EDITOR’S PREFACE
obligation was therefore placed upon the Division of Economics
and History. It was obliged to concentrate its work upon the
problem thus presented, and to study it as a whole; in other
words, to apply to it the tests and disciplines of history. Just
as the War itself was a single event, though penetrating by seem-
ingly unconnected ways to the remotest parts of the world, so
the analysis of it must be developed according to a plan at once
all embracing and yet adjustable to the practical limits of the
available data.
During the actual progress of the War, however, the execution
of this plan for a scientific and objective study of war economics
proved impossible in any large and authoritative way. Incidental
studies and surveys of portions of the field could be made and were
made under the direction of the Division, but it was impossible to
undertake a general history for obvious reasons. In the first place,
an authoritative statement of the resources of belligerents bore
directly on the ‘conduct of armies in the field. The result was to
remove as far as possible from scrutiny those data of the economic
life of the countries at war which would ordinarily, in time of
peace, be readily available for investigation. In addition to this
difficulty of consulting documents, collaborators competent to
deal with them were for the most part called into national service
in the belligerent countries and so were unavailable for research.
The plan for a war history was therefore postponed until condi-
tions should arise which would make possible not only access to
essential documents but also the co-operation .of economists,
historians, and men of affairs in the nations chiefly concerned,
whose joint work would not be misunderstood either in purpose
or in content.
Upon the termination of the War the Endowment once
more took up the original plan, and it was found with but
slight modification to be applicable to the situation. Work was
begun in the summer and autumn of 1919. In the first place
a final conference of the Advisory Board of Economists of the
