Creative scholarship more than anything else has given Harvard its distinction among the universities of America. Anything that can further that reputation for advancing knowledge will enhance the University's prestige in the most direct manner possible. The contribution which the Harvard Press makes to this end can hardly be overestimated.

In the past, many important works prepared by members of the University were never issued owing to lack of funds. Again others have been issued under various imprints and so are not connected in the public mind with the institution at which they were produced. The Harvard Alumni Bulletin says, "Only last year an historical treatise of great importance, written by a Harvard Master of Arts, now a member of the Faculty of Arts, now a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was given to the Press of a sister institution for publication." That the University Press is doing much to remedy this evil is shown by the fact that already, in little more than half a year since it was founded, it has published approximately two hundred and twenty-five important books and essarys of scientific description, mostly by members of the Faculty. These contributions, covering a vast scientific field, show by their comprehensive nature, the wide extent of the work being done here.

Besides the books which the Press is turning out, it publishes regularly the following University publications: The "Architectural Quarterly," the "Harvard Law Review," the "Harvard Theological Review," and the "Quarterly Journal of Economics." It has at present sixteen books, by members of the Faculty, now impress which will appear soon.

One of the most widely read of the volumes recently edited is M. T. Copel and's "The Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States." This essay was awarded the David A. Wells prize in 1911-12 and is published from the proceeds of that fund. The book sets forth the relative position of the American cotton manufacturing industry by means of an international comparison of geographical factors, technical methods, labor conditions, and industrial and commercial organization. To provide a basis for these comparisons and conclusions, the history of the industry in America is traced and its present organization analyzed.

Perhaps the most interesting works already published are the "Harvard Historical Studies." These essays comprise twenty volumes by different authors and vary in subject matter from "The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America" and "The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Line of Suleiman the Magnificent" to "Nominations for Elective Office in the United States" and "Burgage Tenure in England."

A somewhat similar series is the "Harvard Oriental Series" which contains eleven volumes edited by C. R. Lanman and which treats in the main of Buddhism.

Professor G. Santayana's book, used in Philosophy A, "Three Philosophical Poets" has also been published by the Press. This work is an appreciation of Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe. Among the other recent publications are, "The Lodging House Problem in Boston," by A. B. Wolfe who obtained the material for his work by a two years' stay, as Harvard Fellow, in the South End House, Boston; "Applied Ethics," by Theodore Roosevelt; "Public Ownership of Telephones on the Continent of Europe," by A. N. Holcombe; and "Banking Reform in the United States," by O. M. W. Sprague.