The Tax on Education 21 



tion, philanthropy and religion, both from direct tax and from 

 taxation on legacies, bequests and gifts. The existing federal 

 tax law, to use the language of the President of one of our 

 southern colleges, is a "staggering blow" aimed at the life of our 

 educational institutions. The very first response in this country 

 to the new world conditions created by the war came from the 

 students and staffs of the great endowed institutions of educa- 

 tion and science. Museums, universities, colleges, technological 

 schools, technical schools, medical schools, training schools for 

 nurses, and laboratories, all built up during the past two cen- 

 turies by private bequests, legacies, devises and gifts, hastened 

 to service in response to the call of President Wilson, giving 

 the brains and energies of their best experts and offering the 

 bodily service of their youth for actual warfare. It is no exag- 

 geration to say that without this scientific knowledge and train- 

 ing, the high expert knowledge of chemistry, physics, mechan- 

 ics and technology which the men trained in these great endowed 

 institutions have been able to offer the country, America would 

 have no chance whatever of materially affecting the outcome 

 of this war. This war is eighty-five per cent, science and fif- 

 teen per cent, human courage and endurance. 



By action of the Trustees of the American Museum, at a 

 special meeting held May 22, 1917, the President was author- 

 ized to arrange for the Museum to join with other institutions 

 in the formation of municipal and national committees, repre- 

 sentative of educational, charitable and religious institutions, 

 to urge upon Congress tax exemption of bequests and legacies 

 for philanthropic purposes. President Henry Fairfield Osborn 

 was elected Chairman, the Committee being organized as fol- 

 lows: 



Jacob H. Scruff Hebrew Institutions 



Edward W. Sheldon Libraries 



R. Fulton Cutting Protestant Philanthropic Institutions 



Nicholas Murray Butler Columbia University 



Robert W. de Forest Metropolitan Museum of Art 



William W. Niles New York Zoological Society 



Cleveland H. Dodge Y. M. C. A. Institutions 



Morgan J. O'Brien Roman Catholic Institutions 



Lewis Cass Ledyard New York Public Library 



Felix M. Warburg Hebrew Institutions 



Henry Fairfield Osborn American Museum of Natural History 



