There is an old saying that “every cloud has a silver lining,” but no doubt it must have been difficult for German business men to see any ray of hope during the dark years succeeding the war when the mark plunged down on the exchange until it was practically worthless. In fact, never in the history of the world has a currency depreciated to such a degree.

Tunnel — what imaginative pictures are conjured up in our minds on hearing this word! To most of us come visions of trains swooping through impassable mountains. Few of us would think of a tunnel as a foot-path or carriage-way under a river, but the first successful tunnel was just such a project under the Thames River.

Business depressions bring in their wake such a train of privation and misery that we are usually blinded to the fact that they occasionally produce incidental benefits. Foremost among the few good results which have flowed from the present business depression is the stimulation of research into the history of the business cycle. Economists and business men alike are attempting to learn as much as possible about similar crises of the past. They are asking themselves whether the depression of 1930 is worse than that which occurred in 1894 or 1840, in what respects it differs from or resembles those catastrophes. They are even wondering how their predecessors felt after the first stock-market crash of 1792.

In a discussion of the ever present tariff problem one often reflects on the determining factors in the tariff policy of our country. The correspondence of Justin S. Morrill, ardent protectionist and author of the Morrill Tariff Act of 1861, sheds considerable light upon this subject. The material covers the period between 1867 and 1897. It has been acquired by the Baker Library through the courtesy of John Spargo, President of the Vermont Historical Society.

The specimens of Portland Clearing House Association currency reproduced on the opposite page were issued during the panic year of 1907.

Two eighteenth century technical treatises — Mechanick Exercises: or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, 1703, by Joseph Moxon, and The Practical House Carpenter, 1796, by William Pain — have been presented to the Society by William Butler, one of our members.

At a joint session of the American Historical Association and the Business Historical Society held at Soldiers Field, Boston, December 30, 1930, business history was discussed for the first time in any comprehensive fashion under such auspices.

The sun arose on the morning of Tuesday, August 31, 1858 upon a strange scene on Boston Common. A scaffold reared its ugly head close by the flag staff and a huge tank was placed conveniently near. By nine o'clock throngs were gathering in the streets, pressing for a view of the Common. However, the crowds were not such as one would expect at an affair heralded by the erection of a scaffold. Rather were they a jubilant and excited gathering: now and then could be heard exclamations of surprise and no few were wagering and betting as though a horse race were the attraction of the day. A race it was indeed, but a race of fire engines and not of horses. The City of Boston was holding a trial of engines before procuring two or three for the use of the City.

A beginning has been made to preserve business manuscripts in the South. The following are some of the facts discovered by Howard Corning, Head of the Manuscript Division of the Baker Library, as a result of a three weeks' motor trip through the southern states in November.

The groundwork for a study of American investment trusts is contained in a mass of documents presented to the Business Historical Society by Edgar Higgins, investment trust consultant of New York City.

Two collections of the Lord shipping records preserved in Maine since the colonial era have been presented to Harvard University and the Business Historical Society by Miss Mary Patterson Lord and Charles H. Taylor. Although considerable material on shipping is now contained in Baker Library, many invaluable manuscripts are still in private possession scattered along the Atlantic Coast. It is hoped that the extent and location of these documents will be made known for research in early American water transportation.

New England, early settled within its small slice of territory, has seen its influence spread to the Pacific as a nation's frontier gradually receded westward. Blocked by its barren soil from agricultural expansion and encouraged by proximity to the sea, the section quickly turned to commerce and manufacturing. New England goods handled by New England merchants flowed south and west, and its surplus capital aided in the development of the new areas.

European attempts to collect and preserve records of business history have been described in an article by Dr. Charles Schmidt, archivist of the National Archives of France. It was originally published in the May 15, 1926 issue of La Revue de Paris, and has now been translated into English.

Among the heterogeneous mass of Baldwin engineering papers which have just arrived in Baker Library — and will be discussed in the next issue of the Bulletin — there is a copy of a Canadian bill which was introduced in 1859. It describes itself as “An Act for the Reform and Regulation of Female Apparel, and to amend and reform the Customs relating to Crinoline and other Artificial Superfluities and the Profusion thereof,” with powers, fines, forfeitures and penalties to be exercised for enforcement.

History — and this includes economic history — has thrived on controversy. Is it a science? Is it a scientific method? Is it a mere jumble of uncoördinated facts deadly in a textbook and amusing to a trained antiquarian? Or perhaps its utility is in substantiating our religions like “progress” and the Hegelian “march of reason”?

In striking contrast to Sam Johnson's erratic dictionary commented on in the last issue of the Bulletin is the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences whose second volume appeared during October (Macmillan). The book covers parts of the alphabet letters “A” and “B” — beginning with an article on alliances by Professor Sidney B. Fay of Harvard University and ending with brigandage, by Carleton Beals.