98 



CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



For reasons stated in earlier reports, the work of the Division of 

 Industrial Organization has been suspended for several years and a 

 large part of the balance of its original allotment has been transferred to 

 other divisions in order to hasten the completion of their tasks. 



Of the Indices of State Documents no further volumes have been 

 issued since our last report, but Pennsylvania is in press and should be 

 published soon. Progress has also been made upon South Carolina, 

 though the inaccessibility of much of the material is making the work 

 exceptionally difficult. When this State is completed, Miss Hasse 

 hopes to finish the rest of the thirteen original States by taking up 

 Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, North Carohna, and Georgia; the 

 unexpended balance of her special appropriation should be sufficient, 

 on the basis of the cost of the volumes already finished, to index these 

 States. 



The list of those already issued or well-advanced is as follows : 



California 1908 



Delaware 1910 



Illinois 1909 



Kentucky 1910 



Maine 1907 



Massachusetts 1908 



New Hampshire 1907 



New Jersey 1915 



New York 1907 



Ohio 1912 



Rhode Island 1908 



Vermont 1907 



Pennsylvania (in press). 



South Carolina (in preparation). 



In conclusion, I desire to call attention to the need of a reorganiza- 

 tion of this Department. This was proposed in the annual report for 

 1911, and has been repeated annually since that time. There is little to 

 add to the arguments presented in the report for 1915, except that they 

 gain new force with each year's experience (Year Book No. 14, p. 110). 

 The need is hardly questioned by anyone. The difficulty lies in working 

 out the details, and the writer will be glad to render such assistance as 

 may be desired to reach a satisfactory solution of the problem. 



In all matters of this kind it is wise in planning for the future to 

 clearly understand the past. It may, therefore, be helpful at this 

 time to review briefly the history and amis of the department from its 

 inception, in order that, if the Trustees should decide upon a reorgani- 

 zation, they may see the work as a whole in a better perspective than 

 can possibly appear in the report of a single year. The proposal to 

 study intensively the economic history of the United States was 

 originally made by an advisory committee consisting of the late Colonel 

 Wright, Professor Clark of Columbia University, and the writer, and 

 was explained by Colonel Wright in an address delivered at the annual 

 meeting of the Economic and Historical Associations in 1904. It was 

 realized by us all at the beginning that the field was vast ; that it could 

 be dealt with adequately only by first preparing a solid foundation of 

 special monographic studies; and that a large number of these would 

 be required in each of the twelve sections into which the work was 

 di\^ded. For example, in order to treat the subject of State finance 

 thoroughly, we should have as a prehminary the financial history of 

 each of the 48 States. In the Division of Manufactures we should 



