The report of the Trustees of the Endowment Funds is here appended:

$1.00

The Trustees of the Endowment Fund report that there have been no changes in the Endowment Funds of the Society during the year 1938. The Endowment Funds therefore consist, as they did one year ago, of $1420.00 for the Linguistic Society and $2092.00 for the Linguistic Institute, which, along with $1425.50 of current funds, are invested in one $5000.00 Three per cent United States Treasury Bond, 1951-55, purchased for $4937.50 and now held by the First National Bank, Centennial Branch, for the Trustees, subject to withdrawal by the Treasurer and one other Trustee.

The Treasurer reports the receipt of the interest due on this Bond, up to and including September 15, 1938, and that the proportionate part, $64.42, has been placed to the credit of the Linguistic Institute.

President Gray announced that he had previously appointed as Auditors Dr. H. I. Poleman and Dr. A. L. Rice; thereupon he read the certification of the Auditors that they had examined the accounts of the Treasurer for the period Dec. 21, 1937, to Dec. 20, 1938, and found them correct. On motion the report of the Treasurer was adopted.

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

During the year the Executive Committee, acting by correspondence, received the report of the Auditors that they had found the Treasurer's revised accounts to be correct, and thereupon accepted the report; elected to membership several lists of nominees published in Language as elected in 1938; fixed the time and place of the present meeting, and arranged the program. In arranging the program, however, those members of the Committee who could not be consulted without considerable loss of time, namely Messrs. Almstedt, Fries, and Kroeber, were represented by Messrs. A. Senn, A. C. Baugh, and E. Sapir respectively. The Committee recommends that a similar practice be followed in future years.

The President reappointed Prof. F. Edgerton on the Committee on Research, for a term of three years from Feb. 1, 1938. He appointed the Secretary to represent the Society at a Conference of the American Philosophical Society on newer and less expensive methods of publishing research material, held in Philadelphia on Feb. 18, 1938. He appointed as Committee to Nominate Officers for 1939 Prof. H. H. Bender, Chairman; Prof. H. Kurath; Prof. E. A. Speiser. He appointed as Local Committee in charge of the Summer Meeting at Ann Arbor, Prof. C. C. Fries, Prof. L. Bloomfield, Prof. E. H. Sturtevant, Prof. R. G. Kent. He appointed Prof. Ralph Marcus to represent the Society on the Committee of Sponsors for Testimonial Celebration in honor of Dr. Cyrus Adler on his Seventyfifth Birthday, September 13, 1938.

The Executive Committee, with the Committee on Publications, met on Monday, December 26, at 8.00 P.M., in Room E of The Commodore, Present, President Gray, presiding, and Messrs. Bolling, Kent, Malone; also, by invitation, Mr. Goetze, Miss Haessler, Miss Hahn, Messrs. Hanley, Holmes, Lane, Miss Pound, Messrs. Roedder, Senn, E. H. Sturtevant, Swadesh.

Additional nominees for membership in the Society were elected.

The reports of the Secretary, the Treasurer, the Editor of the Publications, the Director of the Linguistic Institute, the Committee on Research, the Delegates to the American Council of Learned Societies, and other representatives and delegates were informally presented and their contents considered.

In connection with the report of the Director of the Linguistic Institute, the Executive Committee recommends that the sum of $65.00 of the current funds of the Institute be placed at the disposal of the Committee on the Institute, to be used toward the expense of bringing lecturers to Ann Arbor in 1939 to give public lectures on linguistic topics, and that the Secretary of the Society and the Director of the Linguistic Institute be authorized to arrange a special meeting of the Society at Ann Arbor during the last week-end of July, 1939.

Prof. M. L. Hanley, for the Committee on the Present Status of College and University Courses Announced under the Name of Phonetics (M. L. Hanley, Chairman; R. H. Stetson; J. S. Kenyon) reported progress, and the Committee was continued.

The Executive Committee appointed as Delegates of the Linguistic Society to the American Council of Learned Societies Prof. E. H. Sturtevant, succeeding himself for the term 1939-42, and Prof. E. C. Armstrong for the term expiring Dec. 31, 1940, in succession to the late Prof. Eduard Prokosch.

The Executive Committee appointed the following delegates to represent the Linguistic Society at the Fifth International Congress of Linguists, to be held at Brussels August 27 to Sept. 2, 1938, Messrs. Bolling, Fries, Gray, and Kent.

The Executive Committee considered the Amendments to the Constitution proposed by Prof. E. Cross, for the purpose of increasing the size of the Executive Committee and of the Committee on Publications, and of prescribing the exact manner of voting in the election. The proposed wording, to replace Article VI, Sections 2, 3, 4, is as follows:

2. There shall be an Executive Committee, composed of the above officers and eight other members of the Society, the eight members to be chosen by secret, preferential ballot of all members present at the annual meeting.

3. There shall be a Committee on Publications, which shall consist of nine members of the Society, elected by secret ballot of all the members present at the annual meeting. No language group shall be represented by more than two persons who are active specialists in any part or the whole of such group. For the purpose of this provision the language groups are as follows: Latin and Greek and Sanskrit; Balto-Slavic and Celtic; Teutonic; Romance; other IndoEuropean; Hamito-Semitic languages; American Indian and African; other non-Indo-European languages, groups, or families. One of these, to be designated Chairman of the Committee and Editor of the Publications, shall be elected annually by the Society. The other members shall serve for a term of three years, except that of the eight persons chosen in the first election conducted under the provisions of this section four shall serve for one year and four for two years. Thereafter, four members of the Committee besides the Chairman shall be chosen at each annual meeting.

4. Officers shall be elected annually, and the method of nominating and electing shall be as follows: After the Committee on Nominations has offered its report, ballots shall be distributed to all members present, each of whom

shall inscribe the name of the person whom he wishes to nominate for the given position. Any person who shall be found to have been designated by two or more votes shall be declared duly and regularly nominated for the position in question. The election of Officers and of members of the Executive Committee and of the Committee on Publications shall then proceed by secret ballot of all members present at the meeting.

The Executive Committee is of opinion that the proposals in their present form are not satisfactory, but that the problems raised by the proposed amendments are of importance and should be referred to a Committee of Five, appointed by the President, with instructions to consider problems of wider representation, more nominations for each office, secret ballot, and kindred problems.

The Executive Committee considered a number of foreign scholars for election to Honorary Membership under Article II, Section 7 of the Constitution, and recommends that one of the places left vacant by the death of Prof. J. Wackernagel and Prof. N. Trubetzkoy be filled' by the election of Prof. Dr. B. Hrozný of Prag.

A number of other matters were considered, but it seems unnecessary to give them a place in this formal report, as no actions were recommended.

The report was ordered received and filed. The Society, on motion properly seconded, elected to Honorary Membership the nominee of the Executive Committee. It was moved by Prof. Cross, and properly seconded, that the proposed amendments to the Constitution be adopted; on the vote a division was called for, and the motion was lost by a vote of 4 yeas and 31 noes. It was moved by Mr. Kepke, and properly seconded, that the President appoint a Committee of Five to consider the problems raised by the amendments proposed by Prof. Cross, as to number and manner of election of officers, executive committee, editor, and committee on publications, and kindred matters. An amendment that the Committee be enlarged to nine members was lost. By unanimous agreement the addition 'and that action on the report of the Committee be placed on the order of business of the next annual meeting' was accepted, and in this form the motion was adopted. It was voted, on motion properly seconded, that the President be requested to appoint Prof. Cross as one of the members of the Committee. At a later session, the President appointed to this Committee Prof. Sturtevant, Chairman, and Messrs. Bloch, Cross, Emeneau, Kepke. On motion, properly seconded, the Society now expressed by vote its confidence in the present Secretary and the present Editor of the Publications. By common consent action on the recommendations concerning the Linguistic Institute was postponed until the report of the Director of the Institute had been presented. The Society then