will 
 sometimes bring about astonishing results. If you have daily an hour 
 or two hours at your disposal, it is remarkable how much and how little 
 may be done in this time . accordingly as you use it systematically or 
 recklessly. 
 
 There comes a time in nearly every man's life when he finds that 
 he can not keep up to concert pitch all. the time, that he must let the 
 strings down a part of the day and relax a bit. To some men this comes 
 at forty years of age, to some at fifty, and to some apparently not at 
 all. The really hard work and close study must be done before this 
 time and it is up to the younger man to do it. Now, what is there to 
 be done and how is one to do it? If you are interested in your pro- 
 fession, you soon find something in your work which attracts you and 
 about which you want to know more. If you do not, something is 
 wrong ; you may have mistaken your vocation ; you may not have waked 
 
BENJAMIN. 441 
 
 up yet to its possibilities ; or you may have been indifferent. When 
 you find this thing that attracts you, study it in your spare time; go to 
 the books in the library, to the files of periodicals and find what others 
 have done. See if something has not been left undone that you can 
 do, see if there is not some new avenue of approach as yet untrodden. 
 Frequently men think and write about a subject for a long time and 
 formulate new and ingenious theories without actually putting their 
 formulas to the test. 
 
 Most things are as yet undiscovered; and we are just chipping at 
 the shell of the egg. It may be for you to make a discovery which shall 
 revolutionize theory and practice in some department of knowledge. 
 
 Have a card index of your own where you may jot down in order 
 references to articles in the scientific periodicals which interest you. 
 No printed index will take the place of this; such are too voluminous; 
 and, besides, the title of an article often gives no clue to the paragraph 
 or the illustration which you want. 
 
 Make it a point to visit the library once a week and skim the per- 
 iodicals which appeal to you. Read an article when you can, but do not 
 fail to sift them all and index what you may use at some future time. 
 You must keep abreast of the rapidly advancing tide of thought and ac- 
 tion in your line or you will soon become a mollusk in the sands of 
 yesterday. 
 
 Get in touch with your fellows in the campaign of investigation. 
 Join one or two societies, attend a meeting now and then, and become 
 personally acquainted with the men who are moulding opinion in scien- 
 tific lines. When you have done something which is worth while, write 
 a paper and present it at a meeting of your society. Be modest in your 
 statements, sure of your facts, and firm in your opinions. 
 
 Theories are like weeds they grow best where there is no other 
 crop. Facts, as determined by experiments, are more rare and command 
 a good price even among experts. 
 
 One who confines himself entirely to the narrow path leading from 
 his boarding place to his class room becomes in time just an eating and 
 teaching machine. Such narrowness of application defeats its own ob- 
 ject: the teacher who knows only what is between the covers of the 
 text-book is an unsafe guide. 
 
 Character and reputation are the principal assets of the teacher, 
 and the latter is the only one on which he can realize. 
 
 It is by graduate study and research and by the presentation of the 
 results before scientific societies that the younger man becomes known 
 
442 GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH. 
 
 to the world. You may call this advertising, and so it is; but there is 
 nothing disgraceful about advertising when you really have the goods. 
 If a man has a horse to sell, he must go to market or advertise. 
 
 I have not said anything about private libraries and I hesitate to do 
 so. A good library is more to be desired than great riches; unfor- 
 tunately, unless you have the latter, you may not possess the former. 
 I should advise the younger man to go slow in the purchase of books, 
 especially if he have access to a good reference library. Scientific books 
 come high, and in many cases you have to pay for a lot of padding. 
 When a writer collects a number of moss-grown formulas, stirs them 
 up with an assortment of cuts and descriptive matter scissored from 
 recent catalogs, and sells the result at $6.00 per, it is time for the buyer 
 to stop and reflect. Buy only the books which you feel you must own ; 
 and when in doubt, recommend them to the University librarian. 
 
THE NEED OF GRADUATE COURSES IN ENGINEERING. 
 
 By 
 Hon. Willard A. Smith. 
 
 This address was delivered in February, 1908, at the installation 
 of Dr. W. F. M. Goss as Dean of the College of Engineering of the 
 University of Illinois. It is teeming with great thoughts and words of 
 wisdom ; and it cannot fail to meet the hearty approval and endorse- 
 ment of all thinking men who read it. Although its author has prob- 
 ably never seen the following address on "Higher Education for Civil 
 Engineers", this discourse endorses the stand taken by the writer of 
 that paper in making his plea for more extended technical education 
 for the chosen few who "are to advance the engineering profession by 
 their scientific and technical researches. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 443 
 
THE NEED OF GRADUATE COURSES IN ENGINEERING. 
 
 By 
 Hon. Willard A. Smith. 
 
 The world is constantly bidding higher for men of great ability 
 and thorough training. Especially is this true of our own country and 
 of the combination of the engineer and the man of affairs. Our enor- 
 mous undeveloped natural resources, the wasteful methods which have 
 prevailed, and the vastly increased returns from industry due to new 
 methods and to more thorough organization, all tend to make the best 
 ability the cheapest. The highest price has always actually been placed 
 upon the man of business ability, the capable man, the man of tact, 
 of initiative, and hence of mastery. This ability, which can hardly be 
 described by a single word, is undoubtedly inborn; there are those who 
 never can possess it. Sometimes it is early in life, sometimes late, that 
 this sort of man finds himself. We are pointed to these successful men 
 as evidence that higher education and especially technical training are 
 unnecessary; but it is seldom that one of them is found who does not 
 concede that such education would have been of great value to him. 
 Certainly the man most in demand to-day is the one who combines 
 thorough training with natural executive or administrative ability. 
 
 Engineering has had many definitions, most of which qualify and 
 enlarge rather than actually define. In a very real sense we may speak 
 of it as the science of economy, of conserving the energy, kinetic and 
 potential, provided and stored up by nature for the use of man. It is 
 the business of engineering to utilize this energy to the best advantage, 
 so that there may be the least possible waste. Nature has stored up 
 combustibles in the shape of coal, oil, and wood, the force of gravity 
 in running or elevated water, the force of the wind, solar radiation, tidal 
 power, and animal or muscular energy. These are the materials of en- 
 gineering, to utilize which to the best advantage calls for the best 
 preparation possible for the engineer to attain. With the lavishness of 
 newness, little reckoning our rate of development and its terrible destruc- 
 tiveness, we have gone on in this country along the lines of least re- 
 sistance, until the end of some of these resources is almost in sight. The 
 President has called a conference of the governors of the states to con- 
 sider what can be done towards conserving the coal deposits, the forests, 
 and the water supply, all of which are disappearing with startling rap- 
 
 445 
 
446 GRADUATE. COURSES IN ENGINEERING. 
 
 idity. The common weal calls for engineers prepared to meet the 
 situation, for men who shall know how to make every possible unit of 
 energy useful by improved machinery and methods, who can substitute 
 other sources of energy for those that are vanishing, and who can plan 
 and organize a general policy looking to the largest immediate returns 
 without sacrificing the future of the race. 
 
 Our country calls for such men and they are needed in the councils 
 of the nation. The business man has broken into the preserves of the 
 lawyer in legislative halls and administrative offices. Why should not 
 the "live-wire" engineer be there also? Why should he not be a maker 
 of policies, instead of a mere technician, retained to work disadvantage- 
 ously under the direction of the incompetent? We sadly need in pub- 
 lic affairs some of these qualities which he must possess and cultivate. 
 The engineer must be an accurate man; he must know his data and his 
 formulae, and his calculations must be exact. He is needed in politics 
 to .combat its dishonesty and slouchiness of thought and method. The 
 engineer must be honest with himself, a kind of honesty all too rare. 
 These qualities fit him rarely for the consideration of problems of na- 
 tional import which are not usually considered as engineering. The 
 engineer's habits of thought, carried into political economy, may make 
 of it a higher grade of engineering. Albert Fink, the great civil en- 
 gineer, spent his maturest years in organizing and directing the railway 
 traffic associations of the country, eliminating waste and dishonesty, and 
 endeavoring so to unify the great volume of transportation that it might 
 give the public the best service at the lowest cost, and yet permit rail- 
 ways to make such earnings as to insure further development. In this 
 work, he often told me, he was still the- engineer. He had graduated 
 from one life class to another, finally reaching, as he deemed it, the 
 highest field of engineering. 
 
 Such an engineer will not be content with simply estimating the 
 constructive possibilities of any proposed physical development. He 
 will examine into the actual necessities for it and the probabilities of 
 adequate return, considering that the public money should not be sunk 
 merely for the benefit of speculators and contractors or to promote the 
 fad of a class of engineers. For instance, there is now before the 
 country a proposition for the investment of enormous sums in the im- 
 provement of waterways. These are advocated by three classes, men 
 having an itch for figuring in the public eye, politicians seeking an issue 
 to justify their existence, and engineers interested in the technical" fea- 
 tures of the proposed work. So far as I can see, there has been no 
 careful investigation of the traffic which can possibly be developed ; and 
 in most cases it is not only now an unknown quality, but the conditions 
 
SMITH. 447 
 
 for future development are utterly lacking. Ought not the ideal engineer 
 to be an economist, who shall dare to say when engineering development 
 ought not to be undertaken as well as when it ought? 
 
 Among modern conditions which are changing the aspects of life 
 and calling for higher engineering, I may mention the increasing con- 
 gestion of people and traffic in large cities. All of the efforts to pro- 
 vide adequately for this, by building on the surface, overhead, and un- 
 derground, have failed to keep up with the increasing congestion. The 
 problems of transportation, and indeed of life, in the great centers of 
 population offer an ever-opening and expanding field. Higher engineer- 
 ing will some time bend its energies to plans for dispersing the activities 
 of cities, rather than to devising means for increasing the problem. 
 
 How shall we get the men to handle such problems? If the ma- 
 terial is right, are they adequately started in life by the ordinary under- 
 graduate course in engineering? In the elementary and secondary 
 schools their effort has been dissipated and attention distracted by too 
 many subjects and an entirely superficial teaching. They come with no 
 habit of accuracy of thought or adequate comprehension of its import- 
 ance. It is well if this can be instilled into them in the four years of 
 undergraduate class-work; and if at the end of this course they are be- 
 ginning to know themselves. This, for most, will end the student prep- 
 aration. The genuine engineer, like the genuine man in any walk of 
 life, will be preparing all his life. Each achievement he will value 
 not merely for the wealth or glory it brings him, but as a preparation 
 for something beyond. He who has got through all preparatory work is 
 dead. I am convinced that the best results from a graduate course 
 would come if a few years of practical experience intervened after 
 graduation. That, however, will be subject to individual conditions, and 
 will not influence the course itself. It is only in the graduate course 
 that the true university methods, which have proved their value for 
 men, can be employed. I take it for granted, also, that the graduate 
 course will involve a correlation of such subjects as political economy 
 and administration ; so that it will start the student fairly on the road to 
 that higher engineering career which I have endeavored to outline. A 
 career is for "those who prove leaders, who occupy, sooner or later, 
 positions of responsibility, develop their own methods, and may claim 
 credit for the results achieved." It is something above the mere busi- 
 ness or professional life. 
 
 In the graduate school it is possible to make a study of each in- 
 dividual student. Dr. Harper said, "Every student should be treated 
 as though he were the only student in the institution." There also 
 the faculty, relieved from much of the drudgery of instruction, may 
 
448 GRADUATE COURSES IN ENGINEERING. 
 
 carry on that equally important, nay, most important, university work, 
 research and investigation, a work of unlimited public value of itself, 
 and affording an inspiration, otherwise unobtainable, to the entire school. 
 The modern university is properly gauged as much by the studies and 
 productions of its head professors as by the men it turns out from the 
 graduate courses. 
 
 We have not yet as a nation arrived at any plan which insures that 
 the country's affairs shall be conducted by the fittest men. Toward that 
 goal we trust we are tending slowly, but amid constant discouragement. 
 One constant forward movement is in the university work of supply- 
 ing men who are fitted to be leaders. Engineering education has been 
 almost the latest to enter the university field and take its place along- 
 side the older schools. It has justified its assumption of an equal rank 
 by what it has done so far. This higher step, taken in due time, is re- 
 quired if it is to maintain its dignity and enter the open door which has 
 been set before it. 
 
HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 By 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 This address was delivered in April, 1904, to the Engineering 
 Society of the University of Nebraska. While it was written specially 
 for presentation to engineering students, the subject is one that ap- 
 parently is better fitted for an address to engineering instructors ; never- 
 theless its author made no mistake in preparing it; for quite lately 
 Prof. Geo. H. Morse of that University stated in print that "To Dr. 
 Waddell's lecture, delivered before the Engineering Society of the 
 University of Nebraska, on 'Higher Education for Civil Engineers' 
 may be traced the inception of the six year engineering course in this 
 University." 
 
 That the author's idea of a great post-graduate school for engi- 
 neers was not in the nature of a pipe-dream is shown by the fact that 
 within a short time there has been established at Harvard University 
 under the direction of Dr. Geo. F. Swain, a post-graduate school of 
 engineering. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 449 
 
HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 :: / -,. :\... : -By.;.-; 311 
 
 Dr. J. A. L. Waddell. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 The subject of my remarks to-night is "Higher Education for Civil 
 Engineers/' Perhaps it is not the most suitable topic possible for an ad- 
 dress to an assemblage of undergraduates, being more appropriate for a 
 meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education; 
 nevertheless, I trust that it will interest you, for it treats of a matter of 
 vital importance to the engineering profession, of which you are soon to 
 become members. 
 
 It has been my good fortune and my pleasure often during the last 
 twenty years to meet and lecture to the undergraduates of engineering 
 schools ; and on such occasions when the address was of a formal nature 
 I usually confined my remarks to advice concerning young men's work 
 both at the technical school and during the early years -of practice. My 
 reason for departing from this custom to-night is that I have about ex- 
 hausted that subject, and do not desire to repeat myself. 
 
 ********** 
 
 In connection with my subject the first question that is likely to 
 enter your minds is whether any education higher than that now given 
 to civil engineering students in the leading technical schools is really 
 necessary or advisable. To this I answer "Yes most decidedly yes." 
 Perhaps a few of the engineering educators will disagree with me; but 
 I know that some of the leading ones do not. 
 
 On this question I ought to be an authority; for not only does my 
 firm employ constantly new graduates of technical schools from all over 
 the United States as well as from Canada and Japan, but during my 
 travels, which average in amount about fifty thousand miles per annum, 
 I meet a great number of engineers with whom I discuss such matters 
 as technical education. Nearly all of them have complaints to make con- 
 cerning the deficiencies in the training of the recent graduates of tech- 
 nical schools. 
 
 By this they do not mean to convey the idea that engineering educa- 
 tion has been deteriorating. Far from it ! For the- old engineers all 
 recognize that since their college days great improvements therein have 
 
 451 
 
452 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 been effected, especially during the ten years that have elapsed since the 
 inauguration of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Educa- 
 tion, to which most of this advancement is due. 
 
 But, great as may have been the strides in engineering education, the 
 advance of the science and art of engineering has been far greater ; and 
 this divergence of progress is steadily increasing. The mass of technical 
 literature which is of value to engineering students is now immense, and 
 is constantly augmenting ; while in my student days it was difficult to find 
 enough good technical works to furnish us with proper text books for 
 our course. Because of this accumulation of valuable engineering liter- 
 ature it is practicable to-day to give far better technical courses than 
 were possible formerly; but the possibilities of improvement are by no 
 means limited to results obtainable from the increased and improved 
 engineering literature, as the latter is always of necessity far behind 
 engineering practice. 
 
 While it would, no doubt, be impracticable to give engineering 
 courses so closely in touch with current practice that they would make 
 the students perfectly familiar with all of the latest developments in en- 
 gineering, still it is possible for the faculty of a technical school to 
 approximate to this desideratum by launching out ahead of the techni- 
 cal literature and -securing for their students the latest information 
 directly from practicing engineers. This procedure is certainly the 
 most effective one possible for advancing the interests of engineering 
 education. 
 
 It may be claimed that those engineers who complain of the insuf- 
 ficient training of recent graduates are merely cranks who are asking 
 for the impossible, and that they would not be satisfied with any at- 
 tainable training; but this is not true. Those of them whom I have in 
 mind just now certainly stand at or near the head of the profession, and 
 are reasonable, practical men. Complaints of this kind are not made 
 ill-naturedly; but merely to state existing conditions that require better- 
 ment. Moreover they are a good thing for our profession ; because if 
 there were no tendency for the practicing engineers to make such com- 
 plaints, it would indicate that perfection has been reached in the tech- 
 nical schools, which is certainly not the case. 
 
 Having spent six years of my life in teaching civil engineering, I 
 naturally take an intense interest in everything relating to the develop- 
 ment of the pedagogical branch of our profession ; and I make a point of 
 meeting the professors of civil engineering whenever I can during my 
 travels. In conversation with these gentlemen I often suggest im- 
 provements and reforms in technical education; and they nearly al- 
 ways agree that my suggestions are good but state that there is not 
 
W ADD ELL. 453 
 
 sufficient time available for their adoption. That this is generally true 
 I know only too well. Seventeen years ago in an exhaustive paper on 
 Civil Engineering Education I advocated the adoption of five-year 
 courses in civil engineering, and I have been harping upon that idea ever 
 since. The time is surely coming when all first-class courses in civil 
 engineering will occupy five years; and the day for inaugurating this 
 change is not far distant. Its approach is heralded by the post-graduate 
 courses that are becoming so common in technical schools ; and the next 
 advance will be to make these courses obligatory instead of optional. 
 
 Probably the first institution to inaugurate this change will be 
 McGill University; for, unless I am decidedly mistaken, the faculty of that 
 school is bending its energies toward the accomplishment of this pur- 
 pose. It will then seem odd to see Canada leading the United States 
 in such an important matter as engineering education. In truth, I am 
 almost convinced that such is the case to-day; for the engineering 
 course at McGill has for some time been rapidly and steadily improving. 
 This much I can vouch for the course in bridges is far in advance of 
 any similar course given in the United States, or for that matter any- 
 where else in the world. 
 
 One objection raised to increasing the length of engineering courses 
 to five years is that such action would work a hardship on many worthy 
 young men of scant means and would render it impracticable for them 
 to secure a technical education. Such a plea is a fallacy ; for young men 
 would still find some school where four-year courses are given ; as to-day 
 there are institutions where engineering is taught in three years. Again, 
 if an impecunious young man can raise the money required for taking 
 a four-year course, by a little extra effort he can probably raise enough 
 for a five-year course. Moreover, it is constantly becoming easier for 
 poor but worthy young men to secure financial aid in obtaining educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Here let me digress a moment to make the statement that there is 
 no better way for a financially successful man to aid mankind than by 
 helping ambitious young men to secure thorough, practical education. 
 Nor need such aid be given in the form of charity; for if the young 
 man be honest as well as capable and energetic, the money can be lent 
 instead of given him ; and for several reasons the former method is de- 
 cidedly better, principally because it does not injure the recipient's 
 self-respect. By accepting notes at the current rate of interest for all 
 moneys advanced and securing the loan by life insurance, the possi- 
 bility of loss to the lender is reduced to a minimum. I have seen this 
 method tried with fortunate results ; and I recommend it to those suc- 
 cessful men who desire to help others by the use of some of their ac- 
 
454 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 cumulated wealth. The satisfaction that they will experience in the 
 success of their proteges will transcend that from any other invest- 
 ment. 
 
 Among the most important deficiences noted by practicing engineers 
 in the recent technical-school graduate are inability to express himself 
 correctly and forcibly in either writing or speaking, lack of all ideas of 
 system, inaccuracy in computations, ignorance of money values and eco- 
 nomics, slovenliness in drafting, ignorance of what a drawing should con- 
 tain to make it complete and serviceable, failure to understand the prac- 
 tical application of what he has studied in his technical course, and un- 
 acquaintance with numerous little practical things that he ought to have 
 learned. 
 
 In commenting upon the current practice of instructing engineering 
 students and its results, I desire you to understand clearly that my re- 
 marks are absolutely of a general nature, and refer in particular to no 
 one institution of learning. And I especially want you to bear in mind 
 that I have no intention of criticising the work of your professors. Of 
 this you will probably hold me guiltless, when I confess to you that, 
 much to my regret, I have never had an opportunity to learn anything 
 concerning the character of the work done at the Nebraska State Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 That the study of the English language is sadly neglected in our 
 technical schools nobody is likely to deny ; for the English spoken by the 
 majority of their graduates is atrocious; their letters are awkward, mis- 
 spelled, and ungrammatical ; an.d their ability to write reports, specifica- 
 tions, and contracts is practically nil. 
 
 Why should such a sad state of affairs as this exist, and with whom 
 lies the blame? These questions are not difficult* to answer. 
 
 The boys that enter technical schools are generally not well prepar- 
 ed, and the study in which they are invariably weakest is the English 
 language. Most of them from early association speak ungrammatically, 
 and but few of them have had proper training in spelling, grammar, and 
 composition. Even the special preparatory schools fail to provide proper 
 training in these essential studies; and the waiving of entrance exam- 
 inations to technical institutions for graduates of such preparatory 
 schools augments the trouble. Most technical schools give, or pre- 
 tend to give, more or less instruction in English ; but the courses are 
 usually confined to the Freshman year, and are looked upon by the stu- 
 dents as of minor importance. The result is that they are neglected, 
 and the boys make a point' of studying for them only enough to pass ; 
 consequently, when it comes to writing anything original they fail to 
 do themselves credit. 
 
WADDELL. 455 
 
 The study of English should be continued throughout the entire 
 technical course, and should be carried even into the graduating thesis, 
 making its proper wording and grammatical construction essential for 
 graduation. Too much stress cannot well be laid on the importance of 
 a thorough study of the English language. Given two classmate grad- 
 uates of equal ability, energy, and other attributes contributory to a 
 successful career, one of them being in every respect a master of the 
 English language and the other having the average proficiency in it, 
 the former is certain to outstrip the latter materially in the race for 
 professional advancement. 
 
 Upon whom then lies the blame for this undesirable state of affairs? 
 Primarily, it is upon the faculty for not insisting that the subject of Eng- 
 lish be given as much consideration as any other subject in the entire 
 course; and, secondarily, upon the students for their flagrant neglect of 
 this vitally important study. 
 
 Is it not generally acknowledged by all members of the profession, 
 young and old, experienced and inexperienced alike, that the most emi- 
 nent engineers are not those who have merely constructed large and im- 
 portant works, but those who in addition Tiave by their writings record- 
 ed the results of their efforts and thus instructed others concerning how 
 to undertake similar constructions? Such being the case, is it not evi- 
 dent that a complete and thorough mastery of one's native language is 
 essential to the highest professional success? 
 
 Ponder seriously upon this matter, my young friends, and see 
 whether you do not agree with me concerning the importance to each of 
 you of a thorough and fundamental knowledge of your mother tongue ; 
 and if you do, take without delay the necessary steps to secure such 
 knowledge. 
 
 Both the teaching and the learning of systemization at school are 
 certainly extremely difficult; nevertheless, a certain proficiency therein 
 may be attained by the students, if the professor will lecture to them on 
 the subject; but each student should endeavor to perfect himself by 
 .spending a portion of one summer vacation in the office of some engi- 
 neer, contractor, or company that is noted for the effective systemiza- 
 tion of its works and records. When there, not only should he master 
 the subject in all its details, but also he should make full notes upon it 
 for future reference. 
 
 Accuracy and neatness in computation can be attained in the tech- 
 nical school if the professors are themselves accurate and neat in their 
 work, and if they will invariably insist on their students being so. Most 
 young men think that if they understand the method of solving a prob- 
 lem that is sufficient, even if the result be incorrect, and that it is a 
 
456 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 waste of time to check and correct calculations. No greater mistake 
 could be made. No engineer can be truly successful who does not have 
 all the work for which he is responsible checked and counter-checked, 
 preferably by independent computers ; and the man who fails at college 
 to gather up all the loose ends and to make sure that no errors exist in 
 his computations is not at all likely to develop into a careful and ac- 
 curate practicing engineer. 
 
 Some students think that at school there is no necessity for deal- 
 ing with dollars and cents, leaving such material things for their sub- 
 sequent practice ; and too often the professors either tacitly agree with 
 them in this notion or else fail to correct the error. 
 
 Never probably since the days of the Pharaohs, when with slave 
 labor those rulers built the great pyramids, has it been possible to di- 
 vorce engineering from pecuniary consideration ; and nowadays engin- 
 eering, economics, and financiering are so closely allied that it is impos- 
 sible to separate them on work of any magnitude. Consequently, the 
 much despised but almighty dollar should make itself conspicuous 
 throughout every practical course in an engineering curriculum. Stu- 
 dents should be forced to prepare with each of their designs a com- 
 plete and minutely detailed estimate of cost, and should be made to 
 understand that this is one of the essential features of the course of 
 instruction. 
 
 A study of the principles of economics in all departments of de- 
 signing is essential to every first-class co'urse in civil engineering; and 
 the students should be made to comprehend that the most successful 
 engineer is he who can accomplish a certain result in a perfectly sat- 
 isfactory manner with the least expenditure of money. Care should be 
 taken to distinguish between true and false economy, and to instill into 
 the students' minds the principle that the most economic construction 
 is not that which at first costs least; but that which will do its work 
 for an indefinitely long time, and in which the first cost plus the cap- 
 italized cost of maintenance and repairs is a minimum; also that it is 
 better engineering to build a cheap, temporary, yet perfectly safe struc- 
 ture with the intention of replacing it later by a permanent one, than 
 to construct a weak or scamped structure that has a false appearance 
 of permanency. 
 
 The character of the drafting done by the average graduates of 
 technical schools is decidedly below par; and there is no good excuse 
 for this, because with very few exceptions, students can be so taught 
 the mechanical part of drafting that their efforts would pass muster in 
 the offices of civil engineers and contracting companies. The ability 
 to make neat drawings immediately after leaving school may mean many 
 
WADDELL. 457 
 
 dollars in the pocket of the young engineer, which otherwise would not 
 find their way there; and in truth it may often prove the cause of his 
 being retained in a competition for a position with otherwise better 
 equipped men. Fancy work is neither called for nor desired ; but neat, 
 plain work, especially free-hand, is of the utmost importance. 
 
 Very few young engineers, and, truth to tell, not all old ones, ap- 
 preciate how complete every drawing should be made and what written 
 notes it should contain. In our office we aim not only to indicate on 
 all drawings every measurement necessary for construction, but also to 
 write on them all special instructions for the contractors and generally 
 a condensed specification. Such drawings prevent the contractors from 
 being able to excuse themselves for an error by saying "We did not have 
 the specifications at hand when we were doing the work," or "The 
 specifications are so voluminous that the clause pertaining to this 
 special point escaped our notice." 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties under which many engineering stu- 
 dents labor is their failure to see the practical application of theory to 
 actual engineering. The blame for this generally lies with the pro- 
 fessors, who either are themselves ignorant of such practical application, 
 or neglect to call the attention of their students to it. The remedy for 
 the evil is to insist on the professors of technical schools being prac- 
 tical engineers as well as good teachers. 
 
 There are numerous little practical ideas, time and labor saving de- 
 vices, and short cuts to results which a practical and experienced en- 
 gineering professor can present to his students, and which will tend 
 greatly to the amelioration of the characteristic greenness of the recent 
 graduate when entering upon his professional career. 
 
 In addition to the subjects covered in the usual curriculum of the 
 civil engineering school there are others of great importance that are 
 either given nowhere or are inadequately treated in a few of the schools. 
 Prominent among these are the following: Political Economy, Law : 
 Business, History of Engineering, Oratory, Debating, Dictation, Speci- 
 fications and Contracts, Graphics, Secondary Stresses. Economics. 
 Science of Railroading, Geodesy, Least Squares, Instrumental Work.. 
 Architecture, Geology, Tunneling, and Dams. To this list might be 
 added some other subjects which are often given, but which are cap- 
 able of considerable extension; for instance, Metallurgy of Iron and 
 Steel, Harbors, Canals, River Improvement, Sanitation, Water-Supply, 
 Power-Transmission, Highway Engineering, Mechanical Engineering; 
 Electrical Engineering, and Reinforced Concrete Construction. 
 
 Both lists are, no doubt, very incomplete; nevertheless they are 
 amply large to show that there are many important branches of our 
 
458 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 profession which are either taught inadequately or are not taught at 
 all in the technical schools of America. 
 
 But some of you will remark '"Is it necessary for every engineer- 
 ing student to learn all of these branches? Surely in his active career 
 he will confine his attention mainly to two or three lines, and in conse- 
 quence will not need much instruction in the others !" 
 
 To this I would reply, "Certainly, no man can specialize in many 
 branches of engineering work; but the student of a technical school does 
 not know for which lines he is fitted or which specialty circumstances may 
 induce him to adopt. Moreover, every specialty in engineering is more 
 or less closely allied to all the other specialties ; consequently it behooves 
 a broad-gauge engineer to become somewhat familiar with all branches 
 of engineering so as to act intelligently when his business involves him 
 in other specialties than his own." 
 
 As an example of how the various branches of engineering are in- 
 terwoven and allied, I would call attention to the facts that the bridge 
 specialist in designing movable bridges always encounters mechanical en- 
 gineering and sometimes electrical engineering ; on the approaches to 
 bridges he includes railroading; in the pavements of wagon bridges he 
 touches upon highway engineering; in the protection of structures he 
 meets with river improvement ; in the machinery houses of swing spans 
 he includes architecture; in the guarding of bridges against fire he en- 
 counters water supply; in the switches, signals, and interlocking plant 
 for movable bridges he meets with a special department of railway work ; 
 and in the testing of materials for superstructure he encounters chem- 
 istry and metallurgy. That this statement is no exaggeration my pres- 
 ent work will bear witness, for my firm is to-day engaged on the design- 
 ing and supervision of construction of a number of bridges in which 
 all of the lines of work just mentioned are involved. 
 
 As another example, the railroad engineer encounters hydraulic prob- 
 lems in bank protection and pumping plants, architecture and structural 
 engineering in round-houses and other buildings, sanitation in station- 
 houses, bridge work in the structures for his line, mechanical engineering 
 in interlocking plants, electrical engineering in repair-shop machinery, 
 and highway engineering where his line passes through large cities. 
 
 Again, the hydraulic engineer trespasses on the ground of the archi- 
 tect in his power buildings, and on that of the structural engineer in the 
 steel roof-trusses for them, encounters mechanical engineering in his 
 pumping machinery, and has to fall back upon chemistry in testing the 
 qualities of water. 
 
WADDELL. 459 
 
 There is no need for further illustration ; for enough examples have 
 been quoted to show that all the main divisions of engineering are inter- 
 dependent and inseparable. 
 
 Now while it is eminently proper, and in truth necessary, for a 
 specialist to call to his aid experts in other lines when his practice in- 
 volves engineering in other branches than his own, it is highly inad- 
 visable that he be absolutely ignorant of everything in those other lines. 
 Surely he ought to understand the fundamental principles which govern 
 the engineering work therein, even if he has to entrust the details to his 
 associated engineers! 
 
 But how can a man become acquainted with all branches of engi-. 
 neering? Certainly not by attending the technical schools with their 
 present curricula, nor by endeavoring to practice in the various branch- 
 es. The brevity of life makes these methods impossible at present, al- 
 though it might not have done so twenty-five or thirty years ago, when 
 the amount of accumulated knowledge concerning engineering was ever 
 so much smaller than it is to-day. 
 
 It is true that but few young men would be willing to study 
 enough to post themselves on all of the main branches of engineering; 
 and in fact the large majority of the students of technical schools appear 
 to believe that the shorter and easier the course leading to their de- 
 gree the better for them. Nevertheless, there are almost invariably 
 in every class a few who are eager to secure a broad and thorough 
 education in spite of all the labor involved in attaining it; and it is a 
 matter of serious regret that such men cannot now accomplish their 
 desire. 
 
 Can there be evolved any means for enabling these young men 
 to satisfy their praiseworthy aspiration? Yes; and later on I shall 
 indicate it to you; but first let ITS consider what can readily be done 
 to make more practical and thorough the course given to-day in the 
 principal technical schools. 
 
 Much could be accomplished by raising the requirements for 
 entrance so as to ensure that each member of the Freshman class is 
 fairly well posted in English and the other studies usually included 
 in an ordinarily good American education. He need not be a master 
 in all these lines, but he should be well grounded in them. 
 
 Again, a large portion of the present work of the Freshman year 
 might satisfactorily be required for entrance to the course, and the 
 time thus saved could be devoted to work now occupying the 
 Sophomore and even the Junior years, thus leaving later on time for 
 higher studies. More time, too, could be gained for this purpose 
 
460 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 in many schools by omitting unnecessary studies from the curricula, 
 notably the foreign languages. 
 
 One of the most effective ways is to increase the number of work- 
 ing months in the year from eight or nine to eleven. This need not 
 involve a hardship for either the students or the professors, because 
 the summer months could be devoted to field work, which would 
 afford rest for weary brains and would build up weak constitutions, 
 while by employing more professors in the faculty the extent of 
 each one's annual work could be reduced to any reasonable amount. 
 The most effective method of all, however, is to increase the dura- 
 tion of the course to five years. 
 
 But all the additional time thus gained would not be sufficient 
 to make each student a master of the theory and conversant with the 
 practice in all branches of civil engineering, although the course that 
 could be thus given would cover nearly twice as much ground as the 
 average technical course at the present time. The strictly technical 
 studies now occupy but little more than two years ; consequently another 
 year, when the student's capacity for work is so greatly increased by his 
 previous study, would probably double the technical knowledge of 
 the present graduate. 
 
 Courses such as just suggested are going to be given in the not 
 very distant future; and they are in reality almost a necessity today. 
 The rapid advances in engineering science are calling loudly for better 
 prepared young men to fill for a short time subordinate positions, and 
 then advance rapidly to places of trust and responsibility ; and, as in 
 all walks of life in this great country of ours, the supply, is certain 
 quickly to meet the demand. 
 
 The method that I propose for the advancement of engineering, 
 education in America to the highest possible plane, and to enable 
 the studious, energetic, and ambitious graduates of all technical schools 
 to continue their engineering studies in both theoretical and prac- 
 tical lines to any extent they may desire is as follows : 
 
 Let one of America's multi-millionaires found and endow most 
 liberally a post-graduate school of civil engineering, in which would 
 be employed as officers, professors, and lecturers men of the highest 
 talent in the country, irrespective of what it may cost, and let the in- 
 stitution be established and equipped upon the broadest lines. There 
 should be a comparatively small corps of permanent professors, but 
 the principal instruction should be given by practicing engineers 
 chosen from the best known and most competent in the profession. 
 In order to secure them it might be necessary to reimburse them for 
 their time even at maximum consultation rates. It would not do to 
 
WADDELL. 461 
 
 make a practice of paying much less, as each instructor should be 
 placed upon his metal in order to insure the best possible results 
 from his work. In some cases this might not be practicable, if the 
 instructor felt that his work was something of a "charity job"; but 
 if he were convinced that neither pecuniarily nor professionally would 
 he be losing anything by teaching, he would be certain to put forth 
 his best efforts and endeavor to teach each student as much as pos- 
 sible of the best he knows. 
 
 The function of the permanent professors would be to keep the 
 various departments active at such times as the lecturers would be 
 absent, and ensure that the students should always have some one to 
 refer to concerning their studies and investigations. It should also 
 be the business of the permanent professors to study current engineer- 
 ing literature, and to excerpt therefrom and deliver in the form of. 
 lectures everything likely to be of real value to the students, as well 
 as to call their attention to the articles which each one ought to read. 
 They should also teach the student the knack of reading current 
 technical literature so as to obtain its gist with minimum effort and 
 loss of time. 
 
 They should prepare a work discussing engineering literature 
 that would include all technical books which are in accord with cur- 
 rent practice, show their scope, and indicate their good and their bad 
 points. This treatise should be re-written from time to time so as to 
 keep it up to date. 
 
 The permanent professors should also be required to translate or 
 assist in the translation of all engineering books in foreign languages, 
 which, in the opinion of competent experts, would prove useful to 
 American engineers or to the students of the institution. 
 
 The president or director of such a school should be the most 
 broad-guage, profound, and progressive engineer in the entire country, 
 and the governing body or trustees should look to him to see that the 
 maintenance and development of the course of instruction are such 
 as to accomplish to the utmost the great object of the school's existence. 
 
 Original investigation by both the professors and the students 
 should be provided for and encouraged in every way, and the results 
 should be published in an official paper of the institution. These in- 
 vestigations should be of an eminently practical nature and calculated 
 to improve engineering practice or lead to valuable discoveries in 
 technical science. A great testing laboratory, the most complete and 
 perfect in the world, should be an adjunct of this institution, and its 
 constant use should form a part of the curriculum. 
 
462 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 Designing should be the characteristic feature of the course of 
 instruction, and should be employed in every course where its use is 
 practicable. Nothing will teach a man a subject involving engineer- 
 ing construction more thoroughly than the making of a complete and 
 accurate design for some special case, unless perhaps it be the teach- 
 ing of that subject to technical students. All designing should be 
 done in the class room under the direct supervision of experts, and 
 in the same detailed and thorough manner that is, or should be, 
 characteristic of designing done in the offices of consulting engineers. 
 
 One prominent feature of the curriculum should be the study 
 of both pure and applied mathematics, not only for the purpose of 
 refreshing the memories of the students and supplementing previous 
 faulty instruction, but also in order to carry this study farther than is 
 customary in technical schools. The main object of the course, 
 "though, should be to teach the students to do original mathematical 
 work, thus enabling them to solve difficult problems in the highest 
 branches of engineering. 
 
 Another prominent feature of the course should be numerous 
 visits by the professors and students, both together and separately, 
 to works under construction, finished structures, and industries of all 
 kinds ; and special facilities for studying these should be arranged 
 for in advance by the president or the governing board. 
 
 No special length of time should be set for the duration of the 
 course, but each student within certain reasonable limits should be 
 given the privilege of choosing his subjects and the time for taking 
 them. It would be well to arrange to give those who do a certain 
 amount of studying at the institution certificates to that effect, and 
 to those who pass a satisfactory examination in one of a number of 
 prescribed courses the degree of Doctor of Science or Doctor of En- 
 gineering, as the case may be ; for the instruction given at such a 
 school would certainly be as profound as that offered by any insti- 
 tution of learning in the world ; and those fully profiting by it would 
 most decidedly be worthy of a doctor's degree. 
 
 Let us now consider briefly some of the courses that I would 
 advocate giving in such a post-graduate school of engineering. It is 
 not my intention to try, to make these suggestions at all complete but 
 merely to outline some of the possibilities for extending engineering 
 education. 
 
 A knowledge of political economy is of great value to the civil 
 engineer in his relations with the government (national, state and 
 municipal), with capitalists and corporations, and with manufacturers. 
 
 In acting for the government or in dealing with it a thorough 
 
WADDELL. 463 
 
 knowledge of its nature and functions, the extent of its control over 
 constructions, the relation between its fiscal and engineering depart- 
 ments, and its control over and obligations to the public, is essential 
 to the successful engineer. 
 
 In dealing with common carriers and other quasi-public corpor- 
 ations, a thorough knowledge of their relation to the public, their 
 responsibility to the government, and their organization and manage- 
 ment, is of the greatest importance. 
 
 The engineer for a manufacturing concern should be thoroughly 
 conversant with the operation of the law of supply and demand, with 
 the relations between capital and labor, with the theories of compe- 
 tition, and with the organization of industries. 
 
 All these things and many others that come under the head of 
 political economy should be taught in the proposed post-graduate school. 
 
 A general knowledge of law in its relations to contracts, organi- 
 zation of companies, rights of corporations, and many other important 
 matters connected directly or indirectly with engineering work is 
 essential to the highest professional success. 
 
 The fundamental principles of business should be taught to all 
 engineering students, and they should be instructed carefully in re- 
 spect to all such matters as stocks, bonds, and other securities, and the 
 floating of same. Even such an elementary subject as the keeping of 
 accounts should not be ignored. 
 
 Concerning the history of civil engineering I need say nothing 
 here except that it should form a part of the curriculum of every 
 technical school. Possibly many of you know that I am making a 
 systematic and determined effort to induce the Society for the Pro- 
 motion of Engineering Education to undertake the preparation of an 
 exhaustive history of civil engineering in all its branches. Thus far 
 nothing has occurred to make me despair of success in the accom- 
 plishment of this purpose. 
 
 But few technical men are fluent speakers, and as it is often the 
 engineer's province to persuade capitalists into the undertaking of enter- 
 prises, or to argue in the defense of one's rights in competition or of 
 those of one's clients in legal controversies, a knowledge of oratory and 
 experience in debate must be of great service in one's professional career ; 
 consequently, the study and practice of these matters should be given 
 due attention in the proposed post-graduate school. 
 
 The ability to dictate readily to a stenographer well expressed 
 letters, descriptions, contracts, and specifications is enjoyed by very 
 few engineers, and these few did not obtain their knowledge of this 
 accomplishment at the technical school, but through a long continued 
 
464 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 effort, much patience, and numerous discouragements. Every engineer- 
 ing student should be drilled in dictation until be becomes proficient. 
 
 The writing of first-class specifications and contracts is an art 
 that cannot be acquired except through experience; nevertheless its 
 acquisition can be hastened materially by a thorough drill at the tech- 
 nical school in the underlying principles of such writings, as well as 
 in the practice of their composition. 
 
 In American schools of engineering the study of graphics is con- 
 fined almost exclusively to the determination of stresses in framed 
 structures; but in Europe it is carried much farther, entering into 
 almost all kinds of computations. The graphical calculations of a high- 
 ly educated German or Swiss engineer are beautiful to contemplate ; 
 and although it may not be advisable to utilize graphics in practice to the 
 extent that these foreign engineers are inclined to, nevertheless, in my 
 opinion, American technical schools have much to learn in this par- 
 ticular from those of Continental Europe. On this account it would 
 be well to include in the proposed curriculum an elaborate course in 
 higher graphics. 
 
 The subject of economics is one that is intimately related to every 
 branch of civil engineering, and its importance is such that not only, 
 as previously stated, should it receive due attention in the study of 
 all such branches, but also it is deserving of a special course, in which 
 its relations to all important professional and business affairs are ex- 
 pounded. 
 
 Few American engineers pay much attention to secondary stresses 
 in framed structures, but European engineers are trained on their 
 theory; and while it is true that the best way to treat secondary stresses 
 is to avoid them in one's design, still a comprehensive knowledge of 
 their cause and magnitude would enable one to do so to far better 
 advantage; hence a course in their theory should be given in our post- 
 graduate school. 
 
 As far as I know, the science of railroading is not taught in any 
 technical school, the elementary principles and practice of surveying 
 and construction constituting the extent of the course in that subject. 
 The science of railroading pertains to more abstruse subjects, such as 
 the adjustment of grades and curves to traffic ; the laying out of ter- 
 minal yards for economical handling of cars; the reconstruction of 
 cheap roads so as, with minimum interruption of traffic, to change 
 them into first-class trunk lines ; the economic maintenance of track 
 and rolling stock ; the relations that motive power, car equipment, 
 rails, ties, ballast, speed, and volume of traffic bear to each other; and 
 how changes in any one of these features affect the rest. A thorough 
 
WADDELL. 465 
 
 course in all such details of railroading would be of great value to the 
 student and of the utmost importance to the railroad system of the 
 country. 
 
 The true science of bridge design does not receive much atten- 
 tion in technical schools, or at least it is only its elementary features 
 that are treated. The reason for this is not lack of proper books, but 
 want of time. In our post-graduate school there should be given a 
 course in bridges far surpassing in extent, thoroughness, and ex- 
 cellence any course on the subject yet given or even contemplated. 
 The new types of steel-and-concrete bridges should not only be cover- 
 ed in the course; but also the permanent professors both by experi- 
 mentation and mathematical investigations should establish a proper 
 theory for the designing of such structures. Substructure and founda- 
 tions should be treated much more elaborately than is customary in 
 other technical schools. 
 
 The study of geodesy in both theory and practice, with the nec- 
 essarily closely associated theory of least squares, should be given 
 proper attention. 
 
 A much more elaborate course in instrumental work and meas- 
 urements of precision than is usual should form a part of this cur- 
 riculum; and all the latest and most complicated types of surveying 
 instruments should be described in the class room and used in the 
 field. A student's knowledge of an instrument should not be consid- 
 ered complete until he has learned to take it apart, clean it, put it 
 together, and bring it into perfect adjustment. 
 
 Measurements of precision, equal in accuracy to those perform- 
 ed by the leading engineers on important bridge work, should be made 
 by the students under the direct supervision of expert instructors. 
 
 An elementary but complete course in architecture, especially as 
 it relates to engineering constructions, should form a part of the 
 curriculum; and special attention should be paid to aesthetics in de- 
 signing. 
 
 A sound, practical working course in geology, mineralogy, and 
 allied subjects should not be omitted. 
 
 A special course should be given on tunneling, and it should in- 
 clude the designing of tunnels of all kinds to meet all possible conditions. 
 
 There should be also a thorough course on the designing and con- 
 struction of dams of every description. 
 
 In the course on the metallurgy of iron and steel the student 
 should obtain a thorough acquaintance with the mechanical processes 
 and the chemistry of their manufacture according to the latest prac- 
 tice; and a full description of all previous and abandoned methods 
 
466 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
 
 should be given, as a knowledge of what has been done in the past 
 often saves a great amount of labor when an endeavor is made to im- 
 prove upon present methods; and long disused plans are frequently 
 re-invented at great expense. 
 
 A knowledge of the action of iron and steel under the ordinary 
 working- conditions is essential to the proper use of these metals in 
 designing. A general idea thereof obtained from a few tests and 
 lectures, such as is commonly gained by the engineering student, 
 serves principally to befog the mind of the young engineer, and leaves 
 him wholly unprepared to handle problems involving rapid vibration 
 or heavy shock. On this account the testing of these metals in various 
 forms and under differing conditions should be included in the course 
 of instruction. 
 
 The designing and construction of harbors and canals of all kinds 
 and the improvements of rivers under all possible conditions should be 
 treated much more elaborately than is customary in technical schools ; 
 and hydraulic experiments with the latest and most, improved types 
 of current meters should be made by each student in the class. 
 
 The important subject of water supply should be taught in full 
 detail, and experiments on the flow of water in pipes and a study of 
 bacteriology should constitute portions of the course. 
 
 An exhaustive study of sanitary engineering and all its important 
 features should be included as a part of the curriculum, and sewage 
 disposal should be studied thoroughly by both professors and students 
 for the purpose of effecting much needed improvements in that branch 
 of engineering science. 
 
 Power transmission by the latest and most economical methods 
 should also be taught. 
 
 . Highway engineering should not be neglected, and the effect of good 
 roads upon the development of a country or a district should be in- 
 vestigated. 
 
 No civil engineering curriculum is complete without elementary 
 but thorough courses in mechanical engineering and electrical engi- 
 neering; consequently there should be special departments for them in 
 our post-graduate school ; and the professors in these branches should 
 endeavor to evolve a complete set of scientific principles for design- 
 ing the details of machinery, corresponding somewhat in style and ex- 
 tent to the principles that have been established for the designing of 
 steel bridges. 
 
 The advantages to be obtained by attendance at such a post-grad- 
 uate school as the one advocated are almost beyond expression! A 
 degree from such a school would always insure rapid success for its 
 
WADDELL. 467 
 
 recipient. Possibly for two or three years after taking it a young engi- 
 neer would have less earning capacity than his classmates of equal abili- 
 ty from the lower technical school, who had gone directly into actual 
 practice. However, in five years he certainly would have surpassed 
 them, and in less than ten years he would be a recognized authority, 
 while a majority of the others would be forming the rank and file of 
 the profession with none of them approaching at all closely in rep- 
 utation the more highly educated engineer. 
 
 But if the advantages of the proposed school to the individual 
 are so great, how much greater would be its advantages to the en- 
 gineering profession and to the entire nation! After a few years of 
 its existence there would be scattered throughout the country a num- 
 ber of engineers more highly trained in the arts and sciences than any 
 technical men who have ever lived; and it certainly would not take 
 long to make apparent the impress of their individuality and knowl- 
 edge upon the development of civil engineering in all its branches, 
 with a resulting betterment to all kinds of constructions and the evo- 
 lution of many new and important types. 
 
 When one considers that the true progress of the entire civilized 
 world is due almost entirely to the work of its engineers, the im- 
 portance of providing the engineering profession with the highest 
 possible education in both theoretical and practical lines cannot be 
 exaggerated. 
 
 What greater or more worthy use for his accumulated wealth 
 could an American multi-millionaire- conceive than the endowment 
 and establishment of a post-graduate school of civil engineering such 
 as I have tonight attempted to describe! 
 
 Should this address of mine by reaching the eye of one of those 
 multi-millionaires be the means of inducing him to endow such a school, 
 I should consider its preparation to be the greatest work of my entire 
 professional career ! 
 
CLOSING LECTURE TO SENIOR CLASS. 
 By 
 
 Professor Vladimir Karapetoff. 
 
 The appeal of this address should reach directly to the heart of 
 every newly fledged engineer; for its sound rings true, and the cor- 
 rectness of its dictum cannot be gainsaid. It is not every professor 
 who will risk losing popularity with his students by talking plainly 
 to them, as Prof. Karapetoff does, concerning matters purely per- 
 sonal and not in any way connected with the curriculum. All honor 
 to him, then, for his courage and his broad-mindedness; and may he 
 long continue to discourse to young men concerning the ethics of 
 life and the moral responsibilities of students and engineers! 
 
 Editors. 
 
 469 
 
CLOSING LECTURE TO SENIOR CLASS. 
 By 
 
 Professor Vladimir Karapetoff. 
 
 I have delivered the last lecture in your course but there is still one 
 more to give you that is not usually included in works on electrical 
 engineering. It is on the text : "Cash up" or to be more literary, "pay 
 your accounts." 
 
 You soon shall hear plenty of advice in regard to the wisdom of 
 life. I wish to impress on your minds that you cannot start your 
 life aright until you shall have closed your present accounts. Pay your 
 debts. Return that borrowed book and those other articles, such as golf 
 sticks, tennis rackets, and the like. Also repair all damage that you 
 have done purposely or inadvertently. Do this so that you can look 
 every man, woman, and child now in Ithaca straight in the face. 
 But this is merely the beginning of the closing of your accounts, the 
 "prelim." 
 
 See other students with whom you have had some difficulty or 
 "contre-temps," shake hands and say you are sorry for the mishap 
 and that you wish the slate wiped out. Then there are other '09 men 
 and women against whom you felt somewhat distant or hostile, per- 
 haps on account of differences in temperament, tastes, or finances. 
 Was it due to a bit of jealousy? 
 
 Well, are you not afraid to carry a big burden all through life? 
 Better go .to those you liked the least, clasp both their hands (alle- 
 gorically if you like) and look into their eyes. Look, I say and look 
 again, and as you are looking, the sham images that your mind created 
 will gradually disappear. Then you both will see each other in the true 
 light as perfect children of God, trying each to solve his or her life's 
 problem to the best of one's understanding. You should do this more- 
 over, for you need each other's help and sympathy. 
 
 Do you still begrudge your landlady the small things that she 
 did or neglected to do? How about yourself? What about your 
 omissions and commissions? It is all over now. Soon will you shake 
 off the dust of Ithaca, but before doing so tell your landlady that you 
 are sorry about that disturbance you made and the broken chair that 
 resulted and also the small fire started by throwing lighted matches in 
 
 ' 471 
 
472 CLOSING LECTURE TO SENIOR CLASS. 
 
 V 
 
 the waste basket. Also the damage you did to the wall by driving 
 nails to hang up those interesting pictures. But above all be actually 
 sorry. Don't sham about it. 
 
 The faculty and the registrar certainly did not treat you right on 
 all occasions, for they are human, of course. What are you going to 
 do about it? Are you going to poison the joys of coming years by 
 carrying such reminders home with you? Settle your accounts now 
 and for all time as far as Ithaca is concerned. A great Russian writer 
 has well said, "To know all is to forgive all." 
 
 Put yourselves in their places and see if you cannot allow some 
 extenuating circumstance. If not, live the same occurrence over again 
 in your mind and imagine the guilty person to act right. Then when 
 ever you remember the incident later on always see it in the ideal light. 
 In this life of ups and downs, play for the ups and ignore the downs. 
 
 Do not be in a hurry to leave Ithaca. Close first the university 
 life's account. For several days after you have finished your work 
 here go up to the campus, sit down under a spreading tree on the 
 quadrangle and watch calmly the procession. Recall the memories 
 of the days gone by and live that university life over again. Live it 
 in the true ideal way and then leave Ithaca as men, reconciled and 
 refreshed, prepared for the active, the energetic, the truly efficient life. 
 
THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 By 
 
 Professor Vladimir Karapetoff. 
 
 The place of honor in this collection of addresses is reserved 
 for Prof. KarapetofFs thoughtful and masterly presentation of advice 
 to young engineers. In no other writing have the Editors ever seen 
 so many sound precepts in such a condensed form. All that is said is 
 so terse, so true, and so appealing that one cannot but admire the 
 author's thorough conception of both the practical and the ethical life. 
 No thinking man can peruse this address without desiring to read it 
 again and again ; and each time he reads it he will receive new benefit. 
 
 No man could conceive such profound ideas and use such stirring 
 words as these without truly feeling and meaning them from the 
 bottom of his heart; and although the Editors have never yet had the 
 pleasure of making Prof. KarapetofPs acquaintance, they desire here 
 to express their appreciation of him as a writer and as an ethicist, also 
 their hope that he will continue in the future to give to the world the 
 benefit of his earnest thoughts and lofty ideals in relation to the rules of 
 conduct which should govern engineers in their dealings with each other 
 and with the community in general. 
 
 Editors. 
 
 473 
 
THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 (AN OUTLINE.) 
 Professor Vladimir Karapetoff. , 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL THOUGHT: 
 
 Professional usefulness and personal satisfaction depend on the 
 right conception of life and on the degree in -which this conception of 
 life is manifested in daily activity. 
 
 PART L WORK AND CONDUCT. 
 
 There are three essential requisites for an efficient and successful 
 engineer : 
 
 A. Sound professional knowledge; 
 
 B. Knowledge of business forms and of human relations ; 
 
 C. Good and strong character. 
 
 A. PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE. A man who knows only "how" to 
 do certain things, but does not know "why" they are done so, usually 
 remains in subordinate positions. Get into the habit of analyzing; 
 also, have your knowledge systematized. 
 
 In order not to get "rusty," you ought to do some study, or at 
 least some reading outside of your daily routine work. This outside work 
 may be classified, in an ascending scale of difficulty, as follows : 
 
 1. Keep notes on your regular work, with sketches, samples of 
 calculations, etc. On separate notes keep matters of doubt to straighten 
 them out at a future opportunity. 
 
 2. Read regularly at least one periodical relating to your specialty, 
 and keep some kind of a general index on at least one subject in which 
 you are particularly interested. 
 
 3. Be sure about the fudamental -laws, facts, and assumptions 
 on which your branch of engineering is based. If you are but recently 
 from college, you can go over your old books and notes; otherwise 
 read a good modern text book. 
 
 4. Gradually get familiar with more advanced books treating of 
 the various branches of your profession; go from time to time to the 
 public library and see if there is anything new in your specialty. 
 
 5. Select some one branch of engineering, if possible, somewhat 
 different from that in which you are regularly engaged and devote some 
 time to it. Know more than the next fellow does; it will pay you. 
 
 475 
 
476 HUMAN SIDE OF ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 6. Do not miss any chance to make an original investigation; this 
 will develop your thinking, increase your self-confidence, and raise your 
 standing in the profession. 
 
 7. Inventing is the highest form of engineering activity; there is 
 no reason why you should not bring some improvement into the work 
 in which you are engaged. Concentrate your mind on one thing, work 
 patiently and persistently, and you will be sure to achieve something 
 that will be new and useful. 
 
 B. Knowledge of Business Forms and of Men. You naturally 
 expect some day to occupy a responsible position in your profession. 
 This is impossible without a sound knowledge of established business 
 forms and of human relations in general. Here again there are several 
 stages of study and observation. Take up as many of them as your am- 
 bition, time, and ability will allow. 
 
 1. Observe the characters of men you are working with; in par- 
 ticular, the influence of their previous experience and education, of their 
 age and temperament, of their views on general life questions, etc. 
 
 2. Observe things that make them efficient and happy, or that are 
 impediments in their work; things that they would like to have and the 
 main things that they object to. 
 
 3. Observe critically your superiors and their ways of acting to- 
 wards their chiefs and subordinates. Do this without malice, but rather 
 with a sincere desire to find out the best way of conducting the work, 
 when you shall be called to perform their duties. Make for yourself 
 a clear mental picture of an ideal man in a certain position, and try to 
 follow this ideal in your own business life. 
 
 4. Observe and read about general business systems adopted in 
 large modern commercial and industrial enterprises; in particular, 
 
 (a) Subdivision of the duties of various officers, and their correla- 
 tion; 
 
 (b) Correspondence, accounting, orders, receipts, etc. ; 
 
 (c) Causes of loss, waste, inefficiency, etc., and possible remedies. 
 Merely knowing the facts is not sufficient: you must see clearly the 
 
 necessity for a certain organization. Only then will you find a right 
 place in it for yourself and efficiently discharge your duties. 
 
 5. Do not get "rusty" on general life questions ; read books on 
 history, economics, philosophy, etc., with the view of finding the under- 
 lying facts and motives in human relations. Do not adhere too readily 
 to a traditional school ; work out your principles for yourself, and be 
 willing to change them when new evidence is laid before you. A man 
 in a responsible position must be a well educated man ; he meets a great 
 many men, and has to face new situations. Therefore he must be well 
 
KARAPETOFF. 477 
 
 informed on things in general, and ought to be able to judge about them. 
 
 C. Training of the Character. Engineering and business knowl- 
 edge are the necessary conditions for usefulness ("success" and useful- 
 ness are not always the same), but the proper development of the 
 character is the third necessary condition. 
 
 What is the use of having a profound knowledge of engineering, if 
 you have not the necessary perseverance to achieve results ; or to have a 
 knowledge of business forms and relations, if your temper is such that 
 nobody cares to be associated with you in business? 
 
 Practice daily the qualities of the character that you find essential 
 for a good citizen and a good business man. 
 
 1. Work patiently on any problem until a result is achieved. If 
 it should be impossible to get satisfactory results, at least make clear 
 to yourself the nature of the hindrances. 
 
 2. Be honest in all things; do not be afraid to confess your mis- 
 takes or your ignorance. Train your character by doing your work over 
 cheerfully. 
 
 3. Keep down your selfish personality and ambition. Do not let 
 them interfere with your business. The highest goal of personality and 
 ambition is to have your part of the ivork done in the most ideal way. 
 
 4. Be generous, polite, and considerate to others; there are no cir- 
 cumstances where you would be justified in breaking this rule. Remain 
 dignified even under unjust reproof. 
 
 5. Work with the understanding that your activity of to-day shapes 
 your future. You need not trust to chance; your opportunity will 
 come when you are ready for it. 
 
 PART II. UNDERLYING MOTIVES. 
 
 (A THEORY OF LIFE.) 
 
 Some men are happy and efficient in their work without having any 
 clearly defined conceptions of life and its purpose. In a great majority 
 of cases, however, a lack of a workable theory of life brings with it a 
 decrease in possible efficiency and in personal satisfaction. It is of im- 
 portance, therefore, to know 
 
 A. What are the principal limitations and wrong beliefs that are 
 hampering engineers in their work. 
 
 B. How these limitations can be removed by working out a 
 theory of life that gives a general meaning to man's activity. 
 
 C. How an engineer's work is shaped, when his underlying mo- 
 tives are illumined by such a theory of life. 
 
 A. USUAL LIMITATIONS that prevent an engineer from being fully 
 efficient and happy in his work. 
 
478 HUMAN SIDE OF ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 1. Belief that he is underpaid; abnormal striving after money. 
 
 2. Belief that his efforts are not appreciated by his employer; also that 
 
 there is no chance for promotion. 
 
 3. Lack of knowledge, theoretical or practical ; lack of general educa- 
 
 tion; a deficient knowledge of business forms and human relations. 
 This is often accompanied by a belief that he has no time for study ; 
 in cases where a man has not exercised his mind for a long time, 
 he has also to contend with his own mental apathy. 
 
 4. Deficiencies in character, such as weakness, roughness, egotism, nar- 
 
 rowness, pedantry, absent-mindedness, laziness, etc. 
 
 5. Lack of enthusiasm due to the absence of a guiding and unifying 
 purpose in life. This is particularly noticeable in very young men 
 who are just beginning to form their own conceptions of life, and 
 in older men who already see the end of their usefulness and cherish 
 no more illusions. 
 
 B. A THEORY OF LIFE. Each man must work out for himself a 
 practicable theory of life; this will make his acts and words, thoughts 
 and feelings, harmonious and consistent. The experience of humanity 
 past and present is the material to work on; his reason is called upon 
 to interpret this, and his conscience is the court of final appeal. 
 
 The following is an example of such a theory of life: (*) 
 
 1. The Universe, including man, is governed by an infinite .intelli- 
 gence, which is manifested in man as his conscious life. There is no 
 meaning in a man's life if it be detached from other men's lives. In 
 proportion as he becomes conscious of this one, infinite life, common to 
 all men, his own life becomes reasonable and harmonious, and the fear 
 of poverty, sickness, old age, and death gradually disappears. 
 
 2. The highest purpose of life is to work for the realization of the 
 above ideal conditions of life on earth. We do this either by actually 
 removing certain hindrances and fetters (practical work), or by making 
 this great work clearer to others (literary, educational work, preaching, 
 etc.). 
 
 3. Once this attitude is understood, the real compensation for the 
 work consists, not in money and notoriety, but in the state of conscious- 
 ness reached. This is manifested in particular: 
 
 (*) It may seem presumptious on the part of the writer, who is not 
 a philosopher by trade, to formulate a "theory of life"; this he gives, 
 however, simply in order to illustrate what a practical doctrine of life (not a 
 "canned" religion) may be. For the author personally this doctrine is the 
 truth he believes in and according to which he tries to shape his life; for 
 others it may serve merely as an example. He hopes that by criticizing his 
 metaphysics readers may make their own conceptions on the subject clearer to 
 themselves, and in this way be indirectly benefited even by a theory pre- 
 sumably wrong. 
 
KARAPETOFF. 479 
 
 (a) In a clear and definite program of life, and a* ready an- 
 swer for all difficulties (doing your best). 
 
 (b) In a state of harmony and good fellowship with all men, 
 through the understanding of that life which is common 
 to all. 
 
 (c) In a freedom from fear, anger, jealousy, apathy, and 
 other limitations caused by the assumption that life is an 
 accidental chain of phenomena and circumstances. 
 
 C. WORK ILLUMINATED BY HIGHER IDEALS. Once he has obtained a 
 workable life-theory, all of the limitations enumerated above that prevent 
 an engineer from being efficient and satisfied in his work can be removed 
 by actually applying this theory to his daily work. 
 
 1. The belief that he is underpaid or not appreciated enough loses 
 its power ; the man works no more for a company or a corporation. He 
 works for his conscience's sake, and finds his true compensation in the 
 results of his work. 
 
 2. He is full of desire to do as much as he can, and not as little as 
 he is allowed to. For this reason he wants to know much and to have 
 his knowledge in a practical form, ready for use. He is active and 
 studious all the time, and the expression "mental lethargy" is incompre- 
 hensible to him. 
 
 4. He frees himself from possible shortcomings in his character by 
 keeping the ideal of perfection continually before his mind's eye. He 
 no longer finds difficulty in handling men and in treating his co-workers 
 and chiefs aright; he has a sincere sympathy for them, tries to help 
 them, and to make their work more pleasant and efficient. 
 
 5. He is full of enthusiasm, for he is aware of the infinite import- 
 ance of his life and work. His work is infinite as is Life itself; and 
 each problem solved brings with it a higher and more important problem, 
 brings more truth and light into his consciousness. 
 
 CONCLUSION (Credo). 
 
 1. Make yourself ready for a broader and higher field of activity; 
 then your opportunity will surely come. 
 
 2. The true purpose and value of engineering activity lie in provid- 
 ing better and easier ways for satisfying ordinary human needs. This 
 provides more leisure and opens new possibilities for a higher spiritual 
 and intellectual development of humanity. 
 
 3. The engineer's personal satisfaction consists in knowing ttfis 
 high purpose of his vocation, and in giving his service at a maximum 
 efficiency. The other compensation is a result and not the purpose. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ability. . . 80 
 
 Ability, Administrative. 445 
 
 Ability, Business 445 
 
 Ability, Demand for 445 
 
 Ability, Executive 445 
 
 Ability of Instructors 77 
 
 Abstract papers 363 
 
 Academic degrees for engineers... 389 
 
 Academic tendencies 301 
 
 Accounting 92, 114, 185 
 
 Accounts. , 334, 365 
 
 Accounts, Settling 472 
 
 Accuracy 28, 29, 46 
 
 311, 384, 385, 386, 427, 446, 455 
 
 Acknowledging mistakes. . 367 
 
 Acquaintance. . . 367, 420 
 
 Acquirement 307 
 
 Acquisition 211 
 
 Activites, College 21 
 
 Activities, Outside 15 
 
 Activities, Social 45 
 
 Activities (Student), Importance of 138 
 Activity, Purpose of engineering. . 479 
 
 Adaptability 274 
 
 Address - 399 
 
 Administration 193, 194 
 
 346, 347, 447 
 Administration, Defects due to.... 249 
 
 Administrative ability 445 
 
 Administrators, Engineers as 384 
 
 Administrators, Rewards of 348 
 
 Advancement - 311,426 
 
 Advertising 441 
 
 Advice. . . 357, 420, 473 
 
 Advice, Resenting 84 
 
 Advice to freshmen. 5, 7 
 
 Advice to students 33 
 
 Aesthetics 275, 276, 387 
 
 Affairs 376 
 
 Age of the engineer 295 
 
 Agreeability 370 
 
 Aiding contractors 369 
 
 Aim in life 26 
 
 Air. . . - 19 
 
 Alacrity. 200 
 
 Alcoholic beverages 235 
 
 Allied industries 192 
 
 Allied subjects 86 
 
 Almighty dollar 368,456 
 
 Ambiguity 64 
 
 Ambition 166, 203, 316, 353, 477 
 
 American Institute of Consulting 
 Engineers 282 
 
 PAGE 
 American Society of Civil Engineers 365 
 
 Amusements 436 
 
 Analysis (Self) 306,405 
 
 Anger 479 
 
 Animal Spirits. . 39 
 
 Antiquated books 93 
 
 Apathy ..479 
 
 Application. . . 311, 384, 385 
 
 Application of principles 47 
 
 Application of theory to practice.. 457 
 
 Application, Practical 241 
 
 Applied mechanics 262 
 
 Applied, sciences. 257,258 
 
 Appreciation 478 
 
 Apprenticeship 84, 361, 423 
 
 Apprenticeship courses 274 
 
 Arbitrator, Engineer as 369 
 
 Architecture 465 
 
 Arrangement, Logical 51 
 
 Art. 158, 351, 352 
 
 Artistic possibilities 275 
 
 Artistic taste 137 
 
 Assimilation 304, 307 
 
 Assimilation of information 212 
 
 Assistance, Giving 367 
 
 Assistance, Requesting 367 
 
 Assistance to students 246 
 
 Astronomy. . . 264 
 
 Athletics 235 
 
 Athletic sports 39 
 
 Authorship 433 
 
 Awarding contracts 370 
 
 B 
 
 Babcock, Maltie D. . 201 
 
 Bad construction 78 
 
 Bad English. 65 
 
 Bad grammar. 56, 62 
 
 Bad specifications -. 64 
 
 Baker, Dr. Ira 141 
 
 Baker, Sir Benjamin 211,213 
 
 Banking 92 
 
 Bates, Onward 149 
 
 Bearing 399 
 
 Beauty. . . vv/ .. ; 388 
 
 Benefits of civilization 341 
 
 Benjamin, Chas. H 437 
 
 Bessemer, Sir Henry 168 
 
 Biographies, Reading of 91 
 
 Biography. 33, 351 
 
 Biologist, Functions of 259 
 
 Biology 264 
 
 Bluntness. . 433 
 
482 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Book-keeping 1 14 
 
 Books, Antiquated 93 
 
 Books, Catalogues of 88 
 
 Books, Criticisms of 93 
 
 Books, Expense of 92 
 
 Books, Ideal 102, 103 
 
 Books, Kinds of 101, 102 
 
 Books, Marketing of . 103 
 
 Books, New editions of 104 
 
 Books on English 66, 67 
 
 Books, Padding of 103 
 
 Books, Publishing 103 
 
 Books, Purchasing of .. .85, 87, 88, 442 
 
 Books, Quality of 101, 102 
 
 Books, Reading 475 
 
 Books, Reviews of 93, 103, 104 
 
 Books, Selection of 103 
 
 Books, Selling of 87 
 
 Books, Supplementary 85 
 
 Books, Value of....- .".... 94 
 
 Books, Worthless 102, 442 
 
 Books Writing of 363, 364 
 
 Booze. 337 
 
 Botanist, Functions of 259 
 
 Botany .265 
 
 Brains. . . 238, 415 
 
 Breadth 47, 155, 156 
 
 199, 200, 338, 458 
 
 Breadth of view 45, 226 
 
 Breeding 61, 62 
 
 Brevity 306 
 
 Bridge companies 425 
 
 Bridge design 465 
 
 Brilliancy 311 
 
 Broad education 332 
 
 Broadening 224 
 
 Broadening oneself 33 
 
 Broadness. . ' 77, 155, 156 
 
 166, 200, 458, 479 
 
 Bureau of Corporations 298 
 
 Bureau of Mines 297 
 
 Burr, Wm. H 189 
 
 Business. 463 
 
 Business ability 445 
 
 Business correspondence 58, 62 
 
 Business, engineers in 223 
 
 Business instruction 184,' 185 
 
 Business, knowledge of . . .>. 476 
 
 Business man, engineer as a 32, 33 
 
 Business methods. . . '365 
 
 Business studies 114 
 
 Business systems 476 
 
 Business training. Ill, 113, 114 
 
 Canals 466 
 
 Candor 166 
 
 Can't.^ . . *. 59 
 
 Capacity 445 
 
 Capital and labor 186 
 
 Capitalization. . . 456 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Card index 20, 441 
 
 Care 47 
 
 Career, professional 79 
 
 Cashing up 471 
 
 Casuistry 387 
 
 Catalogues. 88 
 
 Cataloguing 414 
 
 Cessation of study of theory 77 
 
 Chances in construction 261 
 
 Changes in drawings 127 
 
 Character 18, 199, 378 
 
 Character, defects of 166 
 
 Characteristics of engineers 222 
 
 Character, training of the 477 
 
 Cheating 18, 19, 77 
 
 Checking 366, 427, 456 
 
 Cheerfulness. . . 306,323,328 
 
 Chemist, functions of -. . . . 259 
 
 Chemistry 78, 263 
 
 Chemistry, importance of 47 
 
 Chivalry 20, 21 
 
 Choice of work 361 
 
 Cities, concentration in 381, 382 
 
 Citizenship 20, 32, 45, 158, 225 
 
 291, 293, 295, 298, 338, 351, 407 
 
 City engineering 425 
 
 City, students from the 13 
 
 Civic positions. . 425 
 
 Civil engineering education 453 
 
 Civil engineering, definition of 255 
 
 Civil engineering, future of 270 
 
 Civil engineering, limitations of.. 256 
 
 Civil engineering, scope of 2 
 
 Civilizaton. 352 
 
 Civilization, benefits of 341 
 
 Civil service rules 417 
 
 Clannishness 33 
 
 Classical training 313 
 
 Classmates 401, 402 
 
 Class officers 21 
 
 Clearness 217, 333, 363, 385 
 
 Clearness of thought 304 
 
 Clergy. 422 
 
 Cleverness 311 
 
 Coaching 240 
 
 Code of ethics. . . 286 
 
 College discipline 183 
 
 College education. . . 7 
 
 Collegiate education, preliminary.. 73 
 
 Commencement. . . 311 
 
 Commercialism ..113, 114, 332 
 
 Commercialism in college. ..... 186, 187 
 
 Commercial law 185 
 
 Committees (special) 269 
 
 Compensation 79,199,281 
 
 282, 286, 360, 424, 478 
 
 Compensation, teacher's 215 
 
 Competency. . 304 
 
 Complaints 400, 452 
 
 Complete living 351 
 
 Complexity. . ; 303 
 
 Composition 57 
 
 Concentration. . ..19, 303, 304, 311, 326 
 
INDEX, 483 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Concentration in cities 381,382 
 
 Concert, pitch. 440 
 
 Cooley, M. E 403 
 
 Co-ordination in teaching 248,249 
 
 Conciseness 306, 335, 363 
 
 Conclusions quickness in 348 
 
 Conditions before and after grad- 
 uation contrasted 84 
 
 Conditions of life 324 
 
 Conference 278 
 
 Congestion of population 447 
 
 Congestion of traffic 447 
 
 Congresses 266 
 
 Conservation. . . 445 
 
 Consideration 328, 477 
 
 Consistency 328 
 
 Constant, Frank H. . 219 
 
 Construction, Bad 78 
 
 Construction, chances in 261 
 
 Constructive imagination 181 
 
 Consulting engineers, requirements 
 
 for. . . 71 
 
 Contemplation 303 
 
 Content 40 
 
 Contentiousness 306 
 
 Continuing study after gradua- 
 tion 73, 75, 375, 428 
 
 Contractors, Aiding 369 
 
 Contractors, oppressing. . ..'...... 369 
 
 Contracts. . 63,64,92,364,464 
 
 Contracts, awarding 370 
 
 Contracts, Law of. : . 115 
 
 Conveniences. . . 294 
 
 Conventionalities 328 
 
 Corporations. 171, 194 
 
 Corporate power. . . , . .. 171 
 
 Corporations, bureau of 298 
 
 Corporations, public service 297 
 
 Correctness 311,455 
 
 Correspondence 58, 62 
 
 Cost 456 
 
 Cost, estimates 185 
 
 Cost, knowledge of :'. . 170 
 
 Counter checking 366, 456 
 
 Courage 81, 164, 166, 234, 328 
 
 Courses, importance of 146 
 
 Courses, unprofitable 246 
 
 Courtesy ' 20, 21, 377 
 
 Court of last appeal 285 
 
 Credit : 298 
 
 Credit due engineers. 341, 342 
 
 Credit to engineers. .- 293, 294 
 
 Crippled squad 12 
 
 Crises of life........ 41 
 
 Criticism. 377 
 
 Criticism of^ engineering education . 231 
 
 Critics, carping 283 
 
 Croes, Dr. J. James R... 1 
 
 Crookedness. . ^ 409 
 
 Cultural education .29, 34 
 
 Cultural knowledge 27 
 
 Cultural studies. . . : 275 
 
 Cultural training 144 
 
 Cultured education 26 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Culture.... 52, 95, 179, 180, 181, 200, 226 
 227, 311, 338, 440 
 
 Culture (defined). . 136 
 
 Culture, lack of 73 
 
 Culture studies 178, 386 
 
 D 
 
 Dams. . . 465 
 
 Dangers 360 
 
 Daring 212, 213 
 
 Dean, function of 11 
 
 Debate 453 
 
 Debts, paying 471 
 
 Decision. . . 336 
 
 Decisions, legal 365 
 
 Defects 242 
 
 Defects due to administration 249 
 
 Defects due to parents , 241 
 
 Defects in instruction 241, 242 
 
 Defects in students 238 
 
 Defects of character 166 
 
 Deficiencies 478 
 
 Deficiencies in engineers' knowledge 33 
 
 Deficiencies in young engineers 454 
 
 Definitions of engineering 445 
 
 Degeneration 303 
 
 Degrees ' 435,462 
 
 Demand for ability 445 
 
 Demand for highly trained engin- 
 eers 446 
 
 Depreciation 114, 186 
 
 Descriptive literature. 107 
 
 Designing. 462 
 
 Designing, economy in 435 
 
 Designing, importance of 47 
 
 Destructiveness 445 
 
 Development 45 
 
 Development, mental 143 
 
 Development of engineering educa- 
 tion. . . , 232 
 
 Development, urban 382 
 
 Devotion 172, 213 
 
 Diary 366, 432 
 
 Dictating. . . 185 
 
 Dictation. . . ..... 463 
 
 Diction .58, 78, 306 
 
 Diction, elegance of : 363 
 
 Diction, faults of 59 
 
 Difficulties 213, 315, 397, 420 
 
 Difficulties, post graduate . . 83 
 
 Diffusion. . . , 326 
 
 Dignity -. . .393, 477 
 
 Dilemmas 305 
 
 Diligence :304, 315 
 
 Diploma. 399 
 
 Diplomacy 399 
 
 Directing 322 
 
 Direction 277, 278, 336 
 
 Directness of purpose 304 
 
 Director. . . 461 
 
 Directors, engineers as 223 
 
484 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Disappointments 315, 401 
 
 Discernment. . . - 261,327 
 
 Discipline 240 
 
 Discipline in college 183 
 
 Discipline, physical -. 234 
 
 Discipline (self) 250 
 
 Discomforts 360 
 
 Discontent 306 
 
 Discouragement. 3, 4, 367 
 
 Discoveries 441 
 
 Discriminaton 156 
 
 Dishonesty 30, 200, 236 
 
 Dishonor 40 
 
 Disorder 19 
 
 Distinction 426 
 
 Distinctions 435 
 
 Diversion 385 
 
 Divisions of enginering 215 
 
 Doctors 422 
 
 Dollar, almighty 368, 456 
 
 Drafting 360, 424, 425, 427, 456, 457 
 
 Draper Andrew S 247, 249 
 
 Drawings 126, 127 
 
 Drawings, changes in 127 
 
 Drawings, contents of.. 457 
 
 Drawings, deficiencies in 128 
 
 Drill 16 
 
 Drink.' 235 
 
 Drinking 17, 201,337 
 
 Drudgery. . , 428 
 
 Drunkenness 39, 342 
 
 Duties of engineers 195 
 
 Duty. 171, 378 
 
 Earnestness of purpose 366,426 
 
 Eating 16 
 
 Economics... 170, 217, 266, 456, 464, 476 
 
 Economics (defined) 258 
 
 Economists 447 
 
 Economy. .^ ' 333 
 
 Economy in designing 435 
 
 Economy political 462 
 
 Education. 135, 265 
 
 Education, broad 332 
 
 Education, college 7 
 
 Education, cultured. 26 
 
 Education, definition of 25 
 
 Education; elements of 143 
 
 Education, engineering 448 
 
 Education, extent of 94, 95 
 
 Education, general 147 
 
 Education, ideal 321 
 
 Education, liberal 144, 301, 302 
 
 Education, mental. 236 
 
 Education, moral 234, 235 
 
 Education, necessity for 72 
 
 Education, objects of 45, 242, 273 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Education, practical 146,439 
 
 Education, preliminary collegate... 73 
 
 Education, specialization in 389 
 
 Education, technical 175 
 
 Education (technical), improvement 
 
 in. 267 
 
 Education, utilitarian 26 
 
 Effectiveness 303, 312, 316, 325 
 
 Effective work 243 
 
 Efficiency 237 
 
 Egypt 210, 211 
 
 Electrical engineering 466 
 
 Electrical engineering, limitations of 256 
 Electrical engineering, scope of... 3 
 Electrical engineers, training of. 271, 273 
 
 Electricity 163 
 
 Elegance of diction 58, 363 
 
 Eliot, Dr. Chas. W 37 
 
 Emergencies 385 
 
 Emergency work - 169 
 
 Emotional side of university life.. 136 
 
 Emotions 137 
 
 Endowment 467 
 
 Endurance - 7 
 
 Energy 72, 200 
 
 Energy, sources of 445 
 
 Engineer, age of the 295 
 
 Engineer as a citizen 32 
 
 Engineer as administrator 3 ? 4 
 
 Engineer as arbitrator * 369 
 
 Engineer as peacemaker 342 
 
 Engineer, definition of 167 
 
 Engineer, evolution of 260 
 
 Engineer, executive 195, 196 
 
 Engineer, function of 260 
 
 Engineer in light literature. .. .422, 423 
 
 Engineer, profession of 1 
 
 Engineer, work of 168 
 
 Engineering activity, purpose of... 479 
 Engineering as a profession. .. .26, 257 
 Engineering 1 , definition of...l, 168,445 
 
 Engineering differentiation of 106 
 
 Engineering, divisions of 215 
 
 Engineering education 43, 45, 448 
 
 Engineering education, criticism of. 231 
 Engineering education, development 
 
 of 232 
 
 Engineering education, extent of.. 94, 95 
 Engineering education, necessity for 72 
 Engineering education, progress in. 452 
 Engineering education, privilege of. 8 
 
 Engineering ethics 281, 369 
 
 Engineering, field of.... 95, 96, 169, 194 
 
 Engineering, history of 463 
 
 Engineering literature 267, 287,461 
 
 Engineering literature, extent of... 100 
 
 Engineering News 108 
 
 Engineering periodicals 47, 20Q 
 
 Engineering periodicals, subscribing 
 
 for 90 
 
 Engineering, practical 302 
 
 Engineering profession 21, 158, 191 
 
 Engineering profession, age of...- 281 
 Engineering profession, grandeur of 3 
 
INDEX. 
 
 485 
 
 PAGE 
 Engineering profession, importance 
 
 of 381 
 
 Engineering profession, limitations 
 
 of. . . 27 
 
 Engineering profession, respect for 
 
 281 
 
 Engineering profession, status of 
 
 279, 281 
 
 Engineering science, limitations of. 259 
 
 Engineering, science of 191 
 
 Engineering, scope of 1 
 
 Engineering societies. . 47,200 
 
 Engineering, teaching of 358 
 
 Engineering training function of.. 192 
 
 Engineering work, nobility of 221 
 
 Engineers as directors 223 
 
 Engineers, characteristics of 222 
 
 Engineers, credit due -341,342 
 
 Engineers, duties of 195 
 
 Engineers in business 223 
 
 Engineers, number of 193 
 
 Engineers, protection of -.. 281 
 
 Engineers, qualifications of. 195, 209, 210 
 
 Engineers' society 21 
 
 Engineers, work of 281 
 
 England, technical education in.... 423 
 
 English.. 149, 152, 184, 185, 216, 217, 376 
 
 429, 454, 455 
 
 English, bad 53 
 
 English, books on 63, 67 
 
 English, faults in 56 
 
 English, Importance of 115 
 
 English, methods of acquiring good. 55 
 
 English, study of 78 
 
 English, teaching of 115 
 
 English, value of 49, 51 
 
 Enjoyment 39 
 
 Entering requirements. . 459 
 
 Enterprise 164 
 
 Enthusiasm 478, 479 
 
 Entrance requirements 55 
 
 Environment 307 
 
 Epitomizing 366 
 
 Epochs, ethnical 161, 164 
 
 Errors. 46,401 
 
 Errors in writing 58 
 
 Errors of speech 
 
 "Essentials and non-essentials. . .304, 393 
 
 Essentials for success 95 
 
 Estimates 15 
 
 Estimates of cost - 456 
 
 Ethics 2<$9, 281, 282, 283, 369, 434 
 
 Ethics Code of 286 
 
 Ethical epochs. . . 161, 164 
 
 Evolution of the engineer 260 
 
 Evolution, organic 307 
 
 Executive ability 445 
 
 Executive engineer 195, 196 
 
 Executive positions for engineers.. 193 
 
 Exercise J 6 
 
 Exercise, bodilv t 1 
 
 Exercise, physical. . . 45, 440 
 
 Exertion (self) 250 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Existence, struggle for 324,401 
 
 Expedients 214 
 
 Experience 31,224,425 
 
 Experience, personal. . . 206 
 
 Experience, varied "... 206, 361 
 
 Experimenting 433 
 
 Experiments 30 
 
 Expert testimony 335 
 
 Expression. . . . 305, 327 
 
 Expression, facility of 386 
 
 Extra scholastic work 85 
 
 Extra studies 144, 145 
 
 Extra study 440 
 
 Facetiousness 66 
 
 Facility of expression 386 
 
 Facts 441 
 
 Faculty 11, 12, 332. 
 
 Failure 80, 354, 367, 401, 406 
 
 Fairness. . . 336 
 
 Fathfulness 315 
 
 Falsehood 433 
 
 Fame. . 71 
 
 Farms 382 
 
 Farm, student from the.-- 13 
 
 Fault finding 400 
 
 False pride 81 
 
 Falsifying records 30 
 
 Faults in English 56 
 
 Faults in diction 59 
 
 Fear 479 
 
 Fidelity 315 
 
 Field books 123 
 
 Field notes. . . 123, 124 
 
 Field of engineering 169, 194 
 
 Fi ;td of the engineer 95, 96 
 
 Field notes, brevity in 124 
 
 Field notes, thoroughness of 124 
 
 Fighters. . '. 341 
 
 Fighting 314 
 
 Filing 20 
 
 Final records 128, 129 
 
 Finance 92 
 
 Finesse 13 
 
 Finishing one's work 407, 408 
 
 Fink, Albert 446 
 
 Firmness 336, 441 
 
 Firth of Forth bridge - 211 
 
 Five-year courses 73, 276, 453 
 
 Fluency 363 
 
 Food 16 
 
 Foreign engineers 286 
 
 Foreign languages 28, 78, 184 
 
 Foresight 327 
 
 Forgetting. . . 81 
 
 Fossilization 362 
 
 Four-year courses too short 277 
 
 France, engineering in 423 
 
 Fraternities 20 
 
 French -- 429 
 
486 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Freshmen, advice to 5, 7 
 
 Friends 20 
 
 Friendships ....20, 45 
 
 Function of engineering training. . 192 
 
 Fundamentals. 216 
 
 Fundamental principles 218, 274 
 
 Future of civil engineering 270 
 
 Gambling 17 
 
 General education 147 
 
 General studies 331 
 
 General technical knowledge 459 
 
 Generosity 40, 377, 477 
 
 Genius 167 
 
 Geodesy. . 465 
 
 Geography 264 
 
 Geological science 269 
 
 Geologist, function of 259 
 
 Geology 263, 465 
 
 German 429 
 
 Gestures (to supplement language) 60 
 
 Gluttony 39 
 
 Goal for attainment 285, 440 
 
 Golden rule '. 377, 369 
 
 Good fellowship 479 
 
 Goodness 200 
 
 Good usage 60 
 
 Government positions 425 
 
 Government publications. 99 
 
 Grace 311 
 
 Graduate courses 445 
 
 Graduates, positions for 233 
 
 Graduate study 437,439,441 
 
 Graduation, meaning of 100 
 
 Graduation, necessity for 72, 423 
 
 Grammar 56, 57 
 
 Grammar, bad 56, 62 
 
 Grandeur of the engineering pro- 
 fession 3 
 
 Graphics. 464 
 
 Greatness. . . 167 
 
 H 
 
 Hammond, John Hays 210 
 
 Handicaps 397 
 
 Hand writing 120 
 
 Happiness 40 
 
 Harbors 466 
 
 Hardships 423 
 
 Hard work - 39, 85 
 
 Harmony 479 
 
 Hayford, John F 339 
 
 Health 14, 39, 71 
 
 Hereditary nobility 294 
 
 Higher education. . 449, 451 
 
 Higher mathematics /. .262, 263 
 
 High school 9 
 
 PAGE 
 
 High standard 46 
 
 Highway engineering 466 
 
 Hints to students 141, 143 
 
 History 33,217,351,476 
 
 History of engineering 463 
 
 Holidays 370 
 
 Honesty 18, 81, 197, 199, 214, 215 
 
 Honesty 222, 354, 446, 477 
 
 Honor 40, 377, 387 
 
 Howe, Chas. Sumner. 411 
 
 How to study 243 
 
 Hudson River tunnel 213 
 
 Human field -. 397 
 
 Human interests 32 
 
 Humanistic knowledge 33 
 
 Human nature 336 
 
 Humanities 226 
 
 Humphreys, Dr. A. C Ill 
 
 Huxley's definition of liberal educa- 
 tion. 35 
 
 I 
 
 Ideals 426, 479 
 
 Ideas 305 
 
 Idleness 421 
 
 Idling 432 
 
 Imagination 166, 351, 352 
 
 Imagination, constructive. 181 
 
 Impatience 236 
 
 Importance of chemistry 47 
 
 Importance of correct language.... 61 
 
 Importance of courses 146 
 
 Importance of designing 47 
 
 Importance of engineering pro- 
 fession 381 
 
 Importance of mathematics 47 
 
 Importance of physics 4? 
 
 Importance of technical writings. . 63 
 
 Importance of vocations 176 
 
 Impression 322 
 
 Improvement -- 307 
 
 Improvement in morals 342 
 
 Improvement in technical education 267 
 
 Improvement of waterways 446 
 
 Inaccuracy. . . . . '. 385 
 
 Incentives 205 
 
 Incompetence 25 
 
 Increasing requirements in educa- 
 tion 73 
 
 Increasing working time 460 
 
 Indexes 108, 366, 441 
 
 Indexing 93 
 
 Indices ....366, 441 
 
 Individuality. 135, 328 
 
 Individual students, study of 447 
 
 Industrialism 209 
 
 Industries allied to engineering. . . . 192 
 
 Industry 46, 80, 384 
 
 Influence 337 
 
 Information. . ' 440 
 
 Information, acquisition of 143 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Information, assimilation of 212 
 
 Initiative. . 72, 445 
 
 Inspiration 228 
 
 Institution of civil engineers 423 
 
 Instruction, defects in 241,242 
 
 Instruction, writing 63 
 
 Instructors, ability of 77 
 
 Integrity. . ..72,315,377,384,387,433 
 
 Intellectual development 302 
 
 Intellectual labor 40 
 
 Intelligence 71 
 
 Interdependence of engineering 
 
 branches. 256, 257 
 
 Interdependence of specialties 458 
 
 Interests, variety of 370 
 
 Intoxicants 235 
 
 Intrepidity 213 
 
 Intuitions 305 
 
 Invective 66 
 
 Inventing 476 
 
 Invention. . . 34, 334 
 
 Inventors 34 
 
 Investigation 441, 476 
 
 Investigation, original 461 
 
 Jackson, Dugald C 349 
 
 Jealousies. . . 367 
 
 Jealousy 479 
 
 Johnson, Prof. J. B 23 
 
 Joining societies 365 
 
 Jordan, David Starr 303 
 
 Journals 414 
 
 Judgment ... . . . .40, 155, 311, 336, 338 
 
 Judgment, commercial. 333 
 
 Judgment, passing 377 
 
 Judiciousness 156, 157 
 
 Jurisprudence 265 
 
 Justice 18, 19, 387 
 
 Karapetoff, Vladimir 469473 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. Julian 329 
 
 Kerr, Walter C 299 
 
 Killing time 432 
 
 Kindliness 18, 20 
 
 Kirby, Edmund B 395 
 
 Knighthood 228 
 
 Knowledge - 313 
 
 Knowledge and action 309,311 
 
 Knowledge, cultural 27 
 
 Knowledge, essential. 95 
 
 Knowledge, extent of 95 
 
 Knowledge, general technical 459 
 
 Knowledge, humanistic 33 
 
 Knowledge, love of 226 
 
 Knowledge of an engineer 27 
 
 Knowledge of business 476 
 
 Knowledge, organized 344 
 
 Knowledge, professional 475 
 
 Knowledge, purpose of 
 Knowledge, special. . . . 
 
 487 
 
 PAGE 
 . 303 
 . 440 
 
 Labor and capital 186 
 
 Laboratory courses 278 
 
 Laboratory testings 461 
 
 Labor, intellectual. 40 
 
 Labor, management of 296 
 
 Labor organizations 296 
 
 Lack of culture 73 
 
 Languages 15 
 
 Language 152, 153, 346, 399 
 
 Language, definition of 51 
 
 Language, foreign 28, 78, 184, 429 
 
 Language, importance of 61 
 
 Languages, modern. . . 184 
 
 Languages, ordinary 54 
 
 Language poverty of 58 
 
 Language, technique of 78 
 
 Language, value of 51, 52 
 
 Latin, American Republics 286 
 
 Law 81, 463 
 
 Law and engineering compared 170 
 
 Law, commercial 185 
 
 Law of contracts 115, 185 
 
 Laws 92 
 
 Law-suits, causes of 64 
 
 Lawyers 82,83,422 
 
 Laziness. 200 
 
 Leaders 413 
 
 Leadership. . . ..170, 171, 323, 447, 448 
 Learned profession, definition of.. 26 
 
 Learning 327 
 
 Lectures 243 
 
 Lectures, reading of 91 
 
 Lecture system -...242,243,251 
 
 Legal decisions. . . 365 
 
 Legal profession. . 422 
 
 Legibility 120, 121 
 
 Legislation. N 286 
 
 Leisure 351 
 
 Leisure time 85 
 
 Lethargy, mental. . 479 
 
 Letters of application 125 
 
 Letter writing ...124,125,130 
 
 149, 151, 399 
 
 Letter writing, art of 62 
 
 Lewis, Nelson Peter 379 
 
 Liberal education 144, 301, 302, 313 
 
 Liberal education, definition of.... 35 
 Liberal education for engineers. . . 191 
 
 Liberality in work 377 
 
 Library, beginning of 86 
 
 Libraries, individual .....69, 71 
 
 Library, nucleus of 87 
 
 Libraries, private 442 
 
 Libraries, public 92 
 
 Library reading 441 
 
 Library reference. 91 
 
 Licentiousness 39 
 
488 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Life, crises of - .... 41 
 
 Life, conditions of 324 
 
 Life, Theory of 478 
 
 Light. 19 
 
 Light Literature 429 
 
 Light literature, . engineer in. .422, 423 
 
 Limitations 477 
 
 Limitations of the engineering pro- 
 fession 27 
 
 Limitations of technical courses--75, 76 
 Limits of technical school training 83 
 
 Literature 158, 287 
 
 351, 352, 363, 390 
 
 Literature, descriptive. . . 107 
 
 Literature, engineering 267, 461 
 
 Lterature (engineering) extent of 
 
 100, 101 
 
 Literature, general 33 
 
 Literature, light. 429 
 
 Literature, technical. 364, 452 
 
 Literature, theoretical 107 
 
 Literature, valueless 107 
 
 Litigation, cause of 333 
 
 Living complete 351 
 
 Locke 242, 244 
 
 Logic 243, 244, 245, 251 
 
 Logical thinking 242 
 
 Loose sheet records 122 
 
 Love of knowledge. . 226 
 
 Loyalty. . . 390, 409 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay 293 
 
 Magazines -- 90 
 
 Magazine, English .53, 54 
 
 Magazines, technical 414 
 
 Malaria. . . 269 
 
 Management 92 
 
 Management of labor 296 
 
 Management of men 365 
 
 Manufacturing 194 
 
 Manufacturing companies 425 
 
 Marriage 435 
 
 Marrying. -- 368 
 
 Mastery 445 
 
 Mathematical papers 363 
 
 Mathematics 14, 15 
 
 165, 217, 262, 430, 431, 462 
 
 Mathematics, higher 262,263 
 
 Mathematics, importance of 47 
 
 Marticulation requirements 55 
 
 Matrimony 368 
 
 McGiir University. . . 453 
 
 Measurements of precision 465 
 
 Mechanical engineering. . _. . . . . . . . 466 
 
 Mechanical engineering limitations 
 
 of :. 256 
 
 Mechanical engineering, scope of.. 3 
 
 Mechanics, applied 262 
 
 Medical profession 422 
 
 Melville, Admiral Geo. W 291 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Memorizing. . . 274 
 
 Memory 28 
 
 Men, management of 365 
 
 Men, study of 223, 476 
 
 Mental development 28, 143 
 
 Mental education 236 
 
 Mental lethargy 479 
 
 Mental training 39,46,234 
 
 Metallurgy. . . 465 
 
 Military profession 422 
 
 Military training 239 
 
 Minerology. . 264,465 
 
 Mines, Bureau of 297 
 
 Mining 398 
 
 Mining engineering 402 
 
 Mining engineering, limitations of 256 
 Mining engineering, scope of.!.... 3 
 
 Mischief 20 
 
 Mistakes 46, 366, 367, 390 
 
 Mixing. .-. 45, 371 
 
 Modern languages 184 
 
 Modesty 441 
 
 Molitor and Beard's Manual 124 
 
 Money 406, 456 
 
 Money (spending) 240 
 
 Money values. -.. 365 
 
 Monopolies 296 
 
 Moore, John Trotwood 410 
 
 Moral development 250, 234 
 
 Moral education. . . 235 
 
 Morality 201 
 
 Morals - 170 
 
 Morals, improvement in 342 
 
 Morison, Geo. Shattuck 161 
 
 Mothers-in-law 332 
 
 Motives 316, 378, 477 
 
 Moving on 316 
 
 Mill, John Stuart 440 
 
 Municipal public works 195 
 
 Municipal service 417 
 
 Music 351, 352 
 
 N 
 
 Narrowness 81,153,154 
 
 155, 156, 222, 441 
 
 Narrowness of engineering educa- 
 tion 32 
 
 National problems 446 
 
 Natural sciences 165 
 
 Navy yard organization 297 
 
 Neatness. . . : 455 
 
 Neatness, value of 131 
 
 Necessity 240, 241 
 
 Neglecting to study 80 
 
 Nerve. . 315 
 
 Newspapers. 363 
 
 Newspaper English 53 
 
 Niggardliness 369 
 
 Nobility, heredity ; 294 
 
 Nobility of engineering 228 
 
 Nobility of engineering work 221 
 
 Noble, Alfred 19 
 
INDEX. 
 
 489 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Note-books. . . . . .' 432 
 
 Note-book habit. ' 366 
 
 Note-book records 122 
 
 Notes 366, 475 
 
 Number of engineers 193 
 
 o 
 
 Object 378 
 
 Objects of education 45, 242 
 
 Object, ultimate. 370 
 
 Obligations 8, 10 
 
 Observation, quickness of 335 
 
 Opinions. 393 
 
 Opportunists 387 
 
 Opportunities 302, 317, 400 
 
 Opportunities for engineers. .31, 34, 381 
 
 Opportunity 240,477 
 
 Oppressing contractors 369 
 
 Oppression. . . . . - 341 
 
 Optimism 306 
 
 Oratory 57, 463 
 
 Order 20 
 
 Ordinary language 54 
 
 Organic evolution 307 
 
 Organized knowledge. 344 
 
 Organization 81, 346 
 
 Organization of university 10 
 
 Original investigation 461 
 
 Originality 211, 212 
 
 Ortography, errors in 56 
 
 Orthoepy, ' errors in 51 
 
 Out-of-door life 359 
 
 Outside activities. . 15 
 
 Outside work 248, 475 
 
 Outlook, broad. 166 
 
 Overtime 427 
 
 Padding 103, 364 
 
 Panama canal 269, 270 
 
 Papers, abstract -- 363 
 
 Papers, topics for 287, 288, 289 
 
 Papers, writing of 363 
 
 Parents, defects' due to. 241 
 
 Parks 383 
 
 Parsimonv. 369 
 
 Passing Judgment 377 
 
 Patenting 34 
 
 . Patience 354, 377 
 
 Patriotism 226 
 
 Paying debts. 471 
 
 Peacemaker, engineer as 342 
 
 Pedagogics 246, 247 
 
 Pedantry 59 
 
 Perception. . . 314 
 
 Perfection 315 
 
 Periodicals 200, 363 
 
 Periodicals, engineering . . 47 
 
 Periodical literature 54 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Periodicals, preservation of 108 
 
 Periodicals, reading 475 
 
 Periods in engineering career 343 
 
 Persistence 7 
 
 Personal experience 206 
 
 Personality of teachers 154 
 
 Petrology 263 
 
 Philosophy. . 476 
 
 Physical condition 16 
 
 Physical discipline 234 
 
 Physical exercise 45, 440 
 
 Physical training 234, 235, 250 
 
 Physicist, functions of 259 
 
 Physics. . . .'. 165, 217, 263 
 
 Physics, importance of. 47 
 
 Physiology 235, 250 
 
 Piers. . . .- ' 383 
 
 Planning studies 82 
 
 Plans 127 
 
 Plans, deficiencies in 128 
 
 Pleasures, social 370 
 
 Pluck. ' 7 
 
 Plunder 338 
 
 Poesy 66 
 
 Point of view 299, 301 
 
 Poise 14 
 
 Polemics 387 
 
 Policy. . . 433 
 
 Polish 14 
 
 Politeness 477 
 
 Political economy 265, 289, 447, 462 
 
 Political economy (defined) 258 
 
 Political matters 376 
 
 Political positions % 425 
 
 Political science ". . . . 352 
 
 Politics. 158, 225, 417, 446 
 
 Population, conjestion of.. 447 
 
 Position 71 
 
 Positions 358 
 
 Positions, executive 193 
 
 Positions for engineers..- 31 
 
 Positions for graduates 233 
 
 Position in government 425 
 
 Positions occupied by engineers 178 
 
 Positions, subordinate 426 
 
 Possibilities ; ,- 337 
 
 Post-graduate courses. . . 445 
 
 Post-graduate difficulties 83 
 
 Post-graduate school. . . 449 
 
 Post-graduate school of engineering 
 
 267, 268, 460 
 
 Post-graduate study 83, 184, 224 
 
 430, 447 
 
 Poverty of language 58, 59 
 
 Power 314, 325 
 
 Power, manufacture of. ... 161, 162, 163 
 
 Power, transmission. 466 
 
 Practical application. . . 241 
 
 Practical bearing 221 
 
 Practical education 146, 439 
 
 Practical engineer. 149, 151 
 
 Practical engineering 302 
 
 Practical in technical courses 76 
 
 Practice versus theory 182 
 
49U 
 
 1ADEX. 
 
 PASE 
 
 Pranks 20 
 
 Precedent. 433 
 
 Precision 385 
 
 Precision, measurements of.. 465 
 
 Preliminary collegiate education 73 
 
 Prescribed course 144 
 
 Prescribed work 85 
 
 Preservation of periodicals 108, 109 
 
 President 461 
 
 Prestige 8, 20 
 
 Press, technical 97, 99 
 
 Pride, false. 81 
 
 Principles 328, 476 
 
 Principles, application of 47 
 
 Principles, fundamental 218, 274 
 
 Principles, study of 326 
 
 Privilege of engineering education 8, 9 
 
 Privileges, special 9 
 
 Probity. . . .. 19 
 
 Problems, national. . 446 
 
 Problems of transportation 447 
 
 Professional career 79 
 
 Professional knowledge 475 
 
 Professional spirit. .- 171 
 
 Profession, engineering as a 26 
 
 Profession, learned 26 
 
 Profession of engineer 1, 21, 381 
 
 389, 422, 423 
 
 Profession of engineering 158, 191 
 
 Profundity 311 
 
 Progress 35, 316 
 
 Progress in engineering education. 452 
 
 Progress, world 467 
 
 Promises 434 
 
 Promptness. . . 342 
 
 Protection of engineers 281, 282 
 
 Prout, Col. H. G 159 
 
 Provincialism 20 
 
 Public libraries, using 92 
 
 Public service. . . 276 
 
 Public service corporations 297 
 
 Public work 417, 295 
 
 Public works, municipal 195 
 
 Punctuation. . . 62, 78 
 
 Purchasing 332, 333 
 
 Purchasing books 85, 87, 442 
 
 Pure sciences 257, 258 
 
 Pure science, field of 258, 259 
 
 Pure science, function of 259 
 
 Purpose 478 
 
 Purpose, directness of 304,366 
 
 Purpose, earnestness of 426 
 
 Purpose of engineering activity 479 
 
 Purpose of knowledge 303 
 
 Purpose of language 57 
 
 Purpose, singleness of 303 
 
 Qualifications 284, 285 
 
 lualifications for success 71 
 
 Qualifications of an engineer ... 209, 210 
 
 PAGI-: 
 
 Qualifications of engineers 195 
 
 Qualitative knowledge 29 
 
 Qualities in engineers 211 
 
 Quaternions 263 
 
 Buickness. 342 
 uickness in conclusions 348 
 
 Quickness of observation 335 
 
 Quiet. 19 
 
 Quizzing 242 
 
 Railroad companies 425 
 
 Railroading 359, 464 
 
 Railways. . 381 
 
 Rankine. 181, 182 
 
 Rationalizing 305 
 
 Readiness 200 
 
 Reading 58, 78, 414, 428 
 
 Reading books 475 
 
 Reading, library. . 441 
 
 Reading, non-technical 89 
 
 Reading periodicals 475 
 
 Reading, planning of . . 90 
 
 Reading, repetition in 94 
 
 Reading, technical 362 
 
 Reading (technical), extent of. 106, 107 
 
 Reading technical journals 86 
 
 Reading technical literature 87 
 
 Reasoning 243 
 
 Recommendations 367, 368 
 
 Recognition. . . 393 
 
 Recording 366 
 
 Records 117, 119 
 
 Records by drawing 126 
 
 Records, final 128, 129 
 
 Records, general explanations 123 
 
 Records in note-books 122 
 
 Records, neatness in 131 
 
 Records, objects of 120 
 
 Records of completed constructions 
 
 128, 129 
 
 Records on loose sheets 122 
 
 Records, permanency of 123 
 
 Records, truthfulness of 123 
 
 Records, varied list of 130 
 
 Recreation. 158, 383, 385, 436 
 
 Reference books 85 
 
 Reference library 91 
 
 Reforms 452 
 
 Regular course 144 
 
 Relaxation ..436, 46 
 
 Reliability 157, 337, 427 
 
 Repetition in reading 94 
 
 Reports 40, 63, 64, 124, 125, 334 
 
 Repudiation 434, 409 
 
 Reputation through writing 364 
 
 Requesting assistance 367 
 
 Requirements 322 
 
 Requirements for consulting engin- 
 eers 71 
 
 Requirements for entrance 55, 459 
 
INDEX. 491 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Requisites for success 475 
 
 Research 260, 287, 437, 439 
 
 Resenting advice. . 84 
 
 Resistance .' 315, 325 
 
 Resources 337, 445 
 
 Respect 41 
 
 Respect for the engineering profes- 
 sion ,. 281 
 
 Responsibilities. . . 8, 35, 393 
 
 Responsibility 323 
 
 Responsibility, concentration of. 249, 250 
 
 Responsibility, shirking of..- 306 
 
 Rest 439 
 
 Restlessness 316 
 
 Restrictions 417 
 
 Results 46, 345 
 
 Retaining teachers ~ 248 
 
 Reviewing text books 89, 475 
 
 Reviews of books 93, 103, 104 
 
 Revised editions 104, 105 
 
 Rewards 337 
 
 Rewards for engineers 199 
 
 Rhectoric 15, 57, 58 
 
 Riggs, M. J 197 
 
 River improvement 466 
 
 Rolling stone 316, 203,206 
 
 Roman engineering works 212 
 
 Roundness 313 
 
 Roughing it 360 
 
 Salary. 79, 224, 358 
 
 Salary, increasing of 368 
 
 Sanitary engineering 466 
 
 Satisfaction 46, 199,479 
 
 Satisfactions ..37, 39 
 
 Saving 434 
 
 Saving money 409 
 
 Scattering 326 
 
 Scholarships 453 
 
 Scholastic work, true value of.... 78 
 
 Science. . 177, 179 
 
 Science, fascination of 397 
 
 Science of engineering 191 
 
 Sciences, divisions of 257 
 
 Sciences, natural -- . . 165 
 
 Scientists. 177 
 
 Scope of civil engineering. . 2 
 
 Scope of electrical engineering. ... 3 
 
 Scope of engineering 1 
 
 Scope of mechanical engineering...- 3 
 
 Scope of mining engineering 3 
 
 Secondary stresses 464 
 
 Selecting books 103, 104 
 
 Self-analysis 306,405 
 
 Self-control 13, 239 
 
 Self-culture 238, 239 
 
 Self-discipline 250 
 
 Self-education 72 
 
 Self-exertion 250 
 
 Selfishness 302, 477 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Self-reliance 47, 357, 384, 386 
 
 Self-respect. 407 
 
 Self-training. . . 47 
 
 Sense. . 399 
 
 Service. 26, 342 
 
 Service, municipal 417 
 
 Settling accounts 472 
 
 Sewerage. . . 264 
 
 Shenehon, Francis C 5 
 
 Shirking responsibility 306 
 
 Shop cost 185 
 
 Shop-talk 32 
 
 Short comings 479 
 
 Simplicity 58, 303 
 
 Singleness of purpose 303 
 
 Six-year courses 55, 192, 276 
 
 Skinning 18 
 
 Slang 59 
 
 Sleep 16 
 
 Smith, Hon. Willard A 443 
 
 Smoking. . . 18, 201 
 
 Social activities 45 
 
 Social evil 17 
 
 Social pleasures -370, 62 
 
 Social sciences 257, 352 
 
 Societies 441 
 
 Societies, engineering 47,200 
 
 Societies, joining 365 
 
 Societies, technical 91,432 
 
 Society 226 
 
 Society for the Promotion of En- 
 gineering Education 452 
 
 Socrates, teachings of 242, 243 
 
 Soldiering. . . 81 
 
 Soldiers and engineers 169 
 
 Sound, study of 217 
 
 Sources of energy 445 
 
 Spanish 429 
 
 Speaking 463 
 
 Special privileges 9 
 
 Specialization 47, 77, 94, 106, 155 
 
 Specialization 178, 183, 215 
 
 Specialization in education 200,389 
 
 Specializing. . . 82, 361,426 
 
 Specializing (non) 306 
 
 Special knowledge 440 
 
 Special services 286 
 
 Specialties in engineering 255 
 
 Specialties, interdependence of 458 
 
 Specifications 63, 64, 364, 435,464 
 
 Specification, bad 64 
 
 Speech 62 
 
 Speech, errors of 61 
 
 Spelling 56, 149, 151 
 
 Spending-money 240 
 
 Sports. - 436 
 
 Sports, athletic 39 
 
 Standard, high. 46 
 
 Standards 314 
 
 Statistics 186 
 
 Statistics, instruction in. 114 
 
 Status of the engineering profesv 
 
 son 279, 281 
 
 Stephenson, Robert 228 
 
492 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Straightness 420 
 
 Strength 14, 325 
 
 Strenuous course 7 
 
 Strikes 296, 324 
 
 Struggle for existence 401 
 
 Studies, extent of.. 94, 95 
 
 Studies, extra 144, 145 
 
 Studies, list of 94, 95 
 
 Study after graduation 69, 71, 375 
 
 Study, continued. . 428, 429 
 
 Study, continuing 73, 75 
 
 Study extra 440 
 
 Studies, general 331 
 
 Study, graduate 441 
 
 Study, how to 243 
 
 Study men 223, 339, 341, 476 
 
 Study, neglect to 80 
 
 Study of engineering 189, 191 
 
 Study of English 78 
 
 Study of individual students 447 
 
 343, 415 
 
 Study of theory, cessation of 77 
 
 Study, post-graduate 224 
 
 Study, post-graduate 430,447 
 
 Studying to pass 82 
 
 Style i 57, 217, 363, 429 
 
 Subordinate positions. . 426 
 
 Subordinates 15 
 
 Subscribing for periodicals 90 
 
 Subways 217 
 
 Success. . ...71, 157, 224, 225, 235, 240 
 354, 387, 399, 405, 413, 419 
 
 Success (defined) 222 
 
 Success, essentials for -- 95 
 
 Success, qualifications for 71 
 
 Success, requisites for 475 
 
 Summer work 251 
 
 Superficiality 47 
 
 Supplementary books 85 
 
 Sureness 441 
 
 Surveying 359, 424 
 
 Survival of the fittest --. 312 
 
 Swain, Dr. Geo. F 229,449 
 
 Sympathy 338 
 
 System 19, 20, 304, 326, 440 
 
 Systematizing 370, 435 
 
 Systematization. 82, 455 
 
 System in records 121, 122 
 
 System in writing 121 
 
 Systems, business 476 
 
 Tact 336, 399, 433, 445 
 
 Tactfulness 384, 386 
 
 Talkers 393 
 
 Talking 151, 152 
 
 Talking shop. 32 
 
 Taste, artistic 137 
 
 Taylor, F. W 231 
 
 Teachers, incompetent 248 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Teachers, personality of..-- 154 
 
 Teachers, requirements for 245 
 
 Teachers, retaining. 248 
 
 Teachers, scarcity of 245 
 
 Teachers, unproductive 247 
 
 Teaching. 135, 433 
 
 Teaching, coordination in 248,249 
 
 Teaching engineering. . ; 358, 439 
 
 Team-work 399 
 
 Technical courses, limitations of. 75, 76 
 
 Technical education 175 
 
 Technical education, improvement in 267 
 Tehnical education, necessity of. ... 157 
 
 Technical journals 47 
 
 Technical journals, reading 86 
 
 Technical library, beginning of...- 86 
 
 Technical literature 364, 428, 452 
 
 Technical literature, reading 87 
 
 Technical magazines 414 
 
 Technical paper writing 62 
 
 Technical periodicals, English of.. 54 
 
 Technical press. . 97, 99 
 
 Technical press, duty of 100 
 
 Technical reading. . ' 362 
 
 Technical school training, limits of. 83 
 
 Technical societies 91, 432 
 
 Technical subjects 145 
 
 Technical training 261 
 
 Technical writing, importance of.. 63 
 
 Technique of language 78 
 
 Temptations 187 
 
 Terseness 217, 363 
 
 Testimony, expert 335 
 
 Testing 466 
 
 Testing apparatus 287 
 
 Testing laboratory 461 
 
 Text-books. . . 347 
 
 Text-books, reviewing 89, 475 
 
 Text-books, selling of old 87 
 
 Text-book system 242 
 
 Theories , 441 
 
 Theory and practice 30, 457 
 
 Theory, cessation of study of 77 
 
 Theory, importance of 89 
 
 Theory of life 478 
 
 Theory versus practice 182 
 
 Thinking. , 354 
 
 Thinking, logical 242 
 
 Thomson, W. H 238 
 
 Thorough-breds ..12, 14 
 
 Thoroughness. . 17, 211, 212, 354 
 
 Thought, clearness of 304 
 
 Time, leisure 89 
 
 Time-servers 368, 414 
 
 Time-serving. . . 427 
 
 Time- wasting 89, 385 
 
 Tobacco. . . 18, 235 
 
 Traffic, congestion of 447 
 
 Trade publications. . . 99 
 
 Trades 15 
 
 Trade school. 301 
 
 Trades schools 275 
 
 Training 76, 384 
 
 Train of electrical engineers. . .271, 273 
 
INDEX. 
 
 493 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Training of the character 477 
 
 Training, mental 39, 46, 234 
 
 Training, military 239 
 
 Training, physical 234, 235, 250 
 
 261 
 461 
 466 
 447 
 428 
 377 
 1 
 
 Training, technical 
 
 Translating 
 
 Transmission of power. . 
 Transportation problems. 
 
 Trash, technical 
 
 Travel 
 
 Tredgold. . . 
 
 Treclgold's definition of engineering. 168 
 
 Tribunal. , 40 
 
 Trusts. . . 296 
 
 Truth 171,172,226,387,422 
 
 Truth-seeking 30 
 
 Trying. 316 
 
 Tunneling 465 
 
 u 
 
 Ultimate object. . 
 
 Underpay 
 
 Unfitness in students 
 
 University education 
 
 University of Nebraska 
 
 University organization 
 
 Unpreparedness. 74, 
 
 Unprofitable courses 
 
 Unselfishness 
 
 Unsociability 
 
 Urban development 
 
 Urbanity 
 
 Usage. 
 
 Usage (of language) 52, 
 
 Useful knowledge 28, 
 
 Utilitarian education 
 
 Utility. 
 
 Utilization 
 
 370 
 
 478 
 
 239 
 
 157 
 
 449 
 
 10 
 
 75 
 
 246 
 
 315 
 
 221 
 
 382 
 
 14 
 
 60 
 
 53 
 
 29 
 
 26 
 
 260 
 
 307 
 
 Vacations. . 251, 370, 385 
 
 Value of English 49, 51 
 
 Value of positions 31 
 
 Values, money -503 
 
 Vandals O 
 
 Varied experience 
 
 Variety of interests 370 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vary, power to 307 
 
 Versatility 15, 306 
 
 Vigor 66 
 
 Virtue. .' 200 
 
 Visiting works and constructions. . 462 
 
 Vocabulary 306 
 
 Vocations, importance of 176 
 
 Vocation of the engineer 177 
 
 Volitional side of university life.. 137 
 
 w 
 
 Wanted, being -. . . . 323 
 
 Wasting time 363, 385 
 
 Water-powers 296 
 
 Water-supply. 264, 466 
 
 W r aterways, improvement of 446 
 
 Wharves 383 
 
 Will 238, 239 
 
 Will, exercise of 138 
 
 Williams, Gardner 210 
 
 Words. 151 
 
 Work 315 
 
 Work definition of 203, 205 
 
 Work, effective. 243 
 
 Work for engineers 199 
 
 Work, extra scholastic 85' 
 
 Work, hard 39, 311 
 
 Working time, increasing 460 
 
 Work, liberality in 377 
 
 Work of the engineer 168, 281 
 
 Work, prescribed 85 
 
 World progress 467 
 
 Worth 378 
 
 Worthless books 442 
 
 Writing 120, 185, 433 
 
 Writing (books and papers) .. .363, 364 
 
 Writing, errors in 58 
 
 Writing neatness in 121 
 
 Writing of instructions 63 
 
 Writing of letters 130 
 
 Writing papers 441 
 
 Writing, reputation from 364 
 
 Writing, system in 121 
 
 Yellow fever 269 
 
 Young engineers, deficiencies in.... 454 
 
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 LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF