TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 255 



ing-house was a source of disaster in furnaces; while merely "prac- 

 tical men " were helpless before the great problems in railroad and 

 other types of civil engineering. There was room no longer for uned- 

 ucated surveyors, founders, superintendents, engineers. The skill 

 demanded under the new conditions converted those " callings " into 

 genuine learned professions, and schools of applied science were estab- 

 lished to fit men for them. Most of the students in those schools, now 

 receiving advanced education, can not afford the luxury of a college 

 education course, and their increasing number is due simply to the 

 great demand for trained men in subordinate as well as in responsible 

 positions. 



The assertion that men go into science for the money that is in it 

 is merely a variation of the refrain with which the writer was familiar 

 during his early student days, fifty years ago. Then, the attractions 

 of business were the vile bait which lured men from the supposedly 

 unselfish pursuits. But the plaint is unworthy of the men who make 

 it. Students go into science as others go into law, medicine, or at 

 times, even into the ministry, for the " money that is in it " — that is, 

 to gain a livelihood in an honorable way. If a graduate in applied 

 science have great energy, common sense and executive ability, the 

 combination of business capacity with systematic training may put 

 him eventually into a position of great responsibility with correspond- 

 ing salary; but if he must follow his professional work alone, the 

 prospects of acquiring a competency are about as good as those of the 

 average clergyman. 



It is unfortunate that our colleges have not made clear differen- 

 tiation between students in ciilture and students in applied science. 

 Failure to do this has brought about the tendency to confound pure 

 and applied science, college and professional work, which is shown by 

 many college graduates. If one recognizes this fact, he will be less 

 surprised at the frequency with which technical schools are dragged 

 into discussions respecting changes in the college curriculum. An 

 excellent illustration of the tendency referred to appears in an address 

 delivered at the inauguration of a college president a year or two ago. 

 The speaker pled for classical training, as a classical college " is the 

 best place in which to keep alive the heroic ideals of self-sacrifice and 

 service." He said: 



It was urged when technical education began to be largely developed in our 

 land and the classics were cast out from the training of young men and women 

 — it was urged that this new kind of training in the precise and mathematical 

 sciences would breed men of firmer principles. The technical schools of our 

 land have not turned out men and women who see moral issues more precisely 

 or who live more faithfully for the right things on earth than the young men 

 and women who have had their education under classical influence. And the 

 influence of our technical schools not alone has not bred firmer principle, but it 

 surely has not bred finer sentiment. 



