Extensive Research Into Business Conditions, Methods And History Continues--250 Associates Will Finance Work

Financed by $1000 annual subscriptions from each of the Two Hundred and Fifty Associates of the Business School, the Division of Research will enter upon its second year of investigation into business conditions, methods, and history.

"The generosity of the Associates makes possible the vast amount of field work involved in securing material which is used in instruction, under a case system' similar to that of the Law School," Associate Dean C. P. Biddle, in charge of the research, pointed out.

During the last academic year 1046 "cases" were collected, as against 742 for the preceding year. These "cases" actual statistical reports of the conduct of firms throughout the country, and almost entirely of firms which have proved successful, are presented to students as definite problems for solution.

As a result of last year's investigations, several new text books have appeared, "Investment Banking", a case book by Assistant Professor G. E. Bates and Professor C. P. Biddle; "Problems in Finance", second edition by Associate Professor C. E. Fraser; "Problems in Retail Distribution"; "Problems in Retail Store Management" by Associate Professor M. P. McNair and Assistant Professor C. I. Gragg; "Policy and Ethics in Business" by Associate Professor C. F. Taeusch; "Problems in Statistics" by Associate Professor T. H. Brown; "Problems in Marketing" by Professor M. T. Copeland, a third edition largely revised; "Problems in Bank Management", by Professor J. F. Ebersole; and "Problems in Sales Management", by Professor H. R. Tosdal, second revised edition.

Three volumes of the Business Reports appeared, on the motion picture industry, on industrial marketing, and on marketing airplanes; a third volume, on advertising, is to appear shortly.

Cost studies will be made of the chain store system in connection with shoe, drug, and junior department stores. Last year's studies on the chain grocery business and on department and specialty stores excited much comment. The survey of grocery stores included 100 chain companies, with 33,482 stores, and is the first authentic one to be made.

The results of research into business history will be published in the quarterly "Journal of Economics and Business History". A life of John Jacob Astor, and a treatise on the Medicis will appear shortly, while the study of the Massachusetts bank from 1784-1865 will be continued.

The Two Hundred Fifty Associates had their beginning during the latter part of the past school year, and when the plan for financing the proposed research was under discussion, over seventy individuals stated their desire to become Associates. Today the list of men who have enrolled themselves in the group is especially significant in its inclusion of most of the great names of American business.

George F. Baker and William Ziegler Jr., are Founder Members. Associates include such men as J. Pierpont Morgan '89, Vincent Astor, Cornelius N. Bliss '97, Cyrus H. K. Curtis, George Eastman, Francis Lee Higginson '00, Otto H. Kahn, Andrew W. Mellon Hon. '26, John J. Raskob, Jesse Isidor Straus '93, and Owen D. Young Hon. '24. The entire membership now number about 200; the remaining 50 of the complete enrolment will be filled from time to time in the future