20 Report of the President 



guide our country in this turning point in the world's history.* 

 In his distinguished service of forty-eight years to the Museum, 

 from its foundation in 1869, Mr. Choate has 

 T erV1 h C H rh * e ^ an encm ring monument, through his sa- 



gacity as a lawyer, his persuasive power with 

 the State and City authorities, his broad-minded view of the 

 influence of the Museum in education, his belief in Sunday 

 opening, his power as a writer, and as a speaker on all the 

 historic occasions of the first half century of the Museum's 

 history. Intelligence, education, the diffusion of light and 

 learning among the people, and confidence in the uplifting 

 power of the teachings of nature were the guiding principles 

 of Mr. Choate's life as a Trustee of the Museum. From the 

 period of his interview with William M. Tweed in Albany, in 

 1869, which resulted in the incorporation of the Museum, to his 

 masterful argumentf of 1909 for freedom from political con- 

 trol, we find him as one of the four guiding spirits of the 

 institution, the others being Albert S. Bickmore, J. Pierpont 

 Morgan, and, above all, Morris K. Jesup. 



Free public education has always been a distinctive feature 

 of American civilization. The only education which is really 

 free is that which comes from endowment and the voluntary 

 contributions of citizens. All public education, so called, is by 

 taxation of certain classes for the benefit of others. 



On September 8, 1916, the Congress of the United States 

 passed a law% taxing all bequests, legacies, devises and gifts 

 for education, philanthropy and religion in equal 

 Fd C ^t** ° n measure with expenditures for industry and for 

 luxury. This tax is without precedent in federal 

 legislation, for a law imposing a similar tax during the Span- 

 ish-American War was almost immediately amended to 

 exempt such bequests and gifts. Moreover, thirty-eight of 

 the leading States of the Union have exempted educa- 



* Mr. Choate was chosen as the principal orator and spokesman of the United 

 States and of the municipality at the various meetings and banquets with which 

 the Commissioners of Great Britain and of France were received and welcomed by 

 the municipality of New York, in May, 19 17. A fuller notice of his great ser- 

 vice to the Museum is presented in subsequent pages of this report and is em- 

 bodied in the Memorial Volume written by the President and printed by order of 

 the Trustees. 



t This legal brief was prepared with very great care on January 18, 1909. It 

 affects the management not only of the American Museum but of its sister insti- 

 tutions. 



% Amended March 3, 191 7. 



