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ENGINEERING AS A VOCATION
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ness man. It was said that these differences were plainly shown in South Africa and other frontiers of civilization where the British engineer was an outside superintendent at good pay bossing laborers; the continental engineers were in the drafting offce and computing desk getting much less pay and the American engineer was drawing a large salary as general manager. Actually such a view of the matter was a most unjust slur ou the engineers trained in British, German and French schools. In those countries no railway was built or any great public work undertaken until it was deemed a necessity. When decided upon it could not be started until many tedious legal formalities and governmental requirements had been complied with. It was not a gamble, and, therefore, no expense was spared to make it permanent. The young men trained in the schools of such countries naturally were drilled in methods that were hardly adapted to pioneer countries where every railway and other enterprise was a gamble and the item of first cost most important. Americans have never been particularly noted for willing acquiescence in regulations of any sort that interfere with a man doing as he pleases, so, of course, American engineers were the best for newly exploited countries. In old countries the idea Of having to rebuild anything is viewed with horror. In the United States, especially the United States of a couple of generations ago, the very cheapest work was