If you were Luther Gulick looking for a scientific method of choosing good public servants, whom would you turn to?

Albert Einstein, of course.

Gulick did exactly that in 1934, writing the renowned mathematician and physicist for advice on behalf of the Commission of Inquiry on Public Service Personnel at 302 East 35th Street.

But, Einstein confessed, when it came to civics he was no Einstein.

He was then at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, having fled Germany the year before (yes, a migrant!), following Hitler’s election to the German chancellorship and seizure of absolute power. With Jews an immediate target of the Nazis, Einstein was on a death list, his books burned in the street by frenzied mobs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Gulick was a growing world authority in his own right — preeminent government reformer, chief of the influential Institute of Public Administration and advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt going back to his pre-Presidential days in the Albany state house.

Ever since his formative years in the nineteen-teens at the Training School of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, Gulick was preoccupied by problems of management, organization, and public service. How should society go about choosing and grooming its leaders?

In 1934, he put the question to Einstein. Alas, we don’t have a copy of Gulick’s letter — at least it has not yet turned up in the 700 boxes of Gulick papers and Institute of Public Administration records now processed and being partially digitized at the IPA Collection at Baruch’s Newman Library Archives.

But we have the original — a very valuable signed original! — of Einstein’s answer, typewritten from Watch Hill, R.I., on June 22, 1934. From it, we can deduce the question Gulick asked.

Esteemed Sir,

My knowledge of local conditions is by far insufficient to justify my participation in the effort you envision. I must even openly confess that I do not believe in any mechanical methods for selecting suitable men for public office. However it may be set up, success always depends on the ability and honesty of those who have to make the choice.
Respectfully yours,

A Einstein

Too bad. But we are consoled by something that popped up on the Internet. When searching information on Einstein in 1934, we found another signed Einstein letter from the same year that Amazon is offering for sale — for $27,500!

http://www.amazon.com/ALBERT-EINSTEIN-AUTOGRAPH-LETTER-SIGNED/dp/B00JDTYYVU