The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-26

Boston. March 25.--Less Is heard nowadays than there once was of the cry that the professions are over- crowded. but 1t appears from the ex- animation of statistics that this may De due not SO much to the business expansion of the country which leads more men into mercantile paths as to an increase in the number of so-called professional occupations. The great in- dtvidual wealth of Americans of this generation must be attributed in large measures to the feet that in this day expertness than there have ever been before.
 The doctor and lawyer are in as great demand as ever. of course, but the engineer. the chemist. and the ar- chitect, dividing their work into c dozen different departments, have talk en their stand alongside of them among the professionals. Not only are these twentieth-century specialists as important to the community, but they are also as highly rewarded. In fact. they are fast moving ahead of their brethren of the oldtime learned professions" In respect to this impor- tant consideration.
 Of 1s6 men belonging to one class that has been out of the oldest Amer fcan technical college, and so, per- haps, the best to cite. the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology, for ten years, one-third are receiving salaries above $3,000 a year. as a recent report shows. Ten receive $10,000 or more. and one has $35,sao. thoSgh this last case would be exceptional. of course, in any profession or business. The largest number, in a grouping accord ing to each $500 of income, are earn ing between $1,500 and $2.o00 year: the average among the whole 1855 Is $3,0s2, and of the total number of 45 receive incomes above the average.
 It is doubtful if a generation ago. at least, any similar body of graduates Of
 a classical" institution could have shown such we'll doing in its first de- cade. and the record of these Tech nology men seems to be possible only because there are nowadays so many and such varied occupations seeking
 the man with a technical training.
 Furthermore, what can hardly be said of any classical college, every mem-
 Der of each graduating class at the In-
 stitute for several years past has been
 engaged for a position before he re- ceived his diploma. That gives an en-
 couraging start that makes many
 things attainable.
 The variety of pursuits that require
 the man with a technical education seems almost infinite. There are the
 civil engineers, who build railroads and
 bridges and highways; electrical, min
 ing and telephone engineers; engineers
 who lay out water supply systems. others who devise sewer systems and still others who give their attention to sanitation and collaborate with both
 these; and mechanical engineers who
 are specialists in machinery and US uses, not only in regard to planning pNannfaNtIIrinR plants. but as inventors, too. Scarcely fac- tory of any kind can get along without A chemist nowadays, while the sort or laboratory to which these scientists
 were formerly restricted needs their services more than ever. The field of the industrial chemist is almost bound- less; he is an Important omcial in the sugar refinery, the tannery, the textile mill, the dye house. the soap factory, the paper mill--in every place where any of ethe modern wonders are per- formed.
 Both the engineer and the chemist join hands with the architect in the construction of modern buildings, The work of the structural architect, as he might be called, Is supplemented nowadays by that of the landscape architect, and, since steel mas taken the place of wood in shipbutlding, ma rine architecture has taken promi- nent place among the professions. These are the employments which, in their multitude of ramihcations.~ have offered the opportunities for success l to the graduates of the Institute Of Technology whose records of accom- plishments have added such valuabie l information to the statistics Of the money worth of modern technical l training.
 l It is curious how one side of a pro-
 ression has led to another, sometimes quite different, in the experience of these 1855 men. For example, there !s | one who started out in charge of ex- perfmental work for a projectile com- | pany: two years later he became as-
 ststant engineer of an automobile con cern of which, at the end of ten years.
 he is chief engineer. A classmate of his, who went from the Institute to be assistant engineer for the canals on
 the Merrimac River from which the great mills at Lowell get their power,
 is now superintendent of construction with a concern that builds reservoirs
 and water supply and power systems. Another, having seen service in the | United States navy during the spanish
 war, Is chief draughtsman in one Of | the great shipbuilding yards where | government vessels are built
 | The way in which new professions
 are developed from old ones, and rev lines of work devised, by men who start out on one of the traditional trails is sometimes curious.' Here Is a man who began as draughtsman in an architects office. He made a spe- | cial study of fire-proofing and of the