Decembee 26, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



909 



ties and opportunities. Yet there is a 

 third point of view, a more fundamental 

 consideration. In the American univer- 

 sity, as in the Russian political system, the 

 chief difficulty is not with the autocrat, 

 but with the bureaucrat. In my opinion, 

 we can not go much farther astray than 

 baldly to lay the shortcomings of our uni- 

 versities upon the president. As for the 

 presidency, it is part of a great system; 

 the president is the unfortunate occupant 

 of an office. 



Let us see how the matter stands. Any 

 large institution such as one of our univer- 

 sities, in order to be successful, must have 

 general aims or policies, must have an or- 

 ganization to carry them out, and must se- 

 cure at once the successful operation of 

 each of its subdivisions in its own sphere 

 and the cooperation of each of these in the 

 larger ends of the whole. The president is 

 given, nominally at least, the responsibil- 

 ity of directing this organization in gen- 

 eral and the right, when necessity arises, 

 to intervene in the conduct of any of the 

 parts in order to make them efficient and 

 to adjust their relations with the re- 

 mainder of the institution. Can any presi- 

 dent do this under present conditions? 



To bring about efficient work for desir- 

 able ends in any large institution certain 

 things are necessary. First, a knowledge 

 of what are the desirable aims or ideals for 

 that institution and of how these ideals 

 should be adjusted to the conditions of hu- 

 man life and to the life of the particular 

 community from time to time. Second, a 

 knowledge on the part of the executive of 

 the workings of all parts of the institution 

 and of the abilities of each member of the 

 staff. Third, the possession of actual 

 power by the executive to secure the co- 

 operation of all parts in whatever is for 

 the common welfare. This is true no mat- 

 ter whether the common welfare is found 



in the closest centralization or in the great- 

 est freedom of individual action, no matter 

 whether the executive is a president or a 

 committee or takes some other form. Our 

 universities must be organized, must have 

 common ends and must exercise executive 

 power, if the only end of that power be to 

 secure anarchy. It is my purpose to in- 

 quire what is wrong with the present or- 

 ganization, that our universities should 

 work so badly and that individuals should 

 suffer so in the process. 



Where does a university get its ideals or 

 policies? Necessarily, they become the 

 possession of the institution through the 

 expression of ideas or opinions by members 

 of the faculty and student body and 

 through the accumulation of such ideas in 

 the form known as traditions. Individ- 

 uals in the university, whether president, 

 instructors or students, necessarily furnish 

 the ideas out of which common aims are 

 constructed and in accordance with which 

 old aims are adjusted to new conditions. 

 Is there at the present time any adequate 

 means by which the ideas of individuals 

 can be made available for the common 

 good? Two illustrations will answer the 

 question in part. The head of a university 

 department called together his entire staff 

 including student assistants to discuss the 

 organization of teaching with a view to im- 

 proving the arrangement and content of 

 the courses of study. The Avhole matter 

 was discussed at two successive meetings, 

 the professors talking over various plans 

 without coming to any satisfactory conclu- 

 sion. Instructors and assistants had been 

 asked to think over the matter and at the 

 second meeting each one in turn was called 

 upon for suggestions. One assistant had 

 a plan entirely different from anything 

 that had been suggested. He outlined it 

 and showed how it would improve the teach- 

 ing and bring about a better correlation in 



