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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1206 



tion to the dangers under our form of gov- 

 ernment of centralizing authority in de- 

 partments or bureaus distantly located, 

 and necessarily not closely informed con- 

 cerning the institutions over which they 

 may exercise supervision. 



The situation in some of our states is an 

 occasion for real alarm, for what is known 

 as the budget system now threatens the 

 efflcieney of agricultural education and re- 

 search. Undoubtedly such a system should 

 be applied to the financing of the nation, 

 the states, public utilities and even private 

 .enterprises, but a fiscal policy may be car- 

 ried to such an extreme that it becomes 

 burdensome and even tyrannical and de- 

 feats its own objects. To illustrate : in 

 certain states legislative budget commit- 

 tees fix salaries for the various positions in 

 the colleges and stations and establishes an 

 expense budget for these institutions seg- 

 regated into numerous items, and no- devia- 

 tion is allowed from either salary or ex- 

 pense items, no matter what exigencies 

 may arise. As a rule, the members of these 

 committees have no intimate knowledge of 

 the operations of the institution with whose 

 interests they are dealing and on the basis 

 of a hasty judgment not fully informed 

 may establish salaries and expense items 

 in such a way as to greatly hamper institu- 

 tional progress. It is absurd for a college 

 president or the director of a station when 

 taking on a new man at a low salary to be 

 unable to give him any assurance that con- 

 tinued efficient service will result in im- 

 proving his financial status. It is even 

 more absurd if a call to go elsewhere is 

 given to some member of a teaching or in- 

 vestigational staff for the president or di- 

 rector to be unable to retain his services 

 when it would be economical and wise to 

 do so by the addition of a few hundred 

 dollars to his salary. It is perplexing. 



sometimes embarrassing, and sometimes 

 the occasion of vigorous language, for an 

 institution to have its work set to a fixed 

 financial scheme which does not fit the de- 

 mands upon it. No prophets, ancient or 

 modern, were ever called upon for a more 

 difficult task than the filing of a statement 

 with a legislative committee as to just how 

 much money will be needed for traveling 

 expenses "twelve months in the future or 

 how much it will cost to maintain a herd 

 of cattle or run an automobile. 



Those of you who are abiding in peace 

 and comfort with a broadly segregated 

 budget as, for instance, a lump sum for 

 salaries and a lump sum for expenses, may 

 think that these somewhat strenuous re- 

 marks concerning centralized control and 

 an embarrassing bureaucracy are out of 

 place. You should be assured, however, 

 that this budget infection is spreading and 

 that when one state adopts a new fiscal 

 scheme other states are inclined to fall in 

 line. Do not rest too quietly in your pres- 

 ent liberty. The time may come when over 

 yourself will be j-'our board of control, and 

 over your board of control a bureau, and 

 over that bureau a committee, and over 

 that committee the legislature, each divi- 

 sion of authority feeling the responsibility 

 of directing subordinate interests. There 

 is every reason to fear that if present tend- 

 encies toward the closer control of our agri- 

 cultural and research institutions by com- 

 mittees and bureaus is not checked, effi- 

 ciency in education and research will abide 

 only with privately endowed institutions. 

 "Whitman H. Jordan 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



COMMITTEE ON THE BRITISH CHEMICAL 

 TRADE 



The committee appointed by the Minister 

 of Eeconstruction to advise as to the procedure 

 which should be adopted for dealing with the 



