13 
The short view reveals an institution of modest means, limited 
area, and limited possibilities. The ¢ 
— 
anger consists in considering 
the status quo as final, and the needs therefore correspondingly 
small. 
The long view reveals the ideal of an institution to be realized 
by gradual, steady progress. Not such an ideal that our contem- 
poraries will think us mad to attempt it, but such an ideal as will 
stimulate united endeavor to approach it as rapidly as possible, and 
will compel the approval, as well as the commendation, of those 
who come after us. 
Nothing could be more disastrous to an institution than to adopt 
the attitude, helc 
size—that because it is small its requirements must eternally be 
small. To do this is to be indifferent to the essential element of 
quality—to see two inches before one’s nose, rather than to visual- 
ize an ideal. 
QO. 
, alas, by some, that needs are determined by 
DEPRESSION AND Morar 
Social workers and those engaged in relief work during the de- 
pression have reported that food and fuel and wherewithal to be 
clothed are not the only urgent needs of the unemployed. The 
depression is not only economic; it tends to become mental and 
spiritual. Loss of morale needs to be steadily counteracted; i 
tends to persist and to result in permanent social maladjustment 
The results are disastrous in proportion to one’s lack of intel- 
lectual and cultural resources. While music and art, literature and 
science, cannot appease hunger, they do minister to fundamental 
human needs, and their ministrations become increasingly urgent 
in adversity. 
It is specially important, therefore, in periods of unemployment 
and depression that institutions which meet these needs should not 
be forced to retrench their activities too greatly. That nearly one 
hundred and ten thousand persons have come to the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden every month during 1933 to enjoy and study the 
collections, to use its library, to attend its classes and lectures, bears 
testimony to the fact that the Garden is meeting fundamental hu- 
man needs, aesthetic, intellectual, and cultural, on a scale that is 
truly impressive. Of course, it cannot continue to do this ade- 
quately with diminished appropriations and contributions. 
