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subject matter of this work has been rearranged (with additions) from a number of addresses given before technical schools and associations of engineer assistants. It is published for the information of parents in order that they may act wisely in selecting a career for their sons. Semi-technical periodicals and daily newspapers are bureaus of information consulted frequently by ill-informed parents; and, perhaps, more than half the students now in technical schools are there because of opinions obtained as valuable advice from such sources.

The reason for the opinions expressed by writers in such publications is hard to ascertain. A careful reading of the back numbers of technical periodicals and transactions of technical societies will prove the statements in this book to be accurate, and the advocates of wholesale technical education have always had these sources from which to obtain information. The reader is to bear in mind that when the average engineer is mentioned it is the average in numbers and not in ability that is meant.

Chicago, Ill., June, 1911.