THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



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AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION' 



Established 1875 Incorporated, Massachusetts, 1S02 Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910 



Will it Live When You are Dead? 



Many of us worry not so much about 

 what will happen to us when we shall 

 have shuffled off this mortal coil, but 

 what will happen to others and to our 

 work. Regarding The Agassiz Asso- 

 ciation this query has been asked by 

 two of our largest contributors and 

 several of our smaller ones, and indeed 

 the point has been raised in conference 

 with those who have taken but little 

 active interest in our work. And this 

 uncertainty, in the event of the Presi- 

 dent's death, has made them hesitate 

 about contributing" largely to the work. 



But whatever doubt there may be as 

 to whether the load can be drawn when 

 this work horse has laid down for the 

 last time, one thing is sure ; it can be 

 drawn more easily and there will be 

 more probability of its continuance if 

 it can be placed on the top of the hill 

 or at least on level ground before that 

 event. 



I also asked the question years ago 

 in all seriousness and in anxious 

 thought for the life of the AA under 

 the excellent administration of the for- 

 mer President. Undoubtedly there 

 were times when it seemed to him that 

 if he were to stop working the whole 

 thing would sto;>. But it didn't. He 

 found a successor and that successor 

 has worked hard. I am convinced that 

 this world will not let stop any work 

 that is really worth while. It constant- 

 ly weeds out the unfit and when I sec 

 an organization like the AA doing 

 good work for thirty-six years and in- 

 creasing as these years go by I am not 

 at all worried about its continuance. 



One thing has been accomplished 

 by the present administration. An of- 

 ficial magazine has been established. 

 Previouslv the AA had a department in 

 various magazines subject to the 

 whims of the editor or changes in the 

 management. Now it has its own 

 magazine, an important factor in the 



continuance of the Association. In the 

 past it has from time to time gone 

 out of various periodicals for various 

 reasons but never for any fault of the 

 AA. It has several times changed its 

 office in the last few years, but now it 

 has at least the nucleus of a permanent 

 home on its own ground in its own 

 buildings. I believe that these are es- 

 sential elements that foretell continued 

 existence. 



I accepted the invitation of the for- 

 mer President to take the office and 

 I then accepted the offer of the owner 

 of the old Arcadia because I hoped to 

 build an Institution that will live long 

 after the persons now connected with 

 it shall be dead. But let us look at 

 the other side for a moment. Suppose 

 the whole thing ceases to exist at the 

 death of the present manager. There 

 have been contributed in the past four 

 years not quite four thousand dollars. 

 The management of any organization 

 in existence has cost as much as that in 

 salary to its chief worker for that same 

 period of time, but the chief worker 

 of the AA gets nothing. The AA has 

 been zvorth all it has cost while it has 

 existed, and if several thousand dollars 

 should be contributed every year in the 

 indefinite future, the AA will pay as it 

 goes a hundredfold more than any other 

 investment for the benefit of humanity. 



In the thirty-six years of the AA's 

 existence there has been invested for 

 the entire management, home and 

 everything else, an average of less than 

 a thousand dollars a year. Why is that 

 we have had so much less than has 

 been given to the humane societies, 

 Audubon societies and other organiza- 

 tions of widespread, effiective work? 

 Echo answers, why. And sometimes 

 that is a mighty discouraging answer. 

 Not long ago I visited a large city in 

 which there was a huge, dial-shaped 

 indicator at the head of the main street 

 to announce the amount of money that 



