DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY. 99 



have each of the leading branches of manufacture treated intensively. 

 In some divisions the nature of the subject-matter involves fewer of 

 these studies than in others, but it was evident that in the aggregate a 

 large library of monographs would have to be created if we were to cover 

 thoroughly even the leading topics blocked out in our schedule. 

 To carry out such a project on a commercial basis, and pay an adequate 

 compensation for the time of workers, would have involved a prohibi- 

 tory expense. Hence we adopted the plan of asking the cooperation of 

 scholars belonging to the two associations most unmediately concerned 

 and of proposing to give a small allowance to cover the traveling and 

 other expenses of such competent graduate students as would select 

 for their doctoral theses subjects from our schedule of monographs. 

 This was an altogether economical and, in the opinion of the writer, a 

 wise procedure, since we were able to secure our studies at slight 

 expense. The work was, it is true, done by relatively young men, 

 but it was done under the supervision of professors in the various 

 universities by men of promise, not a few of whom have subsequently 

 made honorable records as economists. In time it became evident 

 that there was much valuable material in the public documents of the 

 several States which was inaccessible to scholars except at great labor. 

 Hence it seemed desirable to prepare an index of economic material 

 found in these publications, and we began the indices to State docu- 

 ments, of which 12 numbers have now been issued in 13 volumes. 



We all realized from the beginning that the work would be slow. 

 In the initial report of the advisory committee made in 1902, which 

 asked for an annual appropriation for five years, it was distinctly 

 stated that this was intended to be provisional only. In the early 

 reports of Colonel Wright the same thought occurs repeatedly. Thus, 

 in his report for 1906, he said: ''As the investigation goes on the 

 sources of original information develop, and of course the work of 

 collection increases," and he added: "the time may be longer than we 

 at first anticipated." (Year Book No. 5, p. 158.) 



The work was slow, not only on account of its extent but also on 

 account of the difficulty of securing workers. We have not yet the 

 body of trained scholars in our country that older countries like France 

 and Germany can command. Repeatedly men have begun a piece of 

 work and then dropped it, because they were offered positions as 

 teachers or some other lucrative employment. To give a single 

 instance of w^hat has happened frequently, the study of mining legisla- 

 tion in Pennsylvania, mentioned above in this report, had been under- 

 taken and abandoned by two different men before a scholar could be 

 found to carry it through to completion. Hence in the first five years 

 we had not drawn more than a part of the appropriation originally 

 granted. Indeed, we have not yet exhausted it. 



The magnitude of our task and the consequent necessity of taking 

 ample time for its completion have been recognized by competent 

 impartial obser\^ers. Thus Professor von Schmoller, one of the most 



