tress. To use the terms now current, the present study deals
with the problem of providing universal, comprehensive, and
co-ordinated protection against want.

When the project was initially undertaken it was assumed
that several members of the staff would be available to work
on it. The nation in the war emergency had, however, a prior
claim on the services of the younger men of the staff. It thus
became necessary to place almost the entire burden of the study
on one veteran member of the organization. This action neces-
sitated taking more time for completion, but it has probably
resulted in closer integration of the several parts than would
have been possible in a group project.

When a single member of the staff is responsible for so impor-
tant and comprehensive a study, it is desirable to present the
essential facts regarding the experience that has qualified him
for the assignment.

Lewis Meriam specialized in economics and government at
Harvard. After graduation in 1905 he entered the United
States Bureau of the Census, where he served under the late
Joseph A. Hill in the Division of Revision and Results. In that
position he had the opportunity to familiarize himself as an
editor with the whole broad range of census statistics; but his
special interest was in the social field--population, vital sta-
tistics, marriage and divorce, child labor, women at work, the
employees in the civil service, and the defective, dependent,
and delinquent classes.

When in 1912 Miss Julia Lathrop of Hull House became the
first Chief of the United States Children's Bureau, she requisi-
tioned him from the Census Bureau for the position of Assistant
Chief.

In 1915 Dr. Frederick A. Cleveland, then Director of the
New York Bureau of Municipal Research, chose him for mem-
bership in a small group gathered to study intensively retire-
ment systems for public employees. As the result of that assign-
ment he wrote his well known Principles Governing the Retire-
ment of Public Employees, which was published by the Institute
for Government Research in 1918.

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