44 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGV [Vol. 14 



be fearless, yet not foolhardy and must remember that the success of 

 an entire undertaking is sometimes jeopardized by a too zealous activity 

 in bringing about punishment for violations which in themselves are 

 relatively devoid of serious consequences. Perhaps the greatest diffi- 

 culty which the conscientious executive has to face is that of relinquish- 

 ing many duties to his subordinates with the feeling, perhaps, that he can 

 perform them just a little bit better than can some one else. The general 

 manager of a railroad system cannot also be dispatcher and train con- 

 ductor and the entomological executive must delegate to subordinates 

 many duties which he probably can attend to better than they. The 

 executive himself must some day give way to another and an efficient 

 organization requires that every man in it should be prepared and 

 qualified to step into the place of the man higher up, including the place 

 of the executive himself. Details and routine matters must go to sub- 

 ordinates. If the latter cannot perform these tasks they should be 

 taught; if incapable of being taught they should be replaced by more 

 competent ones. One buried in a mass of details loses perspective. 

 The head of a large working organization not only must not lose per- 

 spective ; he must have the leisure in which to create a forward perspec- 

 tive and see far beyond the tasks and plans of today. 



4. State and Federal Workers in Entomology 



This phase of our subject is one which the speaker approaches with 

 some hesitancy. It is a subject frequently discussed by the state 

 workers on the one hand and by the federal workers on the other — but 

 rarely by both together. Because a subject may be considered by some 

 as more or less "delicate" is not necessarily a reason for ignoring it. 

 It may also be a vital subject. Truth is the basis of all perfect under- 

 standing and when one knows the facts and motives actuating another 

 in his attitude, a common ground of understanding is shortly arrived at. 

 If the present discussion has any purpose at all, it is that of making a 

 plea for more perfect cooperation and coordination of all the agencies 

 engaged in economic entomological work. At the risk, therefore, of 

 invoking some criticism, the speaker ventures to touch upon what 

 appears to him to be vital phases of the relationship between federal and 

 state workers in economic entomology. 



That this relationship is at present by no means ideal will doubtless 

 be conceded by all. By this we do not mean to infer that there is a 

 feeling of antagonism or jealousy between these two groups of workers 

 for such is self -evidently not the case. Rather, these two groups are 

 the \ ictims of circumstances for which they are only in part responsible, 

 if indeed they are really responsible at all. We have already referred, 



