Viewing page 9 of 234

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

2

ing, if not at haphazard, at least without collaboration. Now for the the first time, the proposed American School at Peking is to attempt to gather these diverse activities under one head and bring out their proper relations.
No imaginable staff of investigators could, from the first, be numerous enough or sufficiently learned to attack every problem which suggests itself. My task was, therefore, that of eliminating the questions which may well wait, and of recommending to you certain activities on which a moderate number of archaeologists might engage with the best economy and hope of success. At the same time I was to devise a plan for the gradual enlargement of our activities and the production of a highly trained corps of workers. We must provide for permanency in the midst of the flux of modern China. We must prove to the scientists of other countries that our institution has a well defined purpose with which they would do well to cooperate.
The first step toward these ends was obviously to make a general survey of the work of the men already engaged on the task and of the materials which they have at hand. Then to discover their several plans for the future, and finally, after a preliminary examination of the actual field in China, to present to your committee certain recommendations in the light of these facts. This was made possible for me by the instructions which I received from you to visit the museums in certain of the capitals of Europe, and thence to proceed into the field. The American schools at Rome and Athens were