Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

Alexander bve talked to re about Horse, no one else has,
znd the mtter has not even been mentioned to the Board.
f do not possess the authority 'to bring the ratter to a conclusion
35 soon as p~sslble.~ L ffnd faculty somewhat inconsistent
in ratters of this sort, Zn ane moment they resent
the unilateral action of the president, and in another
.they w~nt hir to cut off end ignore the constituted authorities.
I do not myself wznt to do either.,.
It sems a little funny that you should be in a hurrg, while
1, nearing the end of TKY tether, should be the eutious one;
but I do not believe that in the long run we will lose if we
use a tethod of prccedure that is in the highest degree dignified
~ nd csnsiderate, while at the same tine holding ourselves
to our idesls. 112
Lter, all the ratherzticims in the Schoolns faculty. voted
to approve a call to Dr. trlorse. Only Einstein disagreed; he did not
know Dr. Morse or his work; there uas nothing ~ersonal in his attitude.
He siqly took the position that any sppointment then should be in
theoretical or mathemtical physics. When Flexner took the matter to
the Baard fn October, 1934, he did not rention the name of the candidate
for appoint~nt, merely asking znd receiving, probably becewe of a.:
prior euthorization frm Mr. Bacrberger, the right to appoint ''another
American" to the School, submitting the detaila t o the Executive Cornnittee
when he had negotiated them, fn three weekse t ime the appointment was
approved by the haknittee. 113
The School of Warhemtics was a marked success imm its begin-
ning. It exempLified not Birkhoffqs idea of one or two men of genfua, I
with younger men on salary, but rather Professor Veblen's and Dr. fef-
schetzls vieus, for with the Department it represented the strangest
group of modern geonmters in the country and possibly the world. nits\ 1
was the concept of the %athemtical set" which Veblen had wged on
Flexner in December, 1932. 1,
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