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- THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1916. 
AT LAST! 
“THE war has brought many changes of custom 
and condition, but none is. so ‘likely to in- 
fluence national history as the method adopted 
in the choice of.members of the new. Govern- 
ment. For the first time the heads of depart- 
ments of State have been selected because. of 
their particular knowledge and experience, and 
not on account of political needs and exigencies. 
It has been assumed. hitherto that a member of 
the party in power may become in turn the 
President of the Board of Trade, Board of Agri- 
culture, Board of Education, and of as many 
other departments as political circumstances may 
require, without possessing. any special qualifica- 
tions to. deal with the affairs of a single one of 
them. A new principle has, however, now been 
introduced; and. the Government formed by Mr. 
Lloyd George consists mostly of men who know 
instead of men who had to be given appointments 
because of their political claims. The whole 
nation welcomes this first endeavour to recon- 
struct On a scientific basis its politics, its states- 
manship, its commerce, its education, and its 
civil and industrial administration. It has been 
fashionable. in political circles to distrust the man 
who has made it his business to know, and to 
assume that he must be kept under control by 
official administrators; but .we hope the appoint- 
ments to offices in the new Government signify 
that this view has now gone for ever, and has 
been superseded by the one in which national use 
is made of the most capable men. - : 
The constitution of the Government evolved 
under war conditions by Mr. Lloyd George has, 
in Wordsworthian phrase, so far as the future 
of education is concerned, “brought ‘hope with 
it and forward-looking thoughts,” and, in any 
event, has set an example which it is to be hoped 
may be followed in later appointments... For the 
first time in the history of the Board of Educa- 
tion a man has been selected for it$ leader and 
inspirer entirely apart from political prejudices or 
ambitions, and without the idea that the position 
is to be regarded as simply a convenient resting- 
place for a time in view of some other political 
office of greater importance, if there be such. 
Like most of the other offices in the new Ministry, 
a choice has been made on purely business princi- 
ples with the sole view of securing for the office 
the most capable administrator, who will bring 
not only undivided energies to its effective dis- 
charge, but formative and stimulating ideas, high 
"NO. 2459, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
intelligence, lea ifts of exposition 
in the written word and in speech, 
The appointment of Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, Vice- 
Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, to the 
Presidency of the Board of Education will receive , 
the heartiest welcome from friends of education 
of every grade. It is particularly welcome at the 
present crisis, when the feeling is rife in all 
spheres of educational thought that there is need 
for a complete reform in our methods of educa- 
tion and in the importance assigned to certain 
subjects. Dr. Fisher comes to the responsible 
post to which he is assigned from the centre of 
the industrial life of England, where he has been 
in close touch with men of affairs with whom 
the application of science to industrial needs is 
of paramount importance. He brings, too, a 
breadth of mind and a keen interest in all demo- 
cratic movements, especially those concerned with 
social and economic questions. As a teacher of 
high repute he will not fail of sympathy with 
those who are charged with the due training of 
the youth of the nation in all branches of educa- 
tion. He has already been engaged in important 
public inquiries, for he was a member of im- 
portant Commissions, as, for example, that which 
visited India four years ago to inquire into Indian 
administration and the conditions of the Public 
Services. Dr, Fisher has great problems to face 
and solve, since to be really effective he must 
break with old traditions which have held the 
nation hide-bound for many generations. There 
is, however, reason to believe that he appreciates 
fully the gravity of the task, and that he has sot 
lightly entered upon it. He brings to its solution 
a free and liberal mind and an undivided and 
abiding interest, and it is to be hoped that ail 
parties will unite in giving him the ‘most loyal 
support. 
The lessons of the war have brought home to 
the English people as never before the need for 
drastic, changes in our educational policy, and we 
therefore look forward with a confident hopé’ that 
the new appointment will be abundantly justified 
in its results and form a precedent for future 
guidance. 
The new Government includes a number of 
other men who know the “business” with which 
they have been entrusted.. The national needs of 
the moment are a complete organisation of pro- 
duction, a stringent regulation of, and economy 
in, consumption, a thorough efficiency of trans- 
port, all focussed with the fierce concentration of 
purpose of an entirely roused people upon one 
aim, the winning of the war. All these needs 
have led the. Government of the country away 
from the somewhat arid academic debatableness 
0! 
