As the radio waves ebb, and the sponsor's hour draws to a close, advertising contact with the public is terminated. Only the memories of some exceptionally fine program linger in the minds of the radio audience. On the other hand, the lowliest huckster, who a century ago commissioned some printer to execute even the simplest tradecard describing his wares, achieved the guarantee — if one may use the phrase — of a limited immortality. This naturally depended somewhat on the durability of the paper or cardboard selected, but judging from the volume of material that has accumulated and has been handed down through the decades, the paper manufacturers of the olden days deserve our gratitude for the excellence of their products.

The exigencies of Government finance under the stress of presentday conditions call to mind the difficulties with which the new Federal Government and its youthful Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, were confronted at the beginning of the first Washington administration. Indeed the manner in which the first Secretary of the Treasury met these problems and the lessons which his solutions seem to have for the present emergency have occasioned the reprinting of Hamilton's great State papers on the national debt, the establishment of a national bank, and the protection of manufactures. Under the inspiration of the Honorable Elihu Root and President Butler of Columbia University, these documents have been reissued in a volume entitled “Papers on Public Credit, Commerce, and Finance.”

Many of the manuscript collections found in the Baker Library center around a particular individual rather than around a certain company or business concern. In such an instance it is usually true that the subject matter of the papers will reach into a wide variety of fields. A case in point is the De Wolf family collection, dealing largely with the activities of James De Wolf of Bristol, Rhode Island. Nominally De Wolf was a merchant, but his interests extended to numerous other spheres, including shipping, estate management, privateering, and politics. In a summary fashion this paper will trace a few of his varied pursuits.

Imagine the consternation and confusion in the American business world if Congress should decide tomorrow that henceforth the dollar would no longer be the basis of our currency, but that a new monetary system with some unit such as the franc or the pound would be adopted. From the standpoint of accounting and business records, there would be a long period of adjustment to the new system. Probably government books would be changed to the new system immediately, but some business enterprises would undoubtedly carry dollars on their records for many months.