Januaby 17, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



87 



tance of such considerations in his annual 

 report for 1906-7. 



In an address, well worthy of careful 

 consideration, before the graduating class 

 of the Rose Polytechnic Institute in 1903, 

 Dr. C. E. Mendenhall, of the University of 

 Wisconsin, discussed the subject of whether 

 the technical education there given com- 

 pared favorably with the so-ealled liberal 

 education of the regular college or uni- 

 versity. He concludes: 



It is apparent, then, that teclmieal education, 

 as at present understood, is strong in the matter 

 of the discipline of the mind and will ; it will help 

 a student to think clearly; it will give him self- 

 confidence and self-control, and teach him the 

 virtue of the necessity for work. It is equally 

 apparent that the system is weak on the side of 

 broad general knowledge and cultivation, and 

 there is no doubt that this is a serious defect. 



And after discussing various remedies for 

 the situation, he adds: 



In ways like these will it become more and more 

 true, let us hope, that the engineering graduate 

 has had the essential features of a liberal educa- 

 tion in addition to his professional training. 



He asks the question: 



But do we fully grasp the fact that we are 

 called upon to be broad men as well as specialists, 

 and that there is a sort of success to be attained 

 quite distinct from our professions? 



The president of Case School, in his 

 inaugural address in 1904, said: 



It [a technical course] does not teach him all 

 that an educated man ought to know. It would 

 be much better if our technical graduates were 

 broadly educated men as well as trained engineers, 

 if they had received a college training before en- 

 tering on a technical course. ... I believe the 

 student should be trained to know, to search, to 

 think, before he enters the technical school. Dur- 

 ing his whole life he would have a broader out- 

 look, a deeper sympathy with men and events, a 

 greater influence upon the community. I am sure 

 he would be a better engineer. 



President James, in his inaugural ad- 

 dress on assuming the office of president of 

 the University of Illinois, in 1905, said: 



The university is the institution which furnishes 

 a special professional, technical training for some 

 particular calling. This special, technical, profes- 

 sional training must, however, be scientific in 

 character and must be based upon adequate pre- 

 liminary preparation of a liberal sort. 



By this requirement of a liberal preparatory 

 training, the university is diiferentiated from the 

 technical school or trade school of secondary grade. 



In the light of the preceding statements, 

 it would seem that my plea for a broader 

 education of the man who is to adopt a 

 professional career has been supported very 

 generally by those who have given the sub- 

 ject consideration. The requirements of 

 the Harvard Schools of Medicine and Law 

 are recognized as applicable to other pro- 

 fessional schools, and in this respect I am 

 putting forward nothing novel. I believe, 

 however, that but little has ever been said 

 in regard to the necessity of a similar re- 

 quirement in the schools where our chem- 

 ical engineers are trained, although an 

 equal necessity, in my opinion, exists. I 

 am ready to grant that the individual who 

 proposes to follow the career of an investi- 

 gator in pure science may, perhaps, suc- 

 ceed by specializing from his earliest years, 

 but it can not be granted in the case of the 

 engineer who must train himself as well to 

 deal with men and affairs as with his 

 strictly professional subjects. The question, 

 of course, always arises as to what the edu- 

 cation shall be of those who are to occupy 

 places of minor rank, and form the rank 

 and file of industrial chemists, but who 

 will never attain eminence as chemical en- 

 gineers. Here a good education is de- 

 manded along technical lines alone, and in 

 the more narrow field little else is called 

 for. Our technical schools can accomplish 

 this work, but there is always danger that 

 the graduate may be led to think that his 

 degree, without any regard to his natural 

 abilities, will lead him to the higher places 

 in the profession, and, when he finds that 

 he is not the great success that he has pic- 



