COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY THE FORUM PUBLISHING COMPANY. PRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS' PRINTING COMPANY 82, 84 LAFAYETTE PLACE NEW YORK The Forum JANUARY, 1902. THE MILITARY DUTY OF THE ENGINEERING INSTITUTIONS. THERE are but few engineering educational institutions in this country that are not continuous beneficiaries of State or national aid. Over one-half of these colleges of mechanic arts receive direct aid from the national Government. With but few exceptions, the remainder receive direct or indirect support from municipal or State authorities. Endowments received from individuals and grants appropriated from public funds have been given for the betterment of the community, and not for the aggrandizement of the college. Every institution, therefore, that accepts or seeks such bounty is under moral responsibility to contribute something to the advancement of scientific knowledge, and to regard its resources and equipment as applicable at all times for the benefit and defence of the state. The acceptance of a munificent bequest and the expenditure of a public appropriation are trusts which entail a duty upon the trustees, council, or governors of every beneficiary institution. The responsibility of supervision does not end by gathering together a competent faculty, securing the necessary equipment and apparatus, and laying out a wellregulated course of instruction for few hundred or even a few thousand students. The duty of the college to the student may be satisfied by such a procedure. Its duty to the nation does not cease until every graduate has been taught patriotism and love of country, and has been trained to utilize, at least in part, his scientific knowledge for the defence of the Permission to republish articles is reserved. country. There is even more than this due to the state from the engineering institutions; for the full measure of their obligations cannot be requited until there shall be found many graduates whose special training fits them for performing executive military duties. In calling upon the colleges of mechanic arts to help in training men for military and naval duties, as well as for industrial and scientific pursuits, there need be no fear of swinging the pendulum of militarism too far. Our experience has shown that too little, rather than too much, attention has been given to the development and encouragement of martial spirit and character. It was because the profession of arms was held in high esteem and regard by the people of the South that the Confederacy was able to make the great showing that it did. If the same interest had been taken by the North in military affairs the civil war would have ended a year sooner. It is even possible that the Spanish-American war might have been averted if more attention had been given throughout the country, during the previous decade, to military training and studies. It was because Continental Europe thought that we neither desired nor were trained to fight that the United States was several times treated very cavalierly by those powers having a strong navy. It was, therefore, not surprising that Spain believed that our indifference to military affairs would prevent us from engaging in war. It was our industrial and financial resources that gave us a pronounced military advantage. It was our superior technical training and skill that caused our battleships at Santiago to overhaul armored cruisers that did not possess an efficient engineering force beneath the protective deck. By this time our people should thoroughly understand that the best guarantee for peace is a powerful and efficient army and navy, whose directing personnel is capable of expansion at short notice from a trained and intelligent reserve. The reluctance to maintain a standing army commensurate with our requirements has been countenanced only because it has been hoped, and at times even believed, that this nation in periods of emergency could secure all the trained men necessary by simply issuing a call for volunteers. If such volunteers are good enough for the severest possible test, that of actual warfare, surely they must be good enough for peace service. The efficiency of volunteers has been repeatedly tested, and the fact has been conclusively established that experience and training are essential to the development of every recruit. dangerous to national safety to encourage the belief that the inexperienced, though zealous, volunteer can take at short notice the place of a man systematically trained in military duties. West Point and Annapolis It is have justified their existence, and it is fatuous to reckon upon untrained men accomplishing the work done by the graduates of these schools. The war with Spain was waged so successfully and expeditiously on both land and sea that it has probably given a majority of our citizens over-confidence as to our military security. The disadvantages under which Spain labored in operating far from a home base, and in being without funds to conduct war, cannot be appreciated by the public at large. Our advance in population, wealth, and general intelligence has had a tendency to make us feel that the semblance of an army and navy is all that is required. From this and other causes, it will probably be a long time before this nation will sanction a great standing army or a powerful navy. It will certainly not countenance extensive education by the Government of military and naval officers in the expensive manner in which the work is now carried on. As the unfortunate and unjust impression also exists that the graduates of West Point and Annapolis consider themselves a privileged class, it will be quite difficult to induce Congress to do much toward extending the scope and work of these institutions. The army and the navy will annually require, even for peace duty, more officers than West Point and Annapolis can supply. It is hardly possible that Congress can be induced to enlarge these schools to the size demanded by the nation's requirements. As many competent officers must be secured for both the army and the navy from sources outside Annapolis and West Point, it is my belief that these military necessities can be met by calling upon the technological colleges to perform the duties which are within their power, and which in honor they are bound to undertake. In order to secure a sufficient and effective directing personnel for the army and the navy, it has been proposed to commission, from the graduates of the technological colleges, those young men who are able to complete successfully a course of technical and military instruction prescribed by officials of the Government. It needs no argument to show that a large and skilled reserve of technical experts might be secured for the military service by placing the Government in close touch with the technological schools. Even the best of their graduates might be obtained for the army and the navy at comparatively little cost. The general Government has been exceedingly successful in founding and supporting agricultural experiment stations, where the study of agricultural problems has been systematically carried on. It is just as logical for the several colleges to undertake the work of giving these students military, as mechanical and agricultural, instruction; and if a tithe of the success that has been met with in one case can be secured in the other, then great good must result from the experiment. The military question is in many respects an engineering question. There are one hundred scientific colleges in this country which are capable of giving instruction necessary to fit their graduates for important engineering duties; and it is not unreasonable to presume that a majority of these institutions could give military instruction if substantial inducement were offered for carrying on the work. The more carefully this question is looked into, the more convinced will one be that in this industrial age the engineer will be the great factor in modern warfare, whether the contest be waged by land or by sea. Engineering instruction fits one for executive work; and with each succeeding year the management and control of great commercial enterprises are being intrusted more and more to those who have had technical instruction and training. There are engineers in Europe, as well as in America, who are controlling and directing more employees than are comprised in the entire personnel of the United States navy. An engineering mind is a directing and military mind, and it can be employed for the accomplishment of strategical and tactical movements. The rapidity with which an army corps can be moved may decide the destiny of a nation; and the success of this work, under existing conditions, is more likely to be dependent upon the superintendent of a railroad than upon a military commander. The executive ability of the managing engineers of our great industrial plants, in expeditiously furnishing munitions of war, may be of greater benefit than the enrolment of an army corps. As for the development of the future naval officer, President Roosevelt has declared, after careful study of the question, that he must be "a fighting engineer." In analyzing the thoroughness and completeness of technical instruction Mr. William D. Ennis thus speaks, in "The Engineering Magazine for November last, of the consequences of engineering training: It gives thoroughness first of all, for no progress is possible in mechanical operations without thorough mastery of each step. It gives a command of details. It develops a graphic habit of thought, an ability to picture abstract things, and to make mere conceptions real. It emphasizes the necessity of recording, transcribing, comparing, and perfecting one's observations until the elementary facts have been clearly sifted out and the basic principles mastered. And at no stage, especially if coupled with rational and competent scientific study, is it other than broadening to every faculty of the mind. More than all these, it creates the courage and ability to grapple with new conditions with a confidence born of a thorough understanding of the natural laws involved, that unerringly define, limit, and control even uninvestigated phe nomena. |