44 INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 
The Executive Committee and the Council realize that there are many members of the 
Society at the present time who are unable, except with great inconvenience, to pay their dues. 
At the same time the affairs of the Society have to be conducted in a business-like manner, 
and there must be a happy medium, which we will follow in our action regarding delinquent 
members. 
The general action which has been taken is this: The membership has been very carefully 
gone over in that respect in a series of letters. I may say that every member who has not 
paid his dues has been communicated with several times, and an effort has been made by the 
Secretary or his assistant to find out why these members have not paid their dues. Mem- 
bers who have shown no interest in the Society, and made no reply whatever to these let- 
ters, and who are largely in arrears, have been dropped from the roll of membership of the 
Society. There is, however, a very considerable membership still in arrears, the amount 
not being very much in excess of that of last year or the previous year, but still representing, 
as stated in the report, $6,647.50. Since the report was submitted, we have received $797.50, 
so we have now outstanding in dues, owing to us from those who are still retained as mem- 
bers, $5,850. In studying over that list, which comprises that deficit of nearly $6,000, there 
appears a number of members whose ability to pay is unquestioned, but whose failure to pay 
is probably due to inadvertence on their part. The Secretary would consider it a great per- 
sonal favor if the members present would impress on their friends who may be among the 
delinquents the importance of payment of the dues. 
President McFarland then presented his address. 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen, this is the thirtieth general meeting of the Society, the first one having been 
held in 1893. During the twenty-nine years which have passed, the Society has grown from 
small numbers to a very respectable size. Our maximum membership has been more than 
1,800, at the end of last year. Since then the naval holiday and the great falling off in over- 
seas commerce has had the natural reaction on the shipbuilding industry, with the result 
that for the past year things have been very dull. This has been a serious matter for every- 
body connected with the industry, has caused great reduction in the working force at all 
the shipyards, and, consequently, has made it necessary for many of our younger members to 
look for work in other lines. This has led to loss of members and delinquency in the pay- 
ment of dues. Perhaps all of this was to have been expected after such an upheaval as the 
Great War, but it is only the few who, in times of prosperity, look far enough ahead to pro- 
vide for the hard times that are coming. 
The question of supreme interest for all of us just now is the Shipping Bill which has 
been reported to the House by Representative Greene, chairman of the Committee on Mer- 
chant Marine, and bears his name. The vital element in this bill is the recognition of the 
duty of the Government to encourage the merchant marine, just as it endeavors to encourage 
other industries in the country by means of a protective tariff. This particular method is not 
applicable to shipping, which has to go out on the high seas and meet the competition of the 
entire world. It is one of the curious phases of human nature that so much importance is 
attached to names. The proposed assistance to shipping is a subsidy, or subvention or bonus, 
and these names, to many of our people, seem very objectionable. The protective tariff 
