258 WILLIAM D. ENNIS 



management. The chief engineer of a large manufacturing 

 company often becomes as little of an engineer (excepting in 

 his methods) as his typewriter. 



This state of affairs is becoming more and more prevalent. 

 The managers of street railway, gas, electric lighting, and 

 similar companies are, in the main, men of engineering train- 

 ing. The general management of broader manufacturing in- 

 dustries is being concentrated in the same direction. The 

 departmental organization of commerce requires men who 

 shall be, first of all, able executives; second, experts in the 

 departmental work. In all excepting purely specialized 

 branches — such as the legal or financial — use is being made of 

 the trained engineer. Salesmen of mechanical goods, railway 

 transportation department officials, and incumbents of many 

 other apparently unrelated fields, are made from engineering 

 timber. The highest executive positions in the great indus- 

 tries are accessible to men of mechanical training and common 

 sense. 



The United States are confronted with an era of industrial 

 consolidation, of which we have thus far seen but the incep- 

 tion. A line of succession must sooner or later be established, 

 leading to the posts of responsibility. These consolidations 

 may properly be viewed as just so much labor saving machin- 

 ery which, like similar developments of the past, have met 

 with much unintelligent condemnation, and which have been 

 rendered possible to no small extent, because of specialized 

 engineering talent. Much of this is due to the almost invaria- 

 ble consequences of engineering training. It gives thorough- 

 ness first of all, for no progress is possible in mechanical 

 operations without thorough mastery of each step. It gives 

 a command of details. It develops a graphic habit of thought, 

 an ability to picture abstract things, and to make mere con- 

 ceptions real. It emphasizes the necessity of recording, 

 transcribing, comparing, and perfecting one's observations 

 until the elementary facts have been clearly sifted out and the 

 basic principles mastered. And at no stage, especially if cou- 

 pled with rational and competent scientific study, is it other 

 than broadening to every faculty of the mind. More than all 

 these, it creates the courage and ability to grapple with new 



