May 29, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



775 



in which there is strength. The new ideal 

 is not that of a society of persons increas- 

 ingly like each other, and hence increas- 

 ingly sufScient each to himself, but of per- 

 sons increasingly different each from the 

 other, and hence increasingly necessary 

 each to the other. While the Declaration 

 proclaimed our independence of other peo- 

 ples, it assumed our interdependence among 

 ourselves. A citizenship of similars is like 

 the sand, composed of particles each as com- 

 plete as any and with no tendency to co- 

 here; and a political house built upon it 

 will fall. A citizenship of dissimilars is 

 like the rock, composed of particles supple- 

 menting and cleaving to each other; and a 

 political house built upon it will stand. 



But we have not yet acquired the cour- 

 age of our fundamental political convic- 

 tion, nor yet thoroughly adjusted ourselves 

 to our larger life. The administration of 

 collective enterprises in the United States 

 is at present in a state of unstable equilib- 

 rium. The question of the corporate sphere 

 of the expert is not yet settled because ijot 

 yet settled right. 



While the actual fulfilment of corporate 

 purposes has in general grown beyond the 

 competence of any but those of special apti- 

 tude long exercised, our national habit per- 

 sists of placing these purposes in charge of 

 men of ability however displayed. Any 

 conspicuous success, especially financial suc- 

 cess, opens the way to a position of corpo- 

 rate authority. The necessary result is a 

 permissive system of control. A corpora- 

 tion among us executes its trust by choos- 

 ing paid assistants of the special ability re- 

 quired, and permitting them to carry out its 

 purposes more or less in their own way. 

 This situation of power perforce in abey- 

 ance is one of unstable administrative equi- 

 librium. What is permitted can also be for- 

 bidden, and may at any time be forbidden 

 by an authority alive to its responsibility 



and conscious of its power. In this event 

 two rights to control come into conflict : the 

 right based on capacity and the right based 

 on law. The uncertainty of the situation is 

 plain in the ease of institutions of the hu- 

 manities. Only an Orientalist can deter- 

 mine what antecedent study should be de- 

 manded for a course in the Vedas, only a 

 technician whether quaternions should be 

 used in teaching engineering, only an ex- 

 perimenter when a culture should be trans- 

 ferred from sun to shade, only a librarian 

 what system of shelf numbering is appli- 

 cable to fiction, only a surgeon how to con- 

 duct an operation in tracheotomy, only a 

 religious leader to what spiritual exercise to 

 invite a soul in need, only a curator how to 

 install an ecological exhibit or make a col- 

 lection of prints tell on the public, only an 

 alienist how to control melancholia agitans, 

 only a social worker how far the same meth- 

 ods of help are fitted to Syrians and Chi- 

 nese. Yet others make up the boards on 

 Vi'hose responsibility, by whose authority, 

 and at whose option such decisions are 

 taken. The permissive system settles the 

 question of the corporate sphere of the ex- 

 pert but temporarily; leaving competence 

 subject to impotence. It presents a prob- 

 lem, and one only to be solved by the union 

 of the two potentially opposing rights. In 

 the end, capacity must be given a legal 

 standing. The skill demanded of the em- 

 ployee must be represented among the em- 

 ployers. 



In contrast with the permissive system of 

 control, that exercised according to this 

 conclusion by a mixed board may be called 

 the positive system. The terms refer re- 

 spectively to the power of veto and the 

 power of fiat. The positive system proposes 

 that a corporation shall be constituted with 

 a competence as all-embracing as its author- 

 ity. Concretely, and considering charitable 

 foundations only, it proposes that pro- 



