22 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



FINANCIAL RECORDS. 



It is an anomalous and somewhat disturbing circumstance 

 that while public attention has been generally fo cussed on certain 



aspects of the finances of the Institution and of 

 AccountabUity. similar recently endowed establishments, little or 



no serious pubUc attention has been given to the 

 conditions essential to the financial stabihty and permanence of 

 such organizations. Thus it does not appear possible to cite any 

 generally recognized authorities who have considered these con- 

 ditions and evolved adequate maxims or theories for guidance in 

 conformity with them. The prevalent impressions with respect 

 to these matters seem to be impulsive and poetic rather than 

 reflective and constrained. Statistical data and the ulterior 

 consequences they foreshadow and entail are held to be only dis- 

 agreeable concomitants of trade, commerce, and accountancy. 

 Like Carlyle, the majority of our contemporaries are interested 

 in the rhetoric rather than in the arithmetic of fiscal affairs. But 

 along with this overconfident optimism of the majority generated 

 by concentration of attention on the broadly altruistic aspects in 

 question, there arise also, quite too commonly, certain misappre- 

 hensions fraught with the gravest of dangers, not only to existing 

 organizations, but to those also which are Hkely to be estabUshed 

 in the future with the return of nations to peaceful pursuits. 

 Lack of refiection and reluctance to undertake the labor imposed 

 by unattractive realities lead easily to the erroneous conclusions 

 that endowed establishments may proceed in their evolution with 

 the same liberty of action accorded to their founders as individ- 

 uals, by methods of unrestricted choice, caprice, or paternahsm, 

 and without special legal warrant or financial accountabiUty. 

 At present the majorities almost everywhere are imbued with 

 favorable impulses toward altruistic foundations, but it is con- 

 ceivable that this attitude may be reversed at any time in any 

 community or state wherein such misapprehensions spring up. 

 In fact, it is not altogether improbable, in the light of passing 

 events, that some such foundations may be taxed out of existence 

 on the plea that they are subject to inadequate legal, financial, 

 and social constraint. 



