American College of Surgeons - Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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The Endowment Fund 3 vice; in a word, they embody those ideals which have stood the test of centuries. Upon these the Fellows are united. These are the ideals which each Fellow, single-handed, has endeavored to foster, and the expression of them to-day through the College comes as a sort of mass-consciousness of the whole body of Fellows. THE ENDOWMENT FUND At the outset, after organization, the Regents of the College turned their attention to two factors essential in its success: First, to appoint strong authoritative Credentials Committees in each state of the Union and in each province of Canada; second, to secure for the College a sound financial basis. Because of the interest and sincerity of the Fellows, the first task was quickly accomplished and, as the years have gone by, the willingness of leading surgeons to serve on the various Creden- tials Committees has even increased. By December i, 1915, an endowment fund of $526,000 was subscribed; and in the following year annual dues of $25, payable by those who did not subscribe to the endowment fund, were voted by the Fellows. An initial Fellowship fee of $100 was also voted, the full resolution providing: 1. That the initial Fellowship fee of the College is $100, pay- able upon notification of election to Fellowship. The initial Fellowship fee of candidates whose applications were filed at the executive offices of the College before November i, 1914, is $50. 2. That annual dues of the College are provided as follows: 1. That the annual dues of the Fellows of the College be $25, payable January i. 2. That all Fellows who have subscribed $500 to the Endowment Fund of the College be exempt from annual dues. jf. That the total amount required of any Fellow in annual dues or other fees shall not exceed $500. 4. That the Board of Regents cancel the indebtedness of any Fellow of the College, without publicity, to whom, in its judgment, such dues are a hardship. 5. That no Fellow of the College be asked to contribute any fee whatever to the College, either after 65 years of age, or after he has retired from the active practice of surgery.

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2 American College of Surgeons Without delay the committee of twelve went about its task. It sought the advice and guidance of the surgeons of this continent who stood out preeminently as leaders in each of the divisions of surgery. It sought especially the counsel of the professors of sur- gery among the stronger medical schools. In March, 1913, so abundantly was the committee assured of the approval and support of these men that it issued a call for a meeting of the organization to be held in Washington on May 5, 191 3. About five hundred surgeons were invited to this meeting. At the meeting in Washington almost five hundred surgeons were present. The College was legally organized. By-laws, rules, and regulations were adopted after due consideration, and the Board of Governors, the Board of Regents, and the ofhcers of the College were elected. Details of these matters are published in the Year Book and in other bulletins of the College. But the signifi- cance of the Washington meeting lies in the sincerity with which those surgeons present pledged their active support. The College became to them a vision for the advancement of surgery without precedent in history. The note of sincerity struck at the Washington meeting has in the five and one-half years now elapsed not only spread far among the profession and the general public, but it has also increased in intensity. Progress of this sort is possible only because the im- petus of the College springs from within its own membership. Necessarily that impetus imphes reform. But there is a vast dif- ference between reform preached at men and reform innate in the hearts of men which finds expression at their own initiative. Whatever impetus the College possesses, it originates among the surgeons themselves. It is not an uplift movement. But, rather, out of the widely divergent views on many subjects among the Fellows, the aims of the College rise as those time-tried aspira- tions which are inherently the basis of all that is valuable in the vocation of surgery. The purposes of the College are concerned directly with matters of character and of training, with the better- ment of hospitals and of the teaching faciUties of medical schools, with laws which relate to medical practice and privilege, and with an unselfish protection of the public from incompetent ser-

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4 American College of Surgeons Some further account of the endowment fund and of the finan- cial side of the College is here given. In order to provide means for the organization of the College an initial Fellowship fee of $50 from each Fellow was voted at the first meeting of the College. This sum was payable, $25 on admission, and five dollars annually thereafter for five years. Realizing that the income to be derived in this way was but temporary, and desiring to place the College on a safe, independent, and financially adequate basis, the Fellows in June, 1914, voted to raise an Endowment for the College of one million dollars. This plan provided that the Endowment should be invested in perpetuity, the income only to be used for the budget of the College. It provided, further, that each Fellow be asked for a subscription of five hundred dollars on condition that all subscriptions should be contingent on the raising of five hundred thousand dollars by December i, 1914, the first payment on the subscription to be made January i, 191 5. Subscriptions to the amount of $113,000 were pledged at the first meeting, and it was the intention to push the plan among those Fellows who were absent from that meeting after the summer vacations. But because of the outbreak of war, the Regents de- cided to ask those who had made subscriptions to give their consent to extend the time for obtaining the subscription one year. This extension was, with few exceptions, agreed to. As already stated, the first half milHon dollars in due time were more than subscribed. Those who subscribed five hundred dol- lars to this fund are life members of the College and are not sub- ject to the payment of any further dues whatsoever. But, in the meantime, the work of the College called for expenditures beyond the income provided by the interest of the Endowment Fund, and the Fellows of the College, in annual meeting held in Phil- adelphia on October 27, 1916, voted that those who had not sub- scribed $500 to the Endowment should be assessed by annual dues of $25 each under provisions as above stated. At any time a Fellow of the College may become a life member by subscribing $500 to the permanent Endowment Fund of the College. Subscription cards used for this purpose are of the form given on the following page.