tions of a national historical society were what they should be, they were worth to the Government and the country all that they cost. No national effort of such prodigious magnitude and power as that which we are called upon to make can be made by any nation which is not fully conscious of an inspiring past. Of all the factors that make a nation, a common history is perhaps the most potent; and the present war of nations is visibly a product of history. Much knowledge of European history is necessary toward its comprehension, much thought and feeling respecting American history toward bearing successfully our part in its prosecution. A national historical society with no thoughts above the level of antiquarianism might better not convene in such days as these, but a national historical society with the right spirit could not hold an annual meeting without sending its members home heartened to the performance of every patriotic duty, nor without extending in some measure throughout the nation the inspiring and clarifying influence of sound historical thinking and right patriotic feeling.

Fortunately though not by accident, nor with any ground for surprise such has been the spirit and temper of the American Historical Association. It is no accident that such men wish now, more than ever, to connect their studies of the past with the life of the present, to relate every portion of history to the impending crisis of civilization, and to concentrate attention on those parts that are really significant and directly helpful, yet to do all this without allowing the judgment to be warped by the events and passions of the hour, without ceasing to see the life of the race steadily and see it whole. At the Cincinnati meeting, and still more at that lately held at Philadelphia, those who made the program and those who took part in it advanced from the ignoring attitude of 1914 and 1915 to a frank recognition of the war as the historical event now uppermost in all minds, from ground perhaps suitable to spectators to ground appropriate for participants, and did so without excitement or partisanship or loss of judgment. Such discussions by teachers and writers are surely useful to the nation.

Not only was the meeting marked by unwonted enthusiasm, but it was attended by much greater numbers than would generally be expected in such times. The registration amounted to 379, a figure which has only a few times been surpassed. No doubt the historic and other attractions of Philadelphia were in large part responsible for this unusually great attendance. No city has so many and so important associations with the beginnings of our national life, and none has so many visible memorials of those events to attract the patriotic pilgrim. A special occasion was provided, on one of the afternoons of the session, for visits to these historic scenes of old Philadelphia and to the American Philosophical Society.

Additional numbers may well have been drawn to the meeting by Philadelphia's established fame for hospitality. Besides all that was done privately to sustain those hospitable traditions, the University of Pennsylvania, in whose buildings all the sessions of one of the three days (Dec. 27, 28, 29) were held, entertained all members to luncheon and to supper on that day. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in whose hall Mr. Worthington Ford delivered on the first evening his presidential address, followed that address, in its usual handsome manner, with a reception and supper. The conference of archivists and that of historical societies were held in the same building. Other sessions of the first and third days were mostly held in various rooms of the hotel chosen as official headquarters, the Bellevue-Stratford. The privileges of the College Club and of the New Century Club were extended to women members attending the meeting, those of the Franklin Inn Club to the men. The chairman of the committee on local arrangements was Mr. George Wharton Pepper, the vice chairman, Prof. William E. Lingelbach, of the University of Pennsylvania, to whom, and to other professors in that university, the attending members are greatly indebted. The chairman of the committee on program was Prof. John B. McMaster, the vice chairman Prof. Herman V. Ames, of the same institution.

Other learned societies which met at the same time and place were the Archaeological Institute of America, the American Philological Society, the American Economic Association, the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Society, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, and the Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland. The session on ancient history was held as a joint session with the first two of these bodies; that on medieval church history as a joint session with the American Society of Church History, which, meeting as usual in New York, adjourned to Philadelphia for this final session; the conference of teachers of history as a joint session with the Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland; while the last session. of all was held in common with the American Economic Association, the American Political Science Association, and the American Sociological Society. At that session the members of the various societies were favored with an interesting informal address by the Hon. Robert Brand, deputy chairman of the British War Mission, well known for work connected with the federation of South Africa, on the "British Commonwealth of Nations"; Hon. Edward P. Costigan, of the United States Tariff Commission; read an address on "Economic alliances, commercial treaties, and tariff adjustments," partly historical in character, in so far as it touched upon the experiments of the United States in reciprocity since 1890;1 and Prof.

1 Mr. Costigan's paper appears in the supplement to the American Economic Review for March, 1918.

Wallace Notestein, of the University of Minnesota, read a paper, at once entertaining and of solid value, on the "Pan-German use of history."

At noon of the first day, the members of the American Historical Association and the American Political Science Association came together in a subscription luncheon, at which M. Louis Aubert, of the French High Commission, spoke eloquently of the aid of historians in winning the war, and Prof. Guy S. Ford, of the University of Minnesota, who since May has been performing invaluable services as director of the Division of Civic and Educational Cooperation in the Committee on Public Information at Washington, described the educational work of that committee in detail and in a manner to convince all hearers of the high value of its labors. Several subscription dinners of those having a common interest in an individual field of history were arranged, in accordance with a custom which has been growing of late, and were eminently successfula dinner of those interested in military history, one of members interested in the history of the Far East, and one of members of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association. There was also a breakfast of those interested in Latin-American history and in the foundation of the new Hispanic-American Historical Review; and a subscription luncheon of teachers, at which the subject of discussion was the War and the Teaching of History, and at which an interesting letter addressed to those present by M. Édouard de Billy, French Deputy High Commissioner, was read by M. François Monod.

Though several of the sessions were entitled conferences and had in part that character, the familiar difficulty of eliciting real discussion of substantive papers confined those sessions mostly to formal written contributions; but there were, as usual, three conferences that call for independent description, the fourteenth annual conference of representatives of State and local historical societies, the ninth annual conference of archivists and, the conference of teachers of history.

The conference of historical societies now met for the first time under the constitution provided for it by the association a year before, which gives it an autonomous status; and organized by the choice of Mr. Thomas L. Montgomery, librarian of the Pennsylvania State Library, as chairman; and of several committees. The secretary of the new organization is Dr. Augustus H. Shearer, of the Grosvenor Library, Buffalo, appointed to that position by the council a year before. Preparations were made for the issue in 1918 of a handbook of American historical societies. The proceedings of the conference were mainly occupied with the problem of the relations between historical societies and the various hereditary-patriotic societies, especially in the matter of cooperation in publication. Judge Norris

S. Barratt, of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, read a paper on the publications issued by societies of the latter class, and the need of avoiding duplication. The plan of a joint committee, in which each such society should be represented, and which should systematize printing, and by agreement assign to each society the field and method of publication which it should adopt, was elaborated by Prof. William Libbey, of Princeton University; and by Mr. Worthington C. Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It was voted that the president of the American Historical Association should be requested to appoint a committee of 13, representing all types of organization involved, to consider closer cooperation and report a plan for avoiding duplication of effort and securing a better and more systematic publication of historical material. For the remainder of the conference the topic was the collection by historical societies of local material on the present war; Prof. Harlow C. Lindley and Dr. Solon J. Buck gave useful descriptions of methods pursued by the Indiana State Library and the Minnesota Historical Society respectively.1

The chief theme in the conference of archivists was the collection and preservations of war records. Mr. Waldo G. Leland, of the Carnegie Institution, secretary of the National Board for Historical Service, presented in outline the general subject of " Archives of the War." He emphasized the great need of preserving properly the official documents and papers produced by the Federal, State, and local governments of the Union in their various conventional departments, and showed in part what was being done in this direction, and by libraries; but he dwelt more largely on the need of preserving proper records of the doings of those newer governmental or semiofficial or extra official bodies which have been created in such numbers for purposes connected with the war. Starting without traditions of office and with instant needs for boundless activity, such organizations are likely to forget the importance of preserving for future times the records of their activities. Yet after all their achievements should hold as high and as instructive a place in the history of the war as those of all the traditional divisions of the oldline military or political mechanism, for the future historian of the war will see it, in this country as in others, as a prodigious and many-sided effort of the whole Nation. What has been done to cause these newer bodies to conserve historical material was set forth by Mr. Leland in general terms, and was exemplified in a particular instance by a fuller description, presented by Mr. Everett S. Brown, of the archives of the Food Administration as historical

1 A fuller account of the proceedings, in a brief pamphlet of eight pages, has been prepared by Dr. Shearer, and may be obtained from him. The complete proceedings are printed in this present volume.

sources. Prof. Peter Guilday, of the Catholic University of America, editor of the Catholic Historical Review, speaking to the title, the "Collection of Catholic war records," described the systematic endeavors made, on a large scale, by the war record committee of the Catholic National War Council, operating through 119 diocesan subcommittees, to collect all sorts of material relating to the war which could be obtained from members of the Catholic Church, the portions relating to Catholics to be preserved ultimately in a special archive building to be erected in Washington at the Catholic University of America. Prof. R. M. Johnston, of Harvard; Mr. R. D. W. Connor, of North Carolina; Dr. Buck, of Minnesota; and Dr. James Sullivan, of the New York Department of History, also spoke in this conference, partly by way of describing the earnest and intelligent efforts which historical departments and societies and the historical sections of State councils of defence have made to insure the preservation of material on the war, partly upon the pressing need, which war conditions have emphasized, for better housing of the national archives at Washington. The conference was presided over by Mr. Victor H. Paltsits, of the New York Public Library, chairman of the Public Archives Commission.1

The conference of teachers of history, presided over by Dean Marshall S. Brown, of New York University, attracted an exceptionally large attendance, especially of teachers in secondary schools. It will be remembered that the association two years ago appointed a committee of 13 to consider what progress could be made toward framing for American schools a more ideal program in history, a course which, while defining more closely the fields of history recommended by the committee of seven, should also bring about a better coordination between the elementary and the secondary schools. This conference was planned to help forward these deliberations, and the principal paper was by Prof. Henry Johnson, of Teachers College, Columbia University, chairman hitherto of that committee on history in schools. Prof. Johnson's paper, on the "School course in history, some precedents and a possible next step," a paper expressed with his usual wisdom and felicity, and the valuable, remarks of the gentlemen who followed him in the discussion of the theme, Prof. Rolla M. Tryon, of the University of Chicago; Dr. Arthur M. Wolfson, of the New York High School of Commerce; Prof. Henry E. Bourne, of the Western Reserve University; and Prof. Herbert D. Foster, of Dartmouth University; have been printed at length in another place. It must suffice here to say that Prof. Johnson warned against the non-historical tendency to

1 Complete proceedings of the conference are printed below in the present volume.

2 History Teacher's Magazine, February, 1918, pp. 74-83, pages of great value and importance. See also below in this present volume.