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Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler was an institution, both in his own country and in all Anglo-American circles here. He was the public man par excellence. President of Columbia University for forty-four years, he was a great educational organiser rather than a great scholar, as is often the way with American College Presidents. He was not to be termed a vain man, but he appreciated to the full the appreciation he commanded. No one was more devoted to the cause of Anglo-American friendship, and few men in either country did more for it. Well-informed as he was, he was not omniscient. I remember that at lunch at a country club in New York State somewhere in the middle twenties he asked me with incredulity whether it was true that the unemployment " dole " in Britain was part of a genuine insurance system. I assured him that it was and that its basis was perfectly sound actuarial calculation. I was sur- prised at the time that he had not realised this ; but no doubt hardly one American in a million had.
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