TO THE BRAIN TRUST

The appointment of Professor Edward H. Chamberlin to serve with the Committee on Government Statistics and Information Services in Washington takes from Harvard one of the ablest of her younger economists. The nature of Mr. Chamberlin's prospective work is somewhat obscure, but there is probably good grounds for the view that his post is one whose importance depends wholly on its incumbent. Since Mr. Chamberlin's main interest has been in the regulation of monopolistic and what he terms "monopoloid" industries, his views should carry considerable weight, even with an Administration which does not enjoy the favor of the Seven Wise Men of Harvard.

The Department of Economics, and for that matter no department of the College, has suffered seriously to date from the inroads of the Brain Trust. While Columbia and Cornell have contributed the shining lights among the President's liberal advisers, Harvard has sent only her renowned John H. Williams to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Business School, by way of the Bank of England, proffered and then received back the stormy petrel of inflation, Oliver M. W. Sprague. It remained for the Law School, where liberalism burns with a less frozen flame, to uphold the University's reputation on capitol hill and to beat its rival Law Schools hands down in point of influence on the Administration. Thanks to Professors Landis, Sayre, and most of all to the resourceful Felix Frankfurter, Harvard apparently has at least the legal destines of the New Deal well in hand.