578 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 619. 



Dodge, in his admirable paper on 'The 

 Commercial Value of an Education,' has 

 shown through carefully gathered statistics, 

 that within a few years after graduation 

 the college educated engineer far outstrips 

 in position and salary his average com- 

 petitor who comes up from the ranks. 



It would be a much more congenial task 

 to dwell upon this view of the profession, 

 but something may possibly be gained by 

 considering what has seemed to many of 

 the friends of our young graduates to be 

 the one defect which they practically all 

 have in common. 



For a period of from six months to two 

 years after graduating they are, generally 

 speaking, discontented and unhappy. They 

 are apt to look upon their employers as 

 unappreciative, unjust and tyrannical, and 

 it is frequently only after changing em- 

 ployers once or twice and finding the same 

 lack of appreciation in all of them that 

 they finally start upon their real careers 

 of usefulness. 



On the other, hand, the attitude of em- 

 ployers towards young graduates is fairly 

 expressed by the following written instruc- 

 tions given for the selection of quite a large 

 number of young men to fill positions which 

 presented opportunities for rapid develop- 

 ment and advancement. These instructions 

 were to give the preference — first, to gradu- 

 ates of technical schools; second, to the 

 graduates of the academic departments; 

 but to employ no college boy who had not 

 been out for more than two years. 



Why is it, then, that these young men are 

 discontented and of practically little use 

 during the first year or two after gradu- 

 ating ? 



To a certain extent this is unquestionably 

 due to the sudden and radical change from 

 years spent as boys almost solely in absorb- 

 ing and assimilating knowledge for their 

 own benefit to their new occupation of 



giving out and using what they have for 

 the benefit of others. To a degree it is the 

 sponge objecting to the pressure of the 

 hand which uses it. To a greater degree, 

 however, I believe this trouble to be due to 

 the lack of discipline and to the lack of 

 direct, earnest and logical purpose which 

 accompanies, to a large extent, modern 

 university life. 



During the four years that these young 

 men are at college they are under less dis- 

 cipline, and are given a greater liberty 

 than they have ever had before or will ever 

 have again. 



As to college discipline, it can not be a 

 good training for after life for a young 

 man deliberately to be told by the univer- 

 sity authorities that he can flagrantly neg- 

 lect his duties sixty times in one term 

 before any attention will be paid to it; 

 while, if in business, the same young man 

 would be discharged for being absent two 

 or three times without permission. 



And, as to the freedom offered by the 

 modem university system, it is not true 

 that boys from eighteen to twenty years 

 old have the knowledge and experience 

 necessary to select a logical and well- 

 rounded course of studies, and even if they 

 had this wisdom, the temptation to choose 

 those studies which come easiest is so 

 strong that it would be unwise to throw 

 upon them so great a responsibility. Nor 

 does it appear wise to leave each student 

 free to study as little or as much as may 

 suit him, at times doing practically no work 

 for days, and at others greatly overwork- 

 ing, vfith no restraint or direction except 

 the round-up which comes twice a year 

 with examinations. At the least, it must 

 be said that in commercial or industrial 

 life this undirected liberty will never again 

 be allowed them. 



During the past thirty years two radical 

 changes have occurred in educational meth- 



