held from publication for the purpose. Some of the manuscripts were never published but were bound and filed for reference in the library of the Endowment at Washington. The volumes which finally appeared under the series of studies originally planned before the war are contained in the list of publications at the end of this document under the Division of Economics and History. The Division proposed at once to adjust the program of its researches to the new and altered problems which the war presented. These were of immediate and transcendent importance. The costs, direct and indirect, of the conflict, the commercial policies induced by it and the direct control exercised by governments in many spheres of economic activity where formerly competition and individual freedom held sway offered phenomena that called, before almost all others, for scientific study. At the suggestion of the Director a plan was drawn up by the present General Editor in which it was proposed by means of an historical survey to attempt to measure the economic cost of the war and the displacement which it was causing in the processes of civilization. During the actual progress of the war, however, the execution of this plan for scientific and objective study of war economics proved impossible in any large and authoritative way and it became desirable that a series of shorter preliminary studies should be prepared dealing with topics of immediate importance in connection with the war. Under the supervision of Dr. Kinley, of the University of Illinois, member of the Committee of Research, plans for such a series were made during the summer of 1917. This series was intended, as its name implies, to furnish such facts and analyses of conditions as were possible during the war and until the "Economic and Social History of the World War" could be undertaken and brought to completion. A list of the publications issued under this series will be found at the end of this document. In 1919 the present Director of the Division of Economics and History was appointed General Editor of the proposed Economic and Social History and, as soon as he was released from his duties as a member of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Paris, developed the plans for the History along the lines which have been subsequently realized. A final conference of the Committee of Research was held in Paris in September, 1919, where the deliberations were limited to the discussion of the important series of short preliminary surveys of special problems then confronting Europe, which series has been described above. The Committee of Research was then dissolved and replaced by Editorial Committees or Editors appointed by the General Editor in the various countries concerned. The first task was naturally the preservation of the necessary documentary material. Much of this, owing to the exigencies of war, would have been destroyed or rendered difficult of access had it not been for the efforts of those associated with this History. Guides to materials and descriptions of archives have been prepared wherever necessary. The body of the work, however, consists of monographs written by those directly in touch with the subjects treated, either as wartime administrators or as privileged observers who could not only procure but interpret as well the documentary bases of the History. The work itself, therefore, partakes to some extent of the dual nature of personal memoirs and of official or authoritative documentation. In view of this fact, it does not attempt to make a complete survey but is so articulated with official and other publications as to deal mainly with those effects of the war which are not adequately covered elsewhere. The change in the character of the work of the Division proceeded rapidly. The Editorial Committees appointed are composed of men who possess the highest personal qualifications for the service which they have undertaken to render, and probably no historical work has ever included so eminent and highly qualified a body of writers. While the plans for the History are still incomplete, as regards the final synthetic studies which are to furnish a comparative survey, the main outlines of the History as a whole have already been determined and the limits of the Endowment's obligations in the carrying out of the present enterprise have been definitely assigned. The existing contracts call for 150 volumes, composed of some 200 monographs. These are rapidly approaching completion. From now on, (June, 1924), the editorial work-apart from the completion of assignments in accepted fields of research-will consist mainly in the control and revision of the manuscripts submitted under contracts, and in the hardly less important task of securing adequate arrangements for publication in countries with which the History deals. If any justification were needed for the policy of the Endowment it could be found in the way in which the plans for the History have been accepted wherever it has been proposed to put them into operation. It is the common judgment of those in Europe qualified to speak concerning such an enterprise, whether as statesmen or students of public affairs, that the task is urgent and that it can only be undertaken by an organization like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace working upon an unofficial basis and yet commanding the confidence in each country of those whose cooperation is essential for an authoritative survey of the economic and social displacement of the war. While the primary interest of the History is scientific, its ultimate purpose is to further peace by revealing what war does to civilization. The processes of economics and history with which it deals are not incidental and temporary: on the contrary they are fundamental and constant. But this means, as well, that they are slow and hard to change. As the President of the Endowment once said in another connection, "We are dealing with aptitudes and impulses firmly established in human nature through the development of thousands of years, and the utmost that any one generation can hope to do is to promote the gradual change of standards of conduct. All estimates of such a work and its results must be in terms not of individual human life, but in terms of the long life of nations. Inconspicuous as are the immediate results, however, there can be no nobler object of human effort than to exercise an influence upon the tendencies of the race, so that it shall move, however slowly, in the direction of civilization and humanity and away from senseless brutality." The following lists indicate the scope of the work already completed and still to be accomplished: |