92 



fostered The liearinss of these cenei-iil stnclies iipon his seientifio work should 

 he uiiide clear, hut not unduly emphasized as the main aim. The real oh.ject is 

 tt> develop mental faculties not effectively reached hy other work. As a matter 

 of course the en^'iniH'r needs to he ahle to write his reports in sood English, hut 

 this power is a small i)art of what the department of English may give him. 

 His gi-eater needs are to gain the most complete and correct appreciation he can 

 of wTiat the living world ai-ound him really is. of what it has heen in the past, 

 and of the relations to it of himself and his profession. He needs to know all 

 he can learn of concrete human nature hy association with his fellow-men. not 

 alone his fellow-students, and then to pass beyond the hounds of ])ossihle per- 

 sonal experience into the regions of national and race experience in the light of 

 histn-y and economics. That study is most liberal which best liberates the 

 mind "from the limitations of ignorance, prejudice, and shortsightedness. The 

 mind is expanded by the mastery of large ideas. It is narrowed by prolonged 

 attention to the minute and the s])ecial. Modern science becomes more and 

 more liiteral in jiroportion as its suliject-matter becomes systemati7>ed and coor- 

 dinated by generalized laws. Such princiiiles as the conservation of energy or 

 natural selection are among the broadest and most liberalizing of human ideas. 

 The engineer must occupy himself long and earnestly with details, but so. too, 

 nmst the specialist in any line. The safeguard for each nmst lie in breadth and 

 variety of interests. 



In the comi>arativcly short period since their foundation the engineering col- 

 leges have definit(>ly achieved certain large results. They have gained the con- 

 fidence of the industrial world by the proved efficiency of their graduates. 

 They have won the resi)ect tif the great body of scientific- men by resolutely 

 insisting on thoroughness in scientific fiuidamentals as distinguished from 

 empirical methods. They have still much to accomplish — as. indeed, have all 

 colleges — in striving toward an ideal general education. This great ja-oblem 

 is at once vuiiv«'rsal and individual. Every student is a special care. Every 

 college must work out its own solution in a manner best adajited to its con- 

 stituency as a whole and with as nuich freedom as practicable for the individual. 



W. E. Stone, of Indiana, presented th(> following i)aper : 



.\ DoiKKE CouK.sE i.\ Home Economics. 



The extraordinary developments in scientific and technical education in 

 recent years, in which the land-grant colleges have had so important a part, 

 have ]il;iyed havoc with established notions as to curricula, degree requirements, 

 and tile relativt' provinces of the school, the college, and the university. The 

 clamor against the recognition of the sciences, and. later, of the various 

 branches of technology, as a legitimate part of a scheme of education has not 

 yet subsided from our recollection, although no longer the subjects of serious 

 controversy. Nowadays the student of systematic <>ducation is lirought to con- 

 temiilate a fiood of new and strange subjects which have been injected into the 

 cui'ricula of schools and colleges with little i)reliminary digestion or cori'clation. 

 and it is no wonder that (»ne sometimes feels an honest doubt concerning the 

 jiroper educational status of many kinds of instruction, of (luite evident indus- 

 trial ai)plication. but of remote connection with letters, arts, or sciences. From 

 the nature of things, such examples are common in land-grant colleges Avhich, 

 in occupying the great fields of agriculture and the mechanic arts, have put 

 forth a multitude of subjects for instruction in connection with the most 

 commonplace and familiar opei'ations of daily life, about which great numbers 

 of jieople already i)ossess some degree of knowledge and experience. It is 

 inevitable that tlie right of many of these subjects to a place in the college 

 curriculum, much l<>ss to weight in a course for an academic degree, should be 

 (|uestioned. 



There are two phases or aspects of every art or industry, the operative, 

 requiring manual skill, and the administrative, requiring a knowledge of and 

 education in all of the subjects having relation to that i)articular art or in- 

 dustry. These manual operations are everywhere being constantly performed 

 by uneducated i)eople. with fairly acce]»tal)le results; they are not suscejitible 

 of great imiirovement or change, and even if they were so imin-oved or changed 

 they still would not re(|uire the services of highly educated op(>ratives. Better 

 training and greater intelligence on the part of such o])eratives is highly desir- 

 jd>le. but the projier performance of these o]terati()ns is not bas(>d ujion an 

 extensive knowledge of the sciences, but uiuai ]»ersonal manual skill and 



