If the whole history of American experience in establishing and operating manufacturing ventures were recorded, the number of failures would probably be found to be prodigious. Countless communities on rivers, large and small, dreamed of the time when the hum and whir of machines would bring them wealth, and many such communities actually set up factories.

The Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, the oldest industrial corporation in the United States, is now in process of liquidation.

The New York Metropolitan area contains a greater volume of important business records than any similar section of the United States; yet up to some three years ago little had been done by the historical profession to encourage the preservation of the records for scholarly use. Some New York business records have been deposited from time to time in the local university libraries, the New York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Public Library, where the former Director, H. M. Lydenberg, made occasional efforts in this direction. Through members of the Business Historical Society, and others, the attention of the Baker Library had sometimes been directed to New York records; but all of these efforts together have barely ruffled the surface of the vast mass of papers reposing in vaults, private libraries, and storage warehouses.

The attention of the readers of the Bulletin was in the April issue directed to an address by Dr. Stanley Pargellis on the subject. “The Judgment of History on American Business.” The address, which was published by the Newcomen Society, American Branch, and also by the Railway Age and The Nation's Business, has evoked much stimulating discussion. A letter is printed below that comments on Dr. Pargelhs' address and carries the discussion further. It emphasizes a fundamental aspect of the problem, and in effect it challenges the scholar to an examination of his own thinking about business. The BULLETIN presents the letter as the statement of a business man who has thought much about the problem.