222 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



the Chairman, told me I was making the mistake 

 of my life. Finally and with great reluctance, I 

 accepted the position for that year. But Mr. 

 Sage was right, for two directors could not very 

 long have cooperated peacefully in using the same 

 plant and in employing the same men to conduct 

 investigations under one chief and to give instruc- 

 tion under another any more than two queen 

 bees can remain long in the same hive. So, again, 

 to return to my old metaphor, I was saved by 

 President Adams and Mr. Sage from a head-on 

 collision. 



As I remember it, I was made Director in May 

 and if we did not use the first appropriation by 

 June 3Oth of the current year, it would lapse into 

 the Treasury of the United States. To invest so 

 large an amount judiciously in a technical equip- 

 ment was no easy task. There were all sorts of 

 things to be purchased, some in foreign countries, 

 and the bills must be vised by the Director and ap- 

 proved by the Executive Committee by the last 

 day of June. Professor Comstock made his plans 

 for an Insectary the first ever built between 

 two days, I think, and got his bills in on time. 

 One of our Professors who was then in Europe 

 was instructed by cablegram to buy certain ap- 

 pliances which could not be had at home, and the 



