Title: Institute for Public Service Records
Inclusive Dates: 1914-1962

Creator:

• Institute for Public Service (New York, N.Y.)

Call Number: U.S. Mss AX

Quantity: 26.0 c.f. (65 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of William H. Allen, director of the Institute for Public Service (New York, N.Y.) from its chartering in October 1915 to 1962. The institute was designed to carry on training and publication programs, to promote efficiency in education, efficiency in government, and other forms of civic-improvement functions begun by the earlier Bureau of Municipal Research organized by a group of reformers in New York City in 1907. The collection includes Allen's correspondece, many newspaper and magazine clippings, pamphlets, and replies to questionnaires on currrent events used by the institute in connection with various research problems. Much of the material refers to work done in New York City, but reports on surveys conducted at the University of Wisconsin and elsewhere are also included. The collection is arranged by subject, and includes Allen's correspondence with such educators and political figures as Lewis W. Alderman, school administrator of Portland, Oregon, Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York City, William McAndrew, superintendent of schools in Chicago, Illinois, A. E. Winship, editor of the Journal of Education, and William J. O'Dwyer, mayor of New York City.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0000ax

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The Institute for Public Service, chartered in October, 1915, by a group of municipal researchers at a convention in Dayton, Ohio, continued the functions of the Bureau of Municipal Research in New York City. The idea of Julius H. Barnes, it was an organization to help schools, colleges, and governments cooperate for improvement. This was carried out along with government field training for public service and foundations. William H. Allen was made director of the Institute in 1915 and remained so until his death in 1963.

William Harvey Allen, the son of John D. and Jo (Corbitt) Allen, was born in Le Roy, Minnesota, February 9, 1874, and died in New York City, February 23, 1963. He attended Carleton College and received his A.B. from the University of Chicago, 1897, his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, 1900, and attended the Harvard New York School of Philanthropy for post-graduate work in 1903. Before becoming director of the Institute for Public Service in 1915, William H. Allen was an instructor in government at the University of Pennsylvania, 1901-1913; did research, surveys, and editorial work in government; and carried on educational work on the local, state, and national levels. He was director of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, 1907-1914, and director of the Training School for Public Service, 1911-1914. As a political reformer he publicized waste and fraud in government operations, and from 1934-1937 was secretary of the New York City Civil Service Commission. Allen was author or co-author of several books and reports on education and civics. Allen is perhaps best known for his books, Rockefeller: Giant, Dwarf and Symbol, Why Tammanies Revive, and La Guardia's Misguard.

The collection is mainly correspondence of the Institute from 1915 to 1962. It is arranged alphabetically according to subject files dealing mainly with education, government, and civic improvement, and includes several folders of newspaper and magazine clippings concerning the Institute and civic improvement. Also in the collection are fliers and pamphlets released by the Institute, including replies to questionnaires on current events on the issues involving the Institute for Public Service. The papers have been left in the same order and arrangement maintained by the Institute, and in most cases the subject headings for folders are worded just as Mr. Allen had them.

Acquisition Information

Presented by William H. Allen, New York, New York , November 27, 1962.

Processing Information

Processed by AM, May 16, 1964.

Box   1	“A Question, A Criticism, A Suggestion, A Day”
Box   1	Accounts Receivable, 1941
Box   1	Active Americanism, 1940-1951
Box   1	Alderman, Dr. L.R.
	Allen, William H.
Box   1	General
Box   1	Secretary to the Municipal Civil Service Commission
Box   1	“Spotlight on Performance”
Box   1	Alumni, University of Chicago
Box   1	American Association of School Administrators, 1956-1957
Box   1	American Heritage Project
Box   1	American Mercury, 1958
Box   1	Anecdotes
	Appeals
Box   1	1922-1943
Box   2	1945
Box   2	Arms Embargo Repeal
Box   2	Articles and Manuscripts, 1928
Box   2	Articles and Proposals
Box   2	Articles by William H. Allen
Box   2	Assessing Data Work Papers
Box   2	Assessing Real Estate, 1947
Box   2	Assessments
Box   3	Assessment Charts
Box   3	Associated Press, 1940, 1946-1947
Box   3	Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor
Box   3	Autographs
Box   3	Axelrod, Burton, 1947
Box   4	Barnes, Julius H., 1917-1924
Box   4	Beard, Mary R.
Box   4	Benley Tax Study, 1945 Principles
Box   4	Better Schools
Box   4	Biography Possibilities
Box   4	Blackboard Jungle
Box   5	Book Reviews
Box   5	Branson, E. C.
Box   5	Budget, 1922
Box   5	Budget Exhibit, 1908
Box   5	Budget Hearing Bulletins
Box   5	Budget Hearings
Box   5	Budget, New York City, 1942-1943
Box   5	Budget Research
Box   6	Budgets, State and National
Box   6	Budget Survey, 1909
	Bureau of Municipal Research
Box   6	1910-1911, 1914, 1914-1915, 1938-1939, 1938-1941
Box   7	1940
Box   7	Burger, Alvin H., Texas Research League
Box   7	Burlingham, C. C.
Box   7	Burton, William H.
	Campaigns
Box   7	1917
Box   7	1921
Box   7	1941
Box   7	1945
Box   8	1950
Box   8	1956
Box   8	New York City, 1953
Box   8	Carleton College
	Carnegie Corporation
Box   8	General
Box   8	President Gardner
Box   8	Carnegie Foundation
Box   8	Carnegie Preparation
Box   8	Carnegie Work Papers
Box   9	Cartoons and Charts on Civics and Taxation
Box   9	Cartoons on Teachers
Box   9	Catalog Reports, 1919
Box   9	Catalyst to Government
Box   9	Charges, 1942-1943
Box   9	Charity Organizations
Box   9	Charter, New York City
Box   9	Charter Revision, 1960; New York City Inquiry, , 1959
Box   10	Charts
Box   10	Cincinnati School Unit
Box   10	Cincinnati Story
Box   10	Citizens Committee for Public Service
Box   10	Citizenship Training
Box   10	City News Association
Box   10	Civic Research
Box   10	Civics, Correspondence
Box   10	Civics and Health
Box   10	Civics and Health Acknowledgements
Box   10	Civics Notes
Box   10	Civics and Public Opinion
Box   10	Civics and Taxation
	Civics Text
Box   10	1915
Box   11	Clippings
Box   11	Civil Service Commission
Box   11	Civil Service Promotion Criteria
Box   11	Clippings
Box   11	Clippings; School Reports and Efficiency
Box   12	Coffin, Charles A., 1926
Box   12	College Tuition
Box   12	College Pamphlets
Box   12	Commencements
Box   12	Commissioner of Accounts
Box   12	Comptroller General
Box   12	Condemnation Proceedings
Box   13	Constitutional Convention, 1938
Box   13	Constructive Social Work
	Correspondence
Box   13	General, 1907-1943, 1914, 1917, 1921-1925, 1927
Box   14	General, 1944-1947, 1945, 1947-1957, 1948-1962
Box   14	General
Box   14	Miscellaneous
Box   14a	Institute, 1936-1937
Box   14a	Miscellaneous
Box   14a	New York Editors
Box   14a	Education
Box   14a	To Editors
Box   14a	Special
Box   14a	Cost of Living
Box   14a	Council of Financial Aid to Colleges
Box   14a	Crabtree, J. W., Correspondence, Secretary of the National Education Association
Box   15	Delineators, Care of Babies Conference
Box   15	Democracy Needs to be Governed
Box   15	Democracy Needs to be Supervised
Box   15	Democracy Needs Vigilance and Restraint
Box   15	Democratic Campaign, 1937, 1941
Box   15	Dentistry for School Children
Box   15	De-recruiting of Teachers
	Dewey, Thomas
Box   15	1938
Box   15	1945
Box   15	Dodd, Norman
Box   15	Drawings, Miscellaneous
Box   16	Economics
Box   16	Edison Drawings
Box   16	Education Equality
Box   16	Editing
Box   16	Editors
	Education
	General
Box   16	1907-1946, 1908-1910, 1912, 1933-1954, 1951
Box   17	1952-1956, 1953
Box   17	Education Bulletin, 1948
Box   17	Higher, 1950-1956
Box   17	New York City
Box   17	New York State
Box   18	Scrapbook
Box   18	State Department
Box   18	Theobold and Jansen
Box   18	Educational Functions
Box   18	Educational Reviewer
Box   18	Educational Work Plans
Box   18	Efficiency in Government
Box   18a	Efficiency in Public Life
Box   18a	Eisenhower Campaign, 1956
Box   18a	Eisenhower, Dwight D.
Box   18a	Encyclopedia Britannica
Box   18a	Equalization
Box   18a	Evans, H. C.
Box   18a	Extended Reviews of History Texts
Box   18a	Farmer, A. N.
	Federal Aid to Education
Box   18a	1957
Box   19	General
Box   19	Fels Fund
Box   19	Films about Public Schools
Box   19	Fitzpatrick, E. A., Dean of the Graduate School, Marquette University
	Ford Foundation
Box   19	1946-1952, 1954-1956, 1956, 1957
Box   20	1957-1962
Box   20	Foundations
Box   20	Foundations Study
Box   20	Franklin in Textbooks
Box   20	Freedom Readers
Box   20	Gerosa, Lawrence
Box   20	Gestapo before Hitler
Box   20	Ghost Writing; Shakespeare
Box   20	Ginn and Company, 1909-1911, 1959
Box   20	Goldstein and Good Government
Box   21	Government Accounting Office
Box   21	Government Council, 1949
Box   21	Government and Public Backers
Box   21-22	Governmental Research Association
Box   22	Government Research Releases, 1930
Box   22	Grand Jury, 1941
Box   22	Great Books
Box   22	Grimm, Peter
Box   22	Gulick, Luther
Box   22	Harlem Library Budget
Box   22	Harmon Foundation
Box   22	Harriman, Averill
Box   22	Harriman, Mrs. E. H.
Box   22	Health Conference
Box   22	Henderson, William B.
Box   23	Higgens, Commissioner of Accounts
Box   23	“Highspot on Education”
Box   23	Hillside, Jamaica
Box   23	Historical and Current Events
	History Reader
Box   23	General
Box   23	Articles
Box   24	Articles and Letters
Box   24	History Review Work Papers
Box   24	Historical Articles
Box   24	Hoover Commission Conference
Box   24	Hoover Commission Conference; Volkner Fund
Box   25	Hoover Commission Reports, 1956, 1957
Box   25	“How To Graft”
Box   25	Hutchins, Robert M.
Box   25	Improvement of Condition of the Poor
Box   25	Industrial Relations Commission, 1915
Box   25	Influences on Education
Box   25	Institute of Citizenship
	Institute for Public Service
Box   25	1940
Box   26	Articles
Box   26	Finances
Box   26	News Releases
Box   26	Pamphlet Requests
Box   26	Releases, January-June, 1917
Box   26	Reports
Box   26a	Miscellaneous
Box   26a	1925
Box   26a	Kennedy Administration
Box   26a	King, Lloyd W.
	La Guardia, Fiorello
Box   26a	1927-1941, 1929
Box   27	1929, 1929-1930, 1929-1934, 1929-1938, 1932-1933, 1934-1935, 1935-1941, 1935-1942, 1938-1941
Box   28	1939-1944
Box   28	Land, Inequities: General Releases, 1928
Box   28	Law Notations
Box   28	Lehman, Herbert, 1933-1937
Box   28	Lend Lease, 1940-1950
Box   28	Lend Lease Debates, 1941-1945
Box   28	Letters, Signatures
Box   28	Liberal Education
Box   28	Low Bridges
Box   28	Luchnow, Harold, 1944-1954
Box   29	Manuscripts
Box   29	Markets, Release Pedlers, 1928
Box   29	Maul, Ray C.
Box   29	Mayorality Campaign, 1949, 1957
Box   29	McAndrew, William
Box   29	McGolrick, Joseph, Comptroller, New York City
Box   29	McClure's Magazine
Box   29	Mead, George A., Madison, Wisconsin
Box   29	Merlis Realty Corporation
Box   29	Milk, 1945
Box   29-29a	Miller, William Stanley
Box   29a	Milwaukee School Survey
Box   29a-30	Miscellaneous
Box   31	Morris Campaign, 1945
Box   31	Mulhall, Sara, Narcotics File
Box   31	Municipal Bond Service, 1923
Box   31	Municipal Economy
	Municipal Economy Committee
Box   31	General
Box   31	Proceedings
Box   31	Releases
Box   31	Municipal Government
Box   31	Municipal Taxes, New York City
Box   31	National Budget, 1917-1940, 1918
Box   32	National Conference on Charities and Corrections
Box   32	National Education Association
Box   32	National School of Method Leaflets
Box   32	National Training School for Public Service
Box   32	Newspapers
Box   32	New York Budget Plan and Assessments
	New York City
Box   32	Board of Education
Box   32	Board of Higher Education
Box   32	Budget, 1927, 1941
Box   32	Education
Box   33	Inquiry, 1930-1931
Box   33	Mayor's Convention
Box   33	School Scandal
Box   33	School Survey, 1924, 1925
Box   33	School Superintendent, 1946-1947
Box   33	Tax Board
Box   33	New York County Tax Scandal, 1940-1943
Box   33	New York Herald Tribune
Box   33a	New York Herald Tribune, Clippings and Manuscripts
Box   33	New York Post, Manuscripts and Clippings
Box   33	New York Public Library
Box   33	New York School Survey
Box   33	New York State Education
Box   33	New York State Review
	New York State Survey
Box   33	General
Box   34	1929-1942
Box   34	New York State Tax Commission During the Depression
Box   34	New York Sun
Box   34	New York Tax Board
	New York Times
Box   34	General
Box   34	1925-1940, 1944, 1952
Box   35	1926-1940, 1953
Box   35	Editors
Box   35a	New York World
Box   35a	New York World Telegram
Box   35a	New York World Telegram and Sun
Box   35a	Non-Partisan Releases, Non-Partisan Facts
Box   35a	O'Dwyer, William, 1945-1947
Box   35a	Ohio Survey
Box   35a	Open Public Eye
Box   35a	Oral History
Box   35a	Ordway Manuscripts
Box   36	Payne, John M.
Box   36	Pearl Harbor, Carnegie Peace Fund
Box   36	“Pearl Harbor in Post-War Textbooks”
	Performance Audit
Box   36	General
Box   37	1925
Box   37	Comptroller General
Box   37	Pippa Passes from a Civic Point of View
Box   37	Political Partisanship
Box   37	Political Science; Teaching
Box   37	Politics
Box   37	Post Election Summary, 1944
Box   37	Post War College Programs
Box   38	Post World War I Manuscripts
Box   38	Pratt Commencement Address, Press Reports
Box   38	Press Releases
Box   38	Press Releases and Newspaper Clippings, 1928-1932
Box   38	“Promises of Progress”
Box   38	Properties
Box   38	Proportional Representation
Box   38	Proposals, 1940
Box   39	Public Baths
Box   39	Public Conscience on Efficiency; Clippings
Box   39	Public Education Association on New York City Schools
Box   39	Public Health, 1910-1912
Box   39	Public Men
Box   39	Public Schooling
Box   40	Public Service
Box   40	Public Service Ideas
Box   40	Public Service Projects
Box   40	Public Service Releases
Box   41	Public Service Releases on Education, 1920
Box   41	Public Service Report
Box   41	Public Service Systems
Box   41	Quote Material
Box   41	Radio
Box   41	Radio, 1924, WJZ
Box   41	Ravenswood
Box   41-42	Reader's Digest
	Real Estate
Box   42	General
Box   42	1941-1944
Box   42	Real Estate Board
Box   42	Regents Survey
Box   42	Relief Inquiry
Box   42	Republican Misleadership
Box   42	Republican Party, 1960
Box   42	Research and Supervision
Box   42	Research and Teaching
Box   42	“Riding Herd on President Kennedy, World's Most Shadowed Spender”
Box   43	Rightor, C. E., Trustee, 1955
Box   43	Rockaway Public Beach Improvement Plan
Box   43	Rockefeller Center
Box   43	Rockefeller Center Assessments
Box   43	Rockefeller Center Prior to 1937
Box   43	Rockefeller Family and Campaign, 1958
	Rockefeller, John D.
Box   43	General
Box   43	House at Harford Mills, 1928
	Rockefeller, Nelson A.
Box   43	General
Box   44	1959
Box   44	Campaign, 1958
Box   44	Memos re: Public Service Institute
Box   44	Ronan, William J.
Box   44	St. Lawrence Waterway
	Saturday Evening Post
Box   44	General
Box   44	Frederic Nelson, Editor
Box   44	Seabury Investigation
Box   44	Seabury Manuscripts and Charter
Box   45	Schrader, George H. F.
	Signposts
Box   45	General
Box   45	Data
Box   45-46	Education
Box   46	Slum Clearance, New York City
Box   46	Social Work
Box   46	School Reports
Box   46	School Superintendents, 1946-1947
Box   46	School Systems
Box   46	Schools and Public Service
Box   46	Schools, Colleges, Libraries, 1945-1947
Box   46	Schools for a New World
Box   46	Skim Milk
Box   47	Smith, Al
Box   47	Snedden, Dr. David
Box   47	Speeches
Box   47	Spiritual Mobilization
Box   47	Subway
Box   47	Subway Fare
Box   47	Stevenson, Adlai, Campaign, 1956
Box   47	Tax Board, 1929-1933
Box   47	Tax Dollar
Box   47	Tax Report
Box   47	Tax Service, 1932
Box   48	Taxation
Box   48	Taxes, 1936, 1940-1960
Box   48	Taxpayers' Survey Committee, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1932
Box   48	Teacher De-recruiting
Box   49	Teacher Recruiting
Box   50	Teachers, Organization and Processes
Box   50	Teacher's Problems
Box   50	Teaching, Supply and Demand
Box   50	Textbooks, 1938, 1947
Box   50	Textbooks in Education
Box   50	Timetable, Final Version (Corrections to be added to 1939)
Box   50	Tolerance
Box   50	Transit Releases, 1928
Box   50	Trends, 1945
Box   50	Trends in Education
Box   50	Tuition
Box   51	United States Commission on Industrial Relations, 1915
Box   51	United States of America, Releases
	United States Office of Education
Box   51	General
Box   51	Articles
Box   51	Unit Values of Queens, New York
	University of Wisconsin
Box   51	1937
Box   51	University in Relation to German Universities
Box   51	Reports and Minutes, 1914-1915
Box   51	Saturday Evening Post
	Survey
Box   51	General
Box   52	1914-1915
Box   52	Releases
Box   52	Upson, Lent D.
Box   52	Van Hise, President of University of Wisconsin, 1914
Box   52	Van Rensselaer, James T.
Box   52	Vincent, George E.
Box   52	Voice of America
Box   52	Volkner, William, Fund
Box   53	Wagner, Robert R., 1954
Box   53	Walker, Hylan, Wagner, and Beame
	Walker, James
Box   53	Charges Against, 1929
Box   53	Trial, 1932
Box   53	Wall Street Journal
Box   53	War Policy
Box   54	White House Conference
	White Plains, New York
Box   54	1939
Box   54	Memos
Box   54	Wisconsin Education Surveys
Box   54	Wisconsin Efficiency Bureau
Box   54	Woman's Part in Government
Box   55	Woodward, George
Box   55	Work Papers
Box   55	World War II, Master Data
	Yonkers, New York
Box   55	Assessments
Box   55	Association Study
Box   56	Pamphlets written by William H. Allen
Box   56	Pamphlets published by the Institute for Public Service
Box   56	Wisconsin School Survey pamphlets
Box   57-58	Miscellaneous pamphlets relating to the Institute for Public Service and William H. Allen, 1915-1962
Box   59	Miscellaneous postcard replies to questionnaires sent out by the Institute for Public Service
Box   59	Miscellaneous postcard fliers of the Institute for Public Service
Box   59	Miscellaneous University of Wisconsin Alumni: quotations on improvements concerning the University programs and student life
Box   59	Miscellaneous note cards on Pearl Harbor, 1941, January 1, 1942
Box   59	Miscellaneous Public Service memos and announcements, 1941-1955

Mr. Walter Drost, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, used this collection before it was processed for general use. These are the comments of Mr. Drost after he viewed the manuscripts:

In the person of William H. Allen the historian of social institutions will find a point of contact between the reform movement for “efficiency” in government and the movement for “efficiency” in education, particulars as the latter applied to the organization, management and finance, and to the curriculum.

Allen dealt in facts; indeed, his creed to justify payment for services rendered was upon “what facts are worth.” Facts were the end-product of his municipal reform efforts and facts identified for him the means of the educational process and in consequence became the object of his textbook evaluation. Facts were, for Allen, the means to efficiency.

William Harvey Allen was born in LeRoy, Minnesota on February 9, 1874. His father, John D. Allen, was the town's pioneer hardware dealer and a member of the Minnesota Legislature from Mower County in the years 1878 to 1882. William Allen attended the public schools of LeRoy and, from 1887 to 1891, Northfield Academy at Northfield, Minnesota. In 1891 he enrolled in Carleton College but left the following year to teach the “higher room” of a Minnesota small town school. After two years of teaching experience he entered the University of Chicago (in 1894), and was graduated with the A.B. degree in 1897. Allen remained at Chicago for two years of graduate study in economics under Thorstein Veblen and James L. Laughlin. During this period he spent some time in study at the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig. He left Chicago to accept a fellowship in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1899 and received the degree Doctor of Philosophy there in 1900. His dissertation, “Rural Sanitary Administration in Pennsylvania,” was done in the Department of Political Economy under Simon N. Patten.

Allen accepted appointment as Instructor in Public Law at the University of Pennsylvania for the following academic year. In January, 1901, he was also appointed co-editor, with Prof. L.S. Rowe, of the “Municipal Department” in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Allen continued as co-editor for the next two years.

In September, 1901, William Allen moved to Jersey City as Secretary of the New Jersey State Charities Aid Association. There he founded in February, 1902, the New Jersey Review of Charities and Corrections, as the official publication of the Association. Early in 1903 he accepted appointment as General Agent of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, a social welfare agency dating back to 1843. The A.I.C.P. organized the Committee on the Physical Welfare of School Children in 1906 and Allen was named secretary of the Committee under the general chairmanship of circa C. Burlingham.

The New York Bureau of Municipal Research came into existence in 1907 as an outgrowth of a New York reform party under G. Fulton Cutting, The Citizen's Union, and Allen. Frederick Cleveland and Henry Bruere were named managing directors; Allen in the capacity of Secretary, responsible for publicity. He chose as his media a four to six page post-card size weekly bulletin under the banner Efficient Democracy. In content it was an accumulation of short “squibs” in varied type-face. During the years of his association with the Bureau of Municipal Research, 1907-1914, the budgetary problems and accounting procedures of municipal government were matters of first concern to Allen. In 1911 he organized the Training School for Public Service within the Bureau to provide field training in government research to candidates through participation on Bureau projects. Of the students enrolled in the “School” over the three year period, 1911 to 1914, many became leaders in municipal reform movements of the subsequent two decades.

Wisconsin's newly created Board of Public Affairs engaged the Training School for Public Service to conduct a survey of rural schools in 1911, the normal schools in 1912, and the State University in 1914; all under Allen's supervision. While the normal school survey was in progress the Trustees of the Bureau engaged Abraham Flexner to conduct a survey of the Training School itself, and a year later, while Allen was in Wisconsin conducting his survey of the University, the Bureau was reorganized excluding both Allen and the “Training School.”

Allen returned to New York from Wisconsin in the fall of 1915 to organize the Institute for Public Service. The Institute came under the exclusive endowment of Julius Barnes, wheat magnate of Duluth and New York, whose funds were augmented only by such services as the organization was able to sell. During the period from 1915 to 1924 the Institute concentrated on the problems of the schools. The publications of the Institute followed the familiar four to six page, post-card size format under the titles, Public Service, High Spots of Education, and Educational Review of Reviews. The Public Service Bulletins continued to appear through the years as a weekly or biweekly publication until Allen's death in 1963.

Barnes withdrew his support of the Institute in 1923, and its activities continued on a self-sustaining basis. During the next several years Allen turned his attention to inequities of assessment, particularly as Rockefeller properties in New York City appeared to be under-assessed.

The economic depression in the years of the Thirties sharply curtailed the activities of the Institute. For three of these years, 1934 to 1937, Allen was employed as Secretary of the Municipal Civil Service Commission of New York City and was able to devote his time to the Institute only in “after-hours.” During this period he managed to keep up the regular publication of Public Service, but little else. In the 1940's Allen became interested in “high spotting” the teaching of history and civics in America. The Volker Fund of Kansas City subsidized the Institute for Public Service from the late Forties through the Fifties in support of a continuing project of auditing school textbooks for the facts presented therein. This was Allen's last major project.

The papers of this collection are technically those of the Institute for Public Service, but in actual fact they are those of the Institute's only director, William H. Allen. They were “thinned” once, in the late 1920's, when the offices of the Institute were moved from midtown to downtown Manhattan. Several of the items carry Allen's notation or underline in ballpoint suggesting some editing or sorting in the post World War II period. A considerable amount of material relates to New York City municipal politics, to Allen's relations with the Volker Fund and to various school projects, notably World War I indoctrination material and to a current events paper for classroom use in the early Twenties. His correspondence with former students of the Training School for Public Service, over a period of a quarter of a century, offers interesting insight into the municipal reform movement. Correspondence with William McAndrew, Superintendent of Schools for Chicago; A. E. Winship, editor of the Journal of Education; Lewis R. Alderman of the Portland, Oregon schools; and Julius Barnes helps supply perspective to the educational controversies of the day. To this may be added other files relating to Allen's long standing feuds with George Strayer, William Maxwell, and Charles Judd. Some of the most interesting material is found in manuscripts of chapters for a projected autobiography prepared initially in the early Forties.

Much of the material for the period before 1915 remained in the files of the Bureau of Municipal Research when Allen parted company with that organization. In 1950 he tried to recover these files of letters but was informed that the Bureau had destroyed them. The material in the collection from this early period is therefore more selective and more closely tied to Allen's personal career. Included is a large file of clippings from his public utterances on behalf of the New Jersey State Charities Aid Association, The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, the New York Committee on the Physical Welfare of School Children, and the Bureau of Municipal Research. There is considerable material relating to New York philanthropic efforts, notably those of George H. Schrader and Mrs. E. H. Harriman and to Allen's contacts with the Charity Organization Society. There are also extensive clipping files reflecting a wide range of public reaction to Allen's books in behalf of the efficiency movement. And, as one might expect, the files relating to the University of Wisconsin Survey and the reorganization of the Bureau of Municipal Research are large and detailed.