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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1099 



making it an active factor in the political 

 establishment. Had all this chain of col- 

 leges of agriculture and experiment sta- 

 tions and the great range of extension work 

 and the giving of expert advice been estab- 

 lished on private gifts, they would have 

 been philanthropies or at least concessions 

 to a needy industry. The state has recog- 

 nized the necessity to base itself on the 

 earth, and the enterprise is generously 

 supported. 



This, then, is my starting point — that 

 these state-maintained institutions which 

 aim to safeguard and to develop the re- 

 sources of the earth are essential to per- 

 manency in society and also to self-govern- 

 ment. Having accepted this basis, we may 

 now ask whether there is need for another 

 set or kind of institutions dealing with the 

 rural situation, or whether such a set would 

 benefit or hinder the public establishments 

 that are now so well developed. 



Let me say at once that the field of such 

 institutions, whether public, semi-public or 

 private, is now well understood. The 

 prophetic writings in this nature-field and 

 this agriculture-field are of our own time 

 and of the time just preceding us. The 

 philosophy of the situation, in its great 

 human bearings and in its governmental 

 and social results, has been clearly pro- 

 jected. The fundamental statements have 

 been made. The main forecasts are mostly 

 recent. We are emerging from the genera- 

 tion of search for the underlying elements 

 and of the prophecy for future action. We 

 enter the generation of hopeful and con- 

 structive application. At last we begin to 

 see the actual reshaping of country life. 



THE PKOBLEM OF OVER-ADMINISTEATION 



As our philosophy begins now to shape 

 itself into definite action, so do our colleges 

 and experiment stations begin to take on 

 an institutional character. With the pas- 



sage of the Extension Act, the institutions 

 become real parts in a national system. Ad- 

 ministration is now the dominant note in 

 them, whereas formerly the work and at- 

 tainments of individual men gave them 

 their distinction. In the nature of the 

 case, the administrative forces will increase : 

 the elements must be organized ; it is easier 

 and simpler to make plans of administra- 

 tion than to do good research work or su- 

 perlative teaching. Persons of little train- 

 ing in productive work are now engaged in 

 making plans of administration, a situa- 

 tion that is always dangerous. 



It is of the first importance, both to the 

 work itself and to the political democracy 

 we represent, that we do not think of agri- 

 cultural education and research primarily 

 in terms of organization. In this country 

 where we are all sovereigns and all poli- 

 ticians, it is the easiest thing to slip into 

 political methods, not to say political prac- 

 tises, in education. We must be on our 

 guard against the spiritless domination that 

 is likely to arise in educational and inves- 

 tigational endeavor when it becomes for- 

 mal, and be aware of those tendencies that 

 confuse red-tape and obstructive duties 

 with administration. An enterprise is not 

 commendable merely because it is "reg- 

 ular" and smooth-running. It is a sad 

 case if personality is ever subordinated to 

 regularity. A man is always more impor- 

 tant than a rule. 



The tendency toward outside centralized 

 administrative control is well seen in move- 

 ments now under way in this country to 

 eliminate duplication and conflict between 

 public institutions in a given state by means 

 of one board of control placed over all of 

 them, or by one chancellorship administer- 

 ing all of them from a common office. If it 

 is desirable to conserve the free action and 

 the spirit of a teacher or an officer, as a 



