Dean Edwin F. Gay, of the Graduate School of Business Administration, has been appointed to the commission recently announced by the Council of National Defence at Washington to mobilize commercial interests of the country for effective and economical distribution of commodities during the war. The new body will be called the Commercial Economy Board, and will consist of five members, two of whom, in addition to Dean Gay, have already been selected. A. W. Shaw of Chicago will head the board as chairman, and Wallace D. Simmons, president of the Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis is the third member of the commission. The other two members will be appointed in a short time, and Dr. Hollis Godfred, president of the Drexel Institute and member of the advisory commission of the Council of National Defence, also will serve on the board as an additional member.

The purpose of the new body is to deal forehandedly with problems of war-time distribution, and special attention will be given to methods which will enable commercial houses to release employees the Government may need without dislocating business. The board purposes to gather the best experience of American and foreign business in this respect, and make it available for all business of this country, so that recruiting and military service may go on with the least possible friction and damage to business. The members of the board will work without pay, and at least one of them will spend all his time in Washington, where offices and a staff will be maintained.

Dean Gay is the second University professor appointed to an economic board at Washington this year, the other being Professor F. W. Taussig '79, who is now serving as chairman of the Federal Tariff Commission in Washington. He has a wide reputation as an economist and since receiving his degree of A.B. from the University of Michigan in 1892 has been honored by that of Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1902. He was appointed instructor in economics in the University in 1902, assistant professor in 1906, and in 1908 was made dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration. Dean Gay is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Historical Association, and the American Economic Association. It has not been announced when the new board will be called together and no definite information as to the nature of its work has been received from Washington