May 31, 1912] 
cerned—namely, the officers of the univer- 
sity, its alumni and members of the com- 
munity taking an interest in higher educa- 
tion and having knowledge of it—the right 
to elect the trustees. True democracy does 
not consist of government by the unin- 
formed, but of government by those most 
competent, selected by and responsible to 
the people. In one of the leading state 
universities one third of the trustees are 
elected by the alumni; a second third 
might to advantage be elected by the teach- 
ers, the remaining third being elected by 
the people or their representatives. 
When trustees in the state universities 
are elected by the people or their repre- 
sentatives and in the private universities 
are elected by the corporation consisting 
of officers of the university, alumni and 
members of the community, the question 
as to their powers and duties is perplexing. 
Much can be said in favor of giving them 
no more power than is vested in a trust 
company designated as trustee of an es- 
tate, and arguments can be urged in favor 
of a small paid board of experts having 
the ultimate decision on all questions. I 
seem to have been almost the only educa- 
tional person in the country who approved 
of the principle of Mayor Gaynor’s plan 
for a small paid board of education for 
New York City, and I should regard its 
present adoption as risky. This, however, 
is the correct method of democracy—ex- 
perts selected by the people and paid for 
their work. The professors and other 
officers of the university should be such. 
Whether in addition to them it is desirable 
or necessary to have a board to coordinate 
and control their work, to regulate their 
duties and fix their salaries, is a question 
which can only be settled by experience. 
Certainly the commission form of govern- 
ment is preferable to an individual auto- 
erat. 
SCIENCE 
845 
In the academic jungle the president is 
my black beast. I may seem to be in the 
condition of the animal suffering from the 
complication of diseases described in a re- 
cent issue of a New England paper: 
Patrolman Lindstrum went to Hast Elm Street 
recently and shot an alleged mad dog. The dog 
also was declared to have hydrophobia and rabies. 
As a matter of fact neither barking nor 
biting is warranted. An eminent philos- 
opher of Harvard University in a lecture 
to a class at Radcliffe is alleged to have de- 
picted in eloquent terms the darkness of 
the life of him who has lost his religious 
faith and then to have added that the only 
compensation isasense of humor. Whereat 
first one and then another of the students 
began to weep until all the eighty girls 
were in tears. It is more becoming for uni- 
versity professors to appreciate the semi- 
humorous absurdity of the situation than 
to fall to weeping together. I once incited 
one of my children to call her doll Mr. 
President, on the esoteric ground that he 
would lie in any position in which he was 
placed. Of course, the president is by na- 
ture as truthful, honorable and kind as the 
rest of us, and is likely to have more abil- 
ity or enterprise, or both. But he really 
finds himself in an impossible situation. 
His despotism is only tempered by resig- 
nation; and in the meanwhile he must act 
as though he were a statue of himself 
erected by public subscription. In Tenny- 
son’s words: 
Who should be king save him who makes us free. 
The argument for giving a free hand to 
the president is that this is the way to get 
things done. It should, however, be re- 
membered that it is quite as important— 
and this holds especially in the university 
—not to do the wrong thing as it is to do 
the right thing. The time of the president 
is largely occupied with trying to correct 
or to explain the mistakes he has made, 
and the time of the professor is too much 
