In order to understand the position that a Graduate School of Engineering must occupy in the American educational orchard it is necessary to recognize the American university as a transplant from English soil (the college) upon which have been grafted the branches of certain graduate disciplines and professional schools native to Continental Europe. The tree of university education thus produced appears to have been well adapted to the American climate and soil and has flowered and borne fruit in abundance and variety. While attempts have been made in the past to include among these branches a professional school of Engineering, such attempts have generally failed. The only Graduate School of Engineering which is today a branch of the American university tree is the Graduate School of Engineering of Harvard University, and it is but a tender shoot only recently nursed back to life.

Engineering training upon the North American Continent first took root in institutions that were not connected with established universities and that were patterned after Continental European example with recognition of the fact that these European institutions are superimposed upon a very different system of secondary education. These polytechnica or institutes of technology and their younger relatives, the undergraduate schools of engineering, nevertheless have flourished and have served the country well in advancing its frontiers of industry. What their students have lacked in educational background these institutions have tried to fill by the introduction of general studies normal to the college without increasing the length of residence beyond four years. The educational weakness of this system has long been recognized and vigorously attacked; but perhaps more vigorously defended because of the effects upon the present economy of engineering schools of changes that would have to be made.

Acknowledging that it is attempting the impossible to crowd into four short years the requirements of professional training, the opportunities of a broad education and the leisure for extracurricular activities and good fellowship, the Faculty of Engineering has devised a plan of engineering training by which Harvard College may send such of its graduates as are interested in following engineering as a profession to the Graduate School of Engineering for instruction in professional subjects.

The act being introduced into the Massachusetts legislature reads in part. "Whereas the Veterans of Future Wars are loyal to the highest ideals of their country, will have risked their lives in the service of their country in future battles, and will have given up their homes, their jobs and their families in time of war; Whereas legislative bodies