Much has been written of the financing and development of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. There is little information available regarding the investment policies and types of investments made by the “Big Four” subsequent to the eompletion of the Central Pacific. Stuart Daggett, in his book The History of the Southern Pacific, makes the statement that it is doubtful whether the history of the construction companies will ever be told. It has been my good fortune to acquire for the Library of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University 279 ledgers, journals, and minute books, 42 transfer cases of correspondence, and 150 drawers of vouchers, all dealing with subsidiary companies. In general, these records show how Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins, and Crocker continued the investment of the large sums accruing to them upon the completion and successful operation of the Central Pacific.

Our members have recently received, as a gift from the Business Historical Society, the Harvard Co-operative Society, and the author, a copy of Harvard Co-operative Society, Past and Present, 1882-1942, by Professor N. S. B. Gras. The book was written to make known the facts of the Co-operative Society's experience as a business enterprise. It will no doubt have interest to many beyond the officers, directors, and members of the Harvard Co-operative Society as a record of an experience of over sixty years of cooperative business effort. The book reveals how thin is the line dividing the so-called co-operative and the ordinary private business unit.

The Editor takes pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of an entire file of the Bulletin, which came some months ago as a gift from Mr. F. C. Ayres, a former executive secretary of the Society.

The Baker Library of Harvard University received during the past year an unidentified New York ship chandler's daybooks covering roughly the years 1811-15. These books depict some aspects of the work of a small concern in this line of trade, a trade which was typical of the numerous ports in the old and new worlds in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.