June 19, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



971 



efficiency can not be attained and most 

 prosperous conditions reached by the state 

 unless all the industries are closely and 

 helpfully knit together, and unless every 

 individual in each promotes to the best of 

 his ability the work of each and every 

 other. The state college or university has 

 for its particular opportunity and its espe- 

 cial duty this promotion of the mutual 

 helpfulness of the various departments of 

 industry. Its representation at conven- 

 tions, its provision of valuable information 

 and its keeping the leaders in the indus- 

 tries well informed of the progress of sci- 

 ence and of the arts in directions having 

 interest and importance to them; its scien- 

 tific researches and attempted discoveries, 

 or its revelations of facts and phenomena 

 having importance in the industries; its 

 finding of the right men for special and 

 important places in which peculiar talent 

 and special training are needed; perhaps 

 more than all, its introduction of new arts 

 and industries and new methods of util- 

 ization of natural resources : each and all 

 may advance the best interests of the state 

 inconceivably, and all costs become insig- 

 nificant in comparison with the benefits 

 derived. This has been true in the past; 

 it will be still more impressively true in 

 the future. It is only the state, however, 

 which can properly carry on this great 

 work and do full justice to the people 

 and to the opportunity. 



As between the state and the state col- 

 lege, the obligation is mutual; the college, 

 as the creature of the state, owes to the 

 people composing the state its highest and 

 best work, and always primarily in the in- 

 terests of the mass of the people and the 

 fundamental industries of the state. The 

 state, on the other hand, owes a duty to 

 the college and, through it, to the people, 

 again: this is the maintenance of the col- 

 lege constantly at the highest possible state 



of efficiency and fruitfulness by providing 

 it with men and material and suitable ac- 

 commodations of every sort in such manner 

 that no one member of the staff shall find 

 his usefulness decreased by reason of de- 

 ficient space, equipment or opportunity to 

 do good work for the state and for the 

 learner. 



In meeting these mutual obligations, ex- 

 perience would seem to indicate that it is 

 the state rather than the college which fails 

 of either interest, ambition, earnestness or 

 conscientious compliance with duty. It is 

 oftenest the state which fails to see the 

 opportunity to promote the best interests 

 of the people and to take advantage of 

 that opportunity. 



In the hundred or more engineering 

 schools of the United States are about fif- 

 teen thousand students, of whom about 

 fifteen hundred pass out into business each 

 year. The growth of these schools has 

 been five hundred per cent, in the last 

 generation, although comparatively few 

 of the splendid private contributions to 

 education of these years have been placed 

 here, where most needed. A few large 

 schools send out the greater part of these 

 young engineers; one third sending out 

 half and more. 



A list of one thousand has been pre- 

 pared for me, tabulated. The average 

 period since 'graduation' is about seven 

 years. Of these, so far as reported, one 

 third are holding positions of independent 

 responsibility; one eighth are managers 

 and superintendents of works; ten per 

 cent, are teaching in the professional 

 schools, and twice or thrice as many are 

 wanted. Ten per cent, are designing en- 

 gineers, planning the machinery of the 

 workshops, the manufacturing establish- 

 ments, the railroads, and the fieets of the 

 country. Several are editors; one fourth 

 are manufacturers; many are presidents 



