12 UTILITARIAN SCIENCES 



The coming era in engineering is less a period of discovery and 

 invention than of application on a large scale of principles already 

 known. Greater enterprises, higher potentialities, freer use of forces 

 of nature, all these are in the line of engineering progress. 



"The realm of physical science," says a correspondent, "has 

 become to the practical man a highly improved agricultural land, 

 whereas in earlier days it was a virgin country possessing great- 

 possibilities and exacting but little in the way of economic treat- 

 ment." 



In all forms of engineering, practice is changing from day to day; 

 the principles remain fixed. In electricity, for example, the field of 

 knowledge " extends far beyond the direct limits or needs of electrical 

 engineers." 



"The best criticism as to engineering education came formerly 

 almost entirely from professors of science and engineering. To-day 

 the greatest and most wholesome source of such criticism comes from 

 those engaged in practical affairs. We have begun a regime wherein 

 coordinated theory and practice will enter into the engineering 

 training of young men to a far greater and more profitable extent 

 than ever before." 



"The marvelous results in the industrial world of to-day," says a 

 correspondent, "are due largely to the spirit of 'usefulness, activity, 

 and cooperation' that exists in each community of interests and 

 which actuates men employing the means which applied science 

 has so bountifully accorded. I know of no greater need of engineer- 

 ing education in our country to-day than that its conduct in each 

 institution should be characterized by the same spirit of useful- 

 ness, activity, and cooperation." 



In mining, as in other departments of engineering, we find in the 

 schools the same growing appreciation of the value of training at 

 once broad, thorough, and practical, and the same preference for the 

 university-trained engineer over the untrained craftsman. 



The head of a great mining firm in London writes me that " for 

 our business, what we desire are young men of good natural quali- 

 fications, thoroughly trained theoretically without any so-called 

 practical knowledge unless this knowledge has been gained by 

 employment in actual works." 



On the pay-roll of this English firm I find that five men receive 

 salaries of more than $20,000. All these are graduates of technical 

 departments of American universities. Seventeen receive from 

 $6000 to $20,000. Nine of these were trained in American univer- 

 sities, one in Australia, and two in England, while five have risen 

 from the ranks. 



In the lower positions, most have been trained in Australia, a 



