APPENDIX C.

ADDRESS OF HON. FREDERICK L. SIDDONS, DELIVERED ON PRESENTATION DAY, MAY 5, 1915.

Mr. President and Candidates for the Degrees, Ladies and Gentlemen, When I received the invitation from your president to make a brief address this afternoon, I confess that I felt an unusual degree of pleasure at the invitation, a pleasure that is also a privilege, that I should this afternoon be afforded the opportunity of saying some few words of hope, and express some wishes for your success, you, the products of this great institution.

I do not believe that in the field of education, of educational development, has so much been accomplished as in that department which has undertaken the education of those who labor under some sort of physical disability. And in the last few days, as occasionally I have thought of this occasion, and what might appropriately be said, I have remembered with some amusement, but more shame, the attitude of judges, not so many generations ago, who refused to receive the testimony in court of a man or a woman who could neither hear nor speak. And these judges did so upon what seems to us to-day not only an absurd but barbarous notion that such persons were little short of imbeciles.

Think of it, ladies and gentlemen! Think of it as we are seated within this hall! Think of it as you reflect upon the three orations delivered before you this afternoon by three of the candidates, and you may then get some conception of the great strides that have been made in education. Who would suppose for a moment, as you read the list of degrees that it is to be hoped will shortly be conferred upon these young ladies and gentlemen, who would have supposed that they labor under any disability whatsoever? I venture to say that their addresses this afternoon, in thought, in form, in finish, quite equal those of the graduates from any of our universities or colleges.

It marks this work of education, marks a great step in the civilizing processes of our race. More and more we concern ourselves with the welfare, present and future, of those who at the outset of life perhaps would not, but for the assistance that society now gives, be equal to the contest of life before them. But happily that time has passed, and you, young ladies and gentlemen, may look forward with confidence to the future that is yours. You will take up your selected, your appointed work, and do it well, becoming as useful citizens as any of us may hope to be.

I notice that the motto of your class is a French phrase, “A outrance." Now, my French has become almost but a lingering memory. But this particular phrase, if I remember it, is susceptible of this interpretation, that "We are going the limit." [Laughter.]

You are going the limit in all that is worth while. You are going the limit in the work that you have selected to do. And as you enter upon that work, as you leave these halls, you will never cease to remember the obligation that you are under to the institution, to the faculty, to its founder, whose picture has been revealed to you this afternoon. And in that work will you not permit a modern justice to apologize to you for the mistakes of his remote predecessors, and to assure you that if it ever should be your obligation to appear before him you will not be rejected on the grounds formerly alleged. I bid you Godspeed and success in the future of your work. [Applause.]

APPENDIX D.

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

To the Board of Directors of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf: GENTLEMEN: Since taking charge of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf there has been no formal report made to the board, covering a period of more than a year's time. I think it may be proper, therefore, after the passage of five years, to lay before the board in a brief résumé some of the work that has been accomplished in that period, together with recommendations as to what might be done in the future.

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

All the money of the institution is handled, as heretofore, under the direction of the president of the institution, who is president of the board, through a special disbursing agent of the United States Government. All expenses from United States funds are audited, as heretofore, by the secretary and treasurer of our board, and finally by the Auditor for the Interior Department. All other money received has been expended and accounted for in the same way, except that these accounts are, of course, audited only by the auditing committee of the board. All expenses, as heretofore, are reported quarterly to the board and annually to the Secretary of the Interior in the annual report of the institution.

Under the present system of buying all goods are purchased on written orders, duplicates of which are kept in the office, and no purchases are made except on the authority of the president or of the disbursing agent. All goods are checked off when they arrive, and bills are paid after the work of checking with duplicate orders is completed. Bids from at least three dealers are obtained, except on very small items or emergency orders, a storekeeper has been employed, a storeroom has been established, and all goods not perishable bought in large quantities at a decided saving.

A partial inventory of furniture and equipment has been made annually for two years, and a more complete one will be taken this year.

A new system of distributing expenses and comparing those of the present with those of previous years has been installed; also a careful account of food consumed at each kitchen; a separate account of the farm expenses, of expenses for repairs on the various buildings, and of expenses for District of Columbia pupils. The office work of the institution has been facilitated by the purchase of three additional typewriters and an adding machine.