REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN

REV. LOUIS C. CORNISH.

The plan for removing the library, suggested in the report last year, failed to meet with the approval of the Board of Directors. The library has therefore continued in the same quarters.

During the past year we have received books and pamphlets to the number of three hundred (300), some of which are of exceptional value historically, and all of which are desirable.

The assistant librarian has written nearly one thousand catalogue cards, most of these recording the gifts of previous years not before catalogued.

The assistant librarian has also completed an index catalogue of the parishes in the denomination, with a chronological list of the pastorates.

The library has been opened from the 1st of October on Monday and Wednesday forenoons, and will continue open until the 1st of July.

These records, while they bespeak the day of small beginnings, still point to the fulfilment of our purpose, which is to make this a complete reference library for our Unitarian movement the world over. We ask your

help in realizing this hope. And we ask you to send us all the valuable books, pamphlets, and manuscript records bearing upon our movement, which you wish to have permanently preserved and made useful.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CHURCH BUILDING LOAN FUND

F. H. LINCOLN, GEO. HUTCHINSON, R. W. BOYDEN, COMMITTEE. The administration of the Church Building Loan Fund has long been under consideration by the Directors, and during the past year it was changed from a board. of trustees to a standing committee of the Directors of the Association. This action was taken after a most thorough and careful consideration of the legal and missionary questions involved. It was in no sense a reflection upon the business management of the fund by the trustees for twenty years. So far as the financial condition of the fund is concerned, the administration of the trustees was most successful. The fund on May 1, 1903, amounted to $140,916.78, and the losses which had been incurred were few in number and relatively small in amount. There had been from the beginning 123 loans, amounting to $315,180. In only two cases had foreclosures been made. In one of these the loan was paid in full. In the other there was a loss. Only four loans had shown a loss, and the total losses amounted to only $3,204.83. $853.28 of this amount was really a matter of settlement, and should not be figured as a loss. There is no property owned under foreclosure. These results ought certainly to be considered entirely satisfactory from a financial point of view.

It was found by experience, however, that it was impossible to impress upon the churches throughout

the country just what the distinction was between the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees. It was difficult to make this clearly understood. As the Board of Trustees was the creation of the Board of Directors, and its action was governed by rules made by the Board of Directors, it was too often believed that the real responsibility rested in the Board of Directors, and appeals and complaints were invariably made to the executive officers of the Association.

It was thought advisable, if the Directors were really held responsible for the administration of the fund, to put the responsibility where it belonged. The Standing Committee of the Directors on the Church Building Loan Fund now administers the fund, subject to the reversal of its action by a yea and nay vote of the Board.

The purpose of the fund is not clearly understood. It is too often supposed to be a missionary fund to aid feeble parishes. Its only missionary feature is that it loans money without interest; but, under the conditions which are imposed upon it by its donors, gifts can never be made from the fund. Loans are secured by a first mortgage on the church property, and, except in the matter of interest, are subject to as rigid conditions for repayment as any mortgage to a savings bank or an investor.

The fund on May 1, 1904, amounted to $141,275.78. 133 loans had been made from the beginning, amounting to $346,830. There were 63 loans outstanding; and, for the most part, the obligations of the borrowing parishes are promptly met.

Where ought we to look for examples in meeting moral and business obligations, if not to a religious society?

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

PRESENTED BY THE TREASURER, FRANCIS H. LINCOLN, ESQ.

There are two equally embarrassing conditions which the Treasurer of the American Unitarian Association has to face,-one, a surplus, and the other a deficit. If there is a considerable amount of cash balance on hand at the close of the year, the contributors argue that their contributions may be made smaller because we do not spend all that is given us. If there is a deficit we are told that the financial management is unbusinesslike.

Ever since Mr. Batchelor inaugurated the system of keeping the expenditures within the income, there has been a determined effort to adhere to that rule. The budget system which has been followed for the past seven years has that end in view, and no appropriations are made in excess of the budget.

The By-laws of the Directors require the Treasurer at the May meeting to give his estimate of the income for the coming year, and upon that the budget is made up. The Treasurer must be a prophet. He must tell the Directors what a yearly income will be of which nearly one-half will not be paid until the last month of the year. He can estimate the amount of income on invested funds. That he knows with sufficient accuracy. Who can tell what the contributions will be? "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.”

It appears that the Treasurer was a little too optimistic this year.

The lack of correspondence of the year for which appropriations are made for home missions with the financial year of the Association makes it difficult, under some circumstances, to keep the expenditures within the income. The amount to be expended in the different sections of the country is determined in May. The year for which appropriations are made for the Western States does not begin until the following October and April, for the New England States until the following November and May, for the Pacific Coast until the following December, and for the Middle and Southern States until the following January. These appropriations are paid quarterly, and, as the first payment is not made until three months later than the above dates, it will readily be seen that payments must be made for eight to eleven months out of next year's income. If there is a reduction in the budget in any year from that of the previous year, that reduction is not immediately effective, because payments must continue to be made through a considerable portion of the next year to meet larger appropriations out of a reduced income.

The question of making the years for which appropria tions are made correspond with the financial year of the Association is before the Finance Committee for consideration. Its settlement is not without difficulties in breaking up long-standing customs, and it may be impracticable.