158 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY. 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT.* 

 By Carroll D. Wright. 



The year just closing has been a very busy one for the members of this 

 department and those engaged in assisting the work of original research. 

 The total number of persons, including the collaborators, employed in such 

 research work is 135, a large proportion of whom are compensated by the 

 payment of their expenses and the privilege of publishing theses, mono- 

 graphs, etc., acknowledging the aid of the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton, as provided for in the original plan of the work of this department. 



A new division has been added, making twelve in all, and this is entitled 

 "The negro in slavery and freedom." The work in this department is being 

 conducted by Alfred Holt Stone, an educated business man from Mississippi, 

 who is a thorough, impartial, and very candid student of the economic devel- 

 opment growing out of negro slavery and the work of the negro under 

 conditions of freedom. The general scope or syllabus of the new work will 

 be outlined in its proper place. 



In all the divisions a vast quantity of material has been gathered, and as 

 the investigation goes on the sources of original information develop, and of 

 course the work of collection increases. The prospects of beginning the 

 editorial work — that is, of bringing the amount of material collected together 

 in consecutive volumes — has already been entered upon, but will be prose- 

 cuted more particularly during the coming calendar year. I see no reason 

 why the work as originally planned can not be completed for the appropria- 

 tions made and to be made, although the time may be longer than we at first 

 anticipated. This is quite natural under all conditions, but the financial side 

 is easily cared for by the fact that surpluses accumulate, so as to allow us to 

 use the time without further appropriation than that contemplated. 



The Department found it necessary to take up quite an exhaustive index 

 of State documents. This is something which has never been undertaken 

 before, and the work is now going on with vigor. Each State will have an 

 index of its State documents relating to economic and financial affairs, and 

 some others, and the recommendation of the executive committee that an 

 appropriation of $17,500 be made by the Board of Trustees and added to the 

 appropriations already made for the Department of Economics and Sociology, 

 to be used only in case the original appropriations are not sufficient, is a very 

 wise one, and one which I hope will be adopted by the Board of Trustees. 

 Of course, if the regular appropriations of this department are sufficient to 



* For the year ending September 30, 1906. Grant No. 311. $30,000 for investigations 

 relative to an economic history of the United States. (For previous reports see Year 

 Book No. 3, pp. 55-64, and Year Book No. 4, pp. 160-169.) 



