Message to the Congress Recommending Appropriation for the Fourth International Congress of School Hygiene to be Held in Buffalo, N.Y., August 25 to 30, 1913

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

On the 19th of August last Congress passed the following resolution;

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States is hereby requested to direct the Secretary of State to issue invitations to foreign governments to participate in the Fourth International Congress on School Hygiene, to be held in Buffalo, New York, August twenty-fifth to thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen: Provided, That no appropriation shall be granted at any time hereafter in connection with said congress.

At the time the resolution was passed there were three gentlemen in Buffalo whose means and whose interest in the congress were such that the people of Buffalo had every reason to believe that the expense of the congress would be contributed by these, their citizens. Since that time the three citizens have died, and there is no written obligation on the part of their estates to meet the necessary expenses.

I recommend the appropriation of $30,000 (to which the citizens of Buffalo will have to add a substantial sum) as a contribution of the Government to the fund necessary to make the reception of the congress accord with what we regard as American hospitality.

Personally I am very much opposed to any invitation of this sort at the instance of the Government in which the Government does not assume all the expenses of entertainment. Other countries much less able than the United States never extend an invitation of this sort without having proper preparation for the reception of the guests of the nation.

In the peculiar circumstances of the present resolution I urgently recommend the appropriation of the sum mentioned to enable the obligation of the invitation to be properly met. The proviso in the resolution was an unfortunate one, in my judgment, but whether it was so or not, under the circumstances it offers no reason for Congress not to take the proper course.

WM. H. TAFT.

The White House, January 22, 1913.