210 ESSENTIALS OF VETERINARY LAW 



postpone all action until tlie board meets. He 

 cannot even take the consensus of the members. 

 They must meet to act.^ If he takes the respon- 

 sibility of action be may do so only at his peril, 

 and if harm or injury results to any one through 

 such illegal though possibly advisable action, he 

 may be held personally liable, if after the board 

 meets they fail to support him in his act, and take 

 the responsibility upon themselves.*' 



Modem business methods demand that respon- 

 sibility be definite with each person engaged in 

 its operation for some particular portion of the 

 work, and that there be no portion of the work 

 which is not clearly the duty of some one person 

 to perforai. It would be just as advisable and 

 practical to entrust the operation of a pumping 

 station to a board of amateur engineers, or so to 

 construct an automobile that each occupant would 

 have an equal control over its movements, as it 

 is to expect a board to be efficient in governmental 

 administration. 



167. A Trained Executive. Another serious 

 fault in American executive administration is the 

 failure to recognize the necessity for special edu- 

 cation and training previous to appointment to 

 office. This is particularly true of positions re- 

 quiring special technical knowledge. To some 

 degree this is recognized in certain lines of work. 

 For example, it is customary to make a knowledge 

 of the law requisite for appointment or election 

 to the judicial bench. Some knowledge of the law 



5 Public Health, 295. 

 c Public Health, 360, 365, 

 366. 



