SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
Tue PRINCIPLE OF DELEGATION. 
"The Research Boards and Committees consist of men of science, men of busi- | 
ness, and technical officers of the Government Departments concerned. They 
prepare schemes of work, select the researcher, and determine the amount of his | 
remuneration; but they do not, as a rule, conduct research themselves. They | 
are executive bodies. The Advisory Council is not executive, but deals with 
general policy. Here, again, it will be seen that the procedure has been to 
delegate authority, even in the case of research carried out by the Government 
for national purposes to bodies of experts. It was well said some years 
ago that the main problem which Government Departments would have to solve 
in the present century was how to use the expert. The Research Department 
is an experiment in this direction. The attempt to differentiate the work of the 
Department according to function, and give each class of work to the appropriate 
type of worker, has not only secured the strenuous assistance of the man of 
science and the man of business, each contributing from the fullness of his own 
knowledge, but it has greatly strengthened the position of the civil servant, whose | 
business is administration. It has strengthened it because it has limited his 
responsibility to the matters which belong to his kingdom. The administrative 
head of the Department has no power to advise his Minister upon the scientific 
policy to be pursued, and it would be improper for him to do so, were he the 
most distinguished man of science in the country. Since he is only an adminis- 
trator, he is under no such temptation. If the scientific initiative emanates 
from the Minister himself or from another Department, it stands referred to the 
Advisory Council. All other initiative derives from the Council itself. 
The sum up. The activities of the Department are exercised in three main 
directions. First, it seeks to encourage the worker in pure research by looking 
for him in the places where he is most likely to be found, through the eyes of 
individual men and women who are themselves engaged in research and teaching 
others how to begin. When the man or woman has been found who needs 
assistance, they receive it in liberal measure, with no restrictions beyond the 
necessity of showing that they are continuing their work. Secondly, the Depart- 
ment is helping the firms in different industries to co-operate, with a view to 
raising the funds necessary for employing first-rate men of science in the 
solution of the problems with which they are faced, and in the scientific develop- 
ment of the industry in question. In this connexion, the Department is building 
up a clearing-house of information for the benefit of all concerned. Finally, 
the Department is offering its assistance, on the one hand, to other Government 
Departments who desire to have research undertaken on a scale, and for purposes 
which they cannot themselves easily compass. On the other hand, it is organizing 
research into problems of practical utility, which are of such wide importance 
that they cannot be handled by any one section of the nation. In both regards 
it proceeds by delegating the responsibility for the conduct of this work not to 
officials, but to Boards of experts who are intrusted with the preparation of the 
scheme of work, the employment of the workers, and the control of its execution. 
_ The principle throughout is the same—the principle of delegation to those best 
fitted for the work in hand. 
“Englishmen must take heed that in the future, in commercial 
competition with other nations, we rely less upon exploiting our vast 
store of natura! wealth, and more upon the resources which scientific 
slall and practical education can place at our disposal.” 
—H. STANLEY JEVONS 
486 
