366 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 427. 



technical education and freedom from the 

 trammels of caste, when we compare our 

 condition in these regards with that of 

 Great Britain; yes, and even with that of 

 Germany. 



This increase in the demand for scien- 

 tifically trained engineers is evidenced by 

 the fact that whereas thirty, and even ten, 

 years ago employers could select from the 

 graduating classes to meet their require- 

 ments, to-day many concerns now accept 

 these graduates and apply for them a year 

 in advance, without being able to exercise 

 any such selection. This has resulted in 

 •creating some question in the minds of cer- 

 tain employers as to whether our methods 

 are now as efficient as in the past. Natu- 

 rally they find that the cadet engineers 

 they now hire without the advantages of 

 iseleetion do not average as high as those 

 •engaged in years gone by. 



This does not at all mean that every 

 young man must succeed because he is a 

 graduate of Stevens or some other good 

 engineering school. It only means that 

 his diploma will give him the opportunity 

 to prove the stuff of which he is made. 



Since Stevens Institute was opened many 

 new engineering schools have been organ- 

 ized, and the departments of applied sci- 

 ence in many of our universities have been 

 so developed and improved that they have 

 in some cases become the very life of the 

 universities with which they are connected. 



As we contemplate this change we may 

 be tempted to question whether our little 

 school has a work to perform which can 

 not be safely left to others. Then let us 

 remember how many there are in this vast 

 and growing country requiring, for the 

 nation's good, to be educated in applied 

 science. In thirty years Stevens has 

 placed less than one thousand men in the 

 industrial ranks. There is room and more 

 than room for all of these schools, and we 

 may well wish them all Godspeed. 



If some time in the future it were found 

 that there were more than enough technical 

 schools to supply the wants of this great 

 country, the country should be the gainer, 

 for the fittest only would survive. And 

 if under this searching test it Were found 

 that we were unable to show a reason for 

 our continued existence, we could at least 

 take comfort from the reflection that we 

 had helped in no mean degree to make 

 possible the progress in educational meth- 

 ods with which we had finally been unable 

 to keep pace. 



But I prefer to believe that, let the stand- 

 ard be developed never so high, Stevens 

 will be found steadily in the van. 



In the past there has been a tendency 

 in our technical schools to specialize too 

 closely. Graduates of technical schools are 

 sometimes to be heard regretting that they 

 had not first taken a B.A. course. Part 

 of this is no doubt a well-grounded regret 

 occasioned by a too narrow training, but 

 part of it is the natural inclination we all 

 experience to long for that we do not pos- 

 sess, and lightly regard that we have grown 

 familiar with through years of use. No 

 doubt every possible effort should be made 

 to include in the engineer-student's cur- 

 riculum all that the four years will safely 

 contain of such non-technical studies as 

 will be best qualified to make the course 

 broad as a whole. But let us be careful 

 that the reaction from the fault of too 

 close specialization does not carry us to the 

 other extreme. 



First our students should be thoroughly 

 and completely trained in the fundamen- 

 tals required in the practice of their pro- 

 fession. They must be given a working 

 Imowledge of the higher mathematics and 

 an accurate Imowledge of the fundamental 

 laws of nature; and throughout the course 

 they must be trained to apply in the draw- 

 ing-room, the shops and laboratories, the 

 mathematics, chemistry and physics (espe- 



