usefulness and prosperity of the Columbia University Press; and the notable additions to the collections in the University Libraries, particularly those of the Law Library.

The mere enumeration of these matters of more outstanding importance is an indication of the breadth of the University's interest and the scope of its problems. which are too often mistakenly described as routine.

The Budget
System

In the Annual Report for 1913 (p. 2) a statement was made to show the condition of the University's Income and Expense Account at the close of each fiscal year beginning with July 1, 1907, when the plan for refunding the corporate debt of three million dollars, incurred in the purchase and development of the site on Morningside Heights, came into operation. It will be of interest to repeat this statement and to continue it to the close of the year, June 30, 1924.

The foregoing gives the condition of the Income and Expense Account for each of these years, as shown by the Treasurer's reports, there having first been paid out of income each year approximately $220,000 on account of the debt service. Of this amount $120,000, in round numbers, was paid for interest on the funded debt, and $100,000 (increased for the year ending June 30, 1921, to $200,000), was paid into the redemption fund established to extinguish the debt at maturity.

The alarming deficit for the year 1917-18 was the direct result of war conditions, and was very fortunately reduced to $11,887.81 by the generous gifts made through the Alumni Fund Committee, which amounted to $199,218.36.

No graver mistake could be made, however, than to interpret the surplus as shown for each of several years last past as indicating that the University has ample or even adequate funds for the maintenance of its work. What these figures do indicate is not the University's opulence but its self-denial, not its comfort but its thrift. They mark the fact that through the strict operation of the budget system, by which alone every appropriation, large or small, is authorized, the University has formed the happy habit of confining its annual expenditures to the income which is available to meet them. It is quite within bounds to say that the sum of $500,000 annually could well be added to the present budget without any waste or duplication whatsoever, if the existing work of the University were to be carried on as effectively and as generously as should be the case.

The budget system is the foundation stone of sound university administration. The Committee on Finance and the Treasurer strain every nerve to make the funds and investments of the University as productive as is consistent with sound financial policy. The very large amounts received in students' fees-$2,660,795.54 by

Columbia University alone in 1923-24, or $4,705,299.II if the entire educational system of the University be included-provide the remainder of the annual income which is before the Trustees when the budget of each year is ready for adoption.

It is always easy to find ways and means with which to increase the annual appropriations and arguments with which to defend those increases convincingly, but it is very difficult to hit upon any method whatsoever to decrease them. The budget problem is not only one of finance, but one of human feeling and human relationship. In the financial administration of a university mere monetary considerations must always and everywhere take second place. A university, however large its endowment, is neither a bank, an investment company, nor a manufacturing corporation aiming to pay dividends. and to show gains. It is primarily and always a company of human beings bent upon the pursuit of the highest ends by the finest and most disinterested means. The needs and the aspirations of that company come first; everything else comes second.

The following summary financial statement is selfexplanatory. The land, buildings and equipment used for educational purposes are entered at cost; the Upper and Lower Estates at their assessed valuations; and all other property at book values.

'In addition to $278,245. included in the Columbia University Budget. 2In addition to $483,680. included in the Columbia University Budget.

Building

For several years past the President has kept before the Trustees and the public the urgent need to go forward with the building program, to the end that academic work already in progress may be suitably cared for and housed. Each Annual Report since the end of the war has devoted more or less attention to this subject.

Program

The Faculty House, the completion and occupancy of which were chronicled in the last Annual Report, has proved to be all that was expected of it and more. Quite apart from the comforts and satisfactions which it provides for members of the faculties, it is an indispensable center of influence in the life of the University. This building furnishes a meeting point for men of widely differing interests and fields of work, and it is the place where University sentiment and opinion develop and find expression most naturally and most helpfully.

The School of Business, which contains the McMillin Academic Theatre, was somewhat delayed in completion, but was ready for use at the opening of the academic year in September 1924. This is one of the most successful of recent buildings, and both in design, in plan, and in arrangement of the interior, is quite a model of its kind. The work of the School of Business is now well provided for, and the overcrowded conditions in Hamilton Hall and in the School of Journalism have been much relieved.

Unfortunately, the Residence Hall for women graduate and professional students building on East Field, has been greatly delayed by the dawdling methods of construction that have now become quite too common, and will not be ready for occupancy before the end of the present calendar year. This building has been named Johnson Hall, in honor of Samuel Johnson, first Presi

dent of King's College, and of his son, William Samuel Johnson, first President of Columbia College after the War of Independence. It is a stately and commodious building, equipped with every modern convenience, and will provide rooms for some 360 women graduate and professional students. The Women's Faculty Club will occupy suitable apartments at the north end of the building, with direct access to the women's rooms in the Faculty House adjoining. It is the purpose and policy of the Advisory Committee on Women's Residence Halls to surround the residents of Johnson Hall with all those influences which make university life comfortable, agreeable, and happy to look back upon.

On May 5, 1924, the Trustees, at the urgent recommendation of the President, gave authority to proceed with the construction of Students' Hall, on South Field at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue, at an estimated cost for building and equipment of $1,500,000; of a building to provide Physics laboratories, at the north side of the Green at 120th Street, at an estimated cost for building and equipment of $1,500,000; and of a north wing to Havemeyer Hall, on the west side of the Green on Broadway, at an estimated cost for building and equipment of $875,000; making a total estimated expenditure of $3,875,000. The Committee on Buildings and Grounds immediately addressed themselves to the preparation of plans for these buildings, and the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, together with committees composed of members of the teaching staff particularly interested in any one of the three buildings, worked steadily for the six months next following, upon the details of planning and construction. The best academic and laboratory buildings recently erected at other universities were personally inspected.