The first serious problem with many of you will be to secure satisfactory engagements. This problem cannot be illustrated by parables. It needs, in general, patient, unremitting, and frequently long continued effort. It may be that the fame of some of you, that have already acquired the happy faculty of making yourselves immediately useful, has already gone abroad and the coveted positions been already assured. To be frank, we cannot promise you even a bed of roses. We have in mind an instance where a superior authority in a large business enterprise who had great respect, as he should have, for the attainments of young gentlemen who have had the opportunities of a technical education, deliberately ordered out a competent mechanical engineer, familiar with the designs required in a large repair shop, and sent in his place a young gentleman fresh from school and flushed with hope, but who from the very nature of the case could know little or nothing of his duties at that particular place. He was practically alone in the drawing room, and did not know where to find such drawings as were required, and candor requires it to be said that he desired to ask many questions about those he did find. The superintendent unfortunately had nothing to do with his appointment, and rather resented it. So he did not trust any of his work, and the new comer was obliged to learn his practical experience at that establishment, where he was known as the mechanical engineer, by having all his work done over by the pattern maker or others, under the eye of the superintendent or master mechanic, and be subjected all the time to the jealousies and annoyances incident to such a method of introduction.
His practical experience was certainly learned under difficulties which I trust none of you may experience. This statement is made that those of you who have not yet obtained positions may not envy those who have, and that each and all of you may be careful not to take a position so far above your experience, if not your capacity, as to become unpleasantly situated in the beginning. The educational facilities you have enjoyed are of such great value in some exceptional cases that the parties thus benefited may do you an injury by leading others to expect that you will be equally valuable in performing duties which require much more practical experience and knowledge of detail than it is possible that you could have obtained in the time you have been here.
The incident is ripe with suggestions. No matter how humble a position you may take in the beginning, you will be embarrassed in much the same way as the young gentleman in question, though it is hoped in a less degree. Your course of action should be first to learn to do as you are told, no matter what you think of it. And above everything keep your eyes and ears open to obtain practical knowledge of all that is going on about you. Let nothing escape you of an engineering nature, though it has connection with the business in hand. It may be your business the next day, and if you have taken advantage of the various opportunities to know all about that particular matter in every detail, you can intelligently act in relation to it, without embarrassment to yourself and with satisfaction to your superior.
Above all, avoid conflict with the practical force of the establishment into which you are introduced. It is better, as we have at another time advised, to establish friendly relations with the workmen and practical men with whom you have to do.
You are to be spared this evening any direct references to the "conceit of learning," but you are asked and advised to bear with the conceit of ignorance. You will find that practical men will be jealous of you on account of your opportunities, and at the same time jealous of their own practical information and experience, and that they may take some pains to hinder rather than aid you in your attempts to actively learn the practical details of the business. The most disagreeable man about the establishment to persons like you, who perhaps goes out of his way to insult you, and yet should be respected for his age, may be one who can be of greatest use to you. Cultivate his acquaintance. A kind word will generally be the best response to an offensive remark, though gentlemanly words of resentment may be necessary when others are present. Sometimes it will be sufficient to say, "I wish a little talk with you by yourself," which will put the bystanders at a distance and enable you to mature your plans. Ascertain as soon as possible that man's tastes; what he reads and what he delights in. Approach him as if you had no resentment and talk on his favorite topic. If rebuffed, tell a pleasant story, and persist from time to time in the attempt to please, until his hardened nature relaxes and he begins to feel and perhaps speaks to others favorably of you. St. Paul has said: "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant of all that I might gain the more." This is the keynote of policy, and though in humbling yourself you control and hide your true feelings, recollect that all your faculties are given you for proper use.
We have referred to some who have acquired the happy faculty of making themselves immediately useful. This is a much more difficult matter than the words imply. If one of you should be so fortunate as to be ordered to make certain tests almost like those you have already conducted here, or to tabulate the results of tests as you have done it here, or to make inspections akin to those which have been fully explained here, there is every probability the work would be done satisfactorily in the first instance. But let a much simpler case arise, for instance, if a superior hand one of you a letter with the simple instructions, "Get me the facts on that," you may be very much puzzled to know what is to be done and how to do it. It may be that the letter is a request for information in regard to certain work that was carried on in the past, in which case it will be necessary for you to hunt through old records, copy books, engineering notes, drawings, and the like, and get a list of all referring to the subject; to make an abstract of the letters and notes if they are at all complicated; and finally to lay the whole before the overworked superior in a business manner, that he largely from recollection, aided by the references and notes, can write an intelligent answer in a very brief period. The way not to do it would be to say, "Yes, sir," very promptly, go off and not more than half read the letter, do something and be back in five minutes with some question or ill-digested answer; then upon receiving a polite hint as to the method to be employed, go off and repeat the operation the next five minutes; then on receiving a short reply, in what appeared to be an unnecessary tone of voice, get a little flurried perhaps, do worse next time, and in the end feel very unpleasant without having accomplished much, and make the gentleman seeking assistance lament the difficulty in teaching young men practical work.
It is possible, on the contrary, for a young man to exceed his instructions and volunteer advice that has not been asked. If he has unfortunately gone too far for some time and been sharply spoken to, he may fail the next in not fully doing the work intended. Simply putting down a column of figures would not necessarily mean tabulating facts. The arrangement and rearrangement of the columns aid in classifying such facts, so that the results shown by them will be readily seen and a great deal of labor saved in examination. A good rule in a case of this kind is to try and find some work done by other parties of a similar nature, and thereby ascertain what is needed and expected. Reasonable questions to ascertain, where records are to be found and the kind of records accessible, are always proper if made at the proper time without interrupting an immediate train of thought; and with such information as a start, if a young man will endeavor to imagine himself in a place like that of the one who has finally to decide, and try to ascertain just what information will probably be required, then patiently go to work to find and present it in condensed shape, he from that moment really begins to be useful and his services will be rapidly appreciated. It is a good rule always to keep the memoranda obtained in accomplishing a result of this kind; so that if further information is required, the whole investigation need not be made over.
This remark suggests another line of thought. Some young men with quick perceptions get in the way at school of trusting their memories, and omit making complete notes of lectures or of the various tests illustrating their studies. This carelessness follows them into after life, and there are instances where young men, who can make certain kinds of investigations much better than their fellows, and promptly give a statement of the general nature of the results, have, when called on afterward for the details, forgotten then entirely, and their notes and memoranda, if preserved, being of little use, the labor is entirely lost. Such men necessarily have to learn more careful ways in after life. It is a good rule in this, as in the previous case, to make and copy complete records of everything in such shape that they may be convenient for reference and criticism afterward.
One of the important problems with which you will have to deal in the future is the labor question, and it is probable that your very first experience with it may be in direct antagonism with the opinions of many with whom you have heretofore been associated. It is an honor to the feelings of those who stand outside and witness this so-called struggle now in progress between capital and labor, that they believe the whole question can be settled by kindly treatment and reasonable argument. There are some cases that will yield to such treatment, and one's whole duty is not performed till all possible, reasonable, and humanitarian methods are adopted. There has been an excuse for the organization of labor, and it, to some small extent, still exists.
Time was that the surplus of unskilled labor was used on a mercantile basis to reduce wages to such an extent that it was almost impossible to rear a well nurtured, much less a well educated and well dressed family, and, moreover, the hours of labor in some branches of business were so long as to shorten the lives of operatives and make self-improvement impossible. The natural progress of civilizing influence did much to abate many of these evils, but the organization of labor removed sores that had not and perhaps could not have been reached in other ways. Having then an excuse for organization, and supported by the success made in directions where public sympathy was with them, is it to be wondered that they have gone too far in very many cases, and that the leadership of such organization has in many instances been captured by designing men, who control the masses to accomplish selfish ends? Whatever may have been the method of evolution, it is certain that the manufacturing operations of the present day have to meet with elements entirely antagonistic to their interests, and in very many ways antagonistic to the interests of the workingman. The members of many organizations, even of intelligent men, are blindly led by chiefs of various titles, of which perhaps the walking delegate is the most offensive one to reasonable people. This class of men claim the right to intrude themselves into the establishments owned by others, and on the most trivial grounds make demands more or less unreasonable, and order strikes and otherwise interfere with the work of manufacturers, much in the way that we have an idea that the agents of the barbarbous chieftains, feudal lords, and semi-civilized rulers collected taxes and laid burdens in earlier historical times. Necessarily these men must use their power so as to insure its permanency. If strikes are popular, strikes must be ordered. If funds run low, excuses for strikes, it is believed, in many cases are sought, so as to stir the pulses of those who sympathize with the labor cause.