New-York tribune., 1905-03-26
THE NEW PROFESSIONS.
Hosc They odd to the Wealth of
americans.

Boston. March 25.-Less is heard nowadays than
there once of the cry that the professions are
overcrowded. but II appears from the examination
of statistics that this may be 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 Individual wealth Of Americans OF this
generation must be attributed in large measure 10
the fact that this day of experts there more
kinds of expertness than there have been ever
before
The doctor and the lawyer are in as great demand
ever, of course, but the engineer, the chemist
and the architect. dividing their work into dozen
different departments have taken their stand along
side them among the professionals. Not only are
these twentieth century specialists important to
the community, but they also highly re-
warded. In fact they are fast moving ahead Of
their brethren OF theoldtlme "learned professions
in respect to this important consideration.
or 1s5 men belonging to one class that has been
out OF the Oldest American technical school, and so.
perhaps. the best to cite the Massachusetts Irsti
tute Of Technology, for ten years. one-third are
receiving salaries above $4,000 year. a recent
report shows. Ten receive $4,000 more. and one
has $4,000, though this last would be excep-
tonal OF course. In any profession or business. The
largest number. IN grouping according to each
$500 OF income earning between $3.50 and $1,000
a year: the average among the whole 1S5 Is s30S2.
and of the total number forty-1ve receive incomes
above the average
The variety of pursuits that require the man with
technical education seems almost infinite. There
the civil engineers. who build railroads and
bridges and highways electrical. mining and tele-
phone engineers; engineers who Law out water
supply systems, others who devise sewer systems
and still others who give their attention TO SANTA
ton and collaborate with both these. and me-
chanical engineers who specialists in machinery
and its uses not only In regard to planning and
installing manufacturing plants, but as inventors.
too. Scarcely factory of any kind can get along
without q chemist nowadays. while the sort or
laboratory to which these scientists were Formerly
restricted needs their services moro than ever
The field of the Industrial chemist is almost bound
less: he is an important official in the sugar re-
nery, the tannery. the textile mill. the dyehouse'
the soap factory, the paper mill-in every place
where any OF the modern wonders are performed
Both the engineer and the chemist join hards
with the architect In the construction Of modern
buildings. The work of the structural architect as
he might be called. is supplemented nowadays oy
that the landscape architect, and, since steer mas
taken the place Of wood In sh1pbuildlng' marine
architecture has taken a prominent place among
the professions. These are the employments WHICH,
in their multitude of ramihcations, have onered
the opportunities for to the graduates OF the
Institute of Technology whose records OF accom-
plshments have added such valuable information
to the statistics of the money worth Of modern
technical training.
The way in which new professions developed
from old ones and lines of work devised by
who start out of the traditional trails
is sometimes curious. Here is a man who began
as draughtsrnan in an architects Office. He
made a special study of fireproohng and Of the
problems involved in the protection or modern
buildings, became general inspector OF an insur-
ance agency. and so eventually found his place
among the fire underwriters There is one who
started as a draughtsman patent work. went
through the engineering department or TWO or
three big electrical companies and street railways
and finally took up designing and draughting tex.
tile machinery. third turned his technical
knowledge in quite a different direction, for he
entered the Patent Office at Washington. studied
law while there and is to-day associated with a
firm of patent and trademark lawyers.
Electricity, water supply and Industrial chern.
istry to have furnished the largest variety or
opportunities The electrical engineer not only
plans and constructs lighting systems and street
railways but also works somewhat IN the neId OF
mining. -, -,
The telephone engineer has developed field all
his own and It is of growing importance ana
rapid expansion. Thirty years ago the telephone
been out of the institute just about a dozen years
half dozen members are now IN the engineering
department of the Bell companies. The structural
engineer is ally OF the archltect When II comes
buildings are masonry shells held in place by ribs
and sinews of steel, but also because nreproonng,
the strength of materials and the lasting qualities or
concrete and metal must be taken into account as
South and West have given employment TO many
Technology graduates, and railroad and bridge
builders they are fcund-in every quarter or the
globe. There have been no moro marvellous ac-
conplshments In the worlds history than those OF
the sanitary engineer, the man who Is saving nun
dreds of thousands of lives every year by improv-
ing the healthfulness Of cities and by stamping out
pestience, the who reclaimed Cuba and the
Philippines from their disease scOurgeS and who to-
day is at work to make Panama inhabitable by
Americans and Europeans.