Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/759

Rh to the business affairs of their institution; have been known indeed to take up the burden of business, after it had been abandoned by the corporate board, and so to care for teaching and business that in time both were returned in excellent condition to the control of the trustees. No doubt it is true that in some cases the faculty gathered under the present system may not be fully competent to undertake management such as has been suggested; but that is no reason for continuance of a system which can bring about such a condition. Serious errors are less likely to be made by those who know something about the requirements than by those who know very little or practically nothing about them. A not very skillful carpenter is a far better judge of carpentry than the ablest statesman can be. A faculty of not very high grade can judge better respecting the all-around fitness of a candidate than can a board composed of eminently successful bankers, lawyers and clergymen—better even than can a college president, who at one time was a typically good professor, but who by force of circumstances has been diverted from educational work to become a strong man of business.