718 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 517. 



perience gained, as fitting men foi- final 

 / employment on the expiration of the four 

 . years, but with a view to rooting in the 



minds of the men the use and application 



of the theoretical training which they are 



undergoing. 



6. In the instruction of the applied fea- 

 tures of these sciences, we do not believe in 

 any attempt to reproduce actual working 

 conditions, but that all laboratory work 

 should be of a purely theoretical and in- 

 vestigatory character. As this is a dis- 

 puted point, we may set out our reasons 

 fully. They are: 



(a) The time of young men in technical 

 institutions can be more usefully employed 

 in theoretical training than practical 

 demonstration, and lack of such theoretical 

 training can seldom be made up in after 

 life. 



(fe) In mining engineering, as we have 

 set out above, the qualifications necessary 

 for our requirements are not only tech- 

 nical, but are also commercial. Men must 

 take on administrative functions. It is 

 impossible to reproduce commercial condi- 

 tions in any training institution. It has 

 been our universal experience with young 

 men who have come from technical colleges 

 where an attempt was made to give so- 

 called practical instruction, that these men 

 came to us in the thorough belief that they 

 were fully fitted to occupy important posi- 

 tions. The conditions under which so- 

 called practical instruction can be given in 

 technical institutions, reduces them to 

 purely play-house value and gives to the 

 mind of the individual an exaggerated idea 

 of his attainments. 



7. Given the student having had four 

 years of theoretical training, which has 

 been founded on a preliminary entrance 

 requirement of broad character, and a cer- 

 tain amount of vacation time spent in 

 works, then this student should, for a 

 period of at least two years, go into active 



employment of the nature of an apprentice- 

 ship. With this period, it should not be 

 the ambition of the student to place him- 

 self in a fixed position, but rather to work 

 through the various departments of such 

 section of the industry as he intends to 

 devote himself to, and to undergo this 

 work as an actual workman. An oppor- 

 tunity of this character we are offering to 

 students from the school of mines. 



Upon receiving the men from technical 

 institutions, we require them to spend two 

 years or to have had two years' experience 

 in the actual operation of the various de- 

 partments of mining. In other words, to 

 serve an actual apprenticeship as actual 

 workmen in the various departments, as it 

 is only by this that the youth can get an 

 adequate balance of what constitutes com- 

 mercial vs. theoretical conditions. In 

 questioning the technically trained men 

 employed in the most important positions 

 on our staff, we find that in every single 

 instance these men have served such an 

 apprenticeship, yet we regret to say that in 

 throwing our mines open to young men 

 fresh from technical institutions, that not 

 one out of ten have been content to go 

 through this period of apprenticeship. A 

 great majority has drifted entirely out of 

 the profession. A few have secured posi- 

 tions beyond their capacities and come to 

 worse grief. 



In general, we may sum up the position 

 that for our business what we desire are 

 vviung men of good natural qualifications, 

 thoroughly trained theoretically, without 

 any so-called practical knowledge, unless 

 this knowledge has been gained by employ- 

 ment in actual works, for, as expressed by 

 one of the leading members of our staff, 

 we have not the time nor the inclination to 

 knock out of the heads of these men mis- 

 impressions which they have gained by so- 

 called practical training in the technical 

 school. 



