Fiftieth Annual Meeting 19 



Dr. Raymond C. Osburn : There is nothing, so far as I 

 know, to prevent our adopting a resolution of that sort at this 

 meeting. We have always hesitated to do that because a good 

 many of our members are men of old standing in the Society; 

 they are very busy, and perhaps some of them are a little neg- 

 ligent in regard to dues, or the matter does not touch them 

 very seriously at the time. A great many of our members are 

 not very well paid, as you all know, and sometimes they are 

 pretty hard up. These notices are sent out frequently by the 

 treasurer, so that everybody is not only warned but fore- 

 warned in time, and it seems to me that we must take some 

 radical action against those men who persistently neglect to 

 do their duty by the Society in this small matter. We can 

 pass such a resolution at this meeting if we choose. 



Dr. H. M. Smith : What is the by-law that bears on this 

 particular point? 



Dr. Osburn : It reads as follows : 



In case members do not pay their fees, which shall be $2 per year 

 after first year, and are delinquent for two years, they shall be notified 

 by the treasurer, and if the amount due is not paid within a month there- 

 after, they shall be, without further notice, dropped from the roll of 

 membership. 



It seems to me that we might very readily refuse to send 

 the Transactions to anyone who was even three months be- 

 hind in the payment of his dues, because if he gets the Trans- 

 actions under such circumstances he is getting something that 

 he is not paying for, and something which costs the Society 

 a good deal to produce. So we might insist that we shall 

 not send out our Transactions to any member who is at all 

 behind in the payment of his dues. 



Mr. Adams : It seems to me that we should interpret this 

 by-law as mandatory, not simply as directive. If Treasurer 

 Millett has sent out notices to these delinquents and thirty 

 days have elapsed without payments being made, then as I 

 read the by-law, those members must be dropped. If that 

 is the case, this would seem to be the proper time to clean house 



