Page:Engineering as a vocation (IA cu31924004245605).pdf/45

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ENGINEERING AS A VOCATION
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ments, making maps and doing work of a similar nature in the development work upon which all such corporations are engaged. This latter class does not receive steady employment, the unfortunate wanderers never knowing how long a job will last and not receiving very high pay.

The United States Government is doing a great deal of work in connection with irrigation development and within a very few years the drainage question has assumed wonderful importance. A number of young graduates enter government employ each year in the irrigation and drainage departments. Numbers of companies are engaged in private irrigation and land drainage enterprises, but the employment is uncertain and the pay poor.

The demand for improved highways has led to the formation of an important department. The Bureau of Road Inquiry conducts investigations and gives free information on the subject, besides giving young engineering graduates special training in highway work, in order to prepare them to enter the employ of states in which highway improvement is a live issue. The pay for the rank and file is low, but state highway commissioners generally receive high salaries, which means a mingling of politics and efficiency, generally to the impairment of the latter.

Members of the Engineer Corps of the United States Army are educated at West Point, the man standing at the head of the graduating class being