Constructing our railroads and operating them has been a work of magnificent and challenging proportions. Railroads presented our first great administrative task in business, and the task came upon us with a rapidity that in many respects overwhelmed us. It was pressed upon us by needs and opportunities on the side both of service and of profits.

It might well be asked whether any other country in the world, unless it be Russia since 1918, has had such a big administrative task in the field of the economic thrust upon it with so little preparation.

One of the most intriguing figures in the history of business is the traveling merchant. He was the key figure in the business life of the ancient and the mediæval town. He bought goods in one market which he carried by pack horse, camel, or ship to sell in another, thus serving as a traveling wholesaler. Here today, he was gone tomorrow; even his court of law was known as the “dusty-footed court.”

The old adage about an “ill wind” should have a qualifying phrase, at least as far as library acquisition is concerned. In order that libraries or historical institutions may benefit from others' adversities, it is essential that they have a friend in the neighborhood of the cyclone or other trouble-making wind. The Baker Library of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration was fortunate in having such a friend in Mr. Paul D. Babson.