Febeuaey 16, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



157 



state, he may not go at public expense with- 

 out the permission of the governor. 



His own knowledge of the needs, his 

 training, judgment and loyalty count for 

 nothing. His desire to economize funds, 

 dearer to him than to anybody else, funds 

 that have been exploited time and again by 

 officers over whom neither he nor the board 

 of trustees have the slightest control — this 

 desire is no guarantee of his judgment. The 

 opinion of the head of the department does 

 not count. The recommendation of the 

 president is void of meaning. The action 

 of the board of trustees is impotent. The 

 question must go to the governor of the 

 state — this mighty question as to whether 

 Dr. Blank, scientist at $4,000 per year, may 

 step across the border to consult his 

 brother scientist and have his expense bill 

 of $7.93 paid from funds appropriated by 

 the legislature and set aside by the trustees 

 for this very purpose. Ye gods, where are 

 we drifting ! ! 



If this burden were from within the insti- 

 tution the case would be different, because 

 it could the more easily be removed. But 

 it is inflicted from without under the pre- 

 text of auditing, or of efficiency, and with 

 certain federal funds we have reached a 

 stage of affairs such that the specialist may 

 work only in "cooperation" with offices a 

 thousand, perhaps two thousand, miles 

 away and represented by men who know 

 little of the local conditions involved — a co- 

 operation at best that is purely administra- 

 tive, mostly restrictive, wholly artificial, 

 and defensible only as a means of adminis- 

 tration. So has administration become not 

 only supervision, but actual cooperation, 

 under which the last opportunity for 'per- 

 sonal initiative and the best service is 

 taken away. 



All this is done in the name of one or the 

 other of two agencies — the administration 



of public funds, or the demands of effi- 

 ciency. 



Officers connected with federal and state 

 administration seem to be unable to dis- 

 tinguish between the business of auditing 

 and that of supervision. They reason that 

 if they are in any way to certify funds they 

 must also approve the work. In this way 

 has ordinary auditing developed within 

 twenty-five years into what was at first in- 

 spection of work and at last a kind of ' ' co- 

 operation" in which the one to be held 

 responsible for results is under the domi- 

 nance of authority entirely outside the 

 institution which he serves. In this way 

 an outside individual, even a minor officer, 

 is able to overrule a university and its en- 

 tire administrative machinery. 



Efficiency is more insidious, for it works 

 under the guise of service and proves by 

 figures that scientists, teachers and others 

 in the public service must be standardized 

 in order to be made efficient, and before this 

 car of Juggernaut, training, loyalty, coun- 

 sel, experience, even deliberative acts of 

 boards of trustees of successful and high- 

 minded citizens serving without salary do 

 not count as against a small group of self- 

 selected and politically appointed individ- 

 uals shut up in an office miles away with 

 neither special training, knowledge of the 

 situation nor other qualification to enter 

 our laboratories but the blind authority of 

 law working in the dark and largely 

 through individuals who would never, ex- 

 cept by the accidental working of law, be 

 connected in any way with our work. So 

 are useless and pestiferous positions multi- 

 plied and made parasitic upon a most ex- 

 cellent service. 



LITTLE ADMINISTRATION NECESSARY 



Administration can not vitalize research. 

 Its whole effect is restrictive and hence 

 should be reduced to a minimum. That it 



