Page:Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919).djvu/25

Rh the habits of living men. The assumption of some scientific enthusiasts that the study of the humane arts has ceased to be important will not bear examination; the management of men, high and low, is more difficult and more important under the conditions of modern reality than it ever was.

We describe the managers of the social machine as Organisers, but under that general term are commonly included two distinct categories. In the first place, we have Administrators, who are not strictly organisers at all—begetters, that is to say, of new organs in an organism. It is the function of the administrator to keep the running social machine in repair and to see to its lubrication. When men die, or for reasons of ill-health or old age retire, it is his duty to fill the vacant places with men suitably trained beforehand. A foreman of works is essentially an administrator. A Judge administers the Law, except in so far as in fact, though not in theory, he may make it. In the work of the administrator, pure and simple, there is no idea of progress. Given a certain organisation, efficiency is his ideal—perfect smoothness of working. His characteristic disease is called 'Red Tape.' A complicated society, well administered, tends in fact to a Chinese