604 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol 40 



tilde for the piece of work involved. This, of course, is likely to 

 occur when combination purpose men are appointed, for instance, 

 primarily to fill a place in the college but with the expectation of 

 working for the station also. 



The limits of the legitimate sphere of organization are held to be 

 to provide a general outline of the problem to be attacked, the 

 facilities required for the work, and the opening for the develop- 

 ment of the results obtained. But the very conditions of govern- 

 ment activities are against this limitation. The administrative func- 

 tion tends to go beyond its legitimate sphere, in the direction of 

 defining the problems in too great detail and in drawing up complex 

 schemes for the development of the results before they are obtained. 

 " This phenomenon is merely administration unsuccessfully attempt- 

 ing to justify its own existence/' 



Any scheme for the employment or development of research must 

 have regard to the essential requirements both of the research ;md 

 the administrative aspects, and undue prominence must not be given 

 to those of either. This is defined as implying on the administrative 

 side the direction of the work into certain channels while avoiding 

 too minute a definition of these, and provision of the means to obtain 

 the best practical developments from the results obtained. From 

 the research point of view it is necessary to provide for the selection 

 of investigators with a view to the particular work required, and 

 freedom for development of initiative along the lines of individual 

 leaning. On the latter point there may be some difference of opinion 

 if this is construed too narrowly. 



"Any department, however small, involves a certain amount of 

 administrative work, . . . and full organization requires that pro- 

 vision shall be made for this without interfering with the efficiency 

 of the purely constructive system. This is the crux of all such ad- 

 ministrative problems and the point where lies the chief danger of the 

 selfish basis of human nature asserting itself. All departments must 

 work through a head who represents that department in the dealings 

 with government." Professor Leake holds that the selection of such 

 a head from the departmental (professional) Staff "will lead to the 

 emphasis of the purely constructional asped of administration." He 

 avoids the term director, since the duties of tlte office are to assist 

 the members of the professional stall by freeing them from the rou- 

 tine administrative duties and by acting as intermediary between 

 them and Government ; hence the position he has in mind is thai of 

 secretary rather than that of director. 



The specific proposal to organize research on the basis of the com- 

 monly recognized divisions of science, With departments of botany. 

 chemistry, etc.. is analyzed in the light of these considerations. 



