FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH

In the current number of the Graduates' Magazine Professor Bullock calls attention to the need of an endowment for economic research. Although the present is perhaps not a time at which to urge large expenditures for educational "luxuries," this project is one which calls for support. The fact that the European conflict has dislocated much in the old order makes the need for research and thought in economic and social fields pre-eminently important at this time. The war will undoubtedly give rise to new points of view, and will call for a reconsideration of present theories. It will also bring countries new social and economic problems, especially when the reconstruction begins; and for their solution new data will be required.

America has always been weak in accurate knowledge of her own material and social condition. Indeed it is a significant fact that our economists frequently have to go to European countries for statistical evidence. This they must then attempt to apply to American conditions,-a task which will become more difficult, if the United States succeeds in remaining the only first class nation not devastated by war. At present most economic data in this country is collected by government bureaus, which, as Professor Bullock points out, are always liable to political influences. Particularly do those more fundamental fields of study which do not yield immediate "practical" results need the attention of private investigators.

The Department of Economics is not now seeking the means for undertaking this work on a large scale. It is in quest of funds to establish some research assistantships; and will be content to await results from these before extending the work. The tuition fee was increased partly in order to remove that discouragement to donors which was created by the existence of the deficit, and it is to be hoped that funds will now be found to strengthen such important fields of scholarship as this.