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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   1468
 
It may be noted that as a result of the sale and reinvestment of securities since 1953, there has been a net increase of $1,365,258 in the book value of the investments in the Freer Fund, which showed a total of investment cost on June 30, 1958, of $8,118,055.  In the Consolidated Fund in the same period by sale and purchase of investments there has been an increase of $800,464.  The total of this fund on June 30, 1958, was $3,454,774.

Peat, Marwick, Michell & 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 cannot resist pointing out to the members of the Board that the official communications concerning the investments of the Smithsonian Institution are most numerous.  Sometimes daily letters were necessary in carrying out these transactions.  In this connection it may be noted that detailed quarterly statements of all Smithsonian Institution investments come to me from te investment counsel for consideration.  Copies of these reports are before us today on the table.  I feel these statements represent in a clear and concise form a picture of the investment holdings of the Smithsonian.

It may now be of interest to present a statement of two endowment holdings of the Institution carried forward to December 31, 1958.  The figures are as follows:

Transcription Notes:
Reviewed