Second. We can see no practical necessity for such a consolidation. Third. It is a step in the direction of centralization of power which, we believe, would be detrimental to the association.

Fourth. Article 1, section 8, of the by-laws provides that the secretary and treasurer are members of the executive committee, as follows:

"The board of trustees shall appoint an executive committee consisting of the president of the association as chairman of said committee, the secretary and treasurer of the association and four other members of the board of trustees, etc."

Proposed amendment to article II, section 2 (a), of the constitution: For the words " at least three years previous to read at least three years next previous."

This amendment is opposed by us for the following reasons:

By it it is proposed to make necessary on the part of the applicant the qualification of having to establish the fact that he has been a practicing accountant for at least the three years immediately preceding his application for membership. We believe the law as at present constituted, giving the board of trustees and the state societies the right to accept or reject applicants, is sufficient safeguard for the association as against objectionable or not properly qualified applicants.

That the above suggested amendment is intended to provide against a condition that can only arise at rare intervals, and that under the present law the trustees and state societies have all necessary power for the protection of the association.

Amendments to By-Laws.

In relation to the proposed amendment to article I, adding a section 14, committee on JOURNAL, we recommend the alteration of the proposed amendment as follows:

"The duties of the committee on JOURNAL shall be to direct the policy of THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY on behalf of the American Association, and in conjunction with the directors of the Accountancy Publishing Company."

Your committee further recommends the following addition to article I, of by-laws:

Insert section 9 A as follows:

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At each meeting of the association the board of trustees shall present a budget showing the amount of money required for the purposes of the association for a stated period.

No debts shall be contracted or money spent other than as specified in said budget or in excess of the sum provided for the stated purposes until such proposed expenditure or indebtedness has received the approval of at least three-fourths of all the members of the board of trustees." All of which is respectfully submitted,

(Signed) DUNCAN MACINNES, Chairman,
A. LOWES DICKINSON,
THOMAS P. RYAN.

Report of Committee on Meetings, Lectures, etc.

The report of the committee on meetings, lectures, libraries and bulletins on measures taken for the interchange of lectures between the different societies was read, as follows, and adopted with the thanks of the meeting:

A. LOWES DICKINSON, ESQ., Secretary,

American Association of Public Accountants.

Dear Sir: I beg leave to make the following report on the progress of the committee on meetings, lectures, libraries and bulletins, since the last meeting of the association, on the 20th of February, 1906, when you will remember it was then reported that your committee had already gotten

into communication with the secretaries of nearly all of the fifteen societies; but, while their interest was aroused in a general way, yet no positive advance had been made toward putting into practical effect the objects of your committee.

On the 12th of April, the following letter was received from Mr. William Dillon, fellow of the Incorporated Public Accountants of Massachusetts:

"Owing to the new idea contained in your letter dated November 15 last with reference to the committee on meetings, lectures, libraries and bulletins, and the timidity or modesty on the part of Massachusetts accountants, the committee appointed by our society, of which I informed you, is unable to give you the amount of talent or assistance which we had hoped for.

However, as a starter, Mr. Harvey S. Chase volunteers as follows: He is willing to furnish papers, as follows, and would be willing to read them or deliver lectures on other matters to other state societies, provided he could so arrange his time.

An address delivered before the Massachusetts Reform Club, entitled 'Municipal Revenues and Expenditures in Relation to the Control of Quasi Public Enterprises.'

"Another is a paper read before the second conference of municipal accountants, called by the United States Census at Washington, upon 'Uniform Schedules for Standard and Comparative Reports for Municipal Industries and Public Service Corporations.'

Another is a paper which he will deliver before the University of the State of New York on Factory Cost Systems,' and a fourth paper which has been, or is to be, delivered at the same place upon Uniform Municipal Reports.'

"If you desire, you can communicate direct with Mr. Chase, whom you probably know.

"We intend to agitate this subject still further, and hope to do better next fall and winter.

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During the summer months we have no meetings here, so that nothing will be done during that time.

"We should be very glad to have you advise us how the matter is progressing and whether you are meeting with that success which you anticipated, or whether the matter has been dropped.

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Yours very truly,

To which reply was made as follows:

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'(Signed) WM. DILLON."

"I am very much obliged to you for yours of the 11th, in which you give us the name of Mr. Harvey S. Chase as being one of the first volunteers from your society to step out and offer to do some good work before the other societies.

"I will take this matter up with Mr. Chase with a view of possibly being able to arrange it so that he may be able to address one or two other societies. I find that the Missouri Society of Public Accountants is very anxious to have a speaker. Although this society has but few members, they want to have quite a large meeting by inviting guests, so as to arouse public interest in the accountancy profession.

"I am sorry to say that while a good deal of correspondence has taken place between the various societies, thereby engendering in all probability a closer feeling of relationship, yet, as far as practical work is concerned, no success has been achieved, and therefore it is all the more encouraging that Massachusetts is the first to step into the breach.

"Yours very truly,

(Signed) FRANCIS HOW."

I then lost no time in addressing Mr. Harvey S. Chase, as follows: "I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. Dillon, in which he gives me

the welcome news that you have been good enough to volunteer to read one or two papers before some of our affiliated societies, if it can be so arranged that this could be done when your professional duties called you to any city which is the headquarters of one of the societies.

"If, in the near future, you chance to be in St. Louis, I would say that the Missouri Society of Public Accountants, although only a small body in themselves, are very anxious to have a speaker, as they are desirous of inviting the business men of the city to be their guests on that occasion so as to arouse the public's attention to the accountancy profession.

“Then, I am quite sure that Philadelphia and Chicago would be glad to hear from you, and if you could let me know when possibly you might be in those cities, I could make the necessary arrangements with these societies.

"Of course, you thoroughly understand it is a pretty difficult matter to deal with these societies when they are so far apart, and it is particularly hard to fit in the speaker s movements with the members' meetings, and vice versa. However, it is certainly very encouraging to hear that you will help us out in this matter, as far as conditions will permit. When next you are in New York, I hope that you will give me the pleasure of a call from you, as it is so much easier to talk these matters over. With kind regards.

"Very truly yours,

(Signed) FRANCIS HOW."

We have not yet heard whether Mr. Chase's manifold duties have permitted him to perform this labor of love.

Mr. Robert H. Montgomery was kind enough to take advantage of his presence in Baltimore to address the Maryland Association of Čertified Public Accountants.

While it is with regret that your committee is unable to report a larger scope of success, it is opportune to state that THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY has to a great extent taken the field of interchanging papers between the various societies, and has succeeded in doing this work much more effectually than could be performed by your committee.

We would suggest the advisability of adding to the number of our committee, being of the opinion that by so doing a greater number of the members of the societies can be reached, and a more general interest aroused.

Respectfully submitted,

"(Signed) FRANCIS HOW."

Report of Committee on Legislation,

The report of the committee on legislation, dealing with certified public accountants' legislation and other matters, was read, as follows, and ordered to be laid on the table:

Since the semi-annual meeting in February last, at which they submitted their report, this committee has found its work largely in correspondence with state societies, individual members and practitioners, who are not yet affiliated with the association.

The subjects treated in communications related to projected C. P. A. legislation in the States of Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Louisiana; proposed amendments to existing laws in the States of California and Maryland; and incidental correspondence and personal interviews with representatives from Minnesota and Kentucky relative to their local organizations.

The Wisconsin Society is now engaged in the preparation of a bill to be presented to their next legislature, and is in correspondence with your committee in reference thereto; the society has elected to defer application for membership in this association in the meantime.

The Rhode Island accountants secured the passage of their bill April 20, 1906, as a state board measure.

The Louisiana Society submitted a draft of a bill last spring which was not agreeable to the standards of those that are in force in other states, and it was so reported by this committee under date of May 5, 1906. Since that date your committee is advised through the press reports that the accountants of that state contemplate applying to their authorities for a charter, designating themselves as chartered accountants. This project should receive the attention of the executive committee, in order that the recognized designation of the profession may be preservd.

Your committee was in correspondence with the California Society last spring upon the question of amendments to their present law, when our brethren were overcome by the calamitous earthquake at San Francisco and all the records of the State Board of Accountancy were destroyed. Conditions in California more initimately related to the profession have since occurred which precluded further communication by us, and of which the board of trustees is advised.

We have pleasure in submitting herewith in compliance with instructions:

1. Draft of a model C. P. A. law--under the State University plan of operation.

2. Draft of a model C. P. A. law-under the state board plan of operation.

3. Draft of a form for constitution and by-laws of a state society of certified public accountants.

4. Draft of a form for constitution and by-laws of a state society of public accountants.

In reference to the last two features, they can only be considered as guides in form, as local conditions in the respective states and the circumstances of each proposed society must govern.

The draft of the university bill, so called, embraces elements that have been suggested to your committee from time to time by a number of our members. The question of a probationary period for students is met in section III. Oral examinations we believe to be within the powers and discretion of the university authorities. Time and place of examinations, within stated restrictions, are also discretionary.

With the board of regents of a university as the authority over the board of examiners, we consider that such board should consist of three only, all of whom should be skilled in the practice of public accounting and have been practicing upon their own account for a period of at least three years next preceding the appointment.

In the draft of the state board measure the main features are the same as in that of the university, with a special feature added relative to revoking a certificate or cancelling a registration for unprofessional conduct. There being no direct authority between the state board of examiners and the governor of the state, we considered it the part of wisdom to provide that at the hearing the state's attorney or his representative should sit with the examiners as a trial board.

We would ask the societies that are intending to apply to their legislatures during 1907 to give the drafts now submitted their consideration. Out of our experience during the past year, wherein the work falling to this committee has been by no means light, and sometimes involved complex questions of law and local statutory problems, we would respectfully suggest to the board of trustees that they authorize the employment of counsel who could be in touch with your committee to render assistance as occasion may require.

(Signed)

JNO. ALEX. COOPER, Chairman,
L. H. CONANT,

H. T. WESTERMANN.

Report of Insurance Committee.

The following report of the insurance committee upon the measures taken towards the adoption of improved forms of accounts by life insurance companies and towards their audit by public accountants was adopted and ordered to be placed on file:

"TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

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Gentlemen: Immediately upon their appointment, your committee, consisting of Messrs. A. L. Dickinson, chairman; R. H. Montgomery, L. H. Conant, Francis How and Leon O. Fisher, met with a similar committee appointed by the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, and, after some discussion, a sub-committee, consisting of A. L. Dickinson, C. S. Ludlam and H. R. M. Cook, was appointed to prepare briefs and forms of account for submission to the Armstrong committee of the New York State Legislature, in Albany, on the occasion of the public hearing on the insurance bills then before that committee. The subcommittee engaged William Harmon Black as counsel, and with his assistance the briefs, which have already appeared in full in the April number of THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY, were prepared.

"Messrs. A. L. Dickinson, C. S. Ludlam and R. H. Montgomery, accompanied by the Hon. William Harmon Black and by Mr. Harvey S. Chase, who happened to be in Albany at that time, appeared before the legislative committee on March 15 and addressed the committee in support of the arguments submitted in these briefs. Printed copies of the proposed amended forms of account and of a memorandum explanatory thereof were also distributed to the members of the legislature and to the chief officials of the leading life insurance companies, and, with the assistance of a press agent engaged for the purpose, a considerable amount of notice was drawn in the press to the action which your committee had taken. Although a good deal of time was expended upon this matter, it was hardly expected that any very tangible results would be secured; your committee were not successful in any way in influencing the report of the Armstrong committee, but the ventilation of this important subject undoubtedly did good, not only to the profession, but to the public in pointing out the serious defects in the present forms of statement required from insurance companies.

The joint action with the committee of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants terminated at the conclusion of the hearing before the Armstrong committee, but your committee was continued by order of the executive committee, and further thought was given to the forms of accounts which had in the first instance been prepared somewhat hurriedly. The attention of your committee was next directed to bringing before the State Commissioners of Insurance the improved forms of account which they had prepared and to urging the advisability and even necessity of an audit of the accounts of life insurance companies by public accountants. In the absence of the chairman of your committee, owing to illness, his assistant, at the suggestion of Mr. Harvey S. Chase, of Boston, arranged for the following members of the association, namely, Messrs. C. S. Ludlam and E. W. Sells, accompanied by counsel, W. H. Black, to visit Boston and appear with Mr. Harvey S. Chase before the special committee on the re-codification of the insurance laws of the State of Massachusetts. The arguments put forward on this occasion, together with the various briefs prepared by your committee, resulted in the incorporation in the report of the Massachusetts commission of recommendations in favor of a certified public accountant act for Massachusetts and for the auditing of the accounts of all insurance companies by public accountants. A reprint of the sections of the report of the Massachusetts Commission dealing with this subject will be found in the August number of THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY.