gathered
about him, will look up to him with adoration in eyes which say, "When you
speak, God speaks."

There are other appeals to aspiration in the professions. When the layman
seeks for social preferment, he must bring with him either the certificate
of gentle birth or the indorsement of his banker. The professional man has
a standing, however, far in excess of what he might command as the result
of his financial standing.

The profession of law, in like manner, has, in the minds of the common
people, always set a man apart from his fellows. About his profession,
too, there is the charm of mystery, the thought of thrilling flights of
oratory and high adventure in the courts of law, of opportunities for
great financial success, and for political preferment.

Of late years the profession of engineering has called to the youth of the
land with an almost irresistible voice. The development of steam and
gasoline engines, of the electric current, and of a welter of machinery
called for engineers. The specialization of engineering practice into
production, chemical, industrial, municipal, efficiency, mining,
construction, concrete, drainage, irrigation, landscape, and other phases,
has still further increased the demand. Some few engineers, by means of
keen financial ability in addition to extraordinary powers in the
engineering field, have made themselves names of international fame, as
well as great fortunes. All these things have fired the ambitions of our
youth, and the engineering schools are full.

OVER-CROWDING OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

Our colleges and universities, in their academic courses, do not fit their
students for business, neither do they fit them for any of the
professions. They are graduated "neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red
herring," so far as vocation goes. Being an educated man, in his own
estimation, the bearer of a college degree cannot go into business, he
cannot "go back" into manual labor. So he must go forward. There is no way
for him to go forward, so far as he knows, except to enter some technical
school and prepare himself for one of the "learned professions."

Go into the graduating class in any college or university, and ask the
young men what their plans for the future are. How many of them will reply
that they are going into business? How many of them that they are going
into agriculture? How many that they are going into manufacturing? Our
experience is a very small percentage