Before the expiration of the 53d Congress we hope to be able to congratulate you upon the passage of the McKaig Bill.

At the first meeting of the Board, a committee consisting of Messrs. Kendall, R. W. Gibson, E. A. Kent, J. W. McLaughlin, and W. L. B. Jenney, was appointed to consider the relations of the chapters to the Institute, which committee will make its own report, and together with a committee appointed at the last annual convention,-Messrs. Ferry, Illsley and Gibson,-have sent to the Secretary a long list of proposed amendments to the By-laws as has also the Ohio Chapter, all of which, in accordance with existing By-laws, have been sent to each Fellow of the Institute more than thirty days before the date of this convention, and will be properly before it for action at this time

The death of Mr. W. W. Carlin, of Buffalo, caused a vacancy in, the Board of Directors for one year, and Mr. A. Page Brown, who had since the last convention been elected a Fellow, was appointed by the Board of Directors to fill the vacancy. The Directors have requested the President and Secretary to issue charters to three new chapters, namely:

On July 27th, to the Southern California Chapter of the A. I. A. with twentytwo members:

On August 1st, to the Washington State Chapter of the A. I. A. with twentythree members:

On August 10th, to the Brooklyn Chapter of the A. I. A. with fourteen members.

There have been three letter ballots issued during the year.

Thirty-two Fellows have been elected and five have been rejected.

A letter ballot will be issued upon the adjournment of this convention containing eight names.

There were four hundred and seventy-five Fellows at the date of the last convention, and there are now the same number as at the last report.

In addition to the statistics given above, the Secretary finds that there are twenty-six chapters of the Institute with an aggregate membership, not including honorary and corresponding members, of about six hundred.

Mr. William Pitt Preble Longfellow, elected nearly thirty years ago a Fellow of the Institute, has by giving up the practice of the profession, ceased to be a Fellow, but the work which he has done in writing a dictionary of architecture and in much other architectural literary work has kept closely in touch with the profession. The Board therefore takes especial pleasure in proposing him for election as an Honorary Member of the Institute.

The Board also proposes the election of Baron Henry Von Geymuller, of Berlin, Germany, and auther of the Thesaurus of Architecture; Prof. Charles H. Moore, of Harvard College; John S. Billings, M. D., of the John S. Hopkins University, and Prof. Cady Staly, President of the Case School of Applied Sciences, Cleveland, Ohio, for election as Honorary Members.

Mr. S. M. Randolph, who was admitted to the Western Association of Architects in 1884, and has been a Fellow of the Institute since the Consolidation

in 1889, has resigned because of entering other business which is, however, closely connected with the profession, and therefore, and also because of his honorable practice while in the profession, is recommended for election as a Corresponding Member.

The Board also recommends for election as Corresponding Member, Mr. J. S. Walker, of Apia, Samoa, an architect and engineer who is accredited to us by undoubted authority and who feels more closely connected with this country than with any other, and is desirous of joining with us as closely as our Constitution and By-Laws will permit. It also proposes Prof. Edward S. Morse, of Salem, Mass., the writer of the work on Japanese architecture, Messrs. Montgomery Schuyler, so well known as a writer on architectural subjects, Charles MacDonald, the eminent engineer, both of New York, and William Paul Gerhard, Sanitary engineer, of New York.

There have been ten deaths of Fellows since the last annual convention,— the largest number, we think, in any one year since the organization of the Institute,—and three resignations.

J. B. Johnston, died on the 20th of September, 1893, at Ogdenburg, Vermont, aged 52 years.

Alpheus C. Morse, died on the 25th of November, 1893, at Providence, R. I. aged 75 years.

P. W. Ruehle, died on the 1st day of December, 1893.

Geo. H. Edbrooke, died on the 25th of January, 1894.

Geo. Walter da Cunha, died on the 31st of January, 1894, at Newark, N. J., aged.

August Bauer, died on the 8th of February, 1894,

William Worth Carlin, died on the 23d of March, 1894, at Buffalo, N. Y., aged 43 years.

William Henri Adams, Chicago, died May 3d, 1894.

Arthur Rotch, died on the 15th day of August, 1894, at Beverly, Mass., aged 44 years.

The Secretary has just learned of the death of James Douglass, of Milwaukee, but cannot give the date; and of Mr. S. A. Cook, of Tacoma, Washington, who died in that city on the 27th of April, 1893, leaving at that time but one Fellow of the Institute Mr. G. W. Bullard-in the State of Washington.

Mr. Carlin was a member of the Board of Directors, and the vacancy caused by his decease was filled by the election of Mr. A. Page Brown, of San Francisco, who had received enough ballots at Chicago to elect him a director, but he was found at that time to be ineligible.

Mr. Arthur Rotch has done so much for the profession by his own work in this his native Country, aud during a long residence in France; by the establishment in connection with other members of his family, of a Travelling Scholarship, and by numerous gifts during his life, and munificent benefactions by legacy upon his decease, that his name will be perpetuated in after years by the great and personal benefits to generations yet unborn.

In our list of Honorary Members, we have for many years been permitted to print the name of César Daly, who died in Paris, January 12, 1894, distinguished as the author of L'Architecture Privèe and other serials; a voluminous writer, a beautiful draughtsman and accomplished designer, his reputation was enduring and his fame world-wide. By order of the Board of Directors Messrs. R. M. Hunt and the Secretary were directed to prepare a proper minute for the records of the Institute and to send a copy of the same to the family of the deceased, which was duly attended to.

John Baird, also an Honorary Member, died in Philadelphia, February 13, 1894, aged 72 years.

The report of the Proceedings of the twenty-seventh annual convention and the publication of the papers read before the World's Congress of Architects, was so voluminous, and the authors of the papers were so wide-spread, that there was a mortifying and necessary delay in its publication, but it is hoped that the value of the papers which it contains will compensate for the tardiness of their issue, and the Board desires to take this method to thank the authors of the several papers for their kindness in preparing them. A large edition was printed and the Secretary desires to announce that copies can be obtained from him, if desired. It is especially desired that they should be placed in Public Libraries, and Fellows can render a service to the Treasury of the Institute, as well as to their local libraries, by purchasing copies to be forwarded to them.

The Board is impressed with the growing demand upon the profession on the part of committees representing State, County, municipal, or other public and corporate bodies, to exact bonds for the completion of public buildings, within stipulated amounts, a demand which should be resisted as humiliating and unprofessional, and fraught with great danger, shifting as it does the best energies of an architect, from producing artistic work and conscientiously serving his client to the best of his ability, to a constant study as to how he can manage to manipulate the work so as to be sure that its cost does not exceed the agreed sum without betraying in the work the evidence of the shaving to which it has been subjected. It is suggested that steps be taken to secure the co-operation of the American Society of Civil Engineers to resist the insiduous growth of a practice which, if allowed to go on unchecked will become so thoroughly entrenched that it cannot be shaken off.

The decision in the case of Rotch & Tilden vs. Fry shows the great value of carrying cases of assured attempts of infringements of the rights of architects into Court and procuring decisions which will as precedents determine authoritatively the rights of Architect and Client, and great credit is due to them for persistently pursuing the case to a conclusion—and to a conclusion as just as it is important; but it is not often that an architect is able to bear the great expense of carrying a contest to a final decision, especially against a wealthy client who is determined to resort to all of the delays and appeals which a successful counsellor can manage to obtain; it therefore seems fitting that some action should be taken to revive an effort that was made by the Western Association of Architects before the consol

idation to form a protective league for the purpose of advising and if necessary prosecuting cases which may arise.

Renewed efforts have been made to secure, for the daughters of the late President Thomas U. Walter, L. L. D., the just compensation, for professional services performed so fully and faithfully for the United States Government and with such earnestness and enthusiasm that he thought little of himself or of the reward which was his true desert. In consequence, he died poor, and those dependent upon him have been for many years, trying to secure a part of that which he ought to have received. It is hoped that the present Congress will pass the bill before it expires.

Arrangements have been made, and Committee appointed to secure data for a history of the Institute, and Mr. Bloor, for so many years the Secretary of the Institute, has been retained for that purpose.

On motion, the report was referred to a Committee of three, Messrs. Robert Stead, C. F. Schweinfurth and J. W. McLaughlin.

The Secretary then read the report of the Treasurer.

TREASURER'S REPORT.

Treasurer S. A. Treat, in account with the American Institute of Architects, from August 1st, 1893 to October 1st, 1894.

1,874.18

Treasurer's Expenses, Printing, etc.

Special Register of Members, ordered by the Executive.
Committee.

$133.40

50.00

183.40

719.31

Traveling Expenses, Members of Executive Committee
Expenses, Bloor, History of Institute.

925.37

500.00

Rent N. Y. Offices (5 quarters).

375.00

Purchase of Badges.

297.50

National Builders Association, half Royalty on sale of Uniform

The Secretary: The treasurer's report, covering as it does five quarters, instead of the ordinary year, and the large expense of issuing the proceedings containing the papers read before the Congress Auxiliary, the expenses attending the agitation that has been going on in regard to the Federal Building Law and the expenses for procuring data for the history of the Institute, are the special causes of the excessive demand upon the treasury for the year. On motion, the report was received and ordered, when audited, to be placed on file. E. I. Nickerson, J. W. Yost and Geo. C. Mason, were appointed auditing committee and Mr. Glenn Brown, of Washington, D. C., was appointed to act as treasurer pro tem.

The Secretary: According to the custom which I introduced last year, and with the approval of the Board of Directors, instead of reading in full the Chapter reports, I will read an abstract which I have prepared, containing all the salient points and giving you a report from all the chapters except two or three whose reports I have not received. I give them to you in their chronological order-the order in which the Chapters were chartered.

The secretary then read an abstract of the reports of the various Chapters.

Number of members 86; Practicing members 60 (an increase of 26 over last year). Junior members 12; Honorary members in perpetuity 1; Honorary members for life 13.

The Chapter has held five regular and one special meeting at its own rooms, Welles Building, 18 Broadway,-which rooms are also the headquarters of the Institute, the institute paying one-half the yearly rental thereof. Average attendance at meetings 6 1-3.

Among matters considered and discussed were, subscribing for Baron Von Geymuller's "Thesaurus of Architecture” which was decided in the negative; the question of a change of quarters, which was also decided in the negative; the question of the proper commission for duplicated work by an architect upon which opinions were solicitated from a number of architects and the following expression of the opinion of the chapter was adopted:

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Resolved, That in the absence of any agreement regarding the construction of the second building, the Schedule of the A. I. A. entitles the architect to the full commission of five per cent. on both. Agreements in such cases are not, however, contrary to the sense of the Schedule, but are considered as a concession on the part of the architect due to the special conditions;" and the ever recurring question