cepted (in both Houses by unanimous consent) in a joint resolution approved January 23, 1925, which provided also for the construction under the Architect of the Capitol. (See Appendix IV for my communication and the joint resolution.)

Subsequent estimates indicating that the cost of a structure such as was desirable would be at least $90,000, Mrs. Coolidge increased her gift to that sum. Including the equipment, some of which was, with her assent, provided out of this year's income of her endowment (see infra), the actual cost will have been about $94,000. As most of the work and the equipment was furnished at a bare margin above cost, the $94,000 has secured results far beyond what such a sum would ordinarily secure. This is exclusive of the organ, the cost of which ($15,500) is to be met out of future income of the endowment.

The general scheme of the structure and its location were determined after consultation with the Architect of the Capitol, members of the Fine Arts Commission, and approval of the Joint Committee on the Library. Mr. Charles A. Platt, of New York (architect of the Freer Gallery), was engaged as consulting architect, and the plans drawn by him were submitted for competitive bids in April last. The successful bidder (Arthur L. Smith & Co., of Washington) initiated work without delay and so hastened it that the structure would be ready for the first group of recitals October 28-30.1

The auditorium is a rectangle, stretching across the north end of the northwest (inner) courtyard, and reaching only to the level of the main floor. Utilizing three of the existing walls, it has but one wall exposed-that to the south. It occupies but about one-half of the court. The entrances are from the west corridor on the ground floor. The hall has a seating capacity of 511; with an entrance lobby (on the west) and a platform stage on the This latter is provided with a drop for a piano, and the equipment includes a small three-manual organ (whose cost is to be met out of subsequent income of Mrs. Coolidge's endowment). A chamber over the lobby will

east.

1 The recitals took place as planned. See Appendix VI.

stalments, for the following purposes:

(a) To aid the music division of the Library of development of the study, composition, and appre by enabling it

(b) To establish and conduct a periodic festiva music;

(c) To give concerts and defray all the expenses with;

(d) To offer and award a prize or prizes for a position or compositions performed in public for any festival or concert given under the auspices o Congress;

(e) To pay regularly to the chief of the music Library an honorarium, which shall be distinct fr mental salary received by him, and shall be in re special labor (much of it outside of official hou special responsibility, and inevitable personal e upon him in the suitable execution of these purpo (f) To further the purposes of musicology thr division of the Library of Congress.

(g) To do any and all other lawful acts and th promote the art of music, so far as any of the for come within the charitable uses which are allow

sustained by law, this proviso being inserted out of caution, to make the public and charitable purpose of this gift unambiguous and unmistakable.

As an explanation of her main purpose Mrs. Coolidge coincidentally addressed the following note to me as librarian:

I wish to leave with the recipient of the income from the Library trust fund which I have created the ultimate authority in the matter of its appropriation and application, and have therefore so worded the trust deed; nevertheless, I believe that you and your successors, as such recipients, may conceivably welcome a personal expression of my principal motives in the creation of this foundation.

I have wished to make possible, through the Library of Congress, the composition and performance of music in ways which might otherwise be considered too unique or too expensive to be ordinarily undertaken. Not this alone, of course, nor with a view to extravagance for its own sake; but as an occasional possibility of giving precedence to considerations of quality over those of quantity; to artistic rather than to economic values; and to opportunity rather than to expediency. For this reason I believe that advice should be sought from broadminded and disinterested musicians, whether or not official, whether or not professional. And, for the same reason, I hope that the audience may be chosen very largely from those whose musical taste and experience qualify them to listen sincerely and appreciatively.

It is not, therefore, "quantity production" that Mrs. Coolidge has in view, nor the popularization of the merely meritorious in music. It is rather the cultivation of the exceptional, for the stimulus and benefit of the superior understanding. The choice of chamber music is significant because, in this, music finds its purest and noblest expressions. The promotion of new compositions will stimulate the creation of new forms, of which, though many may be tentative and ephemeral, some will prove of permanent beauty and value. The provision for recitals will enable these to find a hearing. And the fact that the immediate audiences will be small will be no limitation, if they are composed of persons of the requisite understanding, seriousness of purpose, and influence in the musical world. Through that influence the effects may be far reaching; and the little auditorium at our National Capital prove, as a Japanese visitor, with

trust.

One has since been created by Congres approved March 3, 1925, it established Congress Trust Fund Board," a quasi co perpetual succession and "all the usual trustee," including the power to "invest, retain investments," and, specifically, "to accept, receive, hold, and administer bequests of personal property for the be connection with, the Library, its collectio vice, as may be approved by the board an Committee on the Library."

The act is given in full in Appendix V. were developed by the Library committ care that as finally reported it passed both out question or amendment. It was app President on March 3, 1925.

The board consists of five members: three two to be appointed by the President for fi The ex officio members are: The Secretary

James B. Wil

bur endowment.

ury, the chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library (always a Senator, and thus, with the Senate members of the committee, representing the full committee, available during the recesses of Congress), and the Librarian of Congress.

As the two nonofficial members the President has appointed John Barton Payne, of Washington, D. C. (for an initial term of three years), and James B. Wilbur, of Manchester, Vt., for an initial term of five years.

On April 11 the board organized, elected the Secretary of the Treasury as its chairman and the Librarian of Congress as its secretary, and adopted a seal. It was thus promptly ready to function.

An opportunity came with equal promptness-the offer of an immediate fund for it to hold and administer. The offer was from one of its members (Mr. Wilbur), whose interest in our collections (especially in the inclusion within them of source material for the study of American history) was mentioned in my last report, and whose suggestion (made two years ago) in fact led to the creation of the board. Originally intending a bequest of a fund whose income would be applicable to the acquisition of such source material (chiefly in photostat or other reproductions) he proposed to the board to change the bequest into an immediate gift of the principal, with the stipulation that for the present (and perhaps until his death) only one-seventh of the income should be so applied, the remaining six-sevenths being turned over to him.1

The principal consists of 1,000 shares of the 7 per cent preferred stock of the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, par $100 per share, quoted at the time at

107.

The offer, being precisely such as was anticipated in the creation of the board, was promptly accepted by the board, with the concurrence of the Joint Committee on the Library (the Senate members in the recess acting for

1 NOTE. This specific provision (amounting to $1,000 per annum) is not, Mr. Wilbur explains, a substitute for the gifts of material which he is currently making under a plan of selection and reproduction pursued by our division of manuscripts in consultation with him. (See report of that division, infra.)