Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

Page transcription

benefit of hindsight it is now abundantly plain that the interests of
all concerned would have been greatly served by so doing. The master
found that the Corporation was determined not to seek a judicial deter-
mination of the issues involved because it believed its position legally
sound, was hesitant to incur the very large expense involved and
believed that some of the claims were on a moral level, which a legal
decision would not dispose of.

On October 2, 1952, a resolution was drafted by counsel to the
Corporation that, with certain changes, was to be approved by the
Corporation as the resolution of January 19, 1953. A revised draft
of October 14, 1952, was approved by the Corporation in October.
This draft resolution was, in substance, adopted by the Coordinating
Committee on the Biological Sciences of the Board of Overseers and,
on January 12, 1953, by the Overseers. The draft resolution was also
submitted, in November, 1952, to representatives of the Visiting
Committee, including counsel. Counsel to the Visiting Committee
responded on December 22, 1952, urging that the Corporation as trustee
was obliged to act "with a view solely to the best interests of the

Three recitals that were in the October 2 draft were omitted
from the revision of October 14. These were "(1) that a purpose of
the resolution was to continue the identity of the Arboretum, (2) that
'without limit of time' (the words 'for the present' being substituted)
the income of the Arboretum would be first applied to the support of
the living collections, the Arnold Professor, and the library and
herbarium, and only then to other activities; and (3) that the Arboretum
should bear no part of the maintenance of the central botanical building
to which the bulk of its library and herbarium were to be moved."