14 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT

our confidence in the degree of protection which even the most
modern fireproof buildings can give to records.

It is argued, for example, that a bomb, a shell, an airplane—
even a friendly one out of control—can without doubt destroy
any of our archival structures along with its contents. If these
contents happen to include all the local records of a State, then
of course they may all perish at one fell swoop. But if we do
not concentrate these records, then we should have to have
twenty-four (in Maryland) separate hits in order to destroy the
last vestiges of our antiquity. There can be no doubt of the
weight of this argument. The reply, however, is not too difficult.

Insofar as the most important records are concerned, i.e.
Property Records, the originals which are being brought to the
Hall of Records are being replaced in the county seats with
photostatic copies. This procedure not only gives superb protec-
tion against war hazards but it also insures against the hazards
of peace which thus far have caused all record losses in Mary-
land. In addition, all the other county records and the State
records as well are being microfilmed and the films deposited
elsewhere. Therefore, the issue may be decided on its peace
time merits exclusively. It is in any case vain to think of pro-
tection against the hazards of future wars—man's inventiveness
is too fertile to be thus foreseen. Almost all of the measures
recommended in 1942 for the protection of cultural resources
against bombings, which were so carefully learned by Amer-
ican archivists and curators, are worthless three years later
against the blockbuster and its bigger brothers, the phosphorous
bomb, the oil incendiary and, of course, the atomic bomb.

In peace time, so the argument runs, there are equally
patent reasons against the centralization of local records. If the
older records are removed and the newer left behind, the series
will be divided except in the case of records of defunct offices
or in the case of records having to do with functions no longer
performed by a given office. The fact that series will be divided
is obvious, and that anyone wishing to use the whole series will
thereby be inconvenienced. However, the creation of any
archival institution implies that it has been recognized that series
must be divided into current and non-current parts or into his-
torical and administrative parts. If series are not divided