26 Report of the President 



THE PEOPLE SHOULD MAINTAIN THE MUSEUM 



The tablet in the Entrance Hall of this institution bears the 

 following inscription: 



THE MUSEUM BUILDING 



ERECTED AND MAINTAINED 



BY THE 



PEOPLE OF NEW YORK 



At the present time this tablet does not express the truth. 

 For reasons of economy the Board of Estimate and Appor- 

 tionment felt compelled to reduce the maintenance appropri- 

 ation of the Museum for the year 19 19 to $200,000, which was 

 $40,000 less than the amount needed. This has obliged the 

 Trustees and friends of the Museum, in order to keep the 

 building open for part time operation, to make cash contribu- 

 tions totaling $65,000, to meet the deficiency of $40,000 in 

 maintenance and to advance the scale of wages and salaries in 

 the Museum to a point commensurate with the wages and 

 salaries paid in other departments of the City. In our opinion 

 it is in the best interests of the people of this City that they 

 should make the sacrifice necessary to continue building and 

 to provide annually the maintenance for this great educational 

 institution. The Trustees have made a mistake, to our mind, 

 in annually making up maintenance deficiencies from contribu- 

 tions of unrestricted funds. The institution should be main- 

 tained in the future in the spirit of the Contract of 1878 

 between the Museum and the City, namely, that the City pay 

 for the operating expenses, while the Trustees pay for the 

 collections and all the scientific work. In recent years the 

 Trustees have drawn so largely upon their own funds for main- 

 tenance purposes that the growth of the scientific collections 

 and exhibitions has been held back, with the result that the 

 people of the City of New York are the ultimate sufferers. 



Through a like policy, the New York Public Library and the 

 Metropolitan Museum of Art are making similar inroads on 

 the income from their endowment funds to meet current ex- 



