Milford chronicle., 1956-07-06
AGE OF THE ENGINEER

AGE OF THE ENGINEER
Growing concern about the lack of enough
engineers is in part reflection of change
that is further under way than most people
realize. The United States, and to some ex.
tent the rest of the civilized world, is NOV
ing into what might be called the age of the
engineer
This is not as startling as it may sound
Put in another way, it simply means that we
are entering a period when more and more
of the working force will have to have very
high skills in order to do the jobs that need
doing.
The growth of automation-th is, of
continuous automatic production of manu-
factured goods-rneans that there will be
less and less demand for unskilled labor At
the same time, the demand for highly skilled
technicians will increase. That is just as
well, since goods and services are expected
to increase some 40 per cent during the next
decade, while only IA per cent rise is eX-
pected in the work force.
A. F. Vinson, General Electric's vice pres
ident for manufacturing services, provided
some insight into the coming changes in
recent talk before the American Society of
Engineering Education In designing plants,
Vinson said engineers have abandoned the
old method of building the building and then
filling it with machinery Now he said, they
design the production line and build the
building around it or even let it stand with
out building when one is not needed for
protection.
The watchword, in short, is efficiency
design for production of goods by the small
est number of men. 1t opens up new possi-
bilities, and new challenges, for both edu-
Gators and industrial management. "
OWNERS OF THE RICHEST NATION
4 The New York Stock Exchange has been
conducting a new census of shareowners, and
preliminary findings are now available. Some
of these findings are of wide public interest
For one thing, it is indicated that Mrs
+ America is becoming an increasingly i'm
4 port factor in the share ownership picture
At the beginning of this year, women repre-
sented nearly 50 per cent of the American
stockholder family, as against 1913 per cent
in early 1852 when an exhaustive survey was
made by the Brookings Institution. A pro-
file of the average woman stakeholder shows
that she is most frequently housewife. She
admits to having celebrated her 48th birth
day. Her family income averages a moder
ate $4,000 a year and she owns shares in
about four different companies.
Another development is a gratifying in
crease in the total number of people who
own shares In corporations-and thus are
partners in the expanding American econ
omy. The 1852 Brookings survey put the
number at 6.5 million. BY late 1854, it was
estimated at rs million. Now it appears
that it is larger than that by several hun
dreds of thousands. And the great majority
of these millions of shareowning capitalists
are in the middle and lower income ranges.
The point of all this was well expressed
by the Exchanges president: "The owners
of the worlds richest nation-men, women
and children-are products of every section
of the country, every occupation and every
walk of life
GETTING A MEDICAL DEGREE
The educational process that leads to a
doctor of medicine degrees is long one. The
cost of the schooling is high-a fact which
may have discouraged many young people
with the ambition to study medicine but little
or nothing in the way of financial resources.
An encouraging word, however, has come
from the president of the American Medical
Association. Last year, he reports, the larg-
est groups of medical studentS-33 per cent
came from families in which the father
was laborer or in the lower levels of busi-
ness. And only / per cent of all medical stu
dents could look to their parents for their
sole source of income.
Where did they get the necessary money?
Vacation earnings were one important source
and so were the earnings of wives. The
AMA's president said that, while he did not
want to encourage students to take on the
added responsibility of family, it is fact
that 1S per cent of the students reported that
wives earnings, averaging $1,000, accounted
for the largest part of their incomes.
Gifts and loans also enter into the income
picture. In this connection, the schools them
selves can be a source of needed help. Of the
country's 81 approved medical schools, 43
offer scholarships and SO offer loans to fresh
men. Twenty of the schools give cash prizes
72 offer scholarships and 81 offer loans to
upperclassmen.
Getting that medical degree is a problem
for young people without backlog of money
But-given the requisite determination and
ability--it can be done