Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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tm: Halcto: o OF 1919 Economics anb Caw PROFESSOR LOUIS X. ROBIXSOX Louis N. Robinson, A.B., Ph.D. (Cornell), Professor of Economics. Caroline H. Robinson, A.B., A.M., Assistant in Economics. Howard Cooper Johnson, B.L., LL.B., Lec- turer in Laic. Xo one has better described Political Economy, or Economics as the science has come to be called, than the late Alfred Marshall of England. I would like to think that the courses offered in the Department of Economics at Swarthmore are in keeping with his high conception of the science which he defines in the following paragraph, quoted from his Principles of Economics : Thus it (Economics) is on the one side a study of wealth, and on the other, and more important side, a part of the study of man. For man ' s char- acter has been moulded by his every-day work, and the material resources which he thereby procures, more than by any other influence unless it be that of his religious ideals; and the two great forming agencies of the world ' s history have been the religious and the economic. Here and there the ardour of the military or the artistic spirit has been for awhile predominant: but re- ligious and economic influences have nowhere been displaced from the front rank even for a time : and they have nearly always been more important than all the others put together. Religious motives are more intense than economic ; but their direct action seldom extends over so large a part of life. For the business by which a person earns a livelihood generally fills his thoughts dur- ing by far the greater part of those hours in which his mind is at its best ; during them his character is being formed by the way in which he uses his faculties in his work, by the thoughts and the feelings which it suggests, and by his relation to his associates in work, his employers, or his employees. Twenty-four

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fairt: JDepartmeitt of engineering George Frederick Blessing, B.M.E., ALE., Ph.D (Hanover College), . V. Williamson Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Lewis Fussell, B.S., M.S., E.E„ Ph.D. (Wis- consin), Assistant Professor of Electrical En- gineering. George William Lewis, M.E., M.M.E., Assist- ant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. George Patrick Stocker, B.S. in C.E., Assist- ant Professor of Civil Engineering. Charles G. Thatcher, A.B., Assistant Pro- fessor of Mechanical Engineering. John Joseph Matthews, A.B., Instructor in En- PEllEESSOli GEORGE E. IJLESSIXG engineering at Swartfymore College During the year of 19 15, Dr. C. R. Mann, of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, sent a questionnaire to practicing engineers throughout the United States, asking them to state what, in their judgment, were the qualities that made for successful engineering. They were further requested to attach to each of these qualities a numerical value to indicate its relative importance. The result of 5,441 votes rated character, integrity, responsibility, re- sourcefulness and initiative 24% ; judgment, common sense, scientific attitude, perspective 19.5%; efficiency, thoroughness, accuracy, industry 16.5%; knowledge of the fundamentals of engineering science i$ r r ; technique of practice and of business io c c. The possibility of placing numerical values on such elusive qualities as those enumerated may be questioned, but the investigation is valuable in call- ing attention to the many things, other than technical knowledge and skill, that the college must strive to give the young engineer if he is to attain a high order of success in his profession. Technical knowledge and skill he of course must have in order to place himself vocationally in the engineering profes- sion — he must be thoroughly equipped with the fundamentals of engineering, but, also, he must possess the fundamentals of a liberal education. His vision must not be limited to the slide rule, the Tee square, and the engineers hand book, but must extend to business, public service, and human Twenty-five