590 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 879 



mentioned positions in the medical corps of 

 the army and of the navy, civil engineers in 

 the engineer corps of the army, assistant naval 

 constructors in the navy, second lieutenants 

 in the army and in the marine corps. The 

 war department has at the present time about 

 one hundred and fifty vacancies in the cav- 

 alry, field artillery, and infantry branches of 

 the army that are to be filled from civil life 

 after preference has been given to enlisted 

 men capable of passing the tests required for 

 promotion from the ranks. To secure nomi- 

 nation for a commission in the army a civil- 

 ian must pass (1) a preliminary mental ex- 

 amination, (2) a physical test, and (3) a final 

 mental examination. Graduates of "recog- 

 nized " colleges or universities or of institu- 

 tions of learning at which officers of the army 

 are detailed as professors of military science 

 and tactics of a certain standard, are not re- 

 quired to take the preliminary mental test, 

 and upon passing the physical test and the 

 final mental examination "honor" graduates 

 of such institutions receive preference in ap- 

 pointment. An examination is now in course 

 of preparation by the war department to fill 

 from civil life ten places of civil engineer in 

 the engineer corps of the army. The IJnited 

 States Public Health and Marine Hospital 

 Service offers a career to graduates in medi- 

 cine who can pass the examination prescribed 

 by the service. The diplomatic and consular 

 services have recently been placed, by act of 

 congress and executive order, on a higher 

 plane and made more permanent in character. 

 Entrance to either service is through exami- 

 nation, and vacancies in the more important 

 posts are filled by those who demonstrate abil- 

 ity in the lower-salaried ofiices. The entrance 

 examination is searching and includes col- 

 legiate work. All appointees to these posi- 

 tions in the various services mentioned are 

 commissioned by the President of the United 

 States. 



Public confidence in the worth of college 

 training is seen in the choice, through the 

 elective franchise, of members of congress, of 

 whom nearly one half are coUege graduates. 

 What was said upon this subject some years 



ago by Dr. Garfield, then of Princeton Uni- 

 versity, can be said with even greater truth 

 to-day : " The educated man has no better 

 claim on the suffrages of the people than the 

 uneducated, so long as there are both trained 

 and untrained bodies of men in the commu- 

 nity, for this is government by the people ; but 

 the educated man, exercising his power as a 

 creator of sound public opinion, occupies a 

 position from which he can not be driven by 

 the machinations of the politician and to 

 which men of purely practical political ex- 

 perience can not be appointed or elected." It 

 is scarcely necessary to add that a majority 

 of the justices and judges in the federal 

 judiciary are men of collegiate training. 



Owing to the number and variety of ad- 

 ministrative and technical offices in the execu- 

 tive branch of the public service, the univer- 

 sity-trained man has a wide field for selection, 

 and the high degree of ability or technical 

 training required offers careers in the civil 

 service often more purely professional and not 

 less dignified or useful, even though some- 

 times inadequately compensated, than a leg- 

 islative, judicial or military career. 



With respect to administrative officers, in- 

 cluding secretaries and assistant secretaries 

 of departments, commissioners, heads of 

 bureaus, and other subordinate officers, men 

 with college training are usually selected for 

 appointment. Promotion of meritorious sub- 

 ordinate officials to administrative offices is 

 not by any means so rare nowadays as it was 

 in former years. There are hundreds of civil 

 administrative officials who, having entered 

 the service in subordinate capacities and 

 demonstrated their ability, have been ad- 

 vanced to more responsible positions on their 

 record. The recognition of merit creates a 

 healthy ambition on the part of subordinates 

 to excel in the performance of their duties 

 and thus to win promotion. 



It is in the field of applied science, how- 

 ever, that the demand for university training 

 is imperative and where the personnel of the 

 service is almost wholly composed of college 

 men. Washington is not only the seat of 

 government but also the abode of learning. 



