XX 



ment as time may require, wortliy of the noble purposes to which it is 

 devoted, and in keeping- with the ideals of this great City. We may 

 well be proud of the public institutions of Greater New York, but we 

 should not be so content with them as to feel that nothing may be done 

 to extend their beneficent influences to our own boroug^h. We are en- 

 titled to appropriations for something else than the making- of high- 

 ways and sewers, the removal of garbage, and the establishment of 

 handsome quarters for the imposition and collection of taxes. How- 

 ever essential to our welfare all such departments may be, they are not 

 the only thing's we need. 



No community that contents itself with facilities for mere material 

 existence can make much prog^ress toward a hig^h deg-ree of civilized life. 

 Such facilities are enjoyed in their g-reatest perfection when the high- 

 est culture and best ideals obtain. Indeed they are the effect, not the 

 cause, of civic cultivation and the best public spirit. 



Let us adopt an intellig-ent principle of action on this subject, and 

 then let us proclaim it and live up to it. And, in due time, we shall 

 create a public opinion, which no official, however high, can disregard, 

 and no difficulties, however obdurate, can withstand. 



Reaching- these aims, we may well beg-in to think that life is worth 

 living in the Borough of Richmond and that to some appreciable ex- 

 tent our Association has contributed to results so admirable, so really 

 helpful, and so well worth all the efforts we mav give for them. 



