UTILITARIAN SCIENCE. 83 



apply knowledge to action. In practical life the American makes the 

 most of all he knows. Favoring this is the absence of caste feeling. 

 There is no prejudice in favor of the idle man. Only idlers take the 

 members of the leisure class seriously. There is, again, no social dis- 

 crimination against the engineer as compared with other learned pro- 

 fessions. The best of our students become working engineers without 

 loss of social prestige of any sort. Another reason is found in the 

 great variety of industrial openings in America, and still another in 

 the sudden growth of American colleges into universities, and univer- 

 sities in which both pure and applied sciences find a generous welcome. 

 For this the Morrill Act, under which each state has developed a tech- 

 nical school, under federal aid, is largely responsible. In the change 

 from the small college of thirty years ago, a weak copy of English 

 models, to the American university of to-day, many elements have con- 

 tributed. Among these is the current of enlightenment from Ger- 

 many, and at the same time the influence of far-seeing leaders in edu- 

 cation. Notable among these have been Tappan, Eliot, Agassiz and 

 White. To widen the range of university instruction so as to meet all 

 the intellectual, esthetic and industrial needs of the ablest men is the 

 work of the modern university. To do this work is to give a great 

 impetus to pure and to applied science. 



Two classes of men come to the front in the development of engi- 

 neering: the one, men of deep scientific knowledge, to whom advance 

 of knowledge is due, the other the great constructive engineers; men 

 who can work in the large and can manage great enterprises with sci- 

 entific accuracy and practical success. Everywhere the tendency in 

 training is away from mere craftsmanship and towards power of 

 administration. The demands of the laboratory leave less and 

 less time for the shop. " Two classes of students," says a corre- 

 spondent, " should be encouraged in our universities : First, the man 

 whose scientific attainments are such that he will be able to develop 

 new and important processes, the details of which may be directly ap- 

 plied. This type of man is the scientific engineer. The other is the 

 so-called practical man, who will not only actually carry on engineer- 

 ing work, but may be called on to manage large enterprises. If his 

 temperament and ability are such as to give him a thorough command 

 of business methods and details, while he is in addition a good engi- 

 neer, he will find a field of great usefulness before him on leaving the 

 university. The university should encourage young men to undertake 

 the general executive work necessary to handling men and in the many 

 details of large enterprises. The successful man of this character is 

 necessarily a leader and the university should recognize that such a 

 man can be of great influence in the world, if he is thoroughly and 

 broadly educated." 



" We need," says another correspondent, " men possessing a better 

 general training than most of those now entering and leaving our engi- 



