MR. PRELL: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Best has asked that I help in connection with his report. That certainly is not because I can make his report better than he can, but probably because a new member is not a new member until his check has arrived and has been recorded, and I happen to have those figures. I will be happy to do that, but perhaps we should start first with the report that the President has asked for, the Treasurer's report. I imagine that you are uninterested in an itemized, detailed report of receipts and expenditures; I imagine you are interested in the question: How are we doing? We are not doing too well. The annual report for this year indicates that our financial condition is not satisfactory. For the second successive year we have spent more money than we have taken in, and that would be the third successive year, if it hadn't been for the fact that due to the lateness of the publication in 1950--that it, the annual report--we did not pay for an annual report that year. That means there are three years in a row that we have gone downhill. The picture is not entirely black, however. There are some bright spots. For instance, all our bills are paid. Second, we have money in the bank. Third, our $3,000 investment in Government bonds is still intact, and fourth, our deficit this year was less than it was last year, which may indicate that we have already touched bottom and are starting up. The cause of our deficit is easy to put your finger on. We are operating on budgets that are ten years old, and costs have gone way, way beyond. Dues were increased several years ago, but even at that time they were not increased adequately, and since then costs have skyrocketed. The membership situation is not too bad, though the cost situation is bad. The two don't jibe at all. The reason we have a lesser deficit this year than last is Mr. Best's work and the work of his vice-presidents in increasing the membership, and the results of that work; I think, have only begun to show. Specifically, we came within $417 of collecting enough money this year to pay our expenses. It was over $500 last year, making a total of a thousand dollars that we have spent above our receipts. While we have some money in the bank, there will be a bill due in about 30 days on the publication of the annual report, that will be mailed within the next few days. And that will take all the money that is in the bank, plus what we are able to collect in dues immediately, and I hope that many of them are paid at once. But that still leaves us without money to operate through the year, and by January, unless conditions change, we will be borrowing money.