Septembee 5, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



323 



should be read by every university regent 

 — indeed before taking oath of office he 

 should perhaps be required to pass, before 

 a committee of the faculty, an examination 

 on the functions and limitations of a gov- 

 erning board. Such a bulletin, if widely 

 read and studied by the great mass of 

 thoughtful people, would do more for the 

 cause of university education than the gift 

 of millions to endowments. Indeed it may 

 be confidently affirmed that the greatest 

 single problem that concerns the American 

 university is the problem of securing com- 

 petent administrators. 



The chief function of a university board 

 is to resign if they find themselves incom- 

 petent or i;nable to do the work entrusted 

 to them. If, however, they consider them- 

 selves competent, they should see to it, 

 when vacancies occur, that they be filled by 

 men intelligent enough and high-minded 

 enough and patriotic enough to govern 

 wisely a higher educational institution. 

 Without a board composed of such men, 

 the best endowed private university or the 

 best supported state university is sooner or 

 later likely to become, not a nursery of 

 scholars and scientists and noble spirits. 

 but a stronghold and a retreat of scheming, 

 wire-pulling, snarling, backbiting, cring- 

 ing, crawling, fawning pinheads and 

 mediocrities and sycophants, bent on cut- 

 ting the throats and destroying the reputa- 

 tion, of all who stand in their way — men 

 who bear without whining the sting of the 

 lash of their superior officers while admin- 

 istering still more heroic treatment to their 

 own underlings. 



The first essential qualification, both of 

 a president and of a professor, is that he 

 be a man, a brave, generous, high-minded 

 man, and the first article in the creed of 

 every real man is that, on the one hand, no 

 matter how great the prizes to be won, he 

 shall not cower to those above him, and, on 



the other, no matter what power may be 

 placed in his hands, he shall not trample 

 on those beneath him. Are our holy tem- 

 ples of learning to become a nursery of 

 such men or are they to be transformed 

 into what DeQuincey unjustly called the 

 German universities, kennels of curs? It 

 depends upon the governing board and 

 upon the governing board alone. 



It is true that back of the governing 

 boards in state universities are the people 

 who create the boards, or, as has happened 

 in more than one state of the union, the 

 people who create the bosses who create 

 the governors who create the boards. In 

 the strictest sense the people in a democracy 

 are the sources of power and upon the peo- 

 ple, in the last analysis, must fall whatever 

 of glory or of shame is connected with their 

 university administration. But since it is 

 not possible to hold a whole people respon- 

 sible we must turn to the men they intrust 

 with authority, the trustees. 



What limitation shall be placed upon the 

 governing board? Almost none whatever 

 if it be a good board. As in good colleges 

 no rules whatever governing conduct are 

 imposed upon students except the single in- 

 junction that they be gentlemen, so in the 

 ideal university the question of the limita- 

 tions of the faculty, the president, the 

 board, may scarcely arise because all work 

 for common good. A good board is not 

 necessarily composed of great scholars, of 

 millionaires, of merchant princes, of bril- 

 liant statesmen, of mighty potentates in 

 church or state. A board composed of such 

 men would not necessarily be a good board 

 —it might be. A good board like a good 

 tree will bring forth good fruit, and a bad 

 board bad fruit. A good board will not 

 abuse its power. Since, however, under 

 existing conditions bad boards may creep 

 into control, it may be advisable to put 

 limitations upon them. As in monarchies 



