22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PRINCETON MEETING 



Our Constitution provides for Fellows, Correspondents, and Patrons. The 

 writer is thankful that we have never been patronized, and personally he 

 would choose to have no Correspondents. Efforts in the early years to select 

 Corresix)ndents failed, for two reasons — because of the difficulty in making a 

 selection not invidious and because so many felt that as our membership had 

 (after 1893) no geographic limitations, foreigners ought to become supporting 

 Fellows of our democratic Society. In recent years 13 men have been elected 

 Correspondents. 



Meeti7igs.-T-The program and manner of the early meetings were quite like 

 those of the present time — rather informal, yet always with sufficient dignity ; 

 never frivolous and invariably courteous. The writer recalls no instance in 

 the long series of meetings of discourteous conduct or undiplomatic language. 

 Yet men who were soft-spoken in the meetings of the Society might be differ- 

 ent in the meetings of Section E. Every one seemed to recognize the "Fellow- 

 ship." At the end of the first decade it was well said that "the Society has 

 united the geologists of the continent, produced harmony of feeling, thought, 

 and labor, created and cemented friendships, and prevented the geology of 

 America from becoming provincial." 



It is likely that a somewhat freer and more frank criticism of papers would 

 now be more profitable. 



As the Society- was an outgrowth of Section E, American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, the Constitution provided that a summer meeting 

 should be held in conjunction with the Association. As years passed the sum- 

 mer meetings became small and rather perfunctory, as the Fellows were 

 mostly afield; but such meetings were held until the Association changed its 

 regular time of meeting from summer to winter. The last summer meeting, 

 the fourteenth, was held at Pittsburgh in 1902. The clause of the Constitution 

 requiring summer meetings was dropped in 1905. 



Sections. — The Fellows residing in the western part of the continent and 

 unable to regularly attend the meetings were, in 1899, authorized to organize 

 as the Cordilleran Section. Quoting from the proceedings of the meeting which 

 voted such authority : "No one spoke in opposition, but some Fellows expressed 

 doubt and anxiety as to the effect of the movement" (volume 11, page 588). 

 There was fear that other geographic sections of the continent might desire 

 similar autonomy and the Society disintegrate. Recently another Section has 

 been organized, not as geographic division, but as scientific specialization — the 

 Paleontologists. 



The proper pronunciation of Cordilleran was questioned and the point re- 

 ferred to the Council, The report was made three years later and it was 

 recommended that the name be given the Spanish sound — Cor-dil-ye-ran. The 

 writer does not recall the reason for such unusual delay by the Council. 



Finances. — The funds of the Society have been derived entirely from the 

 fees and dues of the Fellows, sale§ of the Bulletin, and interest on deposits 

 and investments. The Society has never solicited nor received any gifts and 

 has been entirely independent of outside help of any kind. Up to this time 

 the absence of an "endowment" has been an advantage. It is better to have 

 saved by economic administration the large permanent fund now in the treas- 

 ury than to have received it as a gift. 



Prof. H. S. Williams was the Treasurer for the first three years. From 



