Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

246 HENRY BAIRD FA V ILL
be permitted to be dissipated b}^ the development of dissension
growing out of a struggle for office. The man who
sacrifices the real interests of the Society to his personal
ends is a traitor, and the Society must be kept awake to its
true dignity and be so intelligent that no abnormal or
illegitimate exploitation can long prevail.
At this writing I
election.
have no idea as to the outcome of this
Whatever that outcome may be, I urge upon the
Society the instant burying of animosity and the full determination
in the interests of the Society and in the interests
of that public usefulness which is in our charge, that we
steadily and honestly pull together.
It is my deliberate judgment that in the interests of the
Society there should be some definite way by which the
retiring president should be continued automatically for
a time in intimate relation to the conduct of the affairs of
the Society. No matter how diligent his study, or how
untiring his effort, no president can do more in one year
than acquire a full understanding of the issues involved as
between the profession and the public and the possibilities
of action on the part of the Society. By the time his
mental operation is mature his term as president terminates,
and unless he happens to get a seat in the Council
by election, his greatest usefulness to the Society is over.
I recommend, therefore, in the readjustment of the Constitution,
that a provision be made for the continuance of
the retiring president for a reasonable length of time in the
Council of the Society.
That this recommendation is in the interests of the
Society and not at all in the interests of the individual must
be perfectly obvious. In fact, at the end of an industrial
term, as a rule, the president would prefer to be relieved
from duties, but the Society can not afford to dispense with
the intelligence of men whom it has seen fit
and whose opportunities for
thereby greatly enhanced.
to elect to office
comprehensive judgment are