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GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY
GEORGIA’S BEST ASSET
The Georgia School of Technology, or. as its old students
call it, “Georgia Tech,” although one of the youngest tech
nological schools in the South, is one of the most famous
institutions of its kins in the country. *
Its phenomenal growth in the past few years under
the able direction of its distinguished head, K. G. Matheson,
LL.D., has attracted much favorable attention. This splen
did development has been due to several causes, chief among
them being the fortunate location of the institution in the
city of Atlanta, whose prestige as a manufacturing and com
mercial center has aroused the admiration of the entire
country. Atlanta is proud of her schools, and her own tre
mendous growth and • extraordinary development along man
ufacturing lines in recent years have had a tremendous re
action on her educational institutions. Atlanta is peculiarly
well adapted as an ideal location for* a great technical
school like Tech, offering to the young men who come here
from various sections of the United States unusual oppor
tunity to study its many and varied engineering and manu
facturing enterprises.
A great engineering school like Georgia Tech is possible,
jn fact, only in a large community like Atlanta. Next year,
for instance, a most interesting educational experiment will
be inaugurated at Georgia Tech. Its students will partici
pate in what is known in the North and East as the co-oper
ative educational plan, ’.whereby a large number of Tech
students will work in alternating sections in various leading
mills and manufacturing concerns in th? city of Atlanta.
These young men will thereby gain a very practical knowl
edge of mechanical engineering in its many phases, and at
the same time pursue their theoretical and scientific training
at Georgia Tech. The plan has been tried in the North and
East with excellent results, and much interest is felt
among Tech students in the outcome of the new movement.
During the past year Georgia Tech has added much to
her already splendid plant. New shops and mill equipment,
costing over $55,000, nave been added, giving the school un
usual facilities in the electrical and mechanical depart
ments. especially. A few years ago between two and three
hundred students attended the institution. With increasing
prestige and popularity, Tech has now grown apace, and
during the past year has enrolled seven hundred students.
Such growth necessitated enlargement of shops class rooms
and laboratories. The institution either had to build and
expand in order to take care of this increased student body
or else turn away a large number of deserving and ambi
tious young men.
Through the loyally of her alumni and the superhuman
efforts of the many staunch friends of the institution
throughout the South and North. “Georgia Tech"’ was able
to meet the increasing demands on hsr facilities. Today the
new shops and equipment are models of their kind, and
“Tech" ranks among the foremost technical s«Aools of the
I nited States in .consequence.
No educational institution is thoroughly ami completely
equipped, however, for the best service if it possesses merely
machine shops or laboratories or scientific apparatus. Geor
gia Tech, like other great schools, has an eye to the physi
cal welfare ot its student body. Not only is physical cul
ture and gymnasium work offered at “Tech" under an ex
pert physical director, but its students are required to do
regular and systematic gymnasium work Further, a S2O,-
IE IB I
II
» f ~ M UlMi
THE ATLANTA GEORG TAN, SATURDAY. JULY 6, 1912
if'- 'tT
000 hospital has been erected recently on the campus,
where a college physician and trained nurse are employed
regularly throughout the entire year. Twenty-seven pa
tients can be accommodated in the Tech hospital, which, as
as to architectural beauty and scientific equipment, is a
model of its kind.
Georgia Tech does not stop, however, with the intellec
tual and physical training of its student body. These are
important interests, it is true, but this great technical school
realizes that it owes a profound moral obligation to the
seven hundred men who crowd its halls. Its management
and friends have erected during the past twelve months a
magnificent Y. M. C. A., building, costing' $75,000: which is
the crowning glory of the institution. This handsome
structure was dedicated a few weeks ago. and. with appro
priate ceremonies, the wider Christian work of the school
was inaugurated.
The new Y. M. C. A. building is a model of its kind,
comprising handsome parlors, a chapel, reception-rooms and
a bowling alley. Attractive billiard and pool parlors, with
shower baths and toilet rooms, promise much in the way of
social and physical enjoyment to Tech students.
As a splendid proof of the practical and valuable training afforded
the young men of Georgia by this famous institution, it was recently
stated, publicly that Tech's graduates are in great demand. East year
every member of the senior electrical department was secure of a po
sition on graduation; and five men were asked for that the institution
could not supply. This is a most significant sign of the times, giving
conclusive pioof of the imperative demand for technically trained
engineers and chemists, on the one hand, and of the still further grat
ifying fact that the work done at the Georgia School of Technology is
up to date, thorough and exceedingly practical.
That such an institution as Georgia Tech amply justifies its ex
istence is shown by a comparison of the earning capacity of gradu
ates of technical schools, as compared with mechanics who did not have
such training. The following statistics were taken from a recent num
ber of The World’s Work, giving the average weekly wage of the two
Age. Untrained Graduate of
Mechanic. Technical School.
18 $5.50
20 7.50
21 8.50 SIO.OO
22 10.00 11.50
24 10.00 17.50
26 10.00 27.00
30 10.00 41.4)0
32 10.00 43.00
Two very interesting facts stand out conspicuously in the above ta
ble First, that the “Tech” graduate, though a non-produeer up to
age of 21, begins at a higher salary than the untrained mechanic who
has two years the start of him. Further, he keeps this advantage, with
a constantly increasing ratio. Second, that the untrained mechanic’s
salary is at a standstill up to 32 years, while that of the technically or
school trained man has practically no limit. In other words, it seems
that at the end of twenty years the school trained mechanic, with the
low average of S2B per weekly wage, has gained about SIB,OOO advan
tage in salary through his superior training.
In addressing the delegates to the State High School association
recently at Athens. Ga.. Professor G. Holman Gardner, associate regis
trar at Georgia Tech, made the statement that when a boy graduated at
Georgia Tech he had a training equivalent to at least SIO,OOO as a
cash asset to begin life with. Professor Gardner cited several instances
showing where Tech graduates were earning from $5,000 to $50,000 per
year, and Georgia boys at that.
“The best legacy a man can leave his son is to educate him at the
Georgia School of Technology, for on graduation our boys do not have
to serve an apprenticeship. They are competent and ready to take hold
of the handle of things,’’ says Professor Gardner.
In conclusion, it is sincerely to be hoped that the great state of
Georgia will deal liberally with its technological school. Its splendid tec
ord of,Achievement and growth Is Georgia Tech’s most powerful argu
ment for a larger appropriation for its work and a liberal treatment at
the hands of the state legislature. Only a growing institution needs
money ; a decadent or unprogressive one can rock along and finally dis
appear by dry rot.