REPORT OF THH PRESIDENT, I9IO. I9 



The experience of the past year has demonstrated the utiHty, from all points 



of view, of the dignified and permanent home for the In- 



of MainUnance stitution afforded by the Administration Building. It has 



of Administration provd especially satisfactory to the resident administrativ 

 ^°^* staff by reason of its fitness to mitigate the severity of a 



tropical summer. It has provd to be admirably adapted also to the storage 

 and to the handling in receipt and shipment of the Institution's publications. 

 These are now, for the first time, reasonably safe from damage either by fire 

 or by the excessiv humidity of the summer season in Washington. As ex- 

 plaind in a later section of this report, these publications now include about 

 70,000 individual volumes and represent a cost value of about $165,000; 

 and while there is reason to think that the present accumulation of books is 

 greater than it will be in the future, the need of the provision made for safe 

 storage is evident. 



As to the cost of maintenance of this building, it may suffice to state the 

 fact that the aggregate expense of the past year has fallen within the esti- 

 mates for this purpose approvd in the budget of a year ago. It may be 

 stated also that there is no reason to fear any material increase in this cost 

 in the near future, altho the general rise in prices and the natural increase 

 in the business of the Institution as a shipping and intelligence agency will 

 probably cause some increase in this expense. 



In respect to this subject, it seems desirable to point out that we have no 

 adequate theory to guide us in determining in any new instance what should 

 be the best ratio of cost of administration to total income. In actual experi- 

 ence it appears to be the universal practis to charge to administration the 

 cost of any necessary work which does not fall obviously into some other 

 category. This was done, for example, in the case of the publication work 

 of the Institution until the establishment of a division for that work a year 

 ago. Similarly, the costs of storage and shipping of publications and the 

 costs entaild by an extensiv but fruitless portion of offis correspondence may 

 be cited as inappropriate charges in the administrativ budget. But while it 

 will be practicable and proper to make the sales of publications pay the ex- 

 penses connected with them, it is not yet feasible to make the wasteful corre- 

 spondence referd to pay any part of the expense it requires. These concrete 

 cases are cited, however, only to indicate the complexity of the subject and 

 the difficulty in the way of reducing the ratio in question to a rational mini- 

 mum. In the meantime it may be observd that while the volume of pro- 

 ductiv work of the Institution has greatly increast and the volume of the 

 unproductiv work scarcely diminisht in recent years, the cost of administra- 

 tion, however it may be reckond, has remaind nearly stationary. 



