AND MARINE TRANSPORTATION. 11 
technical schools really began, and that there was a demand on the part of the ship- 
yards and factories that a graduate of one of these technical schools should be able 
practically to take the position of general manager. In other words, they seemed to 
flatter the schools with the idea that you could take a boy of sixteen or seventeen years 
of age and give him four years of training, which would take the place of twenty-five 
or thirty years‘of actual experience in business affairs. That, of course, is ridiculous. 
We all know, perhaps, that the greatest element of value of the leading men in all the 
shipyards is this very experience. If the schools do give this thorough grounding in 
fundamentals, then I think they have done their part and all that can be asked of them. 
_ Then, of course, the question is: — What are the fundamentals which will be given? 
A paper like this of Professor Chapman brings the matter up and erects a target at 
which anyone can shoot if he wants.to. 
I was glad, indeed, to hear Professor Crouch’s remarks, and I wish to confirm his 
statement that we at Webb Institute had already thought of some of these ideas that 
Professor Chapman has brought out in his paper, and that we are trying to graduate 
our boys with this start to enable them to develop into executives as well as into draughts- 
men or technical men only. As Professor Crouch said, Mr. McAuliffe, one of the Webb 
graduates, had a chance to see from his own personal experience that if the boys who 
come from technical schools had been given some elementary training in management, 
in executive work, they would be in a better position when they got out into the shops 
to develop themselves for filling such positions. We all know it is commonly said that 
every large concern is constantly on the lookout for good men to advance, and that, of 
course, is true, but if boys never hear anything about management at all, the tendency 
for them is to start in minor positions without thinking of this thing unless they are 
unusually ambitious. They do not have as broad an outlook as they otherwise would have, 
and I believe their outlook should be broadened to make them more useful men in the 
shipyards where they go to work. 
Mr. P. J. McAuLirre, Member:—As a graduate of Webb’s Academy and a member 
of its Board of Trustees, I want to take this excellent opportunity to thank the naval 
architects and marine engineers for their very much appreciated assistance in placing 
the students of Webb’s Academy during the summer months in the various shipyards. 
I also want to say that while I was in the Shipping Board we endeavored to collect 
a great deal of information concerning plans, something like what Mr. Norton spoke of, 
to be sent around to the various schools of naval architecture, and if any school of naval 
architecture, marine engineering or shipbuilding has not received these plans, they can 
probably get them from the Shipping Board, as these plans were to be placed at the dis- 
posal of any technical institution in the country. 
Pror. H. C. SapLer, Member of Council:—The question of the education of the 
engineer is one that is open to more criticism and discussion than anything else, particu- 
larly at the present time. You know, I think, that there are more fashions in engineering 
education than there are in clothes. We go through a cycle of fashions and very often go 
back to the old fashions of thirty, forty or fifty years ago; at any rate that seems to be 
the tendency at the present time. 
I might tell you of an interesting experience we had some years ago. We are always 
trying to look ahead in Michigan and so decided we would have a meeting of our alumni. 
