Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

Dr. Flemer had kept President Dodds informed of his progress,
and had also consulted the senior economists of the University, who wel-
coned the news enthusiastically in an infonnzl umorandum which said in
part:
Itneeds hardly be said that the new facultzT should
have a stimulating effect upon the scholarly work of our
own staff, and we hope thzt we shall be able to contribute
in some measur toward the attaimnt of the ideals of the
new project... 83
Shortly after his appointxent, and several months before he
entered upon his new work, Professor Riefler wrote Flexner that he had
been offered a highly remunerative position by the Social Science Re-
search Council, an agency to which the Rockefeller Foundation contributed
liberally. Said Riefler: "This offers one of those rare opportunities
when an original com.itment can be freely reconsidered..." Flexner's
reply was unequivocal: "I do not want to let you out with honor or any-
61
thing else..."
The economist took up his duties in October 1935. Re visited
Professor %rle at Saranac and conferred with Professor Mitrany on his
arrival. It was soon evident that no slightest possibility existed for
cooperative research, nor any real disposition on the part of the three
men to plan a oomon approach to any problem of the School of Economics
and Politics.
In October, 1935, Professor Riefler presented to Plexner his
uatured plans for research in finance which, he said, could result in
valuable new knowledge in some of the most troublesome areas of contemp-
orary econmics. It was most. timely, since 'a huge body of factual data
has recently become available' which could afford a real test of "our