Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

contributions in kind. On the 13th March, 1936, Professor Riefler ad-
dressed a report to Dr. Flexner challengingly entitled: Shall the
Institute concentrate its vork in econm,ics in the field of finance?
His ovn answer vas that it should; the researches he had outlined vere
timely, most important, and neither too large or too small. Moreover,
he said:
It is of prirary social and economic importance. Problems
of finance, especially monetary policy, stand in the very
center of the public problems vith which the vorld is
vrestling and will ... continue to wrestle during the next
generation at least.. .LThey/ call for insight and guidance
from the economist.
No outstanding educational institution in the world has
concentrated heavily in this field...Scholars cf outstanding
reputztion can almost be counted on the fingers of two hands.
Host of them work in relative isolation, and rcany of them,
such as Walter Stevart, Iienry Clay, Benjamin Anderson, B. G.
Fawtry and Alexander Goldenveiser have no academic connections... 71
He continued; the necessary combination of the broad theoretical back-
ground vith "a high degree of sheer technical proficiency" was rarely
found among professors in the universities. It vas therefore the more
important to organize the studies in such a vay as to mke possible the
acquisition of valuable experience. The fact that so much important
information previously secret vas now available, and that it should be
studied for its light on obscure matters, made it desirable to proceed
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at once. Had Riefler been speaking from a fresh resding of the Idea
of a Hodern University or Plexner's Confidential Memorandum he could
hardly have offered a more tenpting prospect either to the Director, or
to those who vere avare they must have more exact inf,orpation to avoid
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in future such violent cataclysms as had just occurred in-the Western
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World. He continued vith an imposing array of the support he had-. - . .