Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

While the Institute would assu;-.e the leadership, little of
the actual investigation would be carried on here. The
Institute would represent rather a center of the inte'llectual
stimulus. Specific problers...would be proposed here, their
exact fomlation agreed upon here after full consultation
with scholars and experts fror outside, and the results of
the investigations as they are carried on would be subjected
to constant evaluation and advice from the Institute which
would act as the rallying point for disinterested and com-
petent scientific opinion.
Was the Institute for Advanced Study the best possible organi-
zation to exercise leadership in such investigations? asked Riefler.
He believed it was, and for cost icportant reasons concerning the ob-
jectivity of the research.
A project of this kind must be authoritative, disinterested,
completely free from suspiciofi of bias; it must cmnd the
respect of the comunity. It requires the coqlete coopera-
tion of the parties at interest, but should preferably not be
directed or controlled by there. This rules out autocratically
the use of the aegis of such organizations as the Ckmber of
Couunerce, the American Bankers' Association, and the Stock
Exchange. It also rcilitates somewhat against the use of such
a device as a Congressional Comaittee of Inquiry, or an in-
quiry inaugurated wholly and completely by the Federzl Reserve
System. With these sponsors eliminated there rmain (a) the
universities.. . (b) special research foundations such as the
Brookings Institution and the National Bureau of Economic
Research.. . (c) the possibility of organizing a special hti-
tute...with special Foundation support. On balance...it
would seen that the Institute for Advanced Study is as well
equipped as any other organization to assume the leadership
for the undertaki~t~.'~
But later Riefler would bve had to add that though he had been pronounced
equal to the objective studies he contemplated, the Institute was not well
enough equipped with funds to afford them, nor able to induce the Rocke-
feller Pounjhtion to grant them. Meanwhile, he closed his manorandm
with an estimate for professional help, statistical and clerical work,
space for all and for some temporary members also, which would require