HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



system from our own plant showed that it was being conducted at a 

 much lower rate than that of other municipal buildings. 



The salaries and wages are extremely low, as shown in the table 

 on the opposite page. 



Our salaries and wages should provide in themselves for some sort 

 of compulsory insurance or retiring fund. At present they are so low 

 that in most cases they barely provide a living wage. 



To conduct the scientific departments to the best educational 

 interests of the City, it is necessary that the Museum should attract 

 through its curatorships and associate curatorships men of ability 

 equal to that of college professors and associate professors. In other 

 words, the scientific work of the Museum demands a very high order 

 of ability, and men of the first rank can never be attracted to the 

 Museum staff or be kept on the Museum staff unless their compensa- 

 tion is commensurate with their attainments. This will be increas- 

 ingly the case if, as proposed in this report, the Museum extends its 

 activities into subjects like Public Health and other applied branches 

 of science, astronomy, physics and geography. Only the esprit 

 de corps and loyalty which now prevail in the Museum Staff have kept 

 within our ranks several members who have been called to other in- 

 stitutions with the offer of marked increases in salary. 



An increase in maintenance to $200,000 for the year 1910 is the 

 working minimum. Apart from comparison with other scientific and 

 educational institutions, this is required to place our staff on living 

 salaries and wages comparable to those of street cleaners, policemen, 

 city clerks, subordinate officials and men of higher grade in other de- 

 partments of the City. Certain percentages of increase with length 

 and efficiency of service should be carefully considered and approved. 



It is not to the economic advantage of the City, through lack of 

 sufficient appropriations, to compel the Trustees to devote parts of the 

 income from its endowment fund to maintenance. The bequest of 

 Mr. Jesup specifically provided against this, and similar provision 

 should be made in other bequests. 



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