14 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



There should be no fear that either class of these establishments 

 will prove inimical to the other. The chief object and the common 

 endeavor should be to secure for competent investigators the most 

 favorable opportunities for productive research. 



The international extent of the Institution's activities was as 

 strikingly as unexpectedly demonstrated by the outbreak of the 



International Europcan War. In the early days of August 



insdtuUon^s representatives of the Institution were found to 

 Work. be scattered from Australia to Iceland, more than 



thirty of them being in or near to the war zone. With the nearly 

 complete breakdown of international monetary exchange and 

 with the difficulties of securing cash, even for the best of commer- 

 cial paper, in foreign countries, general financial distress soon 

 follow^ed. Hence an urgent part of the business of the adminis- 

 trative office during the months of August and September con- 

 sisted in providing for the immediate monetary needs of those 

 representatives and for such further assistance as could be ren- 

 dered in cases of detention or residence within the war zone. 

 For relief in these unprecedented circumstances the Institution 

 is chiefly indebted to the United States Government and to its 

 numerous officials at home and abroad. Without the aid of the 

 Departments of State and Treasury it would have been quite 

 impracticable to secure such relief. 



Happily, the losses to the Institution and to its associates 

 resulting from the European war have thus far not been serious. 

 It appears certain, however, that such losses must begin to accrue 

 in the near future. The increased cost of materials, especially 

 those used in laboratories, the increased cost of foreign exchange, 

 of transportation, and of skilled labor, along with the diminishing 

 purchasing capacity of the world's monetary standards, must all 

 tend to decrease still further the effectiveness of the Institution's 

 income. This effectiveness, it should be recalled, is now less 

 than two-thirds of what it would be under such world conditions 

 as obtained at the foundation of the Institution in 1902. The 

 pending international conflict will require considerable changes 

 also in the plans of some departments of thejlnstitution, par- 



