, construct
and manage the works which he advises. The demands of such executive
work are largely commercial; although the commercial experience
and executive ability thus become one pier in the foundation of
training, the bridge no less requires two piers, and the second
is based on technical knowledge. Far from being deprecated, these
commercial phases cannot be too strongly emphasized. On the other
hand, I am far from contending that our vocation is a business
rather than a profession.

For many years after the dawn of modern engineering, the members
of our profession were men who rose through the ranks of workmen,
and as a result, we are to this day in the public mind a sort of
superior artisan, for to many the engine-driver is equally an engineer
with the designer of the engine, yet their real relation is but as
the hand to the brain. At a later period the recruits entered by
apprenticeship to those men who had established their intellectual
superiority to their fellow-workers. These men were nearly always
employed in an advisory way--subjective to the executive head.

During the last few decades, the advance of science and the complication
of industry have demanded a wholly broader basis of scientific and
general training for its leaders. Executive heads are demanded who
have technical training. This has resulted in the establishment of
special technical colleges, and compelled a place for engineering
in the great universities. The high intelligence demanded by the
vocation itself, and the revolution in training caused by the
strengthening of its foundations in general education, has finally,
beyond all question, raised the work of application of science to
industry to the dignity of a profession on a par with the law,
medicine, and science. It demands of its members equally high mental
attainments,--and a more rigorous training and experience. Despite
all this, industry is conducted for commercial purposes, and leaves
no room for the haughty intellectual superiority assumed by some
professions over business callings.

There is now demanded of the mining specialist a wide knowledge
of certain branches of civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical
engineering, geology, economics, the humanities, and what not; and
in addition to all this, engineering sense, executive ability,
business experience, and financial insight. Engineering sense is
that fine blend of honesty, ingenuity, and intuition which is a
mental