you wish to reach, and then you will come to a common understanding.

And just one word in conclusion. The Association of American Universities has I think been very useful in the development of the common ideals of the graduate school, for it started at a period of time when the graduate school was in its infancy. It adopted at once the principle, that, no action of the Association should be binding on the individual institution. The ideals were defined, discussed, and then the sentiment of the meeting tested by a vote, and it has been found that this sentiment has been far more binding than any definite resolutions that could be adopted.

I thank you.

DISCUSSION.

The President: I did not know the specific things which Dean Leuschner would put before you, the specific statement, but I believed he would put before you a pretty clear and broad view of the case, and that the question would be put very clearly. Shall we have a committee on degrees for the coming year?

We have about four minutes before we must adjourn. Do you wish to discuss this paper?

Professor Park: May I ask Dean Leuschner if we can get copies of that report on degrees?

The President: The question is asked, Dean Leuschner, whether we may get out copies of that report on degrees.

Professor Leuschner Write to Dean Roble D. Salisbury (?), University of Chicago, who is now secretary of the Association of American Universities.

A. M. Greene, Jr.: Mr. President, in speaking regarding the paper by Dean Leuschner and also by our past president, I know that most people speak of trying out the five- and sixyear course at present. Many of us fail to realize that a fiveyear course at least was tried many, many years ago at the University of Pennsylvania. I believe from the very con

ception of the Towne Scientific School in about the year 1876 the five-year principle was carried out.

The first two years of the course were devoted to cultural subjects, mathematics, language, history, science, followed by two years of science, with a slight amount of engineering, ending with the degree of bachelor of science. Then followed a postgraduate year, the fifth year so-called, in which the work was absolutely along one of the five lines of engineering.

The last class to follow that scheme was the Class of 1901, a four-year course having been organized in 1890 or 1893. I think it was 1890.

The success of the four-year course was merely an economic result. The students could not afford and would not afford the five-year course, and so the five-year course practically disappeared.

The five-year course is not a new thing. It is an old thing and well tried out, and it had many, many advantages. Men trained at first were trained along general lines and then along the specific lines of their own choice.

VOCATIONAL CORRELATION.

BY O. J. FERGUSON,

Acting Dean, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Nebraska.

Many studies have been made and figures tabulated showing the very serious replacement factor for labor in industrial organizations. Some large concerns have gone through the experience of having to hire during one year a number of workmen equal to the maximum number of employes engaged at any one time. Such a 100 per cent. turn over is woefully draining. It is extravagant, for it costs from a few dollars up to two or three hundred dollars to hire a new man, break him in, pay for his inefficient development period in spoiled work, slow production and interest on value of equipment tied up. We have recognized that the problems of "hiringand-firing" are real and oftentimes vital. The drift of labor from job to job is appalling, and much has been said and done to relieve the situation.

There are striking parallels and contrasts between the case of the lobarer and the case of the college trained technical man. When the laborer becomes dissatisfied with his work he moves on to another place where he does the same kind of work, in the same way, or he may without very great effort change his occupation and do better or do worse. He will generally go adrift again. But the rut is deeper for the man who has painfully prepared himself to practice a profession, and even a mediocre success binds him to employment which he may never be able to do well. The laborer is restless, roving and desultorily ineffective; the professional man is lingering, stumbling and continuously impotent. Society suffers doubly in each case because of a piece of work poorly done, and because of a man not well employed. Although the professional man cannot be so easily tabulated as the drifter, his case is more serious than that of the laborer.

We have numerous examples of attempts made along different lines to aid men while in school to find themselves. Data are accumulating, from the colleges, from corporation schools and the industry, as well as from the United States Army. There must be a scientific study made of the results secured.

In order to do this, a definite program should be laid out by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. A committee should be appointed to correlate the work and analyze the records of all parties concerned. It should go farther and suggest studies. Through this committee the society should proceed cautiously, but constructively, to determine

(a) How far the essential qualifications for any kind of professional engineering employment can be recognized and tabulated;

(b) How far these qualifications may be discovered in trained individuals, other than by the long, trial process; (c) How far the qualifications may be perceived in their embryonic stages;

(d) The most reliable and productive processes of testing and sorting men, and placing them;

(e) What time element is necessary to these determinations. It is the province and duty of the S. P. E. E. to undertake a study of these stupendous problems of vocational allocation in the true spirit of research,-in fear and trembling, perhaps, as to immediate issue, but in hope and faith as to the sometime beneficial effect. We may expect results though we can never reach conclusions.

I, therefore, propose that the S. P. E. E. appoint a permanent Committee on Vocational Correlation (?) whose duty it will be to study, analytically and synthetically, the correlations existing among (1) men's natural aptitudes, (2) their developmental process and (3) their professional engineering careers, having in mind the establishing of broad fundamentals in vocational guidance during formative periods.

HIGHWAY TRANSPORT ENGINEERING.

BY ARTHUR H. BLANCHARD,

President, National Highway Traffic Association.

The phenomenal development of highway transportation in the United States has created a demand for men having knowledge of and trained in a new technical field, which may be designated highway transport engineering. Fundamentally, this branch of engineering deals with the science, art, economics and business of highway transportation of passengers and commodities. In the opinion of some, highway transport may not be considered as belonging to the field of technical training and education. On sober thought, however, it will be seen that this branch of knowledge comes well within the classic definition of engineering embodied in the Royal Charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, which, in part, is as follows: "The art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man as the means of production and of traffic in states both for external and internal trade."

Before discussing the subjects which should be included in a technical course for highway transport engineers, a brief résumé of the development of motor transport and highway improvement in England and the United States will be presented in order to give some indication of the possible demand for men trained in highway transport engineering.

In England, the improvement of the main county roads preceded the development of highway transport. When transportation of heavy loads of commodities over highways was inaugurated prior to 1890, England did not have to wait for the construction of highway systems, with the result that rapid growth of highway transport took place. As early as 1891, Fletcher, an English author, in writing on "Transpor