222 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
cerely regrets them, but after a lapse of several months we have 
failed to find any serious errors of fact either in omission or com¬ 
mission, nor has any member, or even the hypercritical Journal , 
pointed any out. 
The Journal is specially sensitive upon the question of the 
publications of the proceedings of the A. V. M. A., and has 
never approved the character of the publication except when 
edited by the Journal's editor ,and printed by the Journal's printer. 
Any member will readily understand the Journal's sensitive¬ 
ness by a perusal of the committee’s report for 1897 on page 28 
of the proceedings. 
It took three years of editing and printing proceedings by 
the Journal to bankrupt the association, and the proceedings 
appeared in from 6 to 18 months after the meetings. The pro¬ 
ceedings were better edited and printed perhaps ; surely the 
work took long enough time and cost enough. It cost so much 
that a special assessment of $5.00 per member was levied, and 
failed wholly to meet the deficit, and obliged the association to 
go without printed proceedings for two years. It cost serious 
disaffection in the association, and an appalling decrease in 
membership. Under the retiring committee the expenses of 
publication have been so far reduced that the deficit from prev¬ 
ious recklessness has been paid, and a good surplus accumu¬ 
lated in the treasury, and the annual dues reduced 40 per cent. 
Printing which with the Journal cost $1.60 to $1.68 per page 
is now done at 96c per page. The same binding for which the 
Journal extorted 50c per copy, is now done at 18c. Proceed¬ 
ings that required a year for the Journal to issue now appear 
in 60 days. But fhe Journal is not happy. Apparently it 
imagines it time to again get hold of association finances as 
there is a good surplus in the treasury. 
But before it again acquires control we would suggest that 
it render an accounting for nearly $200 of association funds, 
which were alleged to have been expended for the printing of 
a quantity of proceedings by the Journal printer, and which 
have never been reported as having been seen except by the 
Journal's editor. 
It would be interesting also to know if the Journal's edi¬ 
tors, in case of renewed access to association funds, expect to 
revert to their former method of attending association meetings 
with a few of their boon companions in a special car, and using 
association funds to pay the bills. W. U. Williams, 
Ex-Chairman of Publication Committee , A . V.M.A. 
