re;port of the president, 191 1. II 



Looking backward from the end of the decade in question, the most strik- 

 ing fact in evidence appears to be the rapidity of early growth, although, 

 paradoxical as it may seem, that growth has been disappointingly slow in meet- 

 ing popular expectations and demands. The first formal meeting of the in- 

 corporators of the proposed institution was held January 4, 1902, and articles 

 of incorporation in conformity with the laws of the District of Columbia 

 were filed for record in the office of the Recorder of Deeds on the same day. 

 The name designated for the establishment in the first of these articles of 

 incorporation was Carnegie Institution. At this first meeting, also, twenty- 

 seven Trustees were elected to administer the afifairs of the Institution. Of 

 this body five, namely, the President of the United States, the President of 

 the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and the President of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, were designated as ex-officio members. The first meeting of these 

 Trustees was held January 29, 1902, when the Founder's deed of trust con- 

 veying the original endowment was received, when a code of by-laws was 

 adopted, a formal organization under the title Board of Trustees effected, 

 and the first President of the Institution elected. During the following year 

 some questions arose as to the adequacy of the original act of incorporation 

 under the laws of the District of Columbia, and at the stated meeting of the 

 Board of Trustees held December 8, 1903, it w^as decided to apply to the 

 Congress of the United States for a more comprehensive charter. Accord- 

 ingly, new articles of incorporation were granted by the Fifty-eighth Con- 

 gress in "An x\ct to Incorporate the Carnegie Institution of Washington," 

 approved April 28, 1904. By the terms of these new articles the scope and 

 limitations of the Institution are clearly defined, no members of the Board 

 of Trustees are such ex officio, and the corporate title is changed from Car- 

 negie Institution to Carnegie Institution of Washington. At a special meet- 

 ing of the Board of Trustees held May 18, 1904, the formal steps essential 

 to transition from the original to the present corporate organization were 

 taken and ratified. At the stated meeting of the Board of Trustees held De- 

 cember 13, 1904, new by-laws, since unchanged except for minor amend- 

 ments, were adopted. The first article of these by-laws specifies that "the 

 Board of Trustees shall consist of twenty-four members, with power to in- 

 crease its membership to not more than twenty-seven members, and that 

 Trustees shall hold office continuously and not for a stated term." 



In the meantime, Avhile the foundations of organization were being laid, 

 the Trustees, the Executive Committee, and numerous advisory committees 

 were actively engaged in devising ways and means to carry out the compre- 

 hensive provisions of the trust. The amount of work of this kind accom- 

 plished during the first three years of the existence of the Institution appears 

 truly surprising in view of the novelty of the enterprise and in view of the 

 great diversity of expert opinion with respect to many fundamental, and to 

 most subsidiary, questions which had to be considered. Special credit should 

 be given in this connection to the unselfish labors of the advisory committees ; 



