THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 
273 
Ijeen in the history of the world a scien- 
tific society that has increased in influ- 
ence and power as the National Geo- 
graphic Society. 
As I have been associated with the 
Society since its very inception, you may 
perhaps pardon me for speaking for a 
few minutes of the Society itself, and 
of the causes that have led to this great 
growth. In the year 1888 the Society 
was organized under a national charter 
"to promote the increase and diffusion 
•of geographic knowledge." Just think 
what that means : To promote the study 
of the zvorld upon zvhich zve live. A 
truly great object for a little, feeble 
organization to undertake. At that time 
we had only about 200 members. 
The Society had no endowment, noth- 
ing coming to it but the membership 
fees. No millionaire has since come for- 
v^^ard to help us out, and yet today the 
Society has a great endowment raised 
li)y its own efforts. We have now an 
annual surplus, over and above all the 
running expenses of the Society, amount- 
ing last year to $43,000 — a surplus to be 
devoted to the promotion of geographic 
science. Why, that is equivalent to more 
than four per cent upon an investment 
of $1,000,000. We never had to take 
off our hats to any multi-millionaire for 
having endowed the Society with a mil- 
lion dollars; we have done it ourselves. 
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE SOCIETY 
When I come to look back upon our 
■early days, what a different condition of 
things prevailed. We had only about 
one thousand members and the Society 
was living from hand to mouth. Like 
Tnany other scientific societies, we consti- 
tuted a strictly technical organization. 
We supported the National Geo- 
graphic Magazine, at that time a valu- 
able technical journal that every one put 
upon his library shelf and very few 
people read. It was valuable, it was im- 
portant, but did not contribute anything 
to the financial support of the Society. 
In spite of the fact that the members 
of the Board of Managers and all the 
officers of the Society, including the) 
•editor of the magazine, served without 
pay; and in spite of the fact that our 
lecturers, as a rule, cost us nothing ex- 
cepting an occasional honorarium to 
cover traveling expenses, our income, 
being derived exclusively from member- 
ship fees, was hardly sufficient to pay 
the printer's bill for the magazine, the 
rent of our lecture hall, and the ordinary 
running expenses of the Society. Deficits 
were by no means unknown. 
We had no permanent home. Half an 
office room constituted our headquarters, 
and in shifting from one building to an- 
other, as happened more than once, a 
feeling of unpermanency ensued and 
valuable material was in danger of loss. 
Then the use of the Hubbard Me- 
morial Building was offered to us in 
memory of our first president — Gardiner 
Greene Hubbard — and for the first time 
we possessed a permanent habitation 
that in its beauty spoke of the position 
to which we aspired. But it threatened 
to be a white elephant, for we did not 
even have the means to provide for its 
lighting or to take proper care of it. 
It became a matter of vital necessity 
for the Society to increase its member- 
ship. Necessity spurred the Board of 
Managers into activity ; and they adopted 
a new policy — unique, so far as I know, 
in the history of science. I do not know 
of any other scientific society that has 
ever adopted it, and I do not know of 
any other society that has succeeded as 
the National Geographic Society has 
done. Now, how was this accomplished ? 
First of all, instead of limiting our 
membership to strict geographers, we 
threw open the doors of membership to 
all who desired to promote the increase 
and diffusion of geographic knowledge. 
We had a membership of one thousand 
m the District of Columbia ; we had 
ninety millions of people outside of the 
District of Columbia to whom we could 
appeal for an increase in our member- 
ship, but all we had to reach these out- 
side members was our magazine. Our 
Washington members enjoyed the course 
of lectures, but the outside members 
would have nothing but a magazine to 
hold them to the Society, and the ques- 
tion was, how could we hope to interest 
