FIRST DIRECTORY OF MEMBERS 67 



other than interest and the payment of a fee. One prominent 

 national organization concerned with health has recently reported 

 an expenditure of $400 per month spent in sending bills to per- 

 sons who have accepted membership but continue to forget to 

 pay the first fee. There was a similar experience with several 

 hundred advance subscriptions to the Review in 1904. 



Fortunately for the financial outcome, the new United States 

 postal rules of 1908, practically requiring paid-in-advance sub- 

 scriptions, have caused the secretary to follow strictly the 

 constitutional rule of the A. X.-S. S. and not send the Review to 

 members more than two months in arrears for annual dues. 

 Hence the large number of applications yet unpaid have resulted 

 in little financial loss to the Society. 



The failure to reach the 1000 mark in paid membership intro- 

 duces some serious complications financially, because as was 

 shown in the first suggestions for organizing the A. N.-S. S. (this 

 magazine for March 1907) a membership of one thousand paying 

 Siooo per year would be needed for all purposes anticipated. 

 Experience proves, as will be shown in the secretary's financial 

 report to be published as soon as audited, that this estimate was 

 safe, and that with 1000 paid memberships in 1908 there would 

 now be a balance in the treasury in place of a deficit of over 

 $240.00, for which, as agreed, the secretary-editor has become 

 personally responsible. But this personal responsibility for the 

 Review can not be continued beyond the present year. It will 

 be exceedingly difficult at the election of officers next December 

 to find a member of the Society willing to accept for two years the 

 work of secretary and editor and stand financially responsible 

 for an annual deficit of several hundred dollars. It is evident 

 that during this year there must be found an answer to one of 

 these questions: (1) Can membership in the Society, or 

 special subscriptions, or subscriptions to the Review , be increased 

 so as to insure for 1909 and thereafter the necessary annual income ? 

 Practically this is a question as to how the work of the Society can 

 be made more interesting and the Review more attractive to those 

 who are supposed to be interested in scientific studies in schools. 

 Or (2) does the long-continued very limited interest and con- 

 sequent lack of financial support indicate that a special journal 

 for nature-study and elementary-school science is not 'needed in 

 America? Failure to find a satisfactory answer to the first ques- 



