Bethlehem Paper - American Mining Schools (See also Supplement, p. 309)-A Presidential Address

It is nearly twenty years since Dr. Raymond, then U. S. Commissioner of Mining Statistics, wrote the first paper (so far as I have been informed) upon the education of tile mining engineer, as a distinct profession for American youth. At that time nearly all the prominent mining engineers in the country had studied in one or more of the foreign schools, or had reached their high standing through years of experience in the school of life. The paper mentioned five schools in the United States in which some attention was paid to the teaching of mining engineering, but as four of them had barely graduated their first classes, their influence had not begun to make itself widely felt. Two years later the American Institute of Mining Engineers was formed, and it has been a most potent factor in the problem of "disseminating information on mining and metallurgical subjects," so potent that the need of a national school of mines as headquarters for information as well as for instruction is no longer urged. The number of schools also increased, and in 1876 Abram S. Hewitt, in his Presidential address on "A Century of Mining and Metallurgy in the United States,'' gave a list of fourteen. In 1876 the series of discussions, led by Holley's admirable paper, brought the whole subject of technical education before the country. These discussions, while mostly devoted to the engineering professions in general, touched upon the question of mining and metallurgicel training to some extent. Since that time several papers, inspired by the publication of that series of discussions, have appeared in our Transactions, and several notable addresses have been delivered at the opening or at the commencement exercises of various schools. But nothing directly bearing upon the curriculum of the mining and metallurgical schools has ever appeared in our annual volumes. As education is one of the many-sided subjects which cannot be discussed too often, I have ventured to bring it up again. There have been so many good things said upon the subject that one would only need to use the scissors and paste-brush judici