The First Session was held in Room 10, Classics Building, on the morning of Monday, December 28. President Collitz called the meeting to order at 10:03 A.M. About 35 persons were present at this session.

President Collitz opened the meeting with a few well chosen words on the significance of the occasion.

By motion the reading of the minutes was dispensed with, as the minutes of the previous meeting had already been printed in the first issue of LANGUAGE.

For the Committee on Arrangements (Prof. C. D. Buck, Chairman; Professors J. M. Manly, F. A. Wood, E. Sapir, N. Schmidt, and the Secretary ex-officio), Prof. Buck, as Chairman, announced briefly the provisions for the meeting, including the privileges of the Quadrangle Club without special formalities, and the informal subscription dinner at the Del Prado Hotel on Monday, at 6:30 P.M.

The Secretary, Professor R. G. Kent, presented the following report, which was ordered to be received and filed:

After the Foundation Meeting, the Secretary felt that his work was (1) to gain the definite adherence of known prospective members; (2) to secure other members; (3) to retain for the Society the interest of these members; (4) to develop and conserve the finances of the Society; (5) to develop the prestige and the influence of the Society; as well as to conduct the usual work of a secretary. It will be seen that this program includes items which fall within the duties of the Treasurer, and as the two offices were given to one person, this report will not make a careful distinction between the functions of the two offices, but will include everything except the actual financial statement.

From the correspondence turned over by the Organizing Committee, and from the registration at the Foundation Meeting, the Secretary compiled a list of about 180 prospective members, to whom a report of the meeting and other documents were sent. Over 150 of these persons definitely allied themselves by the payment of dues; and as the outcome of recruiting by these members, and of the publicity gained in print by the Society, the membership has now reached the total of 322, of whom two, C. Everett Conant and Henry Alfred Todd, have been lost by death. Under rulings of the Executive Committee, 274 are ranked as Foundation Members, and 48 as members of 1925. [One additional Member of 1925 was secured after this report was presented.] These members are not restricted to the Continental United States: there are four in Canada, two each in Alaska, the Philippine Islands, and Germany, one each in Mexico, Cuba, Chile, France, Japan. To retain the interest of the members, as well as to carry out the decision of the Society, it was necessary to establish at once a regular organ of publication. Since the Constitution requires the Treasurer's certification that funds are available for any proposed publication before it can be proceeded with, the Treasurer becomes the virtual Business Manager of the publications. Accordingly, in coöperation wtih the committee on Publications, the Treasurer secured estimates from a number of publishing houses, and awarded the contract for publishing the first two issues of the quarterly journal, for which the name LANGUAGE was selected, to the Waverly Press of Baltimore, Md. Subsequent issues were, however, printed by the George Banta Publishing Co. of Menasha, Wisconsin, since their

estimate seemed to indicate material savings in the cost. With the third issue, also, application was made for the second-class mailing privilege, which greatly reduces the cost of distribution; and while no decision as to our application has been received, there is every reason to believe that it will be granted.

At the Foundation Meeting, there was a difference of opinion as to the kind of publication that should be undertaken by the Society: whether it should be a journal with short articles, or longer monographs only. The situation has been met by doing both; for a series of monographs, with the title LANGUAGE MONOGRAPHS, has been started. While the Secretary-and-Treasurer was in France, he secured very advantageous terms from Protat Frères of Mâcon, France, and closed a contract with them. It is expected that for the present the monographs will be subventioned in part by the authors or by their institutions, in return for a certain number of copies. Such was the case with the first monograph, which should now be in the mails.

An attempt has been made to secure library subscriptions for our publications. Copies of the second issue of LANGUAGE were sent to about 150 libraries in all parts of the world, with a request for subscriptions; a special rate of Three Dollars for the publications of 1926, instead of the regular Five Dollars, was offered to those which accepted the offer before October 1, 1925. So far we have 21 library subscriptions, including certain ones in Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Netherlands. [One more was received after this report was submitted.]

Similarly, an attempt has been made to establish a list of exchanges; copies of the first issue of LANGUAGE were sent to about 150 periodicals in all countries. Our free list for exchanges and reviews numbers 26, including some in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden.

But while the exchanges and the library subscriptions may serve in part to spread the knowledge of the Society's existence and activity, and to establish its position, it is desirable that our publications should be accessible to scholars as widely as is compatible with not closing the sources of revenue. As it happens, very few foreign scholars, especially those in countries where the currency has become depreciated, are financially able to subscribe to our publications. In conference therefore with President Collitz, Professor Haupt, Professor Saleski, and others, the Secretary-and-Treasurer has placed on the complimentary list of the Society, for a limited period of time, a considerable number of foreign scholars (110 all told; of whom three, A. Meinong, W. Streitberg, and A. Walde, have died within the year), asking them in return to give to the Society and to its publications such publicity as may conveniently be within their power. Many have replied, expressing their thanks for the courtesy and their best wishes for the new foundation; some have stated that they have already written notices of the Society for journals with which they are connected. These free copies, which cost little but the postage, should pay rich dividends to the Society in publicity and prestige.

At the Foundation Meeting, the Secretary was authorized to convey officially the greetings of the Society to the Société de Linguistique de Paris at its meeting on June 20. This he did, presenting also a detailed account of the movement for the Society's foundation, and of the subsequent activities. Professor Meillet, the eminent Secretary of the Société de Linguistique, replied in very happy vein, auguring for the Society a useful and prosperous career. The account which the Secretary of the Society there read, has appeared, slightly condensed, in the Bulletin of the Association Guillaume Budé, for October, 1925, pages 49–54.

i

The Secretary was able to present the Society's greetings, though unofficially, to the Société des Etudes Latines, on June 13.

Other societies, through their journals, have been very kind in giving space to our Society, and in printing accounts of its formation and of its plans for the future. This is true not merely in the United States, but abroad. All in all, it may fairly be said that the LINGUISTIC SOCIETY has from the start gained an enviable position and prestige at home and in other lands.

In closing, the Secretary expresses his gratitude, personal and official, to the members of the Society, who have coöperated in all possible ways; especially to the Executive Committee, the Committee on Publications, and to his own junior colleagues, F. B. Krauss and R. J. Scott, the former of whom cared for the business of the Society during his absence in the summer, and the latter assisted with certain mechanical but laborious details. To this spirit of coöperation is due in great measure the efficient working and the rapid development of the Society in the past twelvemonth.

As Treasurer, Professor Kent then presented the following report:

Receipts:

Linguistic Society of America

Treasurer's Report, Dec. 28, 1924 to Dec. 23, 1925

Dues of 322 members for 1925.

Dues of 20 libraries for 1925.

Dues of 5 members for 1926.

Dues of libraries in advance..

Dues of 1 member for 1927.
Advertising......

Sale of stationery.

Improperly drawn check.

Bank interest on deposits, to Nov. 30..

Total Receipts.

Expenditures:

Expenses of organization..

Office expenses, including printing, stationery, postage, etc...

Replacing improperly drawn check....

Second Meeting, circulars and postage..

Secretary's traveling expenses.

Language I.1...

Language I.2..

Language I.3.

Language I.4.

Total Expenditures..

Balance in Bank.

.$1610.10

60.00

25.00

9.00

5.00

50.00

1.07

5.00

2.47

.$1767.64

$ 94.68

98.69

5.00

45.98

45.22

191.49

202.79

241.19

4.35

.$929.39 838.25

$1767.64

On motion, it was voted that the Treasurer's report be accepted, provided the auditors (appointed later) should find it correct.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, the Secretary presented the following report:

During the year, the Executive Committee was unable to act, but it was frequently consulted by letter, by the Secretary. In accordance with its advice, the Secretary arranged the terms of office of the members of the Committee on Publications, which had not been assigned by the Committee on Nominations. The present meeting of the Society, at Chicago on December 28-29 and at Ithaca on December 31, was arranged, and it was ruled that no speaker should be allowed over twenty minutes for the presentation of a single paper.

The Committee ruled that all persons whose dues were received by March 31 should be accounted Foundation Members; later, that those whose dues were paid by checks dated in March, though not received until after the end of the month, should have the same rank; still later, that three others for special reasons (either absence or distance or activity in the Foundation Meeting) should also be rated as Foundation Members.

Other actions during the year were routine in nature, and call for no comment. On December 27, at eight P.M., the Executive Committee met at the Quadrangle Club, in Chicago, with the presence, by invitation, of the Committee on Publications. Present, President Collitz, Messrs. Buck, Emerson, Sturtevant, Kent; and of the Committee on Publications, Messrs. Bolling and Sapir.

With regard to application for admission to the American Council of Learned Societies the Executive Committee reports progress.

With regard to affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Executive Committee recommends that the Society empower the Executive Committee to apply for and complete affiliation as soon as terms satisfactory to the Committee can be secured.

Mr. Sapir, on behalf of a committee of the linguistic subsection of Section L of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, consisting of Messrs. T. Michelson, L. Bloomfield, and himself, presented a Project for a Survey of North American Indian Languages; and the Executive Committee recommends that the Society endorse this project.

A letter from Mr. W. F. Bryan was presented, asking endorsement of an appeal to one of the moneyed foundations, for financial support of a survey, primarily linguistic, of English as spoken in this country, to disclose its particular characteristics and their distribution. The Executive Committee recommends that the Society approve such a survey and endorse such an appeal.

The Executive Committee ratified the present list of reviews and exchanges of the publications, and also the complimentary list of foreign scholars at present temporarily receiving the publications gratuitously. It approved the present advertising rates, $20.00 per page per issue and $11.00 per half-page per issue. It authorized the offer to libraries of the publications of 1925 and 1926 at the rate of Eight Dollars for the two years. It set aside 200 sets of the publications of 1925 to be sold as sets, and fixed the price of the remaining copies of LANGUAGE at $1.50 per issue; it fixed the price of the first monograph, ESPER, Associative Interference, at $1.00 per copy. It fixed the price of the Publications at $5.00 per annum if ordered direct from the Society, and at $6.00 per annum if ordered indirectly. It authorized the Editor of the Publications to arrange with the proper authorities of the Ohio State University for the deposit of books and periodicals received. It recommends that the Secretary's railroad and Pullman fares to and from meetings be made a regular charge on the treasury.

On motion, the Committee's recommendation was adopted, that the Executive Committee be empowered to apply for and complete affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as soon as terms satisfactory to the Committee can be secured.

On motion, the Committee's recommendation with regard to a survey of North American Indian Languages was adopted, in the form of the following minute:

The Linguistic Society of America heartily approves the Project for a Survey of North American Indian Languages, outlined by the committee of Section L of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The study there outlined is a duty which our nation owes to science; the Linguistic Society hopes that means will be found, before it is too late, to carry out this project.

On motion, the Committee's recommendation with regard to a survey of English as spoken in this country, was adopted, in the form of the following minute:

The Linguistic Society of America, recognizing the value of a scientific survey of American speech, particularly of the character of its sounds and their distribution, expresses its approval of the plan formulated by the Committee on a Survey of Spoken English in America, a committee of the Modern Language Association of America. The Society therefore endorses an appeal to one of the philanthropic and scientific foundations for funds with which to begin a survey according to this plan.