WHAT WE HAVE BEEN-WHAT WE MAY BECOME. 
479 
ship is not quite double what it was when the organization was 
effected. This evidence gives ground for the charge that has 
sometimes been advanced, viz: that while the institution was 
respectable, and contained many leaders of the profession in this 
country, it is lethargic and approaching decline. To-day the 
regular practitioners of the country number more than one thou¬ 
sand, and it seems no more than reasonable that the membership 
of the Association should reach far into the hundreds. 
The idea of increasing the membership and extending the 
Association, was the principal argument used by those who advo¬ 
cated this pilgrimage, by which means we have had an opportunity 
to mingle with and become acquainted with our brethren of the 
West. No more fitting time could have been selected, for it is 
auspicious, that now as the Association has attained its majority 
it seeks new fields of labor. 
Aside from the regular routine business, a glance at the 
future should not be forgotten, in order to determine the best 
means to extend our Association. The question, where shall we 
hold our meetings, that all may be done justice to, must be 
considered. Semi-annual meetings, held alternately in the East 
and West, will not be practicable. Should that be attempted, the 
Association will be exposed to one of two evils, and in a manner 
to both, viz: slim attendance at its meetings and a burdensome 
tax on the time and money of the individual membership. The 
question how to obviate this difficulty must be solved if we 
would reap the full harvest of the benefits that await us in the 
immediate future. One plan seems practicable ; others may be 
suggested equally good and worthy of consideration. 
By all means let the organization remain a unit, presided 
over by one officer as now, the President. 
Let the Association be divided into an Eastern and a Western 
division, each provided with a full corp of officers, Vice-President, 
etc. These to constitute the “comitia minora” of each, with the 
additional duty of conferring together, whenever the welfare of 
the organization should require it, and at such meetings the Presi¬ 
dent would be present to act as Chairman. With one constitu¬ 
tion and one code of laws, with a common aim, viz : the advance- 
