In this field the individual has not been obliged to make his own opportunities to the same extent as in business, politics, and the arts.

The opportunities were made for him by the industrial development of the country.

Efficient special work soon became absolutely necessary in the various branches of manufacture, in mining, and in the business of transportation; and in the beginning it was frequently necessary to import from abroad expert specialists.

The technical schools of the country were wholly inadequate to supply the demand either for the quantity or the quality of special work needed.
When, for instance, the construction of railroads first began, the only good engineering school in the country was West Point, and the consequence was that many army officers became railroad engineers.

But little by little the amount and the standard of technical instruction improved; while at the same time the greater industrial organizations themselves trained their younger employees with ever increasing efficiency.