engineering' students.
“I congratulate you in talcing up the study of Engi
neering, useing that term in the broadest sense. There'was
never a more opportune time to enter such work, nor was
there ever a period in the history of our country when the
trained engineer had open before him so attractive a held.
This is the day of the trained man, and to him the responsi
bilities and the rewards will go. To the American Engi
neer a whole series of new problems of the highest interest
have in recent years been presented. Railways are to be
built, canals are to be cut, a whole empire of desert land is
to blossom under his hand. The Pacific ocean and the coun
tries which border upon it are to be the theater of an enor
mous development. Cabels will be laid, cities will be devel
oped. The tropics will be subdued. In all this develop
ment the engineer, the trained engineer, is to play a roll
that he has never yet played since civilization. began. May
I hope that you may bear in mind as your ideal of an engi
neer not only one who works in steel and brick and timber,
but one who by the quality of his manliness works also in
the hearts of men; one who is great enough to appreciate
his duty to his profession, but likewise, and a larger and
deeper sense, his duty to a common country and a common
civilization.”
The Free Lance.