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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 1448

for $2,747.95. Under the terms of the will, the income has to be added to the principal until a total of $250,000 is reached. The Fund now amounts to $223,432.37. When available, the income of the Fund is to be for the general use of the Institution. 

Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., a nationally recognized firm of auditors, has made the annual audit of the Institution's accounts. This report is incorporated in the printed statement before you, to which reference has been made. Copies of the typed and signed audit are on the table for examination. 

It seems appropriate to review each year the procedures by means of which the investments of the Smithsonian Institution are managed. During the current year, as in previous years, recommendations for changes in the portfolio of investments of the Institution come to me as Chairman of both the Executive Committee and of the Permanent Committee of the Smithsonian. These proposals for change originate with Scudder, Stevens & Clark. Copies of these recommendations are also sent directly to the Secretary of the Institution. Each of these recommendations receives my personal attention. I also ask my associates in the Trust Department of the Riggs National Bank to check the proposals on the basis of specialized information at their disposal. My decision is then made as to the appropriate action to be taken on each recommendation. Such action is approved in writing by members of the Permanent Committee. 

I am not sure that all members of the Board realize how great the volume is of these official financial communications concerning the investments of the Institution. At certain periods daily letters are necessary in carrying out these transactions. Certainly throughout the year hardly a week passes in which some communication about the funds of the Institution does not come from my desk. In this connection it may be noted that detailed quarterly statements of all Smithsonian investments come to me from our investment counsel for consideration. Copies of these reports are before us today on the table. I feel that these statements represent in a clear and concise form the current picture of the investment holdings of the Smithsonian Institution. It will now be of interest, I believe, to present a brief history of the two main endowments of the Smithsonian Institution, carried forward to December 31, 1957. These figures are as follows: