six in study, seven to eight in sleep, and seven and a half to six and a half in meals, military duties and police of quarters, and recreation.
The duration of the course is four years. The requirements for admission are lower, probably, than are those for any scientific school of good standing in the country. As about one-half of the time is occupied in military studies, is it not therefore impossible to include in the curriculum so comprehensive a range of civil and purely professional topics as may be embraced in a civil institution?
The most general outline of the course required of civil engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, for example, includes English, with either French or German, History, and English Literature, all extending through three years; Logic and Philosophy, one year; Mathematics, three years; Astronomy, one; Physics, three; Political Economy, one; Mercantile Practice and Laws of Business, one; Chemistry, two; Metallurgy, Mineralogy, and Geology, each one; Civil Engineering, three; and Architecture, one.
The subdivisions of the technical studies of this course are too numerous to note in this paper. The aggregate number of hours of required attendance in the recitation-rooms or upon technical work is, during the first two years, twenty hours, each, per week; during the Junior year, twenty-nine; in the Senior, twenty-six ; and in the Post-Senior, thirty; while the corresponding time at the Military Academy is but twenty hours for both civil and military instruction.
The work of the last or fifth year consists largely of visits and excursions to shops and works in process of construction, upon which students are required to write illustrated reports and note the commercial and engineering features of the plant or structure.
From these comparative exhibits and statements it would seem that, whilst the government makes no pretence of educating engineers for its civil service, it also fails, through its present method of administration, to secure the permanent services of those alumni of the civil institutions who are well trained to perform these most important duties. This also is a serious defect of the system.
It is manifest, therefore, that the remedies must lie in the direction of permanency of residence, individual responsibility for results, adequacy and certainty of appropriations, and a system of promotion based upon relative ability and not upon a military succession.
These results can readily be secured by dividing the country into topographical basins and assigning to each a chief engineer, whose tenure of office shall be for life, subject to removal only for incompetency or misdemeanor. The first appointment should be made by the President from nominations made by the Chief of Engineers and the various engineering societies throughout the country. Subsequent appointments should be by promotion under the civil service rules from among the junior engineers of that residency. In this way only can a thorough knowledge of the physical, mechanical, commercial, and social elements be intimately united in an efficient, local, executive officer.
The chiefs of these districts should compose a Board to estimate and recommend the amount of money required to continue improvements in their districts, and should frame a bill for the total amount to
