NATICK 



4073 



NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION 



prosperity of Natchez is largely dependent on 

 cotton. There are cotton mills, a cotton com- 

 press and cottonseed oil mill:?, the first cotton- 

 seed oil mill in the United States having been 

 built here in 1834. Besides cotton, consider- 

 able rice, sugar cane and produce are shipped. 

 The site was occupied by the Natchez In- 

 dians, for whom the place was named, when 

 Le Moyne de Bienville built Fort Rosalie there 

 in 1769. In 1729 the village was almost totally 

 roved and nearly all of the inhabitants were 

 massacred by the Indians. The English took 

 th> place in 1763 and renamed it Fort Parmure. 

 In 177U it was taken by the Spanish, who held 

 it until 1798, when United States troops took 

 possession. In 1802 it became the capital of 

 Xatchez District and Mississippi Territory, 

 in 1803 it was incorporated as a city, and from 

 1817 to 1821 it was the state capital. A tornado 

 swept the city in May, 1840, causing consider- 

 able damage. The year after its bombardment 

 in the War of Secession (1862) it was taken by 

 the Federals, who occupied it until the end of 

 the war. 



NATICK, na'tik, MASS., a town in Middlesex 

 County in the eastern part of the state and on 

 the Charles River, seventeen miles southwest 

 of Boston. Transportation is provided by the 

 Boston & Albany Railway and by electric lines. 

 Natick is largely interested in the manufacture 

 of boots, shoes, baseballs, shirts, clothing, boxes 

 and saws. Besides the public schools, the town 

 has Walnut Hill School, for young ladies, the 

 Bacon Public Library and the Morse Institute, 

 containing a public library and reading room. 

 Features of interest are a monument to John 

 I .li'it and a soldiers' monument. Lake Cochitu- 

 ate, one of the sources of Boston's water sup- 

 ply, is in the northwest part of the town; one 

 of the parks has a bathing beach. The people 

 show with pride the shoe shop where Henry 

 Wilson, who was later chosen V ice-President of 

 United States (1872), worked as a cobbler. 

 Natick was organized as a home for convert* d 

 ins by John Eliot in 1651 ; their old burial 

 nd is an attractive feature of the place, 

 town was incorporated in 1781. Its popu- 

 lation in 1910 was 9,866; in 1916 it was 10,102 



-timatc). 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, an in- 



ition founded in New York City in 1826, 



-choob of which are open from October to 



middle of May I .i\,n in a 



ty of art subjects, including In".-, .-till hi".-. 



.'inatomy, -trhm. composi- 



and coin and medal engraving, and prises 



are awarded for meritorious work at annual 

 exhibitions. The Academy has an average en- 

 rolment of from 200 to 300 students. The in- 

 stitution was affiliated with the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Art and with Columbia University 

 in 1906, and in the same year it effected a union 

 with the Society of American Artists. 



In 1802 an Academy of Arts was organized in 

 New York, but the famous historical painter, 

 John Trumbull, was the only recognized artist 

 among its members. A new society was formed 

 in 1826, called the New York Drawing Associa- 

 tion, and two years later the name National 

 Academy of Design was adopted. Prof. S. F. 

 B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, was 

 an influential member and twice served as 

 president. At the present time the governing 

 body of the academy is a council composed of 

 its officers and six members. 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, an 

 organization incorporated by act of Congress 

 on March 3, 1863. When called upon to do so 

 by any department of the United States gov- 

 ernment, the Academy makes experiments, con- 

 ducts investigations, reports on any specified 

 subject of science or art and answers any ques- 

 tions submitted to it; the expenses are de- 

 frayed from appropriations made for the pur- 

 pose. The Academy holds in Washington, D. C., 

 a stated session each year, beginning on the 

 third Monday in April, and an autumn meeting 

 is also held at such time and place as the coun- 

 cil determines. Special meetings may also be 

 called when occasion demands it. The original 

 membership was limited to fifty, but there are 

 now about 142 honorary members and forty- 

 one foreign associates. The former must be 

 citizens of the United States. Each year there 

 are published Proceedings of the meetings. 



NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, a joint 

 organization of the representatives of capital 

 and labor in the United States, whose object is 

 the lessening of industrial strife. The federa- 

 tion has from the first emphasiied the impor- 

 tance of arbitration, and has furnished a sort of 

 forum for the discussion of the grievances of 

 labor and of desirable legislation. Separate 

 departments devote their attention to such 

 problems as immigration, wages, the open and 

 closed shop, strikes, lockouts, trade agreements 

 and so on. A welfare department concerns it- 

 self with bettering tin- living condition of tin- 

 work 



The into being in New 



, City in 1900, following a series of cot 

 ences held there and in Chicago. Many of the 



