PROBLEMS IN TRAINING MINING ENGINEERS 665 



their lives to the arts, to philosophy, and letters. The student is thus 

 forced to become familiar with a wider outlook. Some touch with one 

 of the finer arts, such as music, painting, or sculpture, that will bring 

 out the innate love of ideal beauty that exists in every man, is neces- 

 sary to a well-balanced nature. Perhaps the most important of these 

 influences is the cultivation of a taste for general literature, whose 

 possession is a refreshment to the soul. The mining engineer who 

 possesses it takes with him to the ends of the earth an inspiration that 

 must make him an agency of moral and spiritual uplift wherever he 

 may be. 



Location of Mining Schools 



Which is the better location for a mining school, a mining centre 

 or a commercial one? Successful mining schools have been established 

 in the older countries in both situations; Freiberg, Clausthal, Przi- 

 bram, and Leoben are examples of the former; and Paris, Berlin and 

 London of the latter. Historically, the first to be established were in 

 the mining centres, which have the advantage of surrounding the 

 student with a professional atmosphere, in which all the activities 

 and ambitions of life gather about this one industry. When means of 

 communication were poor, such a location was almost indispensable. 



But such a location tends to make the training of the mining 

 engineer provincial when it should be universal. Moreover, even in 

 Europe, an end comes at last to a mining district, and the mining 

 school becomes stranded in a dying community. Some of the most 

 famous of the European schools are already approaching this condi- 

 tion, which yearly becomes more desperate. 



It is for this reason that the modern tendency is in the opposite 

 direction. The most permanent of human institutions are the great 

 commercial centres, made so by natural physiographic features, that 

 facilitate intercourse, which is the life of trade. The capital that 

 develops mines comes from these centres, and the profits from the 

 mines return to them. The enterprise that undertakes great ventures 

 has its source there, and thence, confining itself to no national 

 boundaries, reaches out to grasp the natural wealth of the world. 



It is becoming more and more important that a mining school 

 should l)e located at the heart of things; for it needs to be not only 

 permanent, but permanently strong; to maintain relations with 

 capital not less than labor; and to have a cosmopolitan rather than 

 a provincial outlook and sphere. It is as necessary as ever that the 

 mining school should be in close touch with many operating mines. 

 But in modern times this is much more easily effected from commer- 

 cial than from mining centres. For these reasons, I believe that in the 

 near future the positions of commanding importance will be held by 



