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PUBLIC EDUCATION 
The Alfred 1. White Tradition 
The late Mr. Elihu Root, while chairman of the Trustees of 
the Carnegie Corporation, once reminded the President of the 
Corporation that it was the custodian of something less tangible 
than corporate funds but no less real. He stated that he referred 
to “Phe Andrew Carnegie Tradition.” 
In the same spirit it may be truly said that the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden received from and through Mr. Alfred T. White 
not only generous contributions of funds for its work, but also 
an intangible, which may be fittingly designated as ‘The Alfred 
T. White Tradition.” his is the tradition of public service. 
Mr. White's philosophy of life may be tersely expressed by the 
aphorism of Emerson: ‘‘To build the City is the great accom- 
plishment, not to possess it."’ His later years were largely 
occupied, not in accumulating, but in using his resources, of 
time and ability as well as of money, in public service. 
It was a leading idea in Mr. White’s mind, when he decided to 
initiate a botanic garden in Brooklyn, that it would render an 
outstanding service to the City and to the public; and not only 
to the local public of Greater New York, but in a larger way, 
through its scientific and educational activities, to mankind in 
general, 
Public service, therefore, in ‘The Alfred T. White Tradition,” 
has always been in the forefront of the aims of the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden, and this has 
oy 
een accomplished largely through 
the development of beautiful and instructive plantations and the 
program of public education based upon them. ‘For the ad- 
vancement of botany and the service of the City’'—this has been 
the dual aim from the beginning. 
Advantageous Location of the Garden 
The city of Greater New York, with a population of nearly 
7,500,000 (U. S. enumerations as of April 1, 1941), has an area 
of about 320 square miles and the Garden is located about five 
miles south of the geographic center of this area (which is 2,000 
feet north of Meeker Avenue bridge, Queens). Moreover the 
Interborough and the B.M.T. divisions of the subway svstem 
