The experience of the past has shown that the injection of politics into the administration of state institutions is almost invariably due to the over-centralization of power in state departments, the local boards of trustees or managers either being abolished or largely deprived of their authority. The greatest menace to the future welfare of the hospitals for mental diseases is, in the opinion of many, the unfortunate result of a popular and more or less legitimate demand for the reorganization of state governments, reducing their administrative activities to a few separate departments, each one under the entire charge of a director responsible only to the Governor. The argument for this procedure is that it does away with innumerable commissions, boards and departments working along independent lines without any reference to the desirability of coordinating the activities of the state as a whole and places the affairs of the commonwealth on an efficient, systematic and economical basis. There is no question as to the theoretical advisability of such methods. The difficulty is, that in putting into practical operation this unquestionably commendable undertaking, the humanitarian aspect of the charitable enterprises conducted by state governments for more than a century, is likely to be lost sight of. It is almost invariably urged that the directors of these various departments should be experienced business men of recognized ability and that in only such a way can the affairs of the state be put on a "businesslike basis." It must be confessed that this argument is one which appeals very strongly to the taxpayer, who naturally has not given the matter very careful thought. There are other important considerations, however, where the question of administering hospitals is involved. As Commissioner Kline[26] has said:—"If it be conceded that the care and treatment of the mentally sick is a highly specialized medical problem, requiring the services of medical experts, and that the institutions function primarily for the welfare of the patient, then the supervision and control of institutions should be in the hands of medical men especially trained for the purpose."