308 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 714 



kinds of seeds. Now, Mr. Balls' and myself 

 have independently proved that fuzziness of 

 the seed is dominant vehen crossing occurs be- 

 tween a naked and fuzzy seeded variety. If, 

 therefore, the mixed character of the seed is 

 due to its having been borne by hybrid plants, 

 we should expect segregation of the characters 

 and, on sowing, the naked character (reces- 

 sive) having once appeared should come true 

 to seed. As stated above, this did not, in the 

 case noted, occur and the mixed character of 

 the offspring is therefore apparently not due 

 to the hybrid character of the parent. 



So far as experiment has yet gone the 

 nakedness or fuzziness of the seed appears to 

 be subject to fluctuations that are unusually 

 large even in this genus of large fluctuations. 

 I have grown many varieties of cotton that 

 differ only in this characteristic and come 

 perfectly true to seed in respect of it and have 

 further found that the fuzziness of a variety 

 is decreased by growth under certain condi- 

 tions.' r. Fletcher 



School of Aqbicultube, 

 GizA, Egypt 



QUOTATIONS 



AS TO UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION 



The Popular Science Monthly has some 

 sharp things to say editorially in its July is- 

 sue in regard to the administration of Ameri- 

 can universities, with special reference to re- 

 cent events at Syracuse, Cincinnati and in 

 Oklahoma. There is not a little justice in 

 the contention that whereas " elsewhere 

 throughout the world the university is a re- 

 public of scholars administered by them," in 

 this country it is " a business corporation." 

 The complaint is not new, and it is being 

 made more and more frequently of late. The 

 editor goes on to say : 



" The ultimate control is lodged in a board 

 of absentee trustees, whose chief duty is the 

 election of a president. The qualifications 



' " Year-book of the Khedivial Agricultural So- 

 ciety," Cairo, 1906. 



^ " Mendelian Heredity in Cotton," Journal of 

 Agricultural Science, Vol. II., Part III. 



'"The Cotton Plant," Nature, Vol. 77, No. 

 1994. 



most regarded in the president are the ability 

 to get money for the institution and a good 

 presence at public functions; but he is ex- 

 pected to " run " the university. The pro- 

 fessors and instructors are employed " at the 

 pleasure of the trustees," and so long as the 

 president maintains his position, this means 

 at his pleasure. Advances in salary or posi- 

 tion, appropriations for apparatus, etc., are 

 subject to the same pleasure. In larger in- 

 stitutions the department-store system natu- 

 rally grows up. Deans and heads of depart- 

 ments are responsible to the president, and 

 their subordinates are responsible to them." 



It is fair to say that the American ideal of 

 efficiency is responsible for a system which 

 has its virtues, and is unfortunate mainly be- 

 cause it comes into conflict with another and 

 even higher American ideal, the ideal of 

 democracy. In a great business organized 

 under keen competitive conditions there is 

 as little room for democracy as in the army. 

 All other considerations must yield to that 

 special efficiency which belongs to strong au- 

 tocratic control. 



But if there is any place where this system 

 does not belong, it is the university. Here 

 there is no mad scramble for wealth, no com- 

 petitor to crush, no secret tactics to follow. 

 Culture should be made not " to hum," but to 

 blossom sweetly. More important than great 

 gifts or new buildings or business-like man- 

 agement is the maintenance of academic 

 freedom and of the dignity and self-respect 

 of the faculty. The professor is, or ought to 

 be, more than a mere employe, hired for a 

 certain "job." And the president is, or 

 ought to be, both more and less than a mere 

 superintendent, to hire and discharge and 

 make a good showing with his yearly reports. 

 No single thing has done more harm to higher 

 education in America during the past quarter- 

 century than the steady aggrandizement of 

 the presidential office and the modeling of 

 university administration upon the methods 

 and ideals of the factory and the department 

 store. 



That it does not in all eases work badly is 

 due simply to the fact that the men are better 



