Abstracts from an address to the graduating class of Stevens Institute of Technology by Mr. Walter C. Kerr.

"We hear much about opportunities. They are everywhere plentiful. Remember, that your oppor-tuuity is the little one that lies squarely in front of you, not. the larger one which you hope to find farther along. Many a man is surrounded with opportunities who never seizes one. There are traditions that Adam, William Tell and Sir Isaac Newton each had an affair with an apple, but with different results."

"Your first duty is always to that which lies across your path. The only step which you can take in advance is the next one. This leads to a simplicity of action which is commendable. Don't ramble."

"Cultivate singleness of purpose. This is more important than you may think. It is intuitive with the comparatively ignorant, and often absent in the highly trained. We are frequently surprised at the great competency of the ignorant contractor or foreman, on whom judgment is passed by saying that he is a practical man and gets results. Analysis will show that his-best quality is singleness of purpose, which leads him to vigorously do the one thing before him without distraction following from knowing or thinking about too many other things."

" When you are getting what you go after, get it all. Avoid the mediocrity of compromise. Be thorough and stand for full competency in everything, from main essentials to details. "

"Much of our engineering is only done once, and it must be done right that once. A man who has learned by experience to do a thing deserves no credit for doing it right. He is then only a repeating machine. Real power is characterized by ability to perform right the first time that which a man never did before. Such performance involves the power to assimilate and adapt experiences, of more or less like or unlike kind, in a way to bring forth correct results. This is the true use of experience, wherein a man is a thinking, active power, and not a mere repeater. "

"A point of view is involved in the power to rationalize. This is a thing which each man does for himself in his own best way, and its essence consists in asking one's self whether the thing is reasonable. It is a great check upon error. It is the power of the human mind, after performing in more or less systematic and conventional ways, to stand off and look at results and ask one's self whether they are reasonable. One man will figure that certain material weighs two hundred tons, and believe it. Another will say that there is something wrong in that, for it all came on two freight cars. "

" It is well for a young engineer to cultivate his vocabulary and learn to use words in their right sense. They are then usually understood, even by those who have less knowledge. Engineering documents, specifications aad letters are full of m sstate-ments due to the careless use of language. Conciseness cannot be overestimated. Brevity is desirable, but not at the expense of clearness. Conversely, a certain degree of facility should be acquired in reading the words of others. "

"One of the worst attributes in engineering, and which is fundamentally born of conceit, tends to fasten error, censure and responsibility on others. There are times when a man needs to stand himself up in front of himself and ask; ' What is the matter with me ? ' The capacity of any man to admit his own error and frailty of judgment is a measure of strength rather than weakness. "

"When you start your practical work, you will doubtless try to improve things. That is a legitimate purpose, if not overworked. I am not going to attempt to tell what needs improvement, but the one improvement that things need is in the line of sufficiency. You can think this over for yourself and apply it where it fits. "

Remember that all the good you accomplish is going to come out of yourself. You cannot borrow it and you cannot make it out of that which has been poured into you by education or otherwise. All that you receive is only a certain quantity as knowledge, acquired by education, experience or other training, which will have a certain influence upon what comes out of yourself as your own. It is the inherent capacity to perform with your own brain which will make you what you become, and not the mere transmission of that which you have acquired. Some have gone through experience without acquiring it, and many a man who has received an education has not got any because he allowed it to be a thing apart from his personality, and it slipped away. "