To the President, Officers and Members of the U. S. Naval Institute.
Gentlemen :—
Chief Engineer James P. Sprague, who was, for many years, the faithful Treasurer of the Institute, died on the 15th Sept., 1881. Lieut. Charles Belknap, who was then Secretary, settled his accounts, and acted as Treasurer till my election on the 24th Oct., 1881.
The Treasurer’s statement for the whole year of 1881 must therefore be constructed of the fractional accounts of Mr. Sprague, Mr. Belknap and myself; and to the best of my ability I have united them from the 7th Jan., 1881 (the date of Mr. Sprague’s last report), to Jan. 1st, 1882, and the result is as follows :
Receipts.
Amount on hand per Mr. Sprague’s last report, $ 601.04
Received as dues,............... 1,265.02
Received from sale of Proceedings,.................................... 50.45
Received for advertising,................................................. 30.00
Total receipts............................................................ $1,946.51
Expenditures.
For incidental expenditures of Branches, $101.58
For incidental expenses at Annapolis, 93.84
For printing and engraving,........................... 719-59
For prize essays............................................. 300.00
For purchase of back numbers of Proceedings . 8.35 $1,223.36
Balance on hand, Jan. 1st, 1882, $723.15
As the issue of this number (which is the first for 1882) has been so long delayed, and as I prefer to give members the latest possible information as to the financial condition of the Institute, and prefer also to limit my own responsibility as Treasurer, I now submit my account from the day I became Treasurer (Oct. 24th, 1881) to date (May 10th, 1881).
Receipts.
Oct. 24th, 1881, received from Lieut. C. Belknap as cash
deposited in bank, and in hand,............................. $ 311.08
Received in dues since Oct. 24, 1881,......................... 1,332.25
Received from advertising,............................................... 40.00
Received from sale of Proceedings.................................. 429.87
Received from interest on U. S. Bonds,.............................. 4.00
Expenditures. $2,117.20
For postage, freight and expressage at Annapolis, $ 61.26
For stationery and account books........ 114.36
For printing and engraving,................ 314.37
For prize essay,.................................. 150.00
For purchase of back numbers Proceedings, 25.10
For expenses of Branches.................... 16.00
For purchase of $400 in U. S. 4 per cent, bonds, $473.52
Total expenditures, ................................................. $1,154.61
Balance of cash on hand, May 10th, 1882, $ 962.59
A few months ago, having a large surplus of the funds of the Institute in hand for which there was no immediate use, I purchased, with the approval of the other members of the Executive Committee, $400 worth of 4 per cent. Government bonds, for which I paid $473.52, as entered on the foregoing account. Since then I have received and credited to the Institute $4 as interest on these bonds, and the bonds themselves are now worth two per cent, more than was paid for them. Their present market value, which is $487, should be added to the balance of $962.59 cash on hand, as stated above, making $1449.59. To this should be added the cash on hand at the various Branches, which at last report was $67.66, making $1517.25; and to this amount should also be added as convertible into cash, certain stamped and large envelopes, which are in excess of the necessities of the Institute for the present year, and which could immediately be sold or redeemed for $69.60, which increases the cash assets to $1586.85.
The Institute has now on hand 1473 of back numbers, which, by the constitution, the Treasurer is required to report among the assets. It would be difficult to assign .to them any correct definite value, but we are selling them at $1 per number, less 10 per cent, to members and book-dealers; and the demand for them is increasing. They acquire a certain reflex value, from the later numbers, and as the current publications of the Institute increase in apppreciation they will be more in demand. In addition to the irregular sales of separate numbers, there have been sold during the past year at least ten complete sets at the price named above.
It can properly be said here that one of the most encouraging and conclusive evidences of the prosperity of the Institute is the increasing demand for its publications, from sources outside of the Navy. The Proceedings of the Institute have earned a modest, but permanent, commercial standing in the scientific literature of the day.
Against this balance of $1586.85, which has been stated above as the determinable cash assets, should be charged the bill for printing No. 18, which has not yet been rendered, but deducting the orders we have received from book-dealers, it will not cost the Institute, including all the reprints, over $250; probably much less than that.
There is due the Institute from members in arrears $81 for 1880, $222 for 1881, and $994.38 for 1882. No special effort has been made to collect the dues for 1882, but they have come in, either directly or through corresponding secretaries, by an easy law of the pecuniary gravitation of membership. Except in the case of some of those who owe for 1880, the Institute will get all these arrearages.
Of the $429.87 above noted as received from sale of Proceedings, $160 came from John D. Jones, Esq., of New York City. Mr. Jones was one of the judges who decided upon the merits of the competitive essays for the last annual prize, and became so much interested in them and the work and purposes of the Institute, that he paid this money on the easy condition that the Institute should publish certain of these essays which he named. His contribution was largely in excess of what was needed for the purpose, even if the Institute had thought best to publish these essays solely for him. But the essays had such intrinsic merit, and had been so favorably mentioned by the Prize Committee, that the Institute has published them in its own interest, and they appear in this number. This makes, therefore, Mr. Jones’s contribution of $160 virtually a gratuity, and, as such, it is hereby gratefully acknowledged. The Institute did not seek it, and does not need such favors from any one; but when they come, unsought, from such an appreciative source, and under such honorable conditions, the Institute can be both grateful and proud.
The policy of the officers of the Institute is' to redress, as far as possible, all old grievances and to create no new ones; to give prompt acknowledgment and keep a correct record; to deal equitably with the rights of those they represent and by whom they were elected; and to so identify their labors, and the labors of their contributors, with the growth and necessities of the naval service, that the Navy and the Institute shall live and last together.
ROBERT W. ALLEN,
Paymaster U. S. Navy, and Treasurer U. S. Naval Institute.