XXXVlll 



museums to such an extent that its oblig-ation for 1907 in their behalf 

 exceed the cost of maintaining Central Park and all the other parks 

 and playgrounds in the boroughs of Manhattan and Richmond; it ex- 

 ceeds the cost of maintaining Prospect Park and the 44 other parks 

 in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and it exceeds the cost of 

 maintaining the magnificent park and playground system of over four 

 thousand acres in the Borough of The Bronx. 



What I have said may invite criticism although it is not so intended. 

 It is given merely as a statement of existing relations which I believe 

 it my duty as a public official to impart to my fellow citizens who 

 have to pay the bills. 



I think we will all agree that New York has been generous to her 

 museums, and and I have up to date never heard a complaint against 

 this generosity. 



As to the duty of the City to those institutions I have this to say- 

 In the wisdom of the charter-makers they included them as a feature of 

 the park development of the City. While their educational features 

 might entitle them to a higher place in the consideration of the City 

 authorities, which after all shoLild only reflect public sentiment, under 

 existing conditions, like the treatment of the parks themselves, as far as 

 City expenditures are concerned, they should be curtailed until the 

 necessities of the Health and Street Cleaning Departments are met; 

 until every child in the City is provided with seating room in our 

 public schools; until the Police and Fire Departments are amply pro- 

 vided to protect human life and property; and until we have put well 

 under way a system of rapid transit communicaton, so necessary to 

 every part of our great City. 



I do not mean that the museums should be crippled in aid of these 

 ends, but that they should be subordinated to them, and I can con- 

 ceive of no more patriotic service that the promoters of such institu- 

 tions having relation to the City can render the community, than by 

 cooperating with the Board of Estimate in this behalf, by a reduc- 

 tion of expenses now, until the paramount necessities of our City are 

 safely provided for. 



New York has been generous in a thousand different fields of human 

 endeavor. We contribute more in proportion for all the things that 

 go to make up a great cosmopolitan city than any other community 

 on the face of the globe, and you can rest assured she will at all times 

 contribute her share to the cultivation of the arts and bringing home 

 to her people the elevating sentiments which at all times abide in such 

 surroundings. 



