Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

younger ~olles~ues.~ These Trustees knew that the Director would have
difficulty attracting outstanding E n to staff the schools mitho~t assur-
ances of ample salaries and generous retirement provisions, other things
being equal. Dr. Flexner had a genuine distaste for applying direct pres-
sure to the Founders, but did constantly apply the stimulus of his plans
pointing the way for more rapid developerit of the schools. The homilies
he delivered at each Board meeting usually emphasized the need to add
a
staff when %en and money were available." It became/well-worn clich;.
He used his arts not only at Board meetings. Numerous visits to the
Founders on vacation and at home found tber~ in relaxed moods when he
could be more persuasive and they more receptive. Nevertheless, as has
been seen, he was compelled to compromise sadly as he added t o the staff
in the humanities, taking advantage of the sorry conditions abroad, and
of the personal ci&mstances of individutls, to appoint as professors
such alder men as Rersfeld at low sal~sies and with patently inadequate
retirement allowances. As he described this phase to ~rofessor Eief ler
later, there were "financial inequalities;- he had faced a grave dilwma
and made his decfsfon:
Either we had to cease growins, which at my time of life would
have been, I think, ti very serious matter for the future of
the Institute, or we h ~ simply d to regard our policy as one of
suspense pending.financie1 recovery or the receipt a£ future
endovment. lo
During thfs period Flexner occasiowlly spoke to the Trustees
of his inevitable retirement or possible incapacitation, impressing them
with the thought that his greatest usefulness to the Institute was his
w5de acquaintance here and abroad with educators and scholars and scien-
tists, which peculiarly fitted hlm to recmend the first staff. Host