896 
the last twenty years. At present, however, 
I feel that we have a better chance to secure 
men of intellectual alertness in the president’s 
chair than as a composite photograph of a 
faculty or department. The catch-words of 
democracy and autocracy do not appeal to my 
judgment here. Of course I am with you in 
desiring to see the universities and colleges 
of the country so administered that the fac- 
ulty members shall not feel that they are 
merely employees of the corporation (trus- 
tees), but that they have a large share in 
deciding policies and in the making of minor 
appointments. I do not believe it is neces- 
sary, to secure this end, to abolish practically 
as you propose the office of president. I doubt 
whether during the present generation at least 
a satisfactory substitute for the president can 
be devised. 
The organization proposed under (1), (2), 
(3) and (5) depends for its success largely on 
the possibility of finding a man with the 
requisite qualifications for president, and 
securing his election. In throwing the re- 
sponsibility for this choice directly on the 
faculty it would have a wholesome effect on 
this body. But whether any man with no 
more power given him than you propose for 
the president could become a leader is doubt- 
ful. Certainly Mr. Eliot could not have ac- 
complished what he did for Harvard under 
this plan. But conditions have changed since 
then, and more could be done with the plan 
now. Still, are not our faculties too much 
bound up in the supposed interests of the 
undergraduate and with the cruder needs of 
this immature person, to be willing to take 
any chances when it is a question of higher 
scholarship? Are we ripe for this plan? I 
hope we are; but I do not know. The method 
of making appointments set forth in (4) is, 
I believe, a wrong one. At the present time 
there are not enough first-rate men in mathe- 
matics in the whole country to supply even the 
strongest universities, and I presume the situ- 
ation is similar in other subjects. It is neces- 
sary, then, to discover the man who is scien- 
tifically strong early, and moreover it is neces- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 910 
sary to want to get the man who is scientific- 
ally strong. Now the majority of the men 
whose vote is necessary for a choice under 
your plan are not themselves scientifically 
first-rate men, nor do they know a first-rate 
man when they see him. They are going in 
any concrete case to impose conditions, each 
in itself corresponding to a desirable qualifi- 
cation, but all taken together such that the one 
(or possibly two) otherwise available first-rate 
men are ruled out. The result will be the 
choice of an eminently respectable member of 
society, who as he grows older will add so 
much more dead wood to the department and 
in his turn make the choice of a scientifically 
strong man difficult or impossible. If really 
strong appointments are to be made, the choice 
must rest ultimately with one or two men, as 
the president and the head of the department; 
and even two is sometimes too many. ‘There 
have been cases at Harvard where Mr. Eliot 
has appointed professors from outside without 
the advice or consent of the departments, 
much to the good of the department in ques- 
tion. It is true that when both president and 
the head of a department are incompetent, 
good appointments are impossible. But only 
an act of God can save such a department. 
I am inclined to think that the best form 
of government is beneficent tyranny, but of 
course such a person as Marcus Aurelius 
should always be chosen as tyrant. That there 
are some individuals more intelligent than the 
average, there can be no doubt. The point is 
to choose these as our leaders. Personally, the 
less I have to do with the details of running 
the university, the happier I am. 
I have never reflected on the matter of col- 
lege administration and my opinion is there- 
fore of no value, and might readily be reversed 
by study, argument or reflection. I see no 
reason as yet for believing in your plan. A 
system like that of Harvard seems to me to 
work well. 
Your plan of a representative rather than a 
town-meeting faculty seems to me excellent. 
