securing memberships; or the compensation might be made up in the form of a Class D membership for the firm of the representative, or a Class E membership for the representative.

In addition, the Co-operative association, with which the writer is identified, expects to have traveling representatives among the central stations, and all branches of the trade, and these men will be expected, as a matter of course, to take an active interest in increasing the membership of the National Electric Light Association.

The above suggested plans would supply the missing link in an effective campaign for increasing the membership, and, if agreeably to you, we respectfully request that the executive committee be empowered, if it is not already so authorized, to pass upon the questions and their adoption in their present or some amended form.

Your committee has conceived it to be a part of its duty. to keep an accurate record of the work done, including a detailed description of the campaign exhibits, of the printed literature issued, results secured, etc., all of which will be incorporated in a large, permanent, bound volume imprinted Record of the Work of the Membership Committee of the National Electric Light Association. This volume will provide for the permanent record of the work of this committee and of future committees. The advantage of such a record is at once apparent.

The committee is in hearty accord with the proposed revision of the dues that we understand will be recommended by the committee on revision of dues, and is of the opinion that with this change the work of increasing the membership can be made much more effective.

It may be stated in this connection that the prospective Class A members are largely made up of companies in the medium and the smaller cities, who entertain the belief, among a number of others, that the present system of association dues is inequitable.

Your committee respectfully requests an appropriation of $2,000 to pursue this work vigorously, with the understanding that, inclusive of the $2,000 above mentioned, it may devote to the work of increasing the membership all of the proceeds from the new members which it secures up to the time of the next convention.

It is the belief of your committee that these plans vigorously carried out will double your membership as of your last official record of 1906 and put the number of all classes beyond the 2000 mark by the time of the next convention.

The members secured since March 1st have yielded an average of $22 each. On this basis, if the plans of your committee are approved and yield the results anticipated, the annual revenues of the association would be increased $16,940.

Your committee also requests that 750 extra copies of the bound Proceedings of the 1907 meeting be struck off, so that new members can be assured of securing the valuable record of the present convention.

As chairman of the committee, I desire to call the attention of the members to the hearty support and co-operation of Mr. Converse D. Marsh in prosecuting the work of the committee. Mr. Marsh has given freely of his time and attention, and is largely responsible for the highly effective commercial literature which has been issued.

I wish also to say that Messrs. Mulligan, Selig and Scherck have given every assurance of their active support, of which it has not been possible, thus far, to take greater advantage, as the present convention affords the first opportunity the committee has had for a conference.

Respectfully submitted,

J. ROBERT CROUSE, Chairman,
CONVERSE D. MARSH,

Committee W. L. MULLIGAN,

LEON H. SCHERCK,

A. L. SELIG.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Crouse is entitled to the hearty thanks of the association for the results he and his committee have accomplished.

One of the most interesting papers of this convention, and one that I think is rich in suggestions for increasing the load upon central stations and the revenues of central stations, is that relating to the charging of automobiles. We will now have the paper, Opportunities for the Sale of Current for Charging Electric Automobiles, by H. H. Rice, of Indianapolis.

Mr. Rice presented the paper, as follows:

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SALE OF CURRENT FOR CHARGING ELECTRIC

AUTOMOBILES

It is surprising that central-station men, who should have been foremost in advocating and pushing the sale of electric automobiles, have been most apathetic. This has been due in part to what were considered more important opportunities for the development of their own business, to the lamentable financial failure of early endeavors to utilize electric vehicles in cab service, in even greater measure to ignorance on the part of the central-station men themselves, but most of all to the lack of appreciation of the possibilities of revenue to be obtained from the electric carriage.

As to the early cab failures, it is enough to say that they were not due to any inherent defects of motor or battery. The impression, however, became current that electric vehicles were "no good," and many central-station men to-day continue to act on the opinion founded then. As well condemn the gasolene car of to-day because of the performance, or, rather, nonperformance, of the early cars of that type. It is not so much, after all, that the vehicles have been greatly improved, although the change has been very great indeed, but the change is in the public and in its grasp of the situation.

The revenue to be obtained from selling current to charge electric automobiles is not limited by the popularity of the gasolene car, because there is no real rivalry between them. Their fields overlap slightly at times, but the gasolene car is of course and unquestionably supreme in its field, as is the electric. in its own sphere. That sphere for the electric is wider than you suppose. It used to be thought a question of mileage or speed. But any electric to-day can go much faster than the city laws allow, and as for mileage, no lady on her errands, no busy physician or business man, can use the battery charge in a day. When the first catalogues were published, mileages were overstated. To-day most manufacturers understate them. Forty miles is still given by some manufacturers whose regular

carriages have done 80, and any maker can do a stunt of 100 miles on demand. When it is considered that the average run of a busy carriage in use daily by the manager of a factory and for additional errands by the office men is but 20 miles, and that busy physicians rarely go over this amount, the emphatic statement may be made that if not another mile is added to the mileage of the electric vehicle there is already sufficient mileage to satisfy all requirements of city use.

The reasons why the electric is supreme in its own field, over all types of cars, or over the horse, do not need to be entered into. This is not an advertisement of the electric vehicle, but this and the following are needed to show why the electric carriage, as a source of profit, demands the attention of centralstation men.

The field is what you make it. Thousands will buy electric carriages and, of course, current with which to run them, if given half the encouragement you extend to other currentusing devices. In many instances the policy adopted by the electric-lighting companies concerning the accommodations offered for the charging of batteries is the one element that determines whether a prospective customer selects an electric or a gasolene vehicle. It is seen, therefore, that the electric-automobile industry is closely related to the electric-lighting industry. The electric carriage will use more current in a day than most signs in a week, a fan in a month, a hot-water bag in a year, or the curling iron in five years, and yet you spend dollars in soliciting for and advertising these things and, with few exceptions, scarcely a cent for the electric vehicle.

You should push all the other things, but why neglect the largest of all? Some companies buy and install signs for their customers, others simply install them, and others do neither. In all probability the most liberal companies are making the most out of signs-at least the electric journals say so-yet signs use their current during the peak of the load. Electric carriages do not naturally take current at that time, and restrictions are unnecessary in most cases. For example, I was in charge of a large garage of electric carriages in Providence. The customers were of two classes-those who left their carriages there during business hours to be charged in the daytime, and