902 
such as that at Harvard, without age limit for 
its “fellows,” although all members of the 
university are considered incapacitated at 
sixty-six or thereabouts, is inherently wrong 
and altogether autocratic. The corporation 
should be selected by the alumni, by the gen- 
eral body of instructors, or better perhaps by 
both, and I doubt much if the appointment 
should be for life. 
I am quite in accord with the scheme 
proposed and raise a question only con- 
cerning one point which is included in (4). 
While in thorough sympathy with the demo- 
eratic mode of control, I doubt its effi- 
ciency. In such departments as I have been 
connected with, the lower positions are filled 
more or less temporarily by men who expect 
to pass on to other higher positions. They 
have not the responsibility for the department, 
as is the case with the professor, and as far 
as my experience has been, they lack interest 
in the matter of appointments and policy. 
Furthermore, they are not acquainted with 
conditions and men to the extent that the 
head of the department must be in order to 
make his department a success. In fact, I 
believe that the head of the department must 
be “ezar” or “boss,” so to speak, and those 
under him must be responsible to him in 
order to make such a unit a success. In fact, 
the executive work of a department in my 
opinion, must be attended to by its head or a 
person representing him. On the other hand, 
I believe that it is important that all matters 
pertaining to the department should be dis- 
cussed freely by all concerned, and of course 
in regard to scientific matters there should be 
the utmost freedom. We have an organiza- 
tion with the unit similar to that outlined in 
your plan, and it strikes me that there is 
apathy and a general lack of interest among 
the younger men. 
I heartily approve the general principles of 
your plan of university control. A plan 
which secures a separation of the financial 
and the educational administration is, in so 
far, a vast improvement over the prevailing 
plans which ordinarily assume that one gov- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 910 
erning body may be expert both in business 
affairs and in educational matters. I favor, 
too, the more democratic control secured by 
your plan. I fear, however, that the corpora- 
tion provided for in (1) of your plan might 
easily be too large and too freely constituted 
to be efficient. I should consider it highly 
unsafe to let the corporation include any 
“members of the community ” who might be 
pleased to “ ally themselves with it” and “ pay 
annual dues.” There should be some fairly 
rigid qualifications for membership designed 
to exclude all who are not willing to give 
much of their time and energy to the upbuild- 
ing of the university. I see no important 
function in the office of a chancellor. Why 
should not the president best “represent the 
university in its relations to the community,” 
for the university is essentially an educational 
institution—not a business institution? The 
further details of your plan, as set forth in 
(2)—(5), I favor without important exception. 
The plan of electing professors seems unneces- 
sarily complicated perhaps. Here at Harvard 
the small division or department enjoys a 
high degree of autonomy, especially in mat- 
ters of educational nature, much as your plan 
proposes. I trust that your agitation of this 
matter may serve to direct the evolution of 
our universities along more desirable lines. 
In regard to your interesting scheme for 
university control, paragraph (1) I agree with 
(with the possible exception of the “ members 
of the community who ally themselves with 
it”). Would not the alumni of the estab- 
lished university be enough representation ? 
T also agree with paragraph (2). The office 
should be yearly, or for not more than two 
years, regarded as a position of dignity, and 
the election come from the faculties. He 
should be paid during this time more than a 
professor, because his work will be greater, 
more bothersome; he will have to attend func- 
tions and dinners and should be compensated 
for this, particularly for the dinners. In 
paragraph (8) the unit of organization should 
be the different faculties. I am not sure about 
the representation in this, but I think that the 
