DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 67 



where a student would remain long enough to acquire skill in the 

 special trades in which he desires instruction. 



It is obvious that my remarks have not been ai)plicable to schools of 

 this character. 



After this general discussion as to the education of an engineer, it 

 is a matter of some interest to note what this institution has contributed 

 along these lines, as well as to consider what it is doing and what it 

 is likely to do. 



This institution, I am happy to say, has always been a leader in 

 educational methods and has occupied a prominent position in the world 

 of education during the entire period of its existence. It has especially 

 been the leader in a certain form of industrial education and was the 

 first to point out methods of applying scientific processes to the mater- 

 ial advancement of the greatest industrv of our countrv. In connec- 

 tion with the early work of this institution and preceding the establish- 

 ment of mechanical or engineering courses, it obtained because of the 

 excellent work done here, a reputation for scientific research unsur- 

 passed in the annals of the educational Avorld, which reputation has 

 been increased by the excellent work of the last few years. 



It was my own good fortune to be a student here some thirty-five years 

 ago and when the total enrollment did not much exceed 100 students, and 

 in later years, after graduating as an engineer in our neighboring uni- 

 versity, I was called back as one of the teachers to aid in the preliminary 

 development of an engineering course. While I have not been in close 

 personal contact with the work here during the past eighteen years, I 

 have been in position to know in a general way what has been done 

 and I now congratulate the college, its officers and students, for hav- 

 ing passed through the period of development and having entered upon 

 the period of production which is now so auspiciously inaugurated by 

 the new structure with which your State has so generously endowed 

 you. 



It is a great step in the line of material improvement and advance- 

 ment since the time when I first saw the institution and became 

 acquainted with its oflBcers and students. As the epochs of improvement 

 which have marked the successful progress of the institution from 

 period to period are matters of history and are well-known to nearly 

 every person here, it is unnecessary for me to consume your time with 

 a repetition, and I Avill not refer to the beginning nor intermediate 

 stages of the period of development which finall}' led to the convenient, 

 appropriate and magnificent building and to the perfect system of edu- 

 cation for engineers which you now possess. 



This structure in its completeness, with its well equipped laboratories, 

 class rooms, drawing rooms and shops, speaks for itself in a way more 

 eloquent than words can exyjress of what has been accomplished in a 

 material way, and leads me to extend again my congratulations to the 

 president, faculty, students and the State of Michigan for the magnifi- 

 cent equipment for engineering education of which you are the proud 

 possessors. 



In conclusion I desire to call attention to the well-known fact that 

 although structures and material equipment are of great importance 

 to the institution to which they belong, yet the real improvement on 

 which the institution's reputation depends comes from the character and 



