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one bears to others, and to formulate these relations into rules 

 of practice. Railway and other transportation companies will 

 not attain their highest efficiency nor will the public be served 

 at lowest cost, until the business of every department of the 

 transportation industry has been reduced to such a basis. 

 It is in recognition of this fact and as an aid in training young 

 men for positions of responsibility in such transportation 

 companies, that the University of Illinois conducts a School of 

 Railway Engineering and Administration, the purpose of 

 which is to deal with such great questions as the design, con- 

 struction and maintenance of railway equipment, with the 

 problems of accountancy, operation and management ; sub- 

 jects which many people believe can not be taught in a col- 

 lege, but which are in fact easily capable of successful treat- 

 ment there. It is the province of this School so to train stu- 

 dents that they may be ready to assume the business of the 

 transportation companies when the present-day officials give 

 up their duties, and to carry it forward on a plane which will 

 be in keeping with the advanced requirements of their day. 



The introduction of this work is difficult because those who 

 are to profit most by its success can not at once appreciate its 

 significance. If we were to say that we plan to train men in 

 college in railroad management, public opinion would dis- 

 credit the effort just as thirty years ago it discredited the col- 

 lege when it attempted to train men in agriculture. But the 

 day is at hand for a new era in the management of transporta- 

 tion, when science must take the place of the rule-of-the- 

 thumb, and I ask the interest of the membership of the Acad- 

 emy, in the efforts which the University is putting forth to 

 make a contribution to such a result." 



Prof. Blair:— 



"In the present legislature there is a gentleman who said 

 he thought science was mere twaddle. Why, he said, 'I was 

 walking down the street the other day with my boy and a toad 

 jumped across the sidewalk and my boy picked it up and I said, 



