22 Report of the President 



Through this Committee a General National Committee was 

 organized representing endowed institutions in all parts of the 

 United States, from Harvard University to the newest en- 

 dowed colleges, together with religious and philanthropic 

 institutions of all denominations, Hebrew, Roman Catholic and 

 Protestant. With the concurrence of this General Committee, 

 two measures were pressed upon Congress, as follows : 



Amendment proposed by 



Senator Henry L. Myers of Montana 



Exempting from Federal Taxation 



"All bequests, legacies, devises, or gifts to the United States, or to 

 any State, or to any political division thereof, for exclusively public 

 purposes, and all bequests, legacies, devises, or gifts for uses of a re- 

 ligious, literary, charitable, or educational character, or for the encour- 

 agement of art, or to societies for the prevention of cruelty to children." 



Amendment by 



Senator Henry F. Hollis of New Hampshire 



Adopted October 3, 1917 



Exempting from Federal Taxation 



"Contributions or gifts actually made within the year to corporations 

 or associations organized and operated exclusively for religious, chari- 

 table, scientific, or educational purposes, or to societies for the preven- 

 tion of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net income of 

 which inures to the benefit of any private stockholder or individual, to 

 an amount not in excess of fifteen per centum of the taxpayer's taxable 

 net income." 



The following is part of a Memorial sent to the Sixty-fifth 

 Congress : 



As representatives of the free public educational and 

 philanthropic institutions of the City of New York, which 

 are in close touch with a population of 6,000,000, we re- 

 gard a national inheritance tax which will in any way 

 diminish the bequests and gifts to education, philanthropy 

 and religion as a direct blow at one of the finest and 

 strongest elements of American life — namely, education 

 and public welfare through individual initiative, manage- 

 ment and contribution. 



More than three-fourths ($3,742,647) of the income of 

 the higher educational institutions of this City is derived 

 from private benefactions, as against less than one-fourth 



