State Properties Administered by the Society. The Society is by law custodian of certain properties of the State of New York, the periods of administration having been as follows: Stony Point Battlefield, 1897 to date... John Boyd Thacher Park, 1914 to date. 35 acres 1 acre 103 acres 1,000 acres 1 acre 350 acres Battle Island Park, 1916 to date... 200 acres 1,690 acres Other Creative Work The Society was also influential, wholly or partially, in the creation of the following state parks: Lake George Battlefield, 1897.. Palisades Interstate Park, 1900, now. Sir Wm. Johnson Mansion, Johnstown, 1906. 35 acres 30,000 acres 1 acre 1 acre 4 acres 30,041 acres As an example of an important New York City park created mainly through the influence of the Society, we may mention the Roger Morris Park, containing Washington's Headquarters, for which the City appropriated $235,000. Still other city and state parks, directly attributable to the spirit which animates the Society, are: Several parks in the City of Utica, N. Y., given by Col. Thomas R. Proctor, a Trustee of the Society; Parks in the City of Jamestown, N. Y., given by Dr. Charles M. Dow, a Trustee of the Society; and Clark Reservation (Green Lakes) of 75 acres near Syracuse, N. Y., given by Mrs. F. F. Thompson, a member of the Society. Gifts and State Funds in 22 Years The amount of Gift Funds expended by the Society exclusively on State Properties (Stony Point, Letchworth Park and Philipse Manor Hall) without administratives charges during the past 22 years has been.... Amount of State Funds expended by the Society exclusively on State Properties without administrative charges. ... Amount of Gift Funds expended by donors directly with the advice and cooperation of the Society upon State Properties (Philipse Manor Hall and Stark's Knob) but not passing through the Society's treasury. Value of known Gifts by Members to State and Cities for parks, municipal improvements and beautification... General Facts about the Society $48,993 63 170,072 62 51,625 00 3,562,290 00 The Society disburses both state and private funds on public. properties, and is accountable to the Legislature in an Annual Report. It is by law privileged to report to the Legislature from time to time, by bill or otherwise, recommendations pertinent to the objects for which it was created. It is expressly authorized by law to act jointly with persons appointed in any other state for similar purposes. Besides its immediate administrative responsibilities, it takes cognizance of the general movement for scenic and historic preservation in all the United States and foreign countries, and encourages it with advice and cooperation. It has aided City and State authorities, the public press, private organizations and school teachers throughout the United States and representatives of eight foreign countries in this manner. It has cooperated with the United States Department of the Interior, by exhibitions of pictures, distribution of pamphlets, etc., in cultivating appreciation of America's scenic beauties. It has officially had important parts in State, municipal and other public ceremonies. It has verified hundreds of sites and inscriptions for tablets and monuments. It has persistently stood for the integrity of National, State and City Parks against unnecessary perversion to utilitarian uses. It has endeavored to secure the abatement of the billboard nuisance by law. It has championed the retention of historic place names. It secured by prize competitions, names adopted by New York for East River Bridges. It has secured the preservation of several historical buildings and many extraordinary features of natural scenery. It has secured the erection of important public monuments. It has published 8,331 pages of printed matter, (including about 1,000 pages of otherwise unpublished archives,) referring to about 25,000 different names and subjects. (See pages 40-41.) It has held many public meetings and given many public illustrated lectures in promotion of its objects. Its work is purely pro bono publico. Its officers and members are forbidden by law to receive compensation or to be pecuniarily interested in any contract. It has no sinecures. It receives no subvention from the State for its general expenses, and its general work is maintained by membership fees ranging from $5 a year upward, by special contributions from time to time, and by the income from certain limited funds. Its income is inadequate to the needs of its work, and it invites public spirited men and women to support it by membership, contributions and bequests. Its finances are carefully scrutinized by the Trustees. Written reports of the condition of every fund belonging to the Society and the State are placed in the hands of each Trustee at every meeting and printed in the minutes which are sent regularly to all the Trustees. All Society moneys are disbursed on authorized vouchers drawn pursuant to budgets or special resolutions; and all State funds are paid out upon authorized vouchers in accordance with the Legislative appropriations. Its Trustees devote their time, thought, strength, and often their purses, to the work in hand, without other recompense than the consciousness of performing a public service. It administers the public properties in its care without respect to political or partisan considerations. Faithful and efficient service are the prime requirements, and employees are not employed or discharged for political reasons. GENERAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT Summary of State Funds During the year ended December 31, 1916, we received from the State Treasurer and disbursed on account of State properties funds as follows: Our bank accounts for these funds are with the National City Bank. "If eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.- Emerson, "The Rhodora." "To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms she speaks a various language."- Bryant, "Thanatopsis.” "I ask anybody who is in the habit of taking long walks in London, or in other cities, whether it is not an immense relief to the eye and to the thoughts to come on some tablet which suggests a new train of thought, and which may call to your mind the career of some distinguished person and take off the intolerable pressure of that monotony of endless streets. But I attribute more value to memorial tablets than that. I think that for the young who may need to have their ambitions turned in a more worthy direction than the Olympian games it is not a bad thing to have it forced on their minds, whether they like it or not, that there are other avenues of fame, and that great cities gratefully remember those who have illustrated them by living in their midst.”— Earl of Rosebery, formerly Prime Minister of Great Britain, speaking to a London audience at the dedication of a tablet commemorating Macaulay's residence." "The population of the world goes on constantly increasing, and nowhere increasing so fast as in North America. A taste for natural beauty is increasing, and, we hope, will go on increasing. The places of scenic beauty do not increase, but, on the contrary, are in danger of being reduced in number and diminished in quantity, and the danger is always increasing with the accummulation of wealth, owing to the desire of private persons to appropriate these places. There is no better service we can render to the masses of the people than to set about and preserve for them wide spaces of fine scenery for their delight. From these propositions I draw the conclusion that it is necessary to save what we have got, and to extend the policy which you have wisely adopted, by acquiring and preserving still further areas for the perpetual enjayment of the people."- Right Hon. James Bryce, LL. D., etc., to an American audience when British Ambassador to the United States. We have just quoted one apposite passage from Ruskin, which reminds us of another at the beginning of his introduction to " The Crown of Wild Olives." And it should be remembered that Ruskin was addressing working people, the drudgery of whose lives he would lighten by bringing into them something of the beautiful in nature and art. In the introduction referred to, he speaks of a charming brook in South England, which once flowed in its native beauty through the meadows. But when commercial greed invaded * See more extended quotation in Annual Report of this Society for 1904, pp. 25-27. |