Part 2 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

staff for the next three years. Both had signified their interest in
the plan, though Dirac's comitmcnt to attend for thc full tine was not
yct firm. Dr. Bohr had said he would attend for half of each ycar. After
consideration Yr. Fosdick denied the request, on the ground that the Inter-
national Education Board and the Rockefeller Foundation had subsidized the
work of these scientists in their om countries. The Foundation could not
see, he said, that the advancement of sciencc would be aided by the arrange-
ment Flexner suggested. 4
Flexner's reports on the School of Economics and Politics for
thc past year had showed his embarsassmot with the situation. In April,
1935, hc had said that both Piitrany and Riefler were undecided about what
they would do. This was a manth after Riefler had demanded ta know whether
his program of research in finance proposed in Xovernber, 1935, would be
authorized, with the staff he required, several months after the oppartu-
nity to get thc support from the Founders had passed.5 But Rief ler must
have becone aware of that report when he attended h is first 3oard meeting
as a faculty Trustee in October, 1936, for at that meeting Flexner told
the Trustees he had reports from both men which were *so thorough that it
is extremly difficult to condense then.** He therefore offered "to allow
any member of the Board to read them in full if any one desires to do so." 6
Messrs. Aydelotte and Straus asked Professor Riefler for his, and his
answer t o Straus appears in the files; It was accmpanied by copies of
his memorandums to the Director of Noverrbcr, 1935, and the 13th March,
1936. Re noted that work on the program was being held in abeyance pend-
ing the outcm of the studies in the National Bureau of Economic Research- 7
Nor as he reported on the School of Economis and Politics in