40 Address — Bird S. Coler. 



sum of $900,000, you should know that even this large sum has 

 not been sufficient to pay our running expenses. Nearly every 

 year the Trustees have willingly, yes, cheerfully, contributed from 

 $15,000 to $30,000 to make up an inevitable deficiency. 



" I might continue and say many things about this Museum, — its 

 past, its present and its future, — but 1 will not take up time. 



"I will now ask the Hon. Bird S. Coler, the comptroller in 

 charge of the finance department of the City, to say a few words." 



Address by the Hon. Bird S. Coler, Comptroller of the City 

 of New York : 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



It is a great pleasure and honor for me to be here this afternoon and to 

 say a little something to you about the City of New York, and something, 

 maybe, about an idea, or a scheme of education. The present City of New 

 York is the result of the consolidation of ninety separate corporations. I will 

 not worry you with the details of that consolidation, or with a few of our 

 troubles up to the present time ; but, merely to show you the magnitude of our 

 city in a comparative sense, I would say that we have a population of over 

 3,500,000; that the bonded debt of the City of New York is more than the 

 bonded debt of all the States in the Union combined ; that half of that debt is 

 self-sustaining through the earnings of our water department and our docks. 

 Looking at our expenses, the combined expense of the City of New York, of 

 bond and appropriation accounts, is more than five times that of the State of 

 New York itself, is two-thirds of that of the States of the Union, and is one- 

 seventh of that of the National Government itself. For educational purposes we 

 are now expending in the neighborhood of $20,000,000 a year ; that is, the 

 cost of education for the greater city is more, by several millions of dollars, than 

 the entire cost of running the old city of Brooklyn — a city of over a million 

 people — in all its branches and for all purposes. So you can see the immense 

 sum that is required for purely educational purposes. It is nineteen per cent, 

 of your entire budget. 



Now, it seems to me that the time has come when we have got to face the 

 enormous increase in expenditures for educational purposes in an intelligent 

 and fair and practical way. Maybe there is a legitimate reason why we should 

 give every child in the City of New York a college education. Maybe some 

 one may argue that it would be the best thing for the city to force every one to 

 take a higher education. In the last few years that seems to have been brought 

 to the front — the idea that the higher development must come through a system 

 of schools that would lead up to every one getting a higher education. I think 

 the idea is right to a large degree, but we must face it in a way that will not 

 increase the cost to such an extent that it will make taxation in this city a 

 tremendous burden. We have, as I have said, $20,000,000 a year, or in that 

 neighborhood ; that is, the bond appropriations and the appropriations for the 

 schools themselves ; and it seems to me that we can work together upon an idea 

 that will bring forth all there is in education, and upon a basis with which 

 every one can be satisfied, both those who believe in higher education and those 

 who believe in not expending quite so much money for the various purposes. 



I believe it is a fact that nearly ninety per cent, of our children leave our 

 schools before the age of fifteen years. A great many parents cannot afford to 

 allow their children to remain in the schools beyond that time. It seems to me 

 that we should have a definite system of education that, up to that age, would 

 be practically complete as far as it went, but then, instead of allowing every one 

 to force their children to go higher at the cost and expense of the city (because, 

 as a general rule, those who can afford to leave their children in schools after 



