The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-06-10

BEEN SO RECENTLY WON BY OUR CONQUEST OF
TRADE N OMMERcE THROUGH TECHNICAL
ONLY BY LARGER AND MORE THOROUGH TECHNICAL
EDUCATION.
Religion builded her schools in other ages for the development
of the heart, and all the emotions OF worship were cultivated; then
came the great series of schools which educated the head, and mans
intellectual life has been wonderfully exalted, and broadened,. and vivi-
fed. THIS AGE OF OURS, without neglecting head or heart,
HOLDS THIS A M WORLD AS SO MUCH MATERIAL TO
BE TRANSFORMED AND UTILIZED TOWARD MANS
VEAL. 1t is all ore of some sort to be smeted, refined and, at
length, minted, as it were, by mans hand, SO that its powers and
resources will be current coin. The technical school of to-day is as
admirable and costly a product as any so valuable an evolution. 1t
has been a long time coming, and it is not strange that it should have
a very lofty development in America.
We demand it, and we demand something more. Our resources,
in the first place, are such as require broad and deep education even
for their slightest use, and surely for their fullest alliance with the
hopes of mankind. Great fields of coal, mountains of iron, and vast
harvests to be hauled from the field to the market have demanded
railways, civil engineers to build them, and railway engineers to
make the rolling stock efficient. In the same way, our guches,
cleaning with gold and silver, or colored with the deposits of copper
found in the neighborhood OF other natural wealth, have created
the necessity for the mining engineer. In this way engineers of all
sorts have been called for by the very riches of nature.
The American engineering student is flushed with triumph and is
thrilled with the new opportunities before him. Within ten years
he has seen America succeed to premiership on lines of his own culture
and effort. But there is more ahead in every direction. He hardly
knows whether to go back to the technical school and ask his in
structors for more years OF training before he goes out at all, or to
leap forward and continue the line of advance his fellows have in
augurated. On the one hand, he is convinced that raw material
and the primal and insistent forces of nature have been but crudely
handled hitherto; on the other hand, he is fascinated by the fact
that, even with his present possessions in knowledge and skill the
conquest is easy and sure. This is all true, if he looks upon the
matter only as a competition evidently led by the technically trained
American. But there is something more in it all, as we say, than
the fact that as France and Germany won over England, SO America
has outrun the victors themselves in entering all markets and fur
nishing the highest sort of product.
That something is this: WHILE AMERICA HAS 20 YET
OPENED HER MOST VALUABLE RESOURCES AT HOME
SHE is C~ONFRONTED WITH A SUDDEN AND WELL-NIGH
OVERWHELMING GIFT OF OPPORTUNITY IN HER NEW
REALM ABROAD. That new realm is not, in these days, to be
subdued by armies with cannon and sword; it is to be brought safely
and loyalty in league with our American position by the conquest O
ideas and ideals. Among the leaders Of such an advance, the tech
meal student in this, ori practical age, is likely to be foremost
Surely no educational scheme can neglect to furnish him with knowl
edge and with skill, whether he remain at home or go abroad to dc
his work; and surely least of oil can the young American afford t
forego the knowledge and skill which will give him mastery here OF
elsewhere.
Save all of your energy, all of your character for the one line o
work in which you wish to succeed. Do not distribute it anon
many lines. Such a distribution will prove disastrous when the rea
fest comes, when there is demand for special exertion to proven
failure.