22 Report of the President 



the State of New York and the Members of the Senate 

 and Assembly must prepare to meet the crisis which has 

 suddenly overwhelmed the educational system of the State. 

 At the moment a democratic measure of taxation, one that 

 has a precedent in many other states, seems advisable. 

 President John H. Finley, at the head of the entire educa- 

 tional system of the State, has recently declared himself in 

 favor of united support for home rule for the schools, for 

 financial independence on the part of boards of education, 

 and for separate tax rolls and assessments for educational 

 purposes. 



We believe that the people of this State, of all political 

 parties, and of all religious creeds, when the matter is 

 thoroughly explained to them, will also share cheerfully in 

 the new burdens necessary to develop and to protect our 

 youth. Americans, one and all, are keen about the educa- 

 tion of their children ; all are ready to make some sacrifices, 

 and the greater number are ready to make substantial 

 sacrifices. It is true that all adults now pay an invisible 

 and indirect tax through rentals. A visible and direct tax 

 for education would be paid with less murmuring if its 

 purpose were well known and understood. 



NATURE-EDUCATION BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

 —DISCOVERY REACHES THE SCHOOL MIND 



The Museum is independently developing its school 

 educational work, and with the exceptions noted has made 

 _ . . encouraging progress. In the last five years 



Populariza- ° ° ° 



tion of it has reached 5,650,595 children directly and 



Science indirectly through its lecture system and travel- 



ing museums; it has expended $89,126.08 of its own funds 

 directly on public education, in addition to the $1,538,057 

 expended on explorations, collections and researches in 

 remote regions and on abstruse branches of science, which 

 ultimately find their way into the school mind. This trans- 

 fer of great scientific discoveries to the schools is going on 

 all the time. In biology, consider the remoteness from 



