86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I07 



search results available to the war departments and agencies. At 

 least, such a function was discussed at practically every Board meeting. 

 Furthermore, various proposals of a general research nature were 

 made to the Board, either as suggestions for useful activity or as 

 applications for moral or financial support. These were of sufficient 

 volume to occasion the appointment of a committee on research in 

 September 1942. The history of that committee is easily written and 

 is characteristic of the fate of the so-called research proposals in 

 general. The committee was named but never convened. Carter 

 Goodrich, in accepting the chairmanship, confessed that he was far 

 too busy to assume active leadership but was willing if the staff would 

 handle all routine. The committee was supposed to review proposals 

 and make recommendations to the Board, but as it worked out no 

 proposal got far enough even to warrant review. 



The Board members felt that the staff should build up a backlog 

 of information, consisting of carefully digested reports on current 

 investigations, compilations on particular areas, and statements on 

 the research needed to fill in the gaps of knowledge on ethnogeo- 

 graphic subjects. It was also thought that the quickly prepared re- 

 ports should be followed up by sounder, more comprehensive studies. 

 The Board members failed to point out how these would be done or 

 who would do them. Some reports were prepared, as previously 

 described, but all these reflect immediate demands rather than a sys- 

 tematic effort to anticipate needs or build up a backlog. The Director, 

 through conferences with Army and Navy officials, obtained outlines 

 of the types of area information desired. These outlines were ob- 

 viously too comprehensive. For example, one called for organized 

 statistical data on : Area population and its composition ; Government 

 revenues and expenditures ; miles of railways, highways, telegraph 

 lines ; major agricultural crops, livestock, and forest products ; and 

 other features. Such an outline was impractical for any organization 

 smaller than the Office of Strategic Services, but the Board might 

 have used it as a basis for one of its own which would be adapted 

 to the peculiar abilities of the academic scholars. 



A brief description of a dozen proposals, which were considered 

 by the Board, gives an idea of the variety, and serves as a basis for 

 analyzing the neglect of research activities. 



I. SURVEY OF NATIVE ECONOMIC AREAS IN NORTH AFRICA 



Walter Cline, of the University of Minnesota and the Office of 

 Strategic Services, asked for $1,200 for secretarial services in com- 



