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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Why do we need a public library?, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Why do we need a public library?
+       Material for a library campaign
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Chalmers Hadley
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2010 [EBook #31760]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY? ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIBRARY TRACT, No. 10
+
+Revised Edition of Tract No. 1
+
+WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY?
+
+MATERIAL FOR A LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
+
+Compiled by CHALMERS HADLEY
+Sec'y American Library Association
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD
+1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO
+1910
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF THE
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
+
+PUBLISHING BOARD
+
+_Postage on book publications extra_
+
+
+Guide to reference books, by Alice B. Kroeger.
+  New and enlarged edition. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+Literature of American history; edited by J. N.
+  Larned. Cloth, $6.00. Supplements for 1902,
+  1903, paper, each $1; for 1904, 25c.
+
+A. L. A. Index to general literature. Cloth, $10.
+
+A. L. A. Index to portraits. $3.
+
+A. L. A. Catalog. Paper, $1.
+
+A. L. A. Catalog rules. Cloth, 60c.
+
+A. L. A. Booklist (monthly, 10 numbers) $1 a year
+
+List of subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs.
+  Cloth, $2.
+
+Books for girls and women and their clubs.
+  Paper, 25c. Also issued in five parts, small
+  size, 5c. each.
+
+Reading for the young, with supplement. Sheets,
+  $1.
+
+Books for boys and girls, by Caroline M. Hewins.
+  Paper, 15c. $5 per 100.
+
+Children's reading. Paper, 25c.
+
+Small library buildings. Paper, $1.25.
+
+Library buildings, by W. R. Eastman. Paper, 10c.
+
+(_Continued on 3rd cover page_)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIBRARY TRACT, No. 10
+
+Revised Edition of Tract No. 1
+
+WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY?
+
+MATERIAL FOR A LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
+
+Compiled by CHALMERS HADLEY
+Sec'y American Library Association
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD
+1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO
+1910
+
+
+
+
+Compiled from articles and addresses by
+
+
+Sir Walter Besant                                            7
+
+E. A. Birge, dean University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.    18
+
+William J. Bryan                                            38
+
+John P. Buckley                                             32
+
+Waller Irene Bullock, chief loan librarian Carnegie
+  Library, Pittsburg, Pa.                                   43
+
+James H. Canfield, late librarian Columbia University
+  Library, New York                                         40
+
+Andrew Carnegie                                         25, 41
+
+Winston Churchill                                           16
+
+Frederick M. Crunden, ex-librarian Public Library,
+  St. Louis, Mo.                                     4, 28, 47
+
+J. C. Dana, librarian Free Public Library,
+  Newark, N. J.                                 10, 12, 37, 42
+
+Melvil Dewey, ex-director N. Y. State Library, Albany       21
+
+William R. Eastman, chief Division of Educational
+  Extension, State Library, Albany, N. Y.               22, 45
+
+Mrs. S. C. Fairchild, ex-vice director New York State
+  Library School, Albany, N. Y.                             10
+
+W. I. Fletcher, librarian Amherst College Library,
+  Amherst, Mass.                                             6
+
+W. E. Foster, librarian Public Library, Providence, R. I.   44
+
+Chalmers Hadley, secretary American Library Association,
+  Chicago, Ill.                                          3, 29
+
+Joseph Le Roy Harrison, librarian Providence Athenĉum,
+  Providence, R. I.                                         27
+
+Caroline M. Hewins, librarian Public Library, Hartford,
+  Conn.                                                      5
+
+F. A. Hutchins, University Extension Department,
+  University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.        13, 19, 26, 36
+
+J. N. Larned, ex-librarian Public Library, Buffalo,
+  N. Y.                                             20, 22, 34
+
+Henry E. Legler, librarian Public Library, Chicago,
+  Ill.                                                  17, 30
+
+James Russell Lowell                                        18
+
+William McKinley                                            30
+
+Theodore Roosevelt                                          37
+
+C. C. Thach, president Alabama Polytechnic Institute     9, 39
+
+Alice S. Tyler, secretary Iowa Library Commission,
+  Des Moines, Iowa                                          47
+
+Irene Van Kleeck                                            36
+
+
+
+
+MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
+
+
+One of the most effective means of conducting a library campaign,
+especially in its early stage, is through the press. Not only will the
+reading and thinking part of the people thereby be reached, but any
+library editorial appearing in a newspaper, will, because of the public
+notice given it, receive greater consideration than if printed
+elsewhere. Library Commission workers and library supporters in general,
+have felt the need of printed material which could be made immediately
+available in a library campaign. Most library addresses and articles are
+too long, too scholarly in treatment or have lacked that crisp style
+necessary for use in the press.
+
+Editors of newspapers are slow to accept for printing, signed editorials
+which have seen service elsewhere. It is suggested that the material
+here compiled be made as local as possible in its application to
+individual communities, and that the editorials be sent to newspapers
+unsigned by the original writers. The same editorials should not be sent
+to neighboring communities, at least in their original form. Every
+attempt should be made to have them appear as fresh and spontaneous as
+possible. Different editorials should always be sent the several papers
+in the same city.
+
+The material here compiled is suggestive and sufficiently comprehensive
+to meet ordinary conditions. Much valuable material has been taken from
+circulars sent out by the Library Commissions of Oregon, Wisconsin and
+Iowa.
+
+No better advice could be given in opening a public library campaign
+through the public press than the following, in the Wisconsin Free
+Library Commission Circular of Information, No. 5:
+
+1 Citizens of ---- believe in free public libraries. They need
+organization and courage to attack local problems rather than long
+homilies on the value of good literature.
+
+2 Public sentiment needs time to ripen. Frequent short articles running
+through the issues of a few weeks are better than a few long ones.
+
+3 Make the articles breezy, optimistic, with local application. You can
+get a library if you are in earnest.
+
+4 Appeal to local pride. Civic patriotism is the basis of civic
+improvement. Give the names of familiar towns of similar size which have
+good libraries.
+
+5 Do not rely solely on editorials. Get brief communications from
+citizens, but have each letter make only one point, and that crisply.
+
+6 Do not waste space rebutting trivial arguments. Refute them by
+affirmative statements.
+
+7 Get brief interviews with visitors from towns where they have good
+libraries, and with your own townsmen who have visited neighboring
+libraries.
+
+8 Keep this fact in mind--Your people want a library and only need pluck
+and a leader.
+
+9 Remember that the worst enemy of the movement is the talker who wants
+a library very much, in the "sweet bye and bye," when all other public
+improvements are completed.
+
+10 When it is time to strike--strike hard. Apologies and faint hearts
+never won any kind of a contest.
+
+CHALMERS HADLEY,
+Secretary American Library Association.
+
+
+WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY DOES FOR A COMMUNITY
+
+1 It doubles the value of the education the child receives in school,
+and, best of all, imparts a desire for knowledge which serves as an
+incentive to continue his education after leaving school; and, having
+furnished the incentive, it further supplies the means for a life-long
+continuance of education.
+
+2 It provides for the education of adults who have lacked, or failed to
+make use of, early opportunities.
+
+3 It furnishes information to teachers, ministers, journalists,
+physicians, legislators, all persons upon whose work depend the
+intellectual, moral, sanitary and political welfare and advancement of
+the people.
+
+4 It furnishes books and periodicals for the technical instruction and
+information of mechanics, artisans, manufacturers, engineers and all
+others whose work requires technical knowledge--of all persons upon whom
+depends the industrial progress of the city.
+
+5 It is of incalculable benefit to the city by affording to thousands
+the highest and purest entertainment, and thus lessening crime and
+disorder.
+
+6 It makes the city a more desirable place of residence, and thus
+retains the best citizens and attracts others of the same character.
+
+7 More than any other agency, it elevates the general standard of
+intelligence throughout the great body of the community, upon which its
+material prosperity, as well as its moral and political well-being, must
+depend.
+
+Finally, the public library includes potentially all other means of
+social betterment. A library is a living organism, having within itself
+the capacity of infinite growth and reproduction. It may found a dozen
+museums and hospitals, kindle the train of thought that produces
+beneficent inventions, and inspire to noble deeds of every kind, all the
+while imparting intelligence and inculcating industry, thrift, morality,
+public spirit and all those qualities that constitute the wealth and
+well-being of a community.
+
+F. M. CRUNDEN.
+
+
+WHAT A FREE LIBRARY DOES FOR A COUNTRY TOWN
+
+1 It keeps boys at home in the evening by giving them well-written
+stories of adventure.
+
+2 It gives teachers and pupils interesting books to aid their school
+work in history and geography, and makes better citizens of them by
+enlarging their knowledge of their country and its growth.
+
+3 It provides books on the care of children and animals, cookery and
+housekeeping, building and gardening, and teaches young readers how to
+make simple dynamos, telephones and other machines.
+
+4 It helps clubs that are studying history, literature or life in other
+countries, and throws light upon Sunday-school lessons.
+
+5 It furnishes books of selections for reading aloud, suggestions for
+entertainments and home amusements, and hints on correct speech and good
+manners.
+
+6 It teaches the names and habits of the plants, birds and insects of
+the neighborhood, and the differences in soil and rock.
+
+7 It tells the story of the town from its settlement, and keeps a record
+of all important events in its history.
+
+8 It offers pleasant and wholesome stories to readers of all ages.
+
+CAROLINE M. HEWINS.
+
+
+Let the boys find in the free library wholesome books of adventure, and
+tales such as a boy likes; let the girls find the stories which delight
+them and give their fancy and imagination exercise; let the tired
+housewife find the novels which will transport her to an ideal realm of
+love and happiness; let the hardworked man, instead of being expected
+always to read "improving" books of history or politics, choose that
+which will give him relaxation of mind and nerve--perhaps the "Innocents
+Abroad," or Josh Billings's "Allminax," or "Samanthy at Saratoga."
+
+W. I. FLETCHER.
+
+
+WHY WE NEED A LIBRARY
+
+A public library in our community would be an influence for good every
+day in the week.
+
+It would make the town more attractive to the class of people we want as
+residents and neighbors.
+
+It would mould the characters of the children in our homes.
+
+A good library would get gifts from wealthy citizens. No other public
+institution offers so fitting an opportunity for a public-spirited
+citizen to help his neighbors and win their approval and affection.
+
+A library in ---- would be the center of our intellectual life and would
+stimulate the growth of all kinds of clubs for study and debating.
+
+It is a great part of our education to know how to find facts. No man
+knows everything, but the man who knows how to find an indispensable
+fact quickly has the best substitute for such knowledge. We need a
+library to carry forward in a better manner the education of the
+children who leave school; to give them a better chance for
+self-education. We need it to give thoughts and inspiration to the
+teachers of the people, those who in the schoolroom or pulpit, on the
+rostrum, or with the pen attempt to instruct or lead their fellow
+citizens. We need it to help our mechanics in their employments, to give
+them the best thoughts of the best workers in their lines, whether these
+thoughts come in books or papers or magazines.
+
+WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+The public library is an adult school; it is a perpetual and life-long
+continuation class; it is the greatest educational factor that we have;
+and the librarian is becoming our most important teacher and guide.
+
+SIR WALTER BESANT.
+
+
+WHAT A LIBRARY DOES FOR A TOWN
+
+1 Completes its educational equipment, carrying on and giving permanent
+value to the work of the schools.
+
+2 Gives the children of all classes a chance to know and love the best
+in literature. Without the public library such a chance is limited to
+the very few.
+
+3 Minimizes the sale and reading of vicious literature in the community,
+thus promoting mental and moral health.
+
+4 Effects a great saving in money to every reader in the community. The
+library is the application of common sense to the problem of supply and
+demand. Through it every reader in the town can secure at a given cost
+from 100 to 1000 times the material for reading or study that he could
+secure by acting individually.
+
+5 Appealing to all classes, sects and degrees of intelligence, it is a
+strong unifying factor in the life of a town.
+
+6 The library is the one thing in which every town, however poor or
+isolated, can have something as good and inspiring as the greatest city
+can offer. Neither Boston nor New York can provide better books to its
+readers than the humblest town library can easily own and supply.
+
+7 Slowly but inevitably raises the intellectual tone of a place.
+
+8 Adds to the material value of property. Real estate agents in the
+suburbs of large cities never fail to advertise the presence of a
+library, if there be one, as giving added value to the lots or houses
+they have for sale.
+
+A. W. in NEW YORK LIBRARIES.
+
+
+HELPFUL THINGS DONE BY LIBRARIES FOR TEACHERS AND CHILDREN
+
+1 Graded lists (sometimes annotated) of books suitable for children are
+printed as part of the library's finding lists.
+
+2 Bulletins of books for special days are printed.
+
+3 Lists of books on special subjects are printed.
+
+4 Topics being studied in the schools are illustrated by special
+exhibits at the libraries.
+
+5 Study rooms in the libraries are maintained for the pupils of the high
+schools and the higher grammar grades.
+
+6 Children's or young people's rooms are maintained at the libraries,
+where the children may come into personal contact with a trained
+children's librarian and with hundreds of books on open shelves.
+
+7 Story hours or readings for children are conducted at the libraries.
+
+8 Training in reference work, in the use of books and libraries, in the
+use of finding lists, card catalogs, indexes, etc., is given by library
+assistants: (a) to teachers at the library; (b) at the library to
+individual pupils and classes that come there; (c) at the schools to the
+pupils in their rooms.
+
+9 Lectures on classification, bibliographies, and catalogs are given by
+members of the library staff for teachers and normal school students.
+
+10 Special study rooms for teachers are provided.
+
+11 Special educational collections are shelved for use by the teachers.
+
+12 Cases of about 50 books (traveling libraries as it were) are prepared
+by libraries and sent to schoolrooms to remain for a year or less,
+teachers to issue books for home use.
+
+13 Branch reading--and delivery--rooms are opened in schools, in charge
+of library assistants, with supply of books on hand for circulation and
+facilities for drawing others from the main library.
+
+14 Assistant librarians are placed in charge of work with schools.
+
+15 In large cities complete branch libraries are established in schools
+on the outskirts of the cities.
+
+16 Special collections of books are furnished to vacation schools.
+
+17 Special cards are issued to teachers on which they may draw more than
+the usual number of volumes at a time.
+
+18 Teachers and principals are allowed to draw a number of volumes for
+(a) reading by children at school; (b) reading by children at home.
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
+
+
+LIBRARIES, A PUBLIC BENEFACTION
+
+A library is not a luxury; it is not for the cultured few; it is not
+merely for the scientific; it is not for any intellectual cult or
+exclusive literary set. It is a great, broad, universal public
+benefaction. It lifts the entire community; it is the right arm of the
+intellectual development of the people, ministering to the wants of
+those who are already educated and spreading a universal desire for
+education. It is the upper story of the public school system, while it
+is a broad field wherein ripe scholars may find a fuller training for
+their already highly developed faculties. It is above all a splendid
+instrument for the education and culture of those vast masses of boys
+and girls that are denied the high privileges of the systematic training
+of the schools.
+
+C. C. THACH.
+
+
+The function of the library as an institution of society, is the
+development and enrichment of human life in the entire community by
+bringing to all the people the books that belong to them.
+
+SALOME CUTLER FAIRCHILD.
+
+
+MEANING OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+Cities and towns are now for the first time, and chiefly in this
+country, erecting altars to the gods of good fellowship, joy and
+learning. These altars are our public libraries. We had long ago our
+buildings of city and state, our halls of legislation, our courts of
+justice. But these all speak more or less of wrongdoing, of justice and
+injustice, of repression. Most of them touch on partisanship and
+bitterness of feeling. We have had, since many centuries, in all our
+cities, the many meeting places of religious sects--our chapels,
+churches and cathedrals. They stand for so much that is good, but they
+have not brought together the communities in which they are placed. A
+church is not always the center of the best life of all who live within
+the shadow of its spire.
+
+For several generations we have been building temples to the gods of
+learning and good citizenship--our schools. And they have come nearer to
+bringing together for the highest purpose the best impulses of all of us
+than have any other institutions. But they are all not yet, as some day
+they will be, for both old and young. Then they speak of discipline, of
+master and pupil, instead only of pure and simple fellowship in studies.
+
+And so we are for the first time in all history, building, in our
+public libraries, temples of happiness and wisdom common to us all. No
+other institution which society has brought forth is so wide in its
+scope; so universal in its appeal; so near to every one of us; so
+inviting to both young and old; so fit to teach, without arrogance, the
+ignorant and, without faltering, the wisest.
+
+The public library is to be the center of all the activities that make
+for social efficiency. It is to do more to bind into one civic whole and
+to develop the feeling that you are citizens of no mean city, than any
+other institution you have yet established or than we can as yet
+conceive.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARIES, A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT
+
+The world-wide library movement of the past few years is an important
+factor in the educational world. The public library is now recognized as
+one of the most effective of the preventive measures advocated by modern
+social students. It is considered an essential part of any system of
+public education, affording opportunity for self-education, and
+supplementing the average five years of school life. Educators now
+realize that the school offers but the beginning of education, and that
+the library is its necessary complement and supplement. This increase of
+library facilities has greatly influenced school work, in bringing home
+to teachers the fact that it is as important to teach what to read as to
+give children the ability to read. The library of to-day is not wholly
+for recreation, but it is the people's university. It is entitled to the
+same consideration which is given to the public schools, and to the same
+sort of support. The whole conception of the library has changed as
+practical men of affairs have come to the realization of the fact that
+they must have accessible the records of past experience and
+experiments.
+
+OREGON LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+We all believe in public libraries. We frequently discuss the library we
+are to get "bye and bye." We do not find that it is helping the boys and
+girls who are growing up in our town now. Will the next generation need
+it more than this? Will the children of the next generation be dearer to
+us than the boys and girls that now cheer our firesides? Will they use a
+library better because their parents have not had such privileges?
+
+We all want a library, for ourselves, for our neighbors, for the good
+name of our village. Why not get it now and be getting the good out of
+it?
+
+It is only a question of method.
+
+The library when built should benefit all the people, and therefore it
+should be built by all the people. Give us all a chance to help, and
+then the library will belong to all of us.
+
+WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+LIBRARIES AND HAPPINESS
+
+The great purpose of a public library is to promote and unite
+intelligence. It brings together the products of the wise minds of the
+world. It holds within its walls a collection of all the wise and witty
+things ever said: these it marks and indexes and offers to its friends.
+
+It is in its community a sort of intellectual minuteman, always ready to
+supply to every comer something of interest and pleasure. It puts good
+books, and no others, into the hands of children. It tells about
+Cinderella and informs you on riots in Moscow. It offers you a novel of
+modern Japan and a history of Venice of the past. It knows about the
+milk in the cocoanut, the floods of the river Nile, the advantages of
+education, the evils of legislation, how to plan a home, why bread won't
+rise, and can tell more about the mental failings that give Jamaica and
+Venezuela trouble than most of our congressmen ever dreamed of.
+
+Reading is the short cut into the heart of life. If you are talking
+with a group of friends about, for example, different parts of the
+United States, and some one happens to mention a city or town in which
+you have lived, note how your interest quickens, and how eager you are
+to hear news of the place or to tell of your experience in it. This is a
+simple every-day fact. The same thing you have observed a thousand times
+about any subject or talk with which you may be familiar. We learn about
+many things just by keeping alive and moving round! Those things we have
+learned about we can't help being interested in. That is the way we are
+made. If we knew about more things our interests would be greater in
+number, keener, more satisfying; we would talk more, ask more questions,
+be more alert, get more pleasure.
+
+The lesson from this is plain enough: if you wish to have a good time,
+learn something. You like to meet old friends. Your brain, also, likes
+to come across things it knows already, to renew acquaintance with the
+knowledge it has stored away and half forgotten. The pleasures of
+recognition and association; the delights of renewing your friendships
+with your own ideas are many, easy to get, never failing. But if you
+wish to have interests and delights in good plenty you must know of many
+things. If you wish to be happy, learn something.
+
+This sounds like advice to a student. It is not, it is a suggestion to
+the wayfarer. For this learning process may be as delightful as it is to
+gather flowers by the roadside in a summer walk.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+LIBRARY WORTH SELF-DENIAL
+
+An inexhaustible mine of pleasure is open for the boy or girl who loves
+good books and has access to them. Without effort on the part of the
+parent they are kept off the street and from the company of the idle and
+vicious and are storing their minds with useful knowledge, or are being
+taught high ideals and noble purposes. Thus they develop into men and
+women who are an honor to their parents and worthy citizens of our great
+republic.
+
+Such is the product of a Free Public Library. Is it not worth the small
+pittance it will cost? Many a laboring man spends more money in a week
+for tobacco than the maintenance of a library would cost him in a year.
+Is not the education and the development of our bright boys and girls
+worth a little self-denial?
+
+We all desire that our children shall have better opportunities than we
+have had, and not have to work as we have worked. Here is an opportunity
+to help them help themselves, which is the very best help that can be
+given any one. Let's be "boosters" and help ourselves, help our town,
+and help our boys and girls by unitedly supporting the library
+proposition.
+
+IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+REASONS FOR HAVING A FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+Public libraries have without delay become an essential part of a public
+education system and are as clearly useful as the public schools. They
+are not only classed with schools, but have generally become influential
+adjuncts of the public schools. The number of readers is rapidly
+increasing and the character of the books is constantly improving.
+
+Not infrequently the objection is heard that the public libraries are
+opening the doors to light and useless books; that reading can be, and
+often is, carried to a vicious and enervating excess, and therefore that
+the libraries' influence is doubtful and on the whole not good. This
+argument does not need elaborate exposure.
+
+The main purpose of the library is to counteract and check the
+circulation and influence of the empty and not infrequently vicious
+books that are so rife. A visit to any news-stand will disclose a world
+of low and demoralizing "penny dreadfuls" and other trash. These are
+bought by boys and girls because they want to read and can nowhere else
+obtain reading material. This deluge of worthless periodicals and books
+can be counteracted only by gratuitous supplies from the public library.
+
+Whether these counteracting books be fiction or not, they may be pure
+and harmless, and often of intellectual merit and moral excellence. The
+question is not whether people shall read fiction--for read it they
+will--but whether they are to have good fiction instead of worthless and
+harmful trash.
+
+The tendency to read inferior books can soon be checked by a good
+library. If the attention of the children in school is directed to good
+books, and the free library contains such books, there will be no
+thought of the news-stand as the place for finding reading matter.
+
+The economical reason for establishing free public libraries is the fact
+that public officers and public taxation manage and support them
+efficiently and make them available to the largest number of readers. By
+means of a free library there is the best utilization of effort and of
+resources at a small cost to individuals.
+
+While a private library may greatly delight and improve the owner and
+his immediate circle of friends, it is a luxury to which he and they
+only can resort.
+
+A library charging a fee may bring comfort to a respectable board of
+directors by ministering to a small and financially independent circle
+of book-takers, by its freedom from the rush of numerous and eager
+readers, and by strict conformity to the notions and vagaries of the
+managers. But such a library never realizes the highest utility. The
+greater part of the books lie untouched upon the shelves, and compared
+with the free library it is a lame and impotent affair.
+
+The books of a public library actively pervade the community; they reach
+and are influential with very large numbers and the utility of the
+common possession--books--is multiplied without limit. Before several of
+our towns lies the question of opening to all what is now limited to
+those who pay a fee. This is not merely a limitation--it is practically
+a prohibition.
+
+Whether right or wrong, human beings as at present constituted will not
+frequent in large numbers libraries that charge a fee. The spirit of the
+age and the tendency of liberal communities are entirely in favor of
+furnishing this means of education and amusement without charge.
+Certainly towns which can maintain by taxation, paupers, parks, highways
+and schools have no reasonable ground for denying free reading to their
+inhabitants.
+
+These towns spend vast sums of money in providing education, and yet
+omit the small extra expenditure which would enable young men and women
+to continue their education.
+
+The experience of Library Commissions of various states has amply
+demonstrated that libraries and literature are sought for and
+appreciated quite as much by rural communities as by the larger towns,
+and not infrequently the appreciation is apparently keener, because of
+the absence of interests and amusements other than those provided by the
+library. There is now no real reason why every part of this state may
+not enjoy the advantages and pleasures of book distribution, for
+concentration of effort in the small towns elsewhere has provided
+efficient, attractive and economical libraries, and could as well do so
+here.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+MISSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+It is our business in this country to get at the best methods to govern
+ourselves. How many of our best people have paused to reflect on what
+that means, and on all it means? It means that now we have about
+80,000,000 of sovereigns. It was all very well when we were a little
+confederation of homogeneous stock stretching along the Atlantic
+sea-board. We had our dissensions then, but our population was permeated
+with the principles of our government. In one hundred years we have
+swelled from a handful to 80,000,000, and a large part of them made up
+of additions from the nations of the earth, and not the self-governing
+nations. And the problem is to educate the children of these, as well as
+our own children, in the principles of that government of which they are
+an essential and vital part.
+
+This is the first problem, and if it is not attended to, our government
+will crumble away and decay from neglect. We do not want denizens in
+this state and this nation, we want citizens. We do not want ward
+politics, but we do want government as our forefathers understood it.
+And it is the duty of every right-minded citizen to work unfalteringly
+for this end. The question is one of expediency.
+
+We want citizens. And the public school and the public library are the
+places where citizens are made. Therefore we must labor for and support
+these institutions first and foremost. To a very great extent, the
+librarian is the custodian of public morals and the moulder of public
+men.
+
+The librarian must, and he usually does, feel his responsibility. The
+word "responsibility" should be given equal weight with the word
+"liberty" and emblazoned beside it, and it is these two things that the
+public librarian through his knowledge of good literature must impress
+upon our coming generations--"liberty and responsibility."
+
+WINSTON CHURCHILL.
+
+
+LIBRARY EXTENSION
+
+Our public schools are doing a great work, but, after all, "the older
+generation remains untouched, and the assimilation of the younger can
+hardly be complete or certain as long as the homes of the parents remain
+comparatively unaffected." For those whose early education has been
+neglected either by reason of family circumstances or because of wayward
+disposition, and who realize their need before it is too late, there are
+night schools, business courses and correspondence school courses, with
+the minor advantages and stimulus offered by public lecture courses.
+Volunteer study clubs and societies for research are being organized in
+great numbers. And, more potent and more forceful, more universal in its
+application than all these because better organized, better equipped and
+readier to avail itself of all existing affiliating agencies, is that
+national movement which has become known for want of a better term as
+library extension.
+
+Library extension aims to supply to every man, woman and child, either
+through its own resources or by co-operation with other affiliated
+agencies, what each community, or any group in any community, or any
+individual in the community may require for mental stimulus,
+intellectual recreation or practical knowledge and information useful in
+one's daily occupation.
+
+HENRY E. LEGLER.
+
+
+The opening of a free public library is a most important event in the
+history of any town. A college training is an excellent thing; but,
+after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he
+gives himself, and it is for this that a good library should furnish the
+opportunity and the means. All that is primarily needful in order to use
+a library is the ability to read; primarily, for there must also be the
+inclination, and after that, some guidance in reading well.
+
+JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY--PLEASURE AND PROFIT
+
+We cannot remind ourselves too frequently that a fundamental purpose of
+good books, and so of the library which possesses them, is to give
+pleasure, and that the library ought to be more closely and peculiarly
+associated with pleasure than any other institution supported by the
+public.
+
+Life for most of us is sufficiently dull and colorless. The workday
+aspect of the world is always with us and oppresses us. For the average
+man and woman, whose education has been limited, whose imagination has
+lacked all wider opportunity for cultivation, the easiest escape from
+the cares of daily life, from the depressing monotony of daily routine,
+will be through the avenue opened by the story, the people's road out of
+a care-filled life, ever since the days of "Arabian Nights." Such
+readers as these desire fiction and ought to have it. If their
+imagination can be cultivated to the point of reaching similar freedom
+from care through poetry, through the drama, or through any of the
+higher forms of literature, so much the better. The library's message is
+to men and women cramped by toil and narrowed by routine, ever seeking
+some way out of this troublesome world into that larger realm which is
+more truly ours because it is our creation and that of our fellows. This
+wider world, in its friendliness and homelikeness, the library must
+represent.
+
+The library is where the readers are introduced to the friendship of
+authors and their books. There they are at home and there we too may be
+at home. Old and young, rich and poor, wise and simple, men and women
+and children, there we may meet new friends on kindly and familiar terms
+and widen our thoughts as we learn of their wisdom and their wit. Still
+better, there we may renew our acquaintance with old friends and feel
+the contracted horizon of our lives again enlarge as we meet them once
+more. New friends and old, they all greet us with an assured welcome and
+yield to us the best which they can give, or we receive. We come to them
+not to learn lessons but to be with them for a little while and to live
+with them that larger and truer life which their presence creates for
+us.
+
+Thus the library performs its high and noble duty of helping men to
+live, "not by bread alone, but by every word of God," who, through good
+books, has been speaking to the generations of men not only for their
+instruction but even more for their delight.
+
+E. A. BIRGE.
+
+
+VALUE OF FREE LIBRARIES
+
+The best proof of the value of public libraries lies in the cordial
+support given them by all the people, when they are managed on broad,
+sensible lines. Such institutions contribute to the fund of wholesome
+recreation that sweetens life and to the wider knowledge that broadens
+it. They give ambition, knowledge and inspiration to boys and girls
+from sordid homes, and win them from various forms of dissipation. They
+form a central home where citizens of all creeds and conditions find a
+common ground of useful endeavor.
+
+Libraries are needed to furnish the pupils of our schools the incentive
+and the opportunity for wider study; to teach them "the art and science
+of reading for a purpose," to give to boys and girls with a hidden
+talent the chance to discover and develop it; to give to mechanics and
+artisans a chance to know what their ambitious fellows are doing; to
+give men and women, weary and worn from treading a narrow round,
+excursions in fresh and delightful fields; to give to clubs for study
+and recreation, material for better work, and, last but not least, to
+give wholesome employment to all classes for those idle hours that wreck
+more lives than any other cause.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+"Even now many wise men are agreed that the love of books, as mere
+things of sentiment, and the reading of good books, as mere habit, are
+incomparably better results of schooling than any of the definite
+knowledge which the best of teachers can store into pupils' minds.
+Teaching how to read is of less importance in the intelligence of a
+generation than the teaching what to read."
+
+THE BOOKLESS MAN
+
+The bookless man does not understand his own loss. He does not know the
+leanness in which his mind is kept by want of the food which he rejects.
+He does not know what starving of imagination and of thought he has
+inflicted upon himself. He has suffered his interest in the things which
+make up God's knowable universe to shrink until it reaches no farther
+than his eyes can see and his ears can hear. The books which he scorns
+are the telescopes and reflectors and reverberators of our intellectual
+life, holding in themselves a hundred magical powers for the overcoming
+of space and time, and for giving the range of knowledge which belongs
+to a really cultivated mind. There is no equal substitute for them.
+There is nothing else which will so break for us the poor hobble of
+everyday sights and sounds and habits and tasks, by which our thinking
+and feeling are naturally tethered to a little worn round.
+
+J. N. LARNED.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY'S EDUCATIONAL MISSION
+
+To the great mass of boys and girls the school can barely give the tools
+with which to get an education before they are forced to begin their
+life work as breadwinners. Few are optimistic enough to hope that we can
+change this condition very rapidly. The great problem of the day is,
+therefore, to carry on the education after the elementary steps have
+been taken in the free public schools. There are numerous agencies at
+work in this direction--reading rooms, reference and lending libraries,
+museums, summer, vacation and night schools, correspondence and other
+forms of extension teaching; but by far the greatest agent is good
+reading. An educational system which contents itself with teaching to
+read and then fails to see that the best reading is provided, when
+undesirable reading is so cheap and plentiful as to be a constant menace
+to the public good, is as inconsistent and absurd as to teach our
+children the expert use of the knife, fork and spoon, and then provide
+them with no food. The most important movement before the professional
+educators to-day, is the broadening going on so rapidly in their duties
+to their profession and to the public. Too many have thought of their
+work as limited to schools for the young during a short period of
+tuition. The true conception is that we should be responsible for higher
+as well as elementary education, for adults as well as for children, for
+educational work in the homes as well as in the schoolhouses, and during
+life as well as for a limited course. In a nutshell, the motto of the
+extended work should be "higher education for adults, at home, during
+life."
+
+MELVIL DEWEY.
+
+
+THE FREEDOM OF BOOKS
+
+The free town library is wholly a product of the last half century. It
+is the crowning creature of democracy for its own higher culture. There
+is nothing conceivable to surpass it as an agency in popular education.
+Schools, colleges, lectures, classes, clubs and societies, scientific
+and literary, are tributaries to it--primaries, feeders. It takes up the
+work of all of them to utilize it, to carry it on, and make more of it.
+Future time will perfect it, and will perfect the institutions out of
+which and over which it has grown; but it is not possible for the future
+to bring any new gift of enlightenment to men that will be greater, in
+kind, than the free diffusion of thought and knowledge as stored in the
+better literature of the world.
+
+The true literature that we garner in our libraries is the deathless
+thought, the immortal truth, the imperishable quickenings and
+revelations which genius--the rare gift to now and then one of the human
+race--has been frugally, steadily planting in the fertile soil of
+written speech, from the generations of the hymn writers of the
+Euphrates and the Indus to the generations now alive. There is nothing
+save the air we breathe that we have common rights in so sacred and so
+clear, and there is no other public treasure which so reasonably demands
+to be kept and cared for and distributed for common enjoyment at common
+cost.
+
+Free corn in old Rome bribed a mob and kept it passive. By free books
+and what goes with them in modern America we mean to erase the mob from
+existence. There lies the cardinal difference between a civilization
+which perished and a civilization that will endure.
+
+J. N. LARNED.
+
+
+GOOD BOOKS
+
+The library offers the advantages of good society to many who could not
+otherwise enjoy them. This is one of the most important influences that
+tells on individual character. A man is not only known by the company
+he keeps, but to a great extent he is made or unmade by his associates.
+A great part of what we learn and much of what we are is absorbed
+unconsciously from our environment.
+
+Now books are written--at least the good books--by men and women of the
+better sort. They are people of marked intelligence and refinement. They
+have just views of truth and duty and are able to reveal to us many
+secrets respecting the life that is being lived around us. They are
+interpreters and guides in all lines of human activity and service. To
+be intimate with them is good society. If then we can bring all these
+choice spirits by their books into our village and introduce them to our
+children and our neighbors, even to the poorest, and let them talk to
+all who will listen, we have done something, we have done much to raise
+the tone of general intelligence and refinement.
+
+Here is the great opportunity to reach the homes of the poor and the
+careless and even of the baser sort with new light. The books will
+interest and meet the craving for knowledge which everybody has, and
+then will come into confidential relations with many a reader, starting
+new trains of thought, suggesting new ideas, offering sympathy and
+kindling faith. The friendless will gain friends and these friends will
+do them good.
+
+In such ways, this institution, the public library, is calculated to
+enlarge and enrich the community's life.
+
+WILLIAM R. EASTMAN.
+
+
+PLACE AND PURPOSE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+The place now assigned the public library, by very general consent, is
+that of an integral part of our system of public and free education. On
+no other theory has it sure and lasting foundation; on no other theory
+may it be supported by general taxation; on no other theory can it be
+wisely and consistently administered. A public tax can be levied for the
+maintenance of a public library only upon the principle which underlies
+all righteous public taxation, not that the taxpayer wants something
+and will receive it in proportion to the amount of his contribution, but
+that the public wants something of such general interest and value that
+all property-owners may be asked and required to contribute towards its
+cost.
+
+The demand for intelligent and effective citizenship is increasing
+daily, for two reasons: First--The problems of public life and of public
+service, of communal existence, are daily becoming more complex, more
+difficult of satisfactory solution. Second--We are recognizing more
+clearly than ever before that our present success and prestige are due
+to the fact that more than any other people in the world's history have
+we succeeded in securing that active participation and practical
+co-operation of the whole people in all public affairs. In the whole
+people are we finding and are we to find wholesomeness and strength.
+
+But coincident with this discovery, this keen realization of the place
+and value of all in advancing the common interests of all, has come the
+feeling: First--That the common public schools must be made good enough
+for all; and, Second--That even at their best they are insufficient. The
+five school years (average) of the American child constitute a very
+narrow portal through which to enter upon the privileges and duties of
+life, as we desire life to be to every child born under the flag. There
+is need of far more information, instruction, inspiration and uplift
+than can possibly be secured in that limited time.
+
+Casting about for a satisfactory supplement and complement for the
+public schools, we find the public library ready to render exactly this
+service; to make it possible for the adult to continue through life the
+growth begun in childhood in the public school. Only in this way and by
+this means can we hope to continue the common American people as the
+most uncommon people which the world has yet known.
+
+Henceforth, then, these two must go hand in hand, neither trenching upon
+the field of the other, neither burdening or hampering the other, each
+helping the other. The public school must take the initiative,
+determining lines of thought and work, developing in each child the
+power to act and the tendency to act, making full use of the public
+library as an effective ally in all its current work, and making such
+use of it as to create in each pupil the library habit, to last through
+life. The public library must respond by every possible supplementary
+effort, by most intelligent co-operation, by most sympathetic and
+effective assistance, and by giving pupils a welcome which they will
+feel holds good till waning physical powers make further use of the
+library impossible.
+
+NATIONAL EDUCATION ASS'N REPORT, 1906.
+
+
+The most imperative duty of the state is the universal education of the
+masses. No money which can be usefully spent for this indispensable end
+should be denied. Public sentiment should, on the contrary, approve the
+doctrine that the more that can be judiciously spent, the better for the
+country. There is no insurance of nations so cheap as the enlightenment
+of the people.
+
+ANDREW CARNEGIE.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARY IS PUBLIC CO-OPERATION
+
+A public library is the flower of the modern forms of co-operation,
+which secures for the individual, luxuries which he could not afford
+otherwise.
+
+Instead of buying so many books and magazines which wear out on the
+shelves after one reading, let us "pool our issues" and put the
+multitude of small sums in one fund, buy the best at the lowest prices,
+and then use the volumes so bought for the good of all. We need spend no
+more money each year for literature, but we need to save the wastage due
+to unused books, foolish purchases, book agents, commissions, and
+needless profits--and we can have a public library without other cost.
+
+A good public library in this town may help our neighboring farmers as
+well as our townspeople. They cannot support public libraries in their
+small communities. Their small school libraries give the children a
+taste for reading, but give them nothing to gratify that taste when
+they leave school. Let us join our forces for mutual advantage and get a
+better library and a wider community of interests.
+
+WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+USE OF LIBRARIES FOR REFERENCE
+
+An ability to glean information quickly and accurately from books and
+periodicals, to catch a fact when it is needed and useful, is an
+indispensable factor in that self-education which all citizens should
+add to the education obtained in the schools. The schools cannot give a
+wide range of knowledge, but they can give the desire for knowledge, and
+the library can give the opportunity to gain it.
+
+Nearly every branch taught in the schools may be lightened and made more
+interesting by supplementary information gained from a good library. The
+pupil who is studying the life of Washington should find many
+interesting facts concerning him and his time and associates, not given
+in any of the formal biographies. He will find an article on Washington
+in the "Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Persons and Places," but if he knows
+how to use the index he can find fourteen other articles in the same
+volume in which Washington is mentioned. A large encyclopedia will give
+scores of facts wanted, under various articles treating of important
+events in the latter colonial and earlier national history of our
+country, in articles on places, customs, epochs, battles, and soldiers
+and statesmen who were Washington's contemporaries.
+
+A teacher cannot train a large number of young people to habits of
+thorough investigation in a brief time, but she can easily train a few,
+one or two at a time, and they will help to train others.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+THE MODERN LIBRARY MOVEMENT
+
+The modern library movement is a movement to increase by every possible
+means the accessibility of books, to stimulate their reading and to
+create a demand for the best. Its motive is helpfulness; its scope,
+instruction and recreation; its purpose, the enlightenment of all; its
+aspirations, still greater usefulness. It is a distinctive movement,
+because it recognizes, as never before, the infinite possibilities of
+the public library, and because it has done everything within its power
+to develop those possibilities.
+
+Among the peculiar relations that a library sustains to a community,
+which the movement has made clear and greatly advanced, are its
+relations to the school and university extension. The education of an
+individual is coincident with the life of that individual. It is carried
+on by the influences and appliances of the family, vocation, government,
+the church, the press, the school and the library. The library is
+unsectarian, and hence occupies a field independent of the church. It
+furnishes a foundation for an intelligent reading of paper and magazine.
+It is the complement and supplement of the school, co-operating with the
+teacher in the work of educating the child, and furnishing the means for
+continuing that education after the child has gone out from the school.
+These are important relations. From the beginning the child is taught
+the value of books. In the kindergarten period he learns that they
+contain beautiful pictures; in the grammar grades they do much to make
+history and geography attractive; in the high school they are
+indispensable as works of reference.
+
+Were it not for the library, the education of the masses would, in most
+cases, cease when the doors of the school swung in after them for the
+last time; but it keeps those doors wide open, and is, in the truest
+sense of the word, the university of the people. The library is as much
+a part of the educational system of a community as the public school,
+and is coming more and more to be regarded with the same respect and
+supported in the same generous manner.
+
+The public library of to-day is an active, potential force, serving the
+present, and silently helping to develop the civilization of the future.
+The spirit of the modern library movement which surrounds it is
+thoroughly progressive, and thoroughly in sympathy with the people. It
+believes that the true function of the library is to serve the people,
+and that the only test of success is usefulness.
+
+JOSEPH LEROY HARRISON.
+
+
+THE PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY
+
+There is no institution so intimately, so universally, so constantly
+connected with the life of the whole people as the free public
+library--no instrumentality that can do so much to civilize society. The
+public schools alone cannot accomplish the task of elevating mankind to
+even the most modest ideal of a well ordered society.
+
+Our public schools have been the chief source of the greater general
+intelligence and hence the industrial superiority of our citizens over
+those of other countries. But the public schools cannot accomplish
+impossibilities. They are not to blame for the fact that they can reach
+the great majority during only six or eight years, or that only one and
+one half per cent of the children in the United States go through the
+high school. But wherever there is a public library, the teachers are to
+blame if they do not graduate all their pupils, at whatever age they may
+leave school, into the People's University.
+
+General intelligence is the necessary foundation of prosperity and
+social order.
+
+The public library is one of the chief agencies, if not the most potent
+and far-reaching agency, for promoting general intelligence.
+
+Therefore, money devoted to the maintenance of a public library is money
+well invested by a community.
+
+F. M. CRUNDEN.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC NECESSITY
+
+Any consideration of a public library project is complimentary to a
+community, showing, as it does, a sense of civic responsibility and a
+desire for future progress which are commendable. No town can hope to
+live up to its greatest possibilities without a public library, and none
+with a sincere desire need be denied the blessings which result from
+such an institution.
+
+There are few communities which would not provide for a public library,
+if its advantages were appreciated, for it is a remedy for many ills and
+is all-embracing in its scope. It vitalizes school work, and receiving
+the pupil from the school, the library continues his education
+throughout life. It is a home missionary, sending its messengers, the
+books, into every shop and home. With true missionary zeal, it not only
+sends help, but opens its doors to every man, woman and child. In most
+towns, there are scores of young men and boys whose evenings are spent
+in loafing about the streets, and to these the library offers an
+attractive meeting place, where the time may be spent with jolly, wise
+friends in the books. The library substitutes better for poorer reading,
+and provides story hours for the children who are eager to hear before
+they are able to read. It also increases the earning capacity of people,
+by supplying information and advice on the work they are doing.
+
+Increased taxation is one of the greatest hindrances to the opening of a
+public library, but any institution which enriches and uplifts the lives
+of the people, is the greatest economy. Any attempt to conduct civic
+affairs without a reasonable expenditure of money for such influences is
+the grossest extravagance. No economy results from ignorance and vice,
+and the public library has long since established its claim as one of
+the most potent remedies for such conditions.
+
+It is no exaggeration to state that every dollar expended for library
+purposes is returned to the community tenfold, not necessarily in
+dollars and cents, but in the more permanent, more valuable assets of
+greater happiness, comfort and progress of the people. A city is the
+expression of every life within its borders, and every increase in
+progress and efficiency in the individual citizen, is progress for the
+whole.
+
+The most valuable things usually are obtained at some sacrifice, and the
+many advantages from a public library are certainly worth paying for.
+Hundreds of small cities and towns tax themselves for electric plants
+and count themselves fortunate. No one seems to regret this taxation for
+electric lights which illuminate the citizen's way at night. Should
+there not be an equal or greater readiness on the part of a community to
+establish a library and so illuminate the mental horizon of every
+citizen?
+
+A public library is a necessity, not a luxury. Every community which
+realizes this and establishes a library, proclaims itself an
+intelligent, progressive town and one worth living in.
+
+CHALMERS HADLEY.
+
+
+The opening of a free public library is a most important event in any
+town. There is no way in which a community can more benefit itself than
+in the establishment of a library which shall be free to all citizens.
+
+WILLIAM McKINLEY.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC OPPORTUNITY
+
+Modern industrialism exacts from the artisan and the worker in every
+branch, skill and knowledge not dreamed of years ago. He who would not
+be trampled under foot needs to keep pace with the onward sweep in his
+particular craft. The public library furnishes to the ambitious artisan
+the opportunity to rise. Upon its shelves he may find the latest and the
+best in invention and in method and in knowledge. Never in the history
+of the country has there been such a desire manifested among the adult
+population for continued education as may be noted to-day. Does it not
+speak eloquently of ambition to rise above circumstances--that same
+spirit that we have admired in our Franklins and our Lincolns and the
+long roll of self-made men whose lives we are proud to recall? And so
+library extension takes note of adult education, and combining its
+forces with university extension, realizes that broader movement
+variously termed home education, popular education and the people's
+college.
+
+The library gives heed to the future, and thus does not neglect the
+child. The intelligent work of the children's librarian, supplementing
+the related work of the teacher, aims to develop the individual talent
+or dormant resource which finds no chance for expression where children
+are necessarily treated as masses. And we may never know what society
+has lost by failure to quicken into life this dormant talent for
+invention, for art, for literature, for philosophy. "The loss to society
+of the unearned increment is trivial compared to the loss of the
+undiscovered resource." Had retarding influences affected half a dozen
+men whom we could readily name--Morse, Fulton, Stephenson, Edison, Bell,
+Marconi--we might to-day be without the locomotive, the steamship, the
+telegraph, the telephone--the myriad marvels of electricity that to-day
+seem commonplaces. What we have actually lost during this great century
+of scientific development we can never know. Nor must we forget that
+invention is the result of cumulated knowledge which the fertile brain
+of man utilizes in new directions, and that the preservation of the
+knowledge and experience of the centuries is the province of the public
+library, where all alike may have access to its riches. The ideal
+democracy is the democracy of knowledge and of learning.
+
+The library endeavors, by applying the traveling library principle to
+collections of pictures, by means of the illustrated lecture and
+otherwise, to cultivate among the people an appreciation of the
+beautiful and artistic that shall ultimately find expression in the home
+and its surroundings.
+
+The library believes, too, that recreative reading is a legitimate
+function. We hold, with William Morton Payne, that a sparkling and
+sprightly story, which may be read in an hour and which will leave the
+reader with a good conscience and a sense of cheerfulness, has its
+merits. In this work-a-day world of ours we need a bit of cheer for the
+hours which ought to be restful as well as resting hours. Library
+extension is imbued with optimism; its broadening field is educational,
+sociological, recreative. Unblinded to the evils of the day, its
+promoters realize inability to amend them except by educational
+processes affecting all the people. They do not preach the gospel of
+discontent, but seek realization of conditions which shall bring about
+contentment and happiness. That, after all, for the welfare of the
+people, wants need be but few and easily supplied. He who has food,
+raiment and shelter in reasonable degree, access to the intellectual
+wealth of the world in public libraries, to the riches created by the
+master painters and sculptors, found in public galleries and museums, to
+the untrammeled use of public parks and drives, and the many other
+universal advantages which are now so increasingly many, need not envy
+the richest men on earth. Many a millionaire is poorer than the most
+humble of his employees, for excessive wealth brings its own train of
+evils to torment its possessor. Commercial success is a legitimate
+endeavor among men, and thrift is to be commended, but when these
+degenerate into greed, pity and not envy should be the meed of the man
+seized with the money disease.
+
+HENRY E. LEGLER.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY AND THE WORKERS
+
+My opinion of the public library from a workingman's standpoint is, that
+it is the greatest boon that could possibly be conferred upon him. It
+places him at once upon the level with the millionaire, the student and
+the philosopher. It opens for him (whose poverty would otherwise debar
+him) the vast fields of literature. Here he may wander at will with the
+master minds of humanity, hand in hand with the great thinkers of the
+ages, open his mind and heart to the lessons taught by those great
+leaders of men who have conquered nations and shaped the destinies of
+the human race. Here he may associate with the greatest, the wisest and
+the best. There is no limit to the possibilities of possessing knowledge
+which is power, without money and without price. The public library
+should be managed in the best interests of the workingman, and the books
+should be purchased mainly with his welfare in view. The capitalist can
+buy and own his own books. The workingman cannot do this. The children
+of the workingman must get from the public library the general books of
+reference which the business man has in his home. The children of the
+workingman must have these books in order properly to do their school
+work and thoroughly understand it. Their teachers require this. The
+children of the workingman have their schools as well as the library.
+Their work in the schools and the work in the library go hand in hand,
+but the workingman himself has only the library for his school and must,
+of necessity, go there. His schoolroom is the reference room, for the
+knowledge he gains in that department he can at once put into practical
+use in any capacity in which he may be employed.
+
+The question arises, having presented those opportunities to the
+workingman, will he take advantage of them? I answer, he surely will. It
+is now more than twenty years since I joined a labor organization, the
+"Stone-cutters' Union" of Minneapolis. Since that time I have always
+been affiliated with organized workingmen. During all these years the
+workingman has taken advantage of every opportunity to better the
+condition of himself, his fellow workman and his employer. He has
+learned to be more patient, more conservative and more trustworthy. His
+hours of labor have been shortened, his wages are higher, and
+labor-saving machinery has made his work lighter. He lives in a better
+home, his family is better provided for and, best of all, his children
+are better educated. What has wrought those great changes in the
+conditions of the workingman? What has enabled him to keep up with the
+swift march of progress during these many years? I will answer in one
+word, Education. Just such institutions as the public library have made
+this possible, and the public library has given the largest share.
+
+JOHN P. BUCKLEY.
+
+
+A WORLD WITHOUT BOOKS
+
+What if there were no letters and no books? Think what your state would
+be in a situation like that! Think what it would be to know nothing, for
+example, of the way in which American independence had been won, and the
+federal republic of the United States constructed; nothing of Bunker
+Hill; nothing of George Washington; except the little, half true and
+half mistaken, that your fathers could remember, of what their fathers
+had repeated, of what their fathers had told to them. Think what it
+would be to have nothing but shadowy traditions of the voyage of
+Columbus, of the coming of the Mayflower pilgrims, and of all the
+planting of life in the New World from Old World stocks, like Greek
+legends of the Argonauts and of the Heraclidae! Think what it would be
+to know no more of the origins of the English people, their rise and
+their growth in greatness, than the Romans knew of their Latin
+beginnings; and to know no more of Rome herself than we might guess from
+the ruins she has left! Think what it would be to have the whole story
+of Athens and Greece dropped out of our knowledge, and to be unaware
+that Marathon was ever fought, or that one like Socrates had ever lived!
+Think what it would be to have no line from Homer, no thought from
+Plato, no message from Isaiah, no Sermon on the Mount, nor any parable
+from the lips of Jesus!
+
+Can you imagine a world intellectually famine-smitten like that--a
+bookless world--and not shrink with horror from the thought of being
+condemned to it?
+
+Yet the men and women who take nothing from letters and books are
+choosing to live as though mankind did actually wallow in the awful
+darkness of that state from which writing and books have rescued us. For
+them, it is as if no ship had ever come from the far shores of old Time
+where their ancestry dwelt; and the interest of existence to them is
+huddled in the petty space of their own few years, between walls of mist
+which thicken as impenetrably behind them as before. How can life be
+worth living on such terms as that? How can man or woman be content with
+so little, when so much is offered?
+
+J. N. LARNED.
+
+
+BOOKLESS HOMES
+
+The bookless homes of the well-to-do people are familiar to all. Inside
+those walls no books are to be found but a few gift books, chosen for
+their bindings rather than their contents, and perhaps others which some
+agent has pressed upon them. What can be done to stimulate reading in
+these homes? Ten-cent magazines and cheap stories are devoured by mother
+and daughters to the destruction of sane thoughts and connected ideas.
+The man of the house each day reads his newspaper, containing accounts
+of crimes, accidents and the funny paper. Happily, it also contains
+articles of travel, invention and discovery, otherwise his brain would
+be weakened.
+
+Young people come from these bookless homes to college each year,
+showing great confusion of ideas, vacuity of mind and utter lack of
+information. They need us, need libraries, need the force of the state
+to help them. Ninety-four per cent of our young people never get into
+college. Ninety per cent, it is said, never go to school after they have
+passed the age of fourteen years.
+
+The contribution of the library is to elevate the standard of the town.
+Books depicting noble, earnest, well-meaning lives will cause the social
+standard to progress, and other standards with it.
+
+OREGON LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+NEED OF FREE LIBRARIES
+
+A library is an essential part of a broad system of education, and a
+community should think it as discreditable to be without a
+well-conducted free public library as to be without a good school. If it
+is the duty of the state to give each future citizen an opportunity to
+learn to read, it is equally its duty to give each citizen an
+opportunity to use that power wisely for himself and the state.
+Wholesome literature can be furnished to all the readers in a community
+at a fraction of the cost necessary to teach them to read, and the power
+to read may then become a means to a life-long education.
+
+The books that a boy reads for pleasure do more to determine his ideals
+and shape his character than the text-books he studies in the schools.
+Bad and indifferent literature is now so common that the boys will have
+some sort of reading. If they have a good public library they will read
+wholesome books and learn to admire Washington, Lincoln and other great
+men. Without a library many of them will gloat over the exploits of
+depraved men and women, and their earliest ambitions will be tainted.
+
+Each town needs a library to furnish more practice in reading for the
+little folks in school; it needs it to give the boys and girls who have
+learned to read a taste for wholesome literature that informs and
+inspires; it needs it as a center for an intellectual and spiritual
+activity that shall leaven the whole community and make healthful and
+inspiring themes the burden of the common thought--substituting, by
+natural methods, clean conversation and literature for petty gossip,
+scandal and oral and printed teachings in vice.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY AND BOYS
+
+"In Madison, N. J., a bird club of boys met twice a week, once for study
+and once for an expedition, and found the library's resources on this
+topic to be of interest and value. How to utilize profitably the
+activities of a 'gang' of boys is worth much planning. One librarian is
+reported to have started a chair-caning class to interest restless boys;
+another had a museum of flowers and insects, another conducted a branch
+of the flower mission. Not less interesting, and perhaps more
+instructive, is a series of talks on Indian legends accompanied by
+hunting expeditions for the half-buried implements and relics found in
+almost every meadow in some parts of the country. Boys are eager to
+learn about natural history and natural science, and they will be
+encouraged at the public library."
+
+IRENE VAN KLEECK.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY
+
+Get good books; give them a home attractive to readers of good books;
+name a friend of good books as mistress of this home--and you have a
+library; all share in its support and all get pleasure and profit from
+it if they will; without divisions religious, politic or social, it
+unites all in the pursuit of high pleasure and sound learning, and gives
+that common interest in a common concern which is the basis of all local
+pride.
+
+If you have rightly read a book, that book is yours.
+
+You cannot always choose your companions; you can always choose your
+books. You can, if you will, spend a few minutes every day with the best
+and wisest men and women the world has ever known.
+
+The people you have known, the things you have said and done, and the
+books you have read, all these are now a part of you.
+
+You like yourself better when you are with people who are well-bred and
+clever; you respect yourself more when you are reading a bright and
+wholesome book, for you are then in the company of the wise.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+After the church and the school, the free public library is the most
+effective influence for good in America. The moral, mental and material
+benefits to be derived from a carefully selected collection of good
+books, free for the use of all the people, cannot be overestimated. No
+community can afford to be without a library.
+
+THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+
+SHALL WE BE LOYAL TO THE CITY OF OUR HOME?
+
+The opportunity is at hand to answer this question. A generous gift is
+offered, shall we accept it? We can have ---- dollars for a public use,
+if we will promise to support the use to which this money is dedicated.
+Shall ---- have a free public library? It is up to us, her citizens.
+
+We have passed the stage of a country town and are ranked and cataloged
+as a modern, progressive city, enjoying many of the advantages of the
+larger cities. Why is this true? Because the progressive spirit and
+sentiment have always triumphed in her onward march. Because, inspired
+by a public spirit, her people have joined hands, and shoulder to
+shoulder labored for all that pertains to religious, moral, social,
+industrial, educational and material development. Let us keep marching
+on.
+
+Many towns in the state, nearly all those in the counties surrounding
+us, are accepting Carnegie gifts for libraries. Will it not humiliate
+and degrade us in the eyes of the people of the state if we decree
+against a public library? Let us not detract from our well deserved and
+established reputation for progressiveness by such a mistake. We appeal
+to public spirit; to pride of city; to pride of home, and urge you to
+register your vote in favor of this enterprise.
+
+IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+The system of free public libraries now being established in this
+country is the most important development of modern times. The library
+is a center from which radiates an ever widening influence for the
+enlightenment, the uplift, the advancement of the community.
+
+WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
+
+
+THE SCHOOL'S GREATEST BOON
+
+The greatest boon that the system of public schools, or the college, or
+the university, can confer upon any boy or girl is to teach him or her
+to use a great collection of literature, to teach them how to read; and
+to plant within their hearts an irresistible impulse and an
+indestructible delight in so doing. What profits it a man to learn how
+to read if he does not read? For what purpose is the mind trained and
+developed by the process of systematic study in the schools if it is not
+inspired to go farther into the realms of knowledge? Is it a rational
+procedure for one, upon the completion of his course of training, to
+discontinue all further investigation and to lay aside what little love
+for learning and literature and philosophy and science that may have
+been aroused in his bosom by school or college inspirations? And how is
+this advancing and widening of one's horizon by means of the accumulated
+stores of knowledge gathered by the previous generations of the world's
+strong thinkers and beautiful writers to be secured, other than by a
+collection of good books, by a library?
+
+C. C. THACH.
+
+
+BOOKS AND STUDY WORK
+
+Have our missionary societies access to Bliss's "Encyclopedia of
+Missions," or to Dennis's great "Missions and Christian Progress"? Do
+our Bible students know Moulton's "Literary Study of the Bible"?--a book
+so illuminating as to seem almost itself inspired. How many of the
+members of the young people's societies of our churches have access to a
+standard concordance, Bible dictionary, or a dictionary of sects and
+doctrines? Has the W. C. T. U. the reports of the Committee of Fifty,
+that great committee of master minds, who made exhaustive investigation
+and authoritative reports on the various aspects of the liquor question?
+Have the Masons a history of free-masonry? Has the Shakespeare Club
+books on Shakespeare, and is the Political Equality Club acquainted
+with standard works on political science and the franchise? Who has a
+good "Cyclopedia of Quotations," or a "Reader's Handbook," where we can
+satisfy our curiosity regarding allusions to "Fair Rosamond," "Apples of
+Hesperia," "Atlantis" and "Captain Cuttle"?
+
+If we were to see a farmer laboriously cutting his wheat with a scythe,
+tying it into bundles by hand, and then carrying the bundles on his back
+to the barn, we would think he was crazy. Is it not as foolish, however,
+for us in our study work to do without the suitable tools and helps
+which we might have in a public library?
+
+HOLLEY (N. Y.) STANDARD.
+
+
+WHY CITIES SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES
+
+The proposition that only an enlightened and an intelligent people can
+make self-government a success is so self-evident as to make argument
+but a vain repetition of empty words. And yet we know that the public
+school side of our system of free public education is as yet only able
+to secure five years' schooling for the average child in this
+country--an all too narrow portal through which to enter upon successful
+citizenship. There is an imperative demand, then, for the establishment
+and the development and for the wise administration of that other branch
+of our system of free public education which we know as the public
+library.
+
+We must understand clearly that the beneficent result of this system of
+education is just as possible to the son of the peasant as to the son of
+the president, is just as helpful to the blacksmith as to the barrister,
+to the farmer as to the philosopher; and in its possibilities and in its
+helpfulness is a constant blessing to all and through all, and is needed
+by all alike.
+
+The most worthy mind, that which is of most value to the world, is the
+well-informed mind which is public and large. Only through the
+development of such, both as leaders and as followers, can all classes
+be brought into an understanding of each other, can we preserve true
+republican equality, can we avoid that insulation and seclusion which
+are unwholesome and unworthy of true American manhood. The state has no
+resources at all comparable with its citizens. A man is worth to himself
+just what he is capable of enjoying, and he is worth to the state just
+what he is capable of imparting. These form an exact and true measure of
+every man. The greatest positive strength and value, therefore, must
+always be associated with the greatest positive and practical
+development of every faculty and power.
+
+This, then, is the true basis of taxation for public libraries. Such a
+tax is subject to all the canons of usual taxation, and may be defended
+and must be defended upon precisely the same grounds as we defend the
+tax for the public schools.
+
+JAMES HULME CANFIELD.
+
+
+WHY MR. CARNEGIE ESTABLISHES LIBRARIES
+
+I choose free libraries as the best agencies for improving the masses of
+the people, because they give nothing for nothing. They only help those
+who help themselves. They never pauperize. They reach the aspiring, and
+open to these the chief treasures of the world--those stored up in
+books. A taste for reading drives out lower tastes.
+
+Besides this, I believe good fiction one of the most beneficial reliefs
+to the monotonous lives of the poor. For these and other reasons I
+prefer the free public library to most if not any other agencies for the
+happiness and improvement of a community.
+
+ANDREW CARNEGIE.
+
+
+TO TEACHERS
+
+Libraries are established that they may gather together the best of the
+fruits of the tree of human speech, spread them before men in all
+liberality and invite all to enjoy them. The schools are in part
+established that they may tell the young how to enjoy this feast. They
+do this. They teach the young to read. They put them in touch with
+words and phrases; they point out to them the delectable mountains of
+human thought and action, and then let them go. It is to be lamented
+that they go so soon. At twelve, at thirteen, at fourteen at the most,
+these young men and women, whose lives could be so broadened, sweetened,
+mellowed, humanized by a few years' daily contact with the wisest,
+noblest, wittiest of our kind as their own words portray them--at this
+early age, when reading has hardly begun, they leave school, and they
+leave almost all of the best reading at the same time. If, now, you can
+bring these young citizens into sympathy with the books the libraries
+would persuade them to read; if you can impress upon them the reading
+habit; then the libraries can supplement your good work; will rejoice in
+empty shelves; will feel that they are not in vain; and the coming
+generations will delight, one and all, in that which good books can
+give; will speak more plainly; will think more clearly; will be less
+often led astray by false prophets of every kind; will see that all men
+are of the one country of humanity; and will--to sum it all--be better
+citizens of a good state.
+
+I believe you will find there is something yet to do in reading in which
+the library can be of help. Reading comes by practice. The practice
+which a pupil gets during school hours does not make him a quick and
+skilful reader. There is not enough of it. If you encourage the reading
+habit, and lead that habit, as you easily can, along good lines, your
+pupils will gain much, simply in knowledge of words, in ability to get
+the meaning out of print, even though we say nothing of the help their
+reading will give them in other ways.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+RIGHT USE OF BOOKS
+
+When we consider how much the education that is continued after
+schooltime depends upon the right use of books, we can hardly be too
+emphatic in asserting that something of that use should be learned in
+the school. Yet almost nothing of the sort really is learned. The
+average student in high school does not know the difference between a
+table of contents and an index, does not know what a concordance is,
+does not know how to find what he wants in an encyclopedia, does not
+even know that a dictionary has many other uses besides that of
+supplying definitions. Still more pitiful is his naïve assumption that a
+book is a book, and that what book it is does not particularly matter.
+It is the commonest of all experiences to hear a student say that he has
+got a given statement from a book, and to find him quite incapable of
+naming the book. That the source of information, as long as that
+information is printed somewhere, should be of any consequence, is quite
+surprising to him, and still more the suggestion that it is also his
+duty to have some sort of an opinion concerning the value and
+credibility of the authority he thus blindly quotes. If the school
+library, and the instruction given in connection with it, should do no
+more than impress these two elementary principles upon the minds of the
+whole student body, it would go far towards accounting for itself as an
+educational means. That it may, and should, do much more than this is
+the proposition that we have sought to maintain, and we do not see how
+its essential reasonableness may be gainsaid.
+
+DIAL, Feb. 1, 1906.
+
+
+THE TRUE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
+
+The library supplies information for mechanics and workingmen of every
+class. Just as the system of apprenticeship declines and employers
+require trained helpers, must the usefulness of the library increase.
+
+Library work offers great opportunity for philanthropy, and philanthropy
+of the higher form, because its work is preventive, rather than
+positive. It anticipates evil by substituting the antidote beforehand.
+It fosters the love of what is good and uplifting before low tastes have
+become a chronic propensity. Pleasure in such books as the library would
+furnish to young readers will interest the mind and occupy the thoughts
+exclusive of those evil practices invited by the open door of idleness.
+The children generally come of their own free will; they are influenced
+silently, unconsciously to themselves; they feel themselves welcome,
+loved, respected. Self-respect, the mighty power to lift and keep erect,
+is fostered and developed.
+
+The work of the library is for civic education and the making of good
+citizens, a form of patriotism made imperative for the millions of
+foreigners coming yearly to our shores.
+
+The public library offers common ground to all. There are no social
+lines to bar the entrance; the doors open at every touch, if only the
+simple etiquette of quiet, earnest bearing is observed. No creeds are to
+be subscribed to, the rich and poor meet together in absolute
+independence. Even the aristocracy of intellect does not count in the
+people's university. The ideal public library realizes the true spirit
+of democracy.
+
+WALLER IRENE BULLOCK.
+
+
+THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY
+
+In more than one locality the local public library has come to be
+recognized as the natural local center of the community, around which
+revolve the local studies, the local industries, and all the various
+local interests of the town or village. Here, for instance, is the home
+of the local historical society; here also is the home of the local
+camera club; of the natural history society; of the study club and
+debating societies. Why is this? It is because those in charge of the
+library have so thoroughly realized the fact that in a community the
+interests of all are the interests of each, and that while this is true
+of other institutions as related to each other, yet there is no one of
+them on which the lines of interest so invariably converge from all the
+others--as "all roads lead to Rome."
+
+W. E. FOSTER.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARIES
+
+The very presence of a public library has a meaning and exerts a power
+for good. Especially is this the case when this presence is made evident
+by a separate and worthy building. The building which stands for books,
+for knowledge, for the records of human experience; a house not just
+like other houses but with marks of permanence, dignity and grace, and
+evidently so contrived as to call the people in and to distribute freely
+to them these wise and entertaining books, must be a positive influence
+in itself.
+
+The children know it for what it is. Old and young, rich and poor,
+recognize its meaning. It embodies the great idea of a man learning and
+growing by his association with the wisdom and experience of other men.
+It is the great clearing house of human intelligence where knowledge is
+mutually exchanged and every one can learn what the rest know. It tells
+the lowest and meanest and most ignorant that here is the opportunity
+open to everybody to know, and therefore that books are a common concern
+of the village, by which it sets great store.
+
+If, on the other hand, the public library is neglected, or starved with
+excessive thrift, or if it is crowded into a corner, opened at rare
+intervals and approached with difficulty, all this influence is lost.
+
+The increase of reading tends to a general broadening of life. Human
+nature is selfish so long as the man is isolated, for he is controlled
+by his impulses and passions, and guided by his own narrow ideas.
+
+Our views of life are moulded by reading. The records are here,
+describing lands and people we have never seen, centuries in which we
+have not lived, men who passed off the stage in past ages. The
+discoveries of science, the developments of workmanship, the growth of
+civilization; thought, wit, fancy, feeling, which has appealed to the
+world, and that study, the study of man, is illustrated in infinitely
+diverse forms of story and song: all these are in books and they give us
+the advantage of wide horizons and enlarged acquaintance with life. A
+community leavened with such influences, where people generally
+understand, where all grow up from their youth to know, to think, to
+communicate and to have common acquaintance with the past and the
+distance and with the secrets of nature, and all the many ways of doing
+things, is a stronger, happier and more prosperous community because of
+that very fact, and the books are plainly a means to so desirable an
+end.
+
+W. R. EASTMAN.
+
+
+HOW A LIBRARY HELPED THE BOYS
+
+As the children have grown up since our library was established, it is
+wonderful how their demands for books have widened. A boy in his casual
+reading finds some particular branch of study, in science, mechanics,
+art or politics, which arouses a sleeping instinct. Straightway he
+forsakes his stories and his plays and goes to the library to satisfy
+his new desires. Year by year the demand upon the library has broadened
+and books have been added treating of electricity, the X-ray, wireless
+telegraphy, mending bicycles, telephones, bee-keeping, care of pet
+animals, political, social and economic questions, and still the books
+do not meet all demands. New subjects are called for and new books must
+be bought.
+
+BEAVER DAM ARGUS.
+
+
+Side by side in the wilderness, our forefathers planted the church and
+the school; and on these two supports the nation has stood firm and
+grown great. But a tripod is necessary for stable equilibrium. As the
+country has grown, its industrial, economic and political problems have
+grown more numerous and more complex, and the nation required a broader
+base of intelligence and morality for its security and perpetuity. The
+third support for a wider and higher national life has been found in the
+public library, which co-operating with the school, doubles the value of
+the education the child receives in school and further incites and
+furnishes him with facilities for doing so. It also enables the adult
+to make up for the opportunities he neglected or, more often, did not
+have in early life. It does this, too, at an expense to the community of
+not more than one tenth of the cost per capita of school education.
+
+F. M. CRUNDEN.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY SUPPORT
+
+This is the fundamental matter after all--money. Whence shall the funds
+come? The church plan, the club plan--all are dependent on the spasmodic
+and irregular support that results from the labors of a soliciting
+committee using persuasive arguments with business men and others. There
+are certain expenses that are absolutely essential--books first and
+most, a room for which, probably, rent must be paid (though some
+generous citizen may give the use of it), periodicals to be subscribed
+for, heat, light, table, chairs, etc., besides the most important
+feature of the whole scheme--the librarian.
+
+The wisest form of organization is the tax-supported free public
+library. Is it desirable that the small town shall in its beginning in
+library matters attempt at once to secure a municipal tax to found and
+maintain a free public library under the state law? There are those who
+believe this is the only way to make a beginning. Eventually, if not in
+the beginning, the free public library on a rate or tax-supported basis
+is the most desirable form of library organization.
+
+ALICE S. TYLER.
+
+
+WHY THE FREE LIBRARY SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY TAXATION
+
+1 Such a tax puts the library on the right basis as a public
+institution. The purpose of the library is the same as that of the
+school--public education, the enlargement and enrichment of the
+intellectual life of the community--and it should, therefore, be
+supported on the same grounds and by the same methods as the school.
+
+2 The library supported by local taxation ceases to be a charity,
+contributed by the few to the many, and becomes the right and property
+of all. When I use a library supported by private gifts, I am accepting
+a favor; when I use a library supported by public tax, I am using what
+is mine by right. The tax thus promotes a feeling of independence and
+self-respect in the library's patrons.
+
+3 Taxation is the easiest and fairest way to raise the needed money.
+Five hundred dollars raised by entertainments, subscriptions, sales,
+etc., means a great burden of labor, care and expense to a few, and
+usually to net that sum a very much larger sum must be expended, while
+$500 spread on the tax rolls would hardly be felt even by the largest
+taxpayer.
+
+4 It adds dignity to the library and increases the respect in which it
+is held. To be made each year an object of charity for which private
+subscriptions are solicited and rummage sales held tends to bring it
+into contempt and greatly lowers its influence in the community.
+
+5 A stated tax, yielding a known and fixed income, enables the trustees
+to pursue a consistent and stable plan for library development, such as
+is impossible where the income is dependent on fluctuating impulse or
+effort.
+
+6 There is no village tax levied from which the people can get so large
+a return for so little money. A $500 tax in a village of 3,000 people is
+equivalent to about 16 cents for each resident. For this insignificant
+sum each person in the village is offered a pleasant reading room, as
+good as that supplied by many a club, a dozen or more of the best
+periodicals, a collection of books such as only a very few of the more
+wealthy can possess as individuals, and about $200 worth of new books to
+read every year.
+
+NEW YORK LIBRARIES.
+
+
+SOME ADVANTAGES OF MUNICIPAL CONTROL
+
+First--A free public library under municipal control has a regular,
+known income, which increases with the growth of the municipality.
+
+Second--It is not dependent solely upon subscriptions, contributions
+and the proceeds of entertainments arranged for its benefit.
+
+Third--With an income that is certain, the trustees are able to make
+plans for the future, and more economically administer the affairs of
+the library.
+
+Fourth--A municipally-controlled library is owned by the people, and
+experience has demonstrated that they take a much greater interest in an
+institution belonging to them.
+
+Fifth--Public libraries supplement the work of the public schools.
+"Reading maketh a full man," wrote Lord Bacon; and Thomas Carlyle thus
+expressed the same idea: "The true university of these days is a
+collection of books." Libraries, like the schools, should be supported
+by the people.
+
+Sixth--The library is not a charity; neither should it be regarded as a
+luxury, but rather as a necessity, and be maintained in the same manner
+that the schools, parks, fire departments and public roads are
+maintained--through the tax levy.
+
+Seventh--Where all contribute the burden is not felt; each aiding
+according to his ability.
+
+Eighth--Permanency is acquired for the library, and many valuable
+governmental, state and other publications may be obtained without cost,
+a privilege that is often denied to subscription libraries.
+
+Ninth--The trustees and librarian are not hampered in their work by
+inability to collect subscriptions or the failure of an entertainment to
+return a profit.
+
+Tenth--There is a more efficient and closer co-operation with the public
+schools and other municipal institutions and interests.
+
+Eleventh--Public ownership secures more democratic service and broadness
+in administration.
+
+Finally--All are interested in a Free Public Library, and in an
+emergency there will be a more generous response to an appeal for
+financial assistance.
+
+NEW JERSEY PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
++Foreign Book Lists+
+
+List of selected German books. 50c.
+List of Hungarian books. 15c.
+List of French books. 25c.
+List of French fiction. 5c.
+List of Norwegian and Danish books. 25c.
+
+
++Library Tracts+ (5c. each)
+
+2  How to start a public library, by Dr. G. E. Wire.
+3  Traveling libraries, by F. A. Hutchins.
+4  Library rooms and buildings, by C. C. Soule.
+5  Notes from the art section of a library, by C. A. Cutter.
+8  A village library, by Mary Anna Tarbell.
+9  Training for librarianship.
+10 Why do we need a public library? Material for a library campaign,
+     by Chalmers Hadley.
+
+
++Library Handbooks+ (15c each)
+
+ 1 Essentials in library administration, by L. E. Stearns.
+ 2 Cataloging for small libraries, by Theresa Hitchler.
+ 3 Management of traveling libraries, by Edna D. Bullock.
+ 4 Aids in book selection, by Alice B. Kroeger.
+ 5 Binding for small libraries.
+ 6 Mending and repair of books, by Margaret W. Browne.
+
+
++Card Publications+
+
+ 1 Catalog cards for current periodical publications.
+ 2 --for various sets of periodicals and for books of composite
+       authorship.
+ 3 --for current books in English and American history, with
+       annotations.
+ 4 --for current bibliographical publications.
+ 5 --for photo-reproductions of modern language texts before 1600
+       in American college libraries.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Why do we need a public library?, by Various
+
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Why do we need a public library?, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Why do we need a public library?
+       Material for a library campaign
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Chalmers Hadley
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2010 [EBook #31760]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY? ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h3>LIBRARY TRACT, No. 10</h3>
+
+<h4>Revised Edition of<br />Tract No. 1</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC<br />LIBRARY?</h1>
+
+<h2>MATERIAL FOR A LIBRARY CAMPAIGN</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>Compiled by</h3>
+
+<h2>CHALMERS HADLEY</h2>
+
+<h3>Sec'y American Library Association</h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD<br />
+1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO<br />1910</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>PUBLICATIONS OF THE</h3>
+
+<h2>AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION</h2>
+
+<h3>PUBLISHING BOARD</h3>
+
+<div class="block">
+<p class="center"><i>Postage on book publications extra</i></p>
+
+<p>Guide to reference books, by Alice B. Kroeger.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;New and enlarged edition. Cloth, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Literature of American history; edited by J. N.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Larned. Cloth, $6.00. Supplements for 1902,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;1903, paper, each $1; for 1904, 25c.</p>
+
+<p>A. L. A. Index to general literature. Cloth, $10.</p>
+
+<p>A. L. A. Index to portraits. $3.</p>
+
+<p>A. L. A. Catalog. Paper, $1.</p>
+
+<p>A. L. A. Catalog rules. Cloth, 60c.</p>
+
+<p>A. L. A. Booklist (monthly, 10 numbers) $1 a year</p>
+
+<p>List of subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Cloth, $2.</p>
+
+<p>Books for girls and women and their clubs.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Paper, 25c. Also issued in five parts, small<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;size, 5c. each.</p>
+
+<p>Reading for the young, with supplement. Sheets,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.</p>
+
+<p>Books for boys and girls, by Caroline M. Hewins.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Paper, 15c. $5 per 100.</p>
+
+<p>Children's reading. Paper, 25c.</p>
+
+<p>Small library buildings. Paper, $1.25.</p>
+
+<p>Library buildings, by W. R. Eastman. Paper, 10c.</p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>Continued on <a href="#back">3rd cover page</a></i>)</p></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LIBRARY TRACT, No. 10</h3>
+
+<h4>Revised Edition of<br />Tract No. 1</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC<br />LIBRARY?</h1>
+
+<h2>MATERIAL FOR A LIBRARY CAMPAIGN</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>Compiled by</h3>
+
+<h2>CHALMERS HADLEY</h2>
+
+<h3>Sec'y American Library Association</h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD<br />
+1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO<br />1910</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">Compiled from articles and addresses by</p>
+
+<table summary="CONTENTS">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Sir Walter Besant</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">E. A. Birge, dean University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">William J. Bryan</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">John P. Buckley</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Waller Irene Bullock, chief loan librarian Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, Pa.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">James H. Canfield, late librarian Columbia University Library, New York</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Andrew Carnegie</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_25">25</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_41">41</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Winston Churchill</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Frederick M. Crunden, ex-librarian Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_4">4</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_28">28</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_47">47</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">J. C. Dana, librarian Free Public Library, Newark, N. J.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_10">10</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_12">12</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_37">37</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_42">42</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Melvil Dewey, ex-director N. Y. State Library, Albany</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">William R. Eastman, chief Division of Educational Extension, State Library, Albany, N. Y.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_22">22</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_45">45</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Mrs. S. C. Fairchild, ex-vice director New York State Library School, Albany, N. Y.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">W. I. Fletcher, librarian Amherst College Library, Amherst, Mass.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">W. E. Foster, librarian Public Library, Providence, R. I.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Chalmers Hadley, secretary American Library Association, Chicago, Ill.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_3">3</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Joseph Le Roy Harrison, librarian Providence Athen&aelig;um, Providence, R. I.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Caroline M. Hewins, librarian Public Library, Hartford, Conn.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">F. A. Hutchins, University Extension Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_13">13</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_19">19</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_26">26</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_36">36</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">J. N. Larned, ex-librarian Public Library, Buffalo, N. Y.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_20">20</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_22">22</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_34">34</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Henry E. Legler, librarian Public Library, Chicago, Ill.</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_17">17</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_30">30</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">James Russell Lowell</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">William McKinley</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Theodore Roosevelt</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">C. C. Thach, president Alabama Polytechnic Institute</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_9">9</a>,&nbsp;<a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Alice S. Tyler, secretary Iowa Library Commission, Des Moines, Iowa</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="left">Irene Van Kleeck</td>
+    <td><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN</h2>
+
+<p>One of the most effective means of conducting a library campaign,
+especially in its early stage, is through the press. Not only will the
+reading and thinking part of the people thereby be reached, but any
+library editorial appearing in a newspaper, will, because of the public
+notice given it, receive greater consideration than if printed
+elsewhere. Library Commission workers and library supporters in general,
+have felt the need of printed material which could be made immediately
+available in a library campaign. Most library addresses and articles are
+too long, too scholarly in treatment or have lacked that crisp style
+necessary for use in the press.</p>
+
+<p>Editors of newspapers are slow to accept for printing, signed editorials
+which have seen service elsewhere. It is suggested that the material
+here compiled be made as local as possible in its application to
+individual communities, and that the editorials be sent to newspapers
+unsigned by the original writers. The same editorials should not be sent
+to neighboring communities, at least in their original form. Every
+attempt should be made to have them appear as fresh and spontaneous as
+possible. Different editorials should always be sent the several papers
+in the same city.</p>
+
+<p>The material here compiled is suggestive and sufficiently comprehensive
+to meet ordinary conditions. Much valuable material has been taken from
+circulars sent out by the Library Commissions of Oregon, Wisconsin and Iowa.</p>
+
+<p>No better advice could be given in opening a public library campaign
+through the public press than the following, in the Wisconsin Free
+Library Commission Circular of Information, No. 5:</p>
+
+<p>1 Citizens of &mdash;&mdash; believe in free public libraries. They need
+organization and courage to attack<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> local problems rather than long
+homilies on the value of good literature.</p>
+
+<p>2 Public sentiment needs time to ripen. Frequent short articles running
+through the issues of a few weeks are better than a few long ones.</p>
+
+<p>3 Make the articles breezy, optimistic, with local application. You can
+get a library if you are in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>4 Appeal to local pride. Civic patriotism is the basis of civic
+improvement. Give the names of familiar towns of similar size which have
+good libraries.</p>
+
+<p>5 Do not rely solely on editorials. Get brief communications from
+citizens, but have each letter make only one point, and that crisply.</p>
+
+<p>6 Do not waste space rebutting trivial arguments. Refute them by
+affirmative statements.</p>
+
+<p>7 Get brief interviews with visitors from towns where they have good
+libraries, and with your own townsmen who have visited neighboring
+libraries.</p>
+
+<p>8 Keep this fact in mind&mdash;Your people want a library and only need pluck
+and a leader.</p>
+
+<p>9 Remember that the worst enemy of the movement is the talker who wants
+a library very much, in the "sweet bye and bye," when all other public
+improvements are completed.</p>
+
+<p>10 When it is time to strike&mdash;strike hard. Apologies and faint hearts
+never won any kind of a contest.</p>
+
+<p class="right">CHALMERS HADLEY,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+Secretary American Library Association.</p>
+
+<h2>WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY DOES FOR A COMMUNITY</h2>
+
+<p>1 It doubles the value of the education the child receives in school,
+and, best of all, imparts a desire for knowledge which serves as an
+incentive to continue his education after leaving school; and, having
+furnished the incentive, it further supplies the means for a life-long
+continuance of education.</p>
+
+<p>2 It provides for the education of adults who have lacked, or failed to
+make use of, early opportunities.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>3 It furnishes information to teachers, ministers, journalists,
+physicians, legislators, all persons upon whose work depend the
+intellectual, moral, sanitary and political welfare and advancement of the people.</p>
+
+<p>4 It furnishes books and periodicals for the technical instruction and
+information of mechanics, artisans, manufacturers, engineers and all
+others whose work requires technical knowledge&mdash;of all persons upon whom
+depends the industrial progress of the city.</p>
+
+<p>5 It is of incalculable benefit to the city by affording to thousands
+the highest and purest entertainment, and thus lessening crime and disorder.</p>
+
+<p>6 It makes the city a more desirable place of residence, and thus
+retains the best citizens and attracts others of the same character.</p>
+
+<p>7 More than any other agency, it elevates the general standard of
+intelligence throughout the great body of the community, upon which its
+material prosperity, as well as its moral and political well-being, must
+depend.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the public library includes potentially all other means of
+social betterment. A library is a living organism, having within itself
+the capacity of infinite growth and reproduction. It may found a dozen
+museums and hospitals, kindle the train of thought that produces
+beneficent inventions, and inspire to noble deeds of every kind, all the
+while imparting intelligence and inculcating industry, thrift, morality,
+public spirit and all those qualities that constitute the wealth and
+well-being of a community.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. M. CRUNDEN.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>WHAT A FREE LIBRARY DOES FOR A COUNTRY TOWN</h2>
+
+<p>1 It keeps boys at home in the evening by giving them well-written
+stories of adventure.</p>
+
+<p>2 It gives teachers and pupils interesting books to aid their school
+work in history and geography, and makes better citizens of them by
+enlarging their knowledge of their country and its growth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p><p>3 It provides books on the care of children and animals, cookery and
+housekeeping, building and gardening, and teaches young readers how to
+make simple dynamos, telephones and other machines.</p>
+
+<p>4 It helps clubs that are studying history, literature or life in other
+countries, and throws light upon Sunday-school lessons.</p>
+
+<p>5 It furnishes books of selections for reading aloud, suggestions for
+entertainments and home amusements, and hints on correct speech and good manners.</p>
+
+<p>6 It teaches the names and habits of the plants, birds and insects of
+the neighborhood, and the differences in soil and rock.</p>
+
+<p>7 It tells the story of the town from its settlement, and keeps a record
+of all important events in its history.</p>
+
+<p>8 It offers pleasant and wholesome stories to readers of all ages.</p>
+
+<p class="right">CAROLINE M. HEWINS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Let the boys find in the free library wholesome books of adventure, and
+tales such as a boy likes; let the girls find the stories which delight
+them and give their fancy and imagination exercise; let the tired
+housewife find the novels which will transport her to an ideal realm of
+love and happiness; let the hardworked man, instead of being expected
+always to read "improving" books of history or politics, choose that
+which will give him relaxation of mind and nerve&mdash;perhaps the "Innocents
+Abroad," or Josh Billings's "Allminax," or "Samanthy at Saratoga."</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. I. FLETCHER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>WHY WE NEED A LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>A public library in our community would be an influence for good every
+day in the week.</p>
+
+<p>It would make the town more attractive to the class of people we want as
+residents and neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>It would mould the characters of the children in our homes.</p>
+
+<p>A good library would get gifts from wealthy citizens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> No other public
+institution offers so fitting an opportunity for a public-spirited
+citizen to help his neighbors and win their approval and affection.</p>
+
+<p>A library in &mdash;&mdash; would be the center of our intellectual life and would
+stimulate the growth of all kinds of clubs for study and debating.</p>
+
+<p>It is a great part of our education to know how to find facts. No man
+knows everything, but the man who knows how to find an indispensable
+fact quickly has the best substitute for such knowledge. We need a
+library to carry forward in a better manner the education of the
+children who leave school; to give them a better chance for
+self-education. We need it to give thoughts and inspiration to the
+teachers of the people, those who in the schoolroom or pulpit, on the
+rostrum, or with the pen attempt to instruct or lead their fellow
+citizens. We need it to help our mechanics in their employments, to give
+them the best thoughts of the best workers in their lines, whether these
+thoughts come in books or papers or magazines.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The public library is an adult school; it is a perpetual and life-long
+continuation class; it is the greatest educational factor that we have;
+and the librarian is becoming our most important teacher and guide.</p>
+
+<p class="right">SIR WALTER BESANT.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>WHAT A LIBRARY DOES FOR A TOWN</h2>
+
+<p>1 Completes its educational equipment, carrying on and giving permanent
+value to the work of the schools.</p>
+
+<p>2 Gives the children of all classes a chance to know and love the best
+in literature. Without the public library such a chance is limited to
+the very few.</p>
+
+<p>3 Minimizes the sale and reading of vicious literature in the community,
+thus promoting mental and moral health.</p>
+
+<p>4 Effects a great saving in money to every reader in the community. The
+library is the application of common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> sense to the problem of supply and
+demand. Through it every reader in the town can secure at a given cost
+from 100 to 1000 times the material for reading or study that he could
+secure by acting individually.</p>
+
+<p>5 Appealing to all classes, sects and degrees of intelligence, it is a
+strong unifying factor in the life of a town.</p>
+
+<p>6 The library is the one thing in which every town, however poor or
+isolated, can have something as good and inspiring as the greatest city
+can offer. Neither Boston nor New York can provide better books to its
+readers than the humblest town library can easily own and supply.</p>
+
+<p>7 Slowly but inevitably raises the intellectual tone of a place.</p>
+
+<p>8 Adds to the material value of property. Real estate agents in the
+suburbs of large cities never fail to advertise the presence of a
+library, if there be one, as giving added value to the lots or houses
+they have for sale.</p>
+
+<p class="right">A. W. in NEW YORK LIBRARIES.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>HELPFUL THINGS DONE BY LIBRARIES FOR TEACHERS AND CHILDREN</h2>
+
+<p>1 Graded lists (sometimes annotated) of books suitable for children are
+printed as part of the library's finding lists.</p>
+
+<p>2 Bulletins of books for special days are printed.</p>
+
+<p>3 Lists of books on special subjects are printed.</p>
+
+<p>4 Topics being studied in the schools are illustrated by special
+exhibits at the libraries.</p>
+
+<p>5 Study rooms in the libraries are maintained for the pupils of the high
+schools and the higher grammar grades.</p>
+
+<p>6 Children's or young people's rooms are maintained at the libraries,
+where the children may come into personal contact with a trained
+children's librarian and with hundreds of books on open shelves.</p>
+
+<p>7 Story hours or readings for children are conducted at the libraries.</p>
+
+<p>8 Training in reference work, in the use of books and libraries, in the
+use of finding lists, card catalogs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> indexes, etc., is given by library
+assistants: (a) to teachers at the library; (b) at the library to
+individual pupils and classes that come there; (c) at the schools to the
+pupils in their rooms.</p>
+
+<p>9 Lectures on classification, bibliographies, and catalogs are given by
+members of the library staff for teachers and normal school students.</p>
+
+<p>10 Special study rooms for teachers are provided.</p>
+
+<p>11 Special educational collections are shelved for use by the teachers.</p>
+
+<p>12 Cases of about 50 books (traveling libraries as it were) are prepared
+by libraries and sent to schoolrooms to remain for a year or less,
+teachers to issue books for home use.</p>
+
+<p>13 Branch reading&mdash;and delivery&mdash;rooms are opened in schools, in charge
+of library assistants, with supply of books on hand for circulation and
+facilities for drawing others from the main library.</p>
+
+<p>14 Assistant librarians are placed in charge of work with schools.</p>
+
+<p>15 In large cities complete branch libraries are established in schools
+on the outskirts of the cities.</p>
+
+<p>16 Special collections of books are furnished to vacation schools.</p>
+
+<p>17 Special cards are issued to teachers on which they may draw more than
+the usual number of volumes at a time.</p>
+
+<p>18 Teachers and principals are allowed to draw a number of volumes for
+(a) reading by children at school; (b) reading by children at home.</p>
+
+<p class="right">PUBLIC LIBRARIES.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>LIBRARIES, A PUBLIC BENEFACTION</h2>
+
+<p>A library is not a luxury; it is not for the cultured few; it is not
+merely for the scientific; it is not for any intellectual cult or
+exclusive literary set. It is a great, broad, universal public
+benefaction. It lifts the entire community; it is the right arm of the
+intellectual development of the people, ministering to the wants of
+those who are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> already educated and spreading a universal desire for
+education. It is the upper story of the public school system, while it
+is a broad field wherein ripe scholars may find a fuller training for
+their already highly developed faculties. It is above all a splendid
+instrument for the education and culture of those vast masses of boys
+and girls that are denied the high privileges of the systematic training of the schools.</p>
+
+<p class="right">C. C. THACH.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The function of the library as an institution of society, is the
+development and enrichment of human life in the entire community by
+bringing to all the people the books that belong to them.</p>
+
+<p class="right">SALOME CUTLER FAIRCHILD.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>MEANING OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>Cities and towns are now for the first time, and chiefly in this
+country, erecting altars to the gods of good fellowship, joy and
+learning. These altars are our public libraries. We had long ago our
+buildings of city and state, our halls of legislation, our courts of
+justice. But these all speak more or less of wrongdoing, of justice and
+injustice, of repression. Most of them touch on partisanship and
+bitterness of feeling. We have had, since many centuries, in all our
+cities, the many meeting places of religious sects&mdash;our chapels,
+churches and cathedrals. They stand for so much that is good, but they
+have not brought together the communities in which they are placed. A
+church is not always the center of the best life of all who live within
+the shadow of its spire.</p>
+
+<p>For several generations we have been building temples to the gods of
+learning and good citizenship&mdash;our schools. And they have come nearer to
+bringing together for the highest purpose the best impulses of all of us
+than have any other institutions. But they are all not yet, as some day
+they will be, for both old and young. Then they speak of discipline, of
+master and pupil, instead only of pure and simple fellowship in studies.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><p>And so we are for the first time in all history, building, in our
+public libraries, temples of happiness and wisdom common to us all. No
+other institution which society has brought forth is so wide in its
+scope; so universal in its appeal; so near to every one of us; so
+inviting to both young and old; so fit to teach, without arrogance, the
+ignorant and, without faltering, the wisest.</p>
+
+<p>The public library is to be the center of all the activities that make
+for social efficiency. It is to do more to bind into one civic whole and
+to develop the feeling that you are citizens of no mean city, than any
+other institution you have yet established or than we can as yet
+conceive.</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. C. DANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>PUBLIC LIBRARIES, A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT</h2>
+
+<p>The world-wide library movement of the past few years is an important
+factor in the educational world. The public library is now recognized as
+one of the most effective of the preventive measures advocated by modern
+social students. It is considered an essential part of any system of
+public education, affording opportunity for self-education, and
+supplementing the average five years of school life. Educators now
+realize that the school offers but the beginning of education, and that
+the library is its necessary complement and supplement. This increase of
+library facilities has greatly influenced school work, in bringing home
+to teachers the fact that it is as important to teach what to read as to
+give children the ability to read. The library of to-day is not wholly
+for recreation, but it is the people's university. It is entitled to the
+same consideration which is given to the public schools, and to the same
+sort of support. The whole conception of the library has changed as
+practical men of affairs have come to the realization of the fact that
+they must have accessible the records of past experience and experiments.</p>
+
+<p class="right">OREGON LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE PUBLIC LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>We all believe in public libraries. We frequently discuss the library we
+are to get "bye and bye." We do not find that it is helping the boys and
+girls who are growing up in our town now. Will the next generation need
+it more than this? Will the children of the next generation be dearer to
+us than the boys and girls that now cheer our firesides? Will they use a
+library better because their parents have not had such privileges?</p>
+
+<p>We all want a library, for ourselves, for our neighbors, for the good
+name of our village. Why not get it now and be getting the good out of it?</p>
+
+<p>It is only a question of method.</p>
+
+<p>The library when built should benefit all the people, and therefore it
+should be built by all the people. Give us all a chance to help, and
+then the library will belong to all of us.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>LIBRARIES AND HAPPINESS</h2>
+
+<p>The great purpose of a public library is to promote and unite
+intelligence. It brings together the products of the wise minds of the
+world. It holds within its walls a collection of all the wise and witty
+things ever said: these it marks and indexes and offers to its friends.</p>
+
+<p>It is in its community a sort of intellectual minuteman, always ready to
+supply to every comer something of interest and pleasure. It puts good
+books, and no others, into the hands of children. It tells about
+Cinderella and informs you on riots in Moscow. It offers you a novel of
+modern Japan and a history of Venice of the past. It knows about the
+milk in the cocoanut, the floods of the river Nile, the advantages of
+education, the evils of legislation, how to plan a home, why bread won't
+rise, and can tell more about the mental failings that give Jamaica and
+Venezuela trouble than most of our congressmen ever dreamed of.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>Reading is the short cut into the heart of life. If you are talking
+with a group of friends about, for example, different parts of the
+United States, and some one happens to mention a city or town in which
+you have lived, note how your interest quickens, and how eager you are
+to hear news of the place or to tell of your experience in it. This is a
+simple every-day fact. The same thing you have observed a thousand times
+about any subject or talk with which you may be familiar. We learn about
+many things just by keeping alive and moving round! Those things we have
+learned about we can't help being interested in. That is the way we are
+made. If we knew about more things our interests would be greater in
+number, keener, more satisfying; we would talk more, ask more questions,
+be more alert, get more pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The lesson from this is plain enough: if you wish to have a good time,
+learn something. You like to meet old friends. Your brain, also, likes
+to come across things it knows already, to renew acquaintance with the
+knowledge it has stored away and half forgotten. The pleasures of
+recognition and association; the delights of renewing your friendships
+with your own ideas are many, easy to get, never failing. But if you
+wish to have interests and delights in good plenty you must know of many
+things. If you wish to be happy, learn something.</p>
+
+<p>This sounds like advice to a student. It is not, it is a suggestion to
+the wayfarer. For this learning process may be as delightful as it is to
+gather flowers by the roadside in a summer walk.</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. C. DANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>LIBRARY WORTH SELF-DENIAL</h2>
+
+<p>An inexhaustible mine of pleasure is open for the boy or girl who loves
+good books and has access to them. Without effort on the part of the
+parent they are kept off the street and from the company of the idle and
+vicious and are storing their minds with useful knowledge, or are being
+taught high ideals and noble purposes. Thus they develop into men and
+women who are an honor to their parents and worthy citizens of our great republic.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p><p>Such is the product of a Free Public Library. Is it not worth the small
+pittance it will cost? Many a laboring man spends more money in a week
+for tobacco than the maintenance of a library would cost him in a year.
+Is not the education and the development of our bright boys and girls
+worth a little self-denial?</p>
+
+<p>We all desire that our children shall have better opportunities than we
+have had, and not have to work as we have worked. Here is an opportunity
+to help them help themselves, which is the very best help that can be
+given any one. Let's be "boosters" and help ourselves, help our town,
+and help our boys and girls by unitedly supporting the library proposition.</p>
+
+<p class="right">IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>REASONS FOR HAVING A FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>Public libraries have without delay become an essential part of a public
+education system and are as clearly useful as the public schools. They
+are not only classed with schools, but have generally become influential
+adjuncts of the public schools. The number of readers is rapidly
+increasing and the character of the books is constantly improving.</p>
+
+<p>Not infrequently the objection is heard that the public libraries are
+opening the doors to light and useless books; that reading can be, and
+often is, carried to a vicious and enervating excess, and therefore that
+the libraries' influence is doubtful and on the whole not good. This
+argument does not need elaborate exposure.</p>
+
+<p>The main purpose of the library is to counteract and check the
+circulation and influence of the empty and not infrequently vicious
+books that are so rife. A visit to any news-stand will disclose a world
+of low and demoralizing "penny dreadfuls" and other trash. These are
+bought by boys and girls because they want to read and can nowhere else
+obtain reading material. This deluge of worthless periodicals and books
+can be counteracted only by gratuitous supplies from the public library.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p><p>Whether these counteracting books be fiction or not, they may be pure
+and harmless, and often of intellectual merit and moral excellence. The
+question is not whether people shall read fiction&mdash;for read it they
+will&mdash;but whether they are to have good fiction instead of worthless and harmful trash.</p>
+
+<p>The tendency to read inferior books can soon be checked by a good
+library. If the attention of the children in school is directed to good
+books, and the free library contains such books, there will be no
+thought of the news-stand as the place for finding reading matter.</p>
+
+<p>The economical reason for establishing free public libraries is the fact
+that public officers and public taxation manage and support them
+efficiently and make them available to the largest number of readers. By
+means of a free library there is the best utilization of effort and of
+resources at a small cost to individuals.</p>
+
+<p>While a private library may greatly delight and improve the owner and
+his immediate circle of friends, it is a luxury to which he and they
+only can resort.</p>
+
+<p>A library charging a fee may bring comfort to a respectable board of
+directors by ministering to a small and financially independent circle
+of book-takers, by its freedom from the rush of numerous and eager
+readers, and by strict conformity to the notions and vagaries of the
+managers. But such a library never realizes the highest utility. The
+greater part of the books lie untouched upon the shelves, and compared
+with the free library it is a lame and impotent affair.</p>
+
+<p>The books of a public library actively pervade the community; they reach
+and are influential with very large numbers and the utility of the
+common possession&mdash;books&mdash;is multiplied without limit. Before several of
+our towns lies the question of opening to all what is now limited to
+those who pay a fee. This is not merely a limitation&mdash;it is practically a prohibition.</p>
+
+<p>Whether right or wrong, human beings as at present constituted will not
+frequent in large numbers libraries that charge a fee. The spirit of the
+age and the tendency<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> of liberal communities are entirely in favor of
+furnishing this means of education and amusement without charge.
+Certainly towns which can maintain by taxation, paupers, parks, highways
+and schools have no reasonable ground for denying free reading to their inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>These towns spend vast sums of money in providing education, and yet
+omit the small extra expenditure which would enable young men and women
+to continue their education.</p>
+
+<p>The experience of Library Commissions of various states has amply
+demonstrated that libraries and literature are sought for and
+appreciated quite as much by rural communities as by the larger towns,
+and not infrequently the appreciation is apparently keener, because of
+the absence of interests and amusements other than those provided by the
+library. There is now no real reason why every part of this state may
+not enjoy the advantages and pleasures of book distribution, for
+concentration of effort in the small towns elsewhere has provided
+efficient, attractive and economical libraries, and could as well do so here.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. A. HUTCHINS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>MISSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>It is our business in this country to get at the best methods to govern
+ourselves. How many of our best people have paused to reflect on what
+that means, and on all it means? It means that now we have about
+80,000,000 of sovereigns. It was all very well when we were a little
+confederation of homogeneous stock stretching along the Atlantic
+sea-board. We had our dissensions then, but our population was permeated
+with the principles of our government. In one hundred years we have
+swelled from a handful to 80,000,000, and a large part of them made up
+of additions from the nations of the earth, and not the self-governing
+nations. And the problem is to educate the children of these, as well as
+our own children, in the principles of that government of which they are
+an essential and vital part.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>This is the first problem, and if it is not attended to, our government
+will crumble away and decay from neglect. We do not want denizens in
+this state and this nation, we want citizens. We do not want ward
+politics, but we do want government as our forefathers understood it.
+And it is the duty of every right-minded citizen to work unfalteringly
+for this end. The question is one of expediency.</p>
+
+<p>We want citizens. And the public school and the public library are the
+places where citizens are made. Therefore we must labor for and support
+these institutions first and foremost. To a very great extent, the
+librarian is the custodian of public morals and the moulder of public men.</p>
+
+<p>The librarian must, and he usually does, feel his responsibility. The
+word "responsibility" should be given equal weight with the word
+"liberty" and emblazoned beside it, and it is these two things that the
+public librarian through his knowledge of good literature must impress
+upon our coming generations&mdash;"liberty and responsibility."</p>
+
+<p class="right">WINSTON CHURCHILL.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>LIBRARY EXTENSION</h2>
+
+<p>Our public schools are doing a great work, but, after all, "the older
+generation remains untouched, and the assimilation of the younger can
+hardly be complete or certain as long as the homes of the parents remain
+comparatively unaffected." For those whose early education has been
+neglected either by reason of family circumstances or because of wayward
+disposition, and who realize their need before it is too late, there are
+night schools, business courses and correspondence school courses, with
+the minor advantages and stimulus offered by public lecture courses.
+Volunteer study clubs and societies for research are being organized in
+great numbers. And, more potent and more forceful, more universal in its
+application than all these because better organized, better equipped and
+readier to avail itself of all existing affiliating agencies, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> that
+national movement which has become known for want of a better term as library extension.</p>
+
+<p>Library extension aims to supply to every man, woman and child, either
+through its own resources or by co-operation with other affiliated
+agencies, what each community, or any group in any community, or any
+individual in the community may require for mental stimulus,
+intellectual recreation or practical knowledge and information useful in one's daily occupation.</p>
+
+<p class="right">HENRY E. LEGLER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The opening of a free public library is a most important event in the
+history of any town. A college training is an excellent thing; but,
+after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he
+gives himself, and it is for this that a good library should furnish the
+opportunity and the means. All that is primarily needful in order to use
+a library is the ability to read; primarily, for there must also be the
+inclination, and after that, some guidance in reading well.</p>
+
+<p class="right">JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LIBRARY&mdash;PLEASURE AND PROFIT</h2>
+
+<p>We cannot remind ourselves too frequently that a fundamental purpose of
+good books, and so of the library which possesses them, is to give
+pleasure, and that the library ought to be more closely and peculiarly
+associated with pleasure than any other institution supported by the public.</p>
+
+<p>Life for most of us is sufficiently dull and colorless. The workday
+aspect of the world is always with us and oppresses us. For the average
+man and woman, whose education has been limited, whose imagination has
+lacked all wider opportunity for cultivation, the easiest escape from
+the cares of daily life, from the depressing monotony of daily routine,
+will be through the avenue opened by the story, the people's road out of
+a care-filled life, ever since the days of "Arabian Nights." Such
+readers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> as these desire fiction and ought to have it. If their
+imagination can be cultivated to the point of reaching similar freedom
+from care through poetry, through the drama, or through any of the
+higher forms of literature, so much the better. The library's message is
+to men and women cramped by toil and narrowed by routine, ever seeking
+some way out of this troublesome world into that larger realm which is
+more truly ours because it is our creation and that of our fellows. This
+wider world, in its friendliness and homelikeness, the library must represent.</p>
+
+<p>The library is where the readers are introduced to the friendship of
+authors and their books. There they are at home and there we too may be
+at home. Old and young, rich and poor, wise and simple, men and women
+and children, there we may meet new friends on kindly and familiar terms
+and widen our thoughts as we learn of their wisdom and their wit. Still
+better, there we may renew our acquaintance with old friends and feel
+the contracted horizon of our lives again enlarge as we meet them once
+more. New friends and old, they all greet us with an assured welcome and
+yield to us the best which they can give, or we receive. We come to them
+not to learn lessons but to be with them for a little while and to live
+with them that larger and truer life which their presence creates for us.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the library performs its high and noble duty of helping men to
+live, "not by bread alone, but by every word of God," who, through good
+books, has been speaking to the generations of men not only for their
+instruction but even more for their delight.</p>
+
+<p class="right">E. A. BIRGE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>VALUE OF FREE LIBRARIES</h2>
+
+<p>The best proof of the value of public libraries lies in the cordial
+support given them by all the people, when they are managed on broad,
+sensible lines. Such institutions contribute to the fund of wholesome
+recreation that sweetens life and to the wider knowledge that broadens
+it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> They give ambition, knowledge and inspiration to boys and girls
+from sordid homes, and win them from various forms of dissipation. They
+form a central home where citizens of all creeds and conditions find a
+common ground of useful endeavor.</p>
+
+<p>Libraries are needed to furnish the pupils of our schools the incentive
+and the opportunity for wider study; to teach them "the art and science
+of reading for a purpose," to give to boys and girls with a hidden
+talent the chance to discover and develop it; to give to mechanics and
+artisans a chance to know what their ambitious fellows are doing; to
+give men and women, weary and worn from treading a narrow round,
+excursions in fresh and delightful fields; to give to clubs for study
+and recreation, material for better work, and, last but not least, to
+give wholesome employment to all classes for those idle hours that wreck
+more lives than any other cause.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. A. HUTCHINS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Even now many wise men are agreed that the love of books, as mere
+things of sentiment, and the reading of good books, as mere habit, are
+incomparably better results of schooling than any of the definite
+knowledge which the best of teachers can store into pupils' minds.
+Teaching how to read is of less importance in the intelligence of a
+generation than the teaching what to read."</p>
+
+<h2>THE BOOKLESS MAN</h2>
+
+<p>The bookless man does not understand his own loss. He does not know the
+leanness in which his mind is kept by want of the food which he rejects.
+He does not know what starving of imagination and of thought he has
+inflicted upon himself. He has suffered his interest in the things which
+make up God's knowable universe to shrink until it reaches no farther
+than his eyes can see and his ears can hear. The books which he scorns
+are the telescopes and reflectors and reverberators of our intellectual
+life, holding in themselves a hundred magical powers for the overcoming
+of space and time, and for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> giving the range of knowledge which belongs
+to a really cultivated mind. There is no equal substitute for them.
+There is nothing else which will so break for us the poor hobble of
+everyday sights and sounds and habits and tasks, by which our thinking
+and feeling are naturally tethered to a little worn round.</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. N. LARNED.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LIBRARY'S EDUCATIONAL MISSION</h2>
+
+<p>To the great mass of boys and girls the school can barely give the tools
+with which to get an education before they are forced to begin their
+life work as breadwinners. Few are optimistic enough to hope that we can
+change this condition very rapidly. The great problem of the day is,
+therefore, to carry on the education after the elementary steps have
+been taken in the free public schools. There are numerous agencies at
+work in this direction&mdash;reading rooms, reference and lending libraries,
+museums, summer, vacation and night schools, correspondence and other
+forms of extension teaching; but by far the greatest agent is good
+reading. An educational system which contents itself with teaching to
+read and then fails to see that the best reading is provided, when
+undesirable reading is so cheap and plentiful as to be a constant menace
+to the public good, is as inconsistent and absurd as to teach our
+children the expert use of the knife, fork and spoon, and then provide
+them with no food. The most important movement before the professional
+educators to-day, is the broadening going on so rapidly in their duties
+to their profession and to the public. Too many have thought of their
+work as limited to schools for the young during a short period of
+tuition. The true conception is that we should be responsible for higher
+as well as elementary education, for adults as well as for children, for
+educational work in the homes as well as in the schoolhouses, and during
+life as well as for a limited course. In a nutshell, the motto of the
+extended work should be "higher education for adults, at home, during life."</p>
+
+<p class="right">MELVIL DEWEY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE FREEDOM OF BOOKS</h2>
+
+<p>The free town library is wholly a product of the last half century. It
+is the crowning creature of democracy for its own higher culture. There
+is nothing conceivable to surpass it as an agency in popular education.
+Schools, colleges, lectures, classes, clubs and societies, scientific
+and literary, are tributaries to it&mdash;primaries, feeders. It takes up the
+work of all of them to utilize it, to carry it on, and make more of it.
+Future time will perfect it, and will perfect the institutions out of
+which and over which it has grown; but it is not possible for the future
+to bring any new gift of enlightenment to men that will be greater, in
+kind, than the free diffusion of thought and knowledge as stored in the
+better literature of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The true literature that we garner in our libraries is the deathless
+thought, the immortal truth, the imperishable quickenings and
+revelations which genius&mdash;the rare gift to now and then one of the human
+race&mdash;has been frugally, steadily planting in the fertile soil of
+written speech, from the generations of the hymn writers of the
+Euphrates and the Indus to the generations now alive. There is nothing
+save the air we breathe that we have common rights in so sacred and so
+clear, and there is no other public treasure which so reasonably demands
+to be kept and cared for and distributed for common enjoyment at common
+cost.</p>
+
+<p>Free corn in old Rome bribed a mob and kept it passive. By free books
+and what goes with them in modern America we mean to erase the mob from
+existence. There lies the cardinal difference between a civilization
+which perished and a civilization that will endure.</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. N. LARNED.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>GOOD BOOKS</h2>
+
+<p>The library offers the advantages of good society to many who could not
+otherwise enjoy them. This is one of the most important influences that
+tells on individual character. A man is not only known by the company
+he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> keeps, but to a great extent he is made or unmade by his associates.
+A great part of what we learn and much of what we are is absorbed
+unconsciously from our environment.</p>
+
+<p>Now books are written&mdash;at least the good books&mdash;by men and women of the
+better sort. They are people of marked intelligence and refinement. They
+have just views of truth and duty and are able to reveal to us many
+secrets respecting the life that is being lived around us. They are
+interpreters and guides in all lines of human activity and service. To
+be intimate with them is good society. If then we can bring all these
+choice spirits by their books into our village and introduce them to our
+children and our neighbors, even to the poorest, and let them talk to
+all who will listen, we have done something, we have done much to raise
+the tone of general intelligence and refinement.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the great opportunity to reach the homes of the poor and the
+careless and even of the baser sort with new light. The books will
+interest and meet the craving for knowledge which everybody has, and
+then will come into confidential relations with many a reader, starting
+new trains of thought, suggesting new ideas, offering sympathy and
+kindling faith. The friendless will gain friends and these friends will do them good.</p>
+
+<p>In such ways, this institution, the public library, is calculated to
+enlarge and enrich the community's life.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WILLIAM R. EASTMAN.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>PLACE AND PURPOSE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>The place now assigned the public library, by very general consent, is
+that of an integral part of our system of public and free education. On
+no other theory has it sure and lasting foundation; on no other theory
+may it be supported by general taxation; on no other theory can it be
+wisely and consistently administered. A public tax can be levied for the
+maintenance of a public library only upon the principle which underlies
+all righteous public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> taxation, not that the taxpayer wants something
+and will receive it in proportion to the amount of his contribution, but
+that the public wants something of such general interest and value that
+all property-owners may be asked and required to contribute towards its cost.</p>
+
+<p>The demand for intelligent and effective citizenship is increasing
+daily, for two reasons: First&mdash;The problems of public life and of public
+service, of communal existence, are daily becoming more complex, more
+difficult of satisfactory solution. Second&mdash;We are recognizing more
+clearly than ever before that our present success and prestige are due
+to the fact that more than any other people in the world's history have
+we succeeded in securing that active participation and practical
+co-operation of the whole people in all public affairs. In the whole
+people are we finding and are we to find wholesomeness and strength.</p>
+
+<p>But coincident with this discovery, this keen realization of the place
+and value of all in advancing the common interests of all, has come the
+feeling: First&mdash;That the common public schools must be made good enough
+for all; and, Second&mdash;That even at their best they are insufficient. The
+five school years (average) of the American child constitute a very
+narrow portal through which to enter upon the privileges and duties of
+life, as we desire life to be to every child born under the flag. There
+is need of far more information, instruction, inspiration and uplift
+than can possibly be secured in that limited time.</p>
+
+<p>Casting about for a satisfactory supplement and complement for the
+public schools, we find the public library ready to render exactly this
+service; to make it possible for the adult to continue through life the
+growth begun in childhood in the public school. Only in this way and by
+this means can we hope to continue the common American people as the
+most uncommon people which the world has yet known.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforth, then, these two must go hand in hand, neither trenching upon
+the field of the other, neither burdening or hampering the other, each
+helping the other. The public school must take the initiative,
+determining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> lines of thought and work, developing in each child the
+power to act and the tendency to act, making full use of the public
+library as an effective ally in all its current work, and making such
+use of it as to create in each pupil the library habit, to last through
+life. The public library must respond by every possible supplementary
+effort, by most intelligent co-operation, by most sympathetic and
+effective assistance, and by giving pupils a welcome which they will
+feel holds good till waning physical powers make further use of the library impossible.</p>
+
+<p class="right">NATIONAL EDUCATION ASS'N REPORT, 1906.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The most imperative duty of the state is the universal education of the
+masses. No money which can be usefully spent for this indispensable end
+should be denied. Public sentiment should, on the contrary, approve the
+doctrine that the more that can be judiciously spent, the better for the
+country. There is no insurance of nations so cheap as the enlightenment of the people.</p>
+
+<p class="right">ANDREW CARNEGIE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>PUBLIC LIBRARY IS PUBLIC CO-OPERATION</h2>
+
+<p>A public library is the flower of the modern forms of co-operation,
+which secures for the individual, luxuries which he could not afford otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of buying so many books and magazines which wear out on the
+shelves after one reading, let us "pool our issues" and put the
+multitude of small sums in one fund, buy the best at the lowest prices,
+and then use the volumes so bought for the good of all. We need spend no
+more money each year for literature, but we need to save the wastage due
+to unused books, foolish purchases, book agents, commissions, and
+needless profits&mdash;and we can have a public library without other cost.</p>
+
+<p>A good public library in this town may help our neighboring farmers as
+well as our townspeople. They cannot support public libraries in their
+small communities. Their small school libraries give the children a
+taste for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>reading, but give them nothing to gratify that taste when
+they leave school. Let us join our forces for mutual advantage and get a
+better library and a wider community of interests.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>USE OF LIBRARIES FOR REFERENCE</h2>
+
+<p>An ability to glean information quickly and accurately from books and
+periodicals, to catch a fact when it is needed and useful, is an
+indispensable factor in that self-education which all citizens should
+add to the education obtained in the schools. The schools cannot give a
+wide range of knowledge, but they can give the desire for knowledge, and
+the library can give the opportunity to gain it.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly every branch taught in the schools may be lightened and made more
+interesting by supplementary information gained from a good library. The
+pupil who is studying the life of Washington should find many
+interesting facts concerning him and his time and associates, not given
+in any of the formal biographies. He will find an article on Washington
+in the "Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Persons and Places," but if he knows
+how to use the index he can find fourteen other articles in the same
+volume in which Washington is mentioned. A large encyclopedia will give
+scores of facts wanted, under various articles treating of important
+events in the latter colonial and earlier national history of our
+country, in articles on places, customs, epochs, battles, and soldiers
+and statesmen who were Washington's contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>A teacher cannot train a large number of young people to habits of
+thorough investigation in a brief time, but she can easily train a few,
+one or two at a time, and they will help to train others.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. A. HUTCHINS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE MODERN LIBRARY MOVEMENT</h2>
+
+<p>The modern library movement is a movement to increase by every possible
+means the accessibility of books, to stimulate their reading and to
+create a demand for the best. Its motive is helpfulness; its scope,
+instruction and recreation; its purpose, the enlightenment of all; its
+aspirations, still greater usefulness. It is a distinctive movement,
+because it recognizes, as never before, the infinite possibilities of
+the public library, and because it has done everything within its power
+to develop those possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>Among the peculiar relations that a library sustains to a community,
+which the movement has made clear and greatly advanced, are its
+relations to the school and university extension. The education of an
+individual is coincident with the life of that individual. It is carried
+on by the influences and appliances of the family, vocation, government,
+the church, the press, the school and the library. The library is
+unsectarian, and hence occupies a field independent of the church. It
+furnishes a foundation for an intelligent reading of paper and magazine.
+It is the complement and supplement of the school, co-operating with the
+teacher in the work of educating the child, and furnishing the means for
+continuing that education after the child has gone out from the school.
+These are important relations. From the beginning the child is taught
+the value of books. In the kindergarten period he learns that they
+contain beautiful pictures; in the grammar grades they do much to make
+history and geography attractive; in the high school they are
+indispensable as works of reference.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for the library, the education of the masses would, in most
+cases, cease when the doors of the school swung in after them for the
+last time; but it keeps those doors wide open, and is, in the truest
+sense of the word, the university of the people. The library is as much
+a part of the educational system of a community as the public school,
+and is coming more and more to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>regarded with the same respect and
+supported in the same generous manner.</p>
+
+<p>The public library of to-day is an active, potential force, serving the
+present, and silently helping to develop the civilization of the future.
+The spirit of the modern library movement which surrounds it is
+thoroughly progressive, and thoroughly in sympathy with the people. It
+believes that the true function of the library is to serve the people,
+and that the only test of success is usefulness.</p>
+
+<p class="right">JOSEPH LEROY HARRISON.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY</h2>
+
+<p>There is no institution so intimately, so universally, so constantly
+connected with the life of the whole people as the free public
+library&mdash;no instrumentality that can do so much to civilize society. The
+public schools alone cannot accomplish the task of elevating mankind to
+even the most modest ideal of a well ordered society.</p>
+
+<p>Our public schools have been the chief source of the greater general
+intelligence and hence the industrial superiority of our citizens over
+those of other countries. But the public schools cannot accomplish
+impossibilities. They are not to blame for the fact that they can reach
+the great majority during only six or eight years, or that only one and
+one half per cent of the children in the United States go through the
+high school. But wherever there is a public library, the teachers are to
+blame if they do not graduate all their pupils, at whatever age they may
+leave school, into the People's University.</p>
+
+<p>General intelligence is the necessary foundation of prosperity and
+social order.</p>
+
+<p>The public library is one of the chief agencies, if not the most potent
+and far-reaching agency, for promoting general intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, money devoted to the maintenance of a public library is money
+well invested by a community.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. M. CRUNDEN.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC NECESSITY</h2>
+
+<p>Any consideration of a public library project is complimentary to a
+community, showing, as it does, a sense of civic responsibility and a
+desire for future progress which are commendable. No town can hope to
+live up to its greatest possibilities without a public library, and none
+with a sincere desire need be denied the blessings which result from
+such an institution.</p>
+
+<p>There are few communities which would not provide for a public library,
+if its advantages were appreciated, for it is a remedy for many ills and
+is all-embracing in its scope. It vitalizes school work, and receiving
+the pupil from the school, the library continues his education
+throughout life. It is a home missionary, sending its messengers, the
+books, into every shop and home. With true missionary zeal, it not only
+sends help, but opens its doors to every man, woman and child. In most
+towns, there are scores of young men and boys whose evenings are spent
+in loafing about the streets, and to these the library offers an
+attractive meeting place, where the time may be spent with jolly, wise
+friends in the books. The library substitutes better for poorer reading,
+and provides story hours for the children who are eager to hear before
+they are able to read. It also increases the earning capacity of people,
+by supplying information and advice on the work they are doing.</p>
+
+<p>Increased taxation is one of the greatest hindrances to the opening of a
+public library, but any institution which enriches and uplifts the lives
+of the people, is the greatest economy. Any attempt to conduct civic
+affairs without a reasonable expenditure of money for such influences is
+the grossest extravagance. No economy results from ignorance and vice,
+and the public library has long since established its claim as one of
+the most potent remedies for such conditions.</p>
+
+<p>It is no exaggeration to state that every dollar expended for library
+purposes is returned to the community tenfold, not necessarily in
+dollars and cents, but in the more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> permanent, more valuable assets of
+greater happiness, comfort and progress of the people. A city is the
+expression of every life within its borders, and every increase in
+progress and efficiency in the individual citizen, is progress for the whole.</p>
+
+<p>The most valuable things usually are obtained at some sacrifice, and the
+many advantages from a public library are certainly worth paying for.
+Hundreds of small cities and towns tax themselves for electric plants
+and count themselves fortunate. No one seems to regret this taxation for
+electric lights which illuminate the citizen's way at night. Should
+there not be an equal or greater readiness on the part of a community to
+establish a library and so illuminate the mental horizon of every citizen?</p>
+
+<p>A public library is a necessity, not a luxury. Every community which
+realizes this and establishes a library, proclaims itself an
+intelligent, progressive town and one worth living in.</p>
+
+<p class="right">CHALMERS HADLEY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The opening of a free public library is a most important event in any
+town. There is no way in which a community can more benefit itself than
+in the establishment of a library which shall be free to all citizens.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WILLIAM McKINLEY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC OPPORTUNITY</h2>
+
+<p>Modern industrialism exacts from the artisan and the worker in every
+branch, skill and knowledge not dreamed of years ago. He who would not
+be trampled under foot needs to keep pace with the onward sweep in his
+particular craft. The public library furnishes to the ambitious artisan
+the opportunity to rise. Upon its shelves he may find the latest and the
+best in invention and in method and in knowledge. Never in the history
+of the country has there been such a desire manifested among the adult
+population for continued education as may be noted to-day. Does it not
+speak eloquently of ambition to rise above circumstances&mdash;that same
+spirit that we have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>admired in our Franklins and our Lincolns and the
+long roll of self-made men whose lives we are proud to recall? And so
+library extension takes note of adult education, and combining its
+forces with university extension, realizes that broader movement
+variously termed home education, popular education and the people's college.</p>
+
+<p>The library gives heed to the future, and thus does not neglect the
+child. The intelligent work of the children's librarian, supplementing
+the related work of the teacher, aims to develop the individual talent
+or dormant resource which finds no chance for expression where children
+are necessarily treated as masses. And we may never know what society
+has lost by failure to quicken into life this dormant talent for
+invention, for art, for literature, for philosophy. "The loss to society
+of the unearned increment is trivial compared to the loss of the
+undiscovered resource." Had retarding influences affected half a dozen
+men whom we could readily name&mdash;Morse, Fulton, Stephenson, Edison, Bell,
+Marconi&mdash;we might to-day be without the locomotive, the steamship, the
+telegraph, the telephone&mdash;the myriad marvels of electricity that to-day
+seem commonplaces. What we have actually lost during this great century
+of scientific development we can never know. Nor must we forget that
+invention is the result of cumulated knowledge which the fertile brain
+of man utilizes in new directions, and that the preservation of the
+knowledge and experience of the centuries is the province of the public
+library, where all alike may have access to its riches. The ideal
+democracy is the democracy of knowledge and of learning.</p>
+
+<p>The library endeavors, by applying the traveling library principle to
+collections of pictures, by means of the illustrated lecture and
+otherwise, to cultivate among the people an appreciation of the
+beautiful and artistic that shall ultimately find expression in the home
+and its surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>The library believes, too, that recreative reading is a legitimate
+function. We hold, with William Morton Payne, that a sparkling and
+sprightly story, which may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> be read in an hour and which will leave the
+reader with a good conscience and a sense of cheerfulness, has its
+merits. In this work-a-day world of ours we need a bit of cheer for the
+hours which ought to be restful as well as resting hours. Library
+extension is imbued with optimism; its broadening field is educational,
+sociological, recreative. Unblinded to the evils of the day, its
+promoters realize inability to amend them except by educational
+processes affecting all the people. They do not preach the gospel of
+discontent, but seek realization of conditions which shall bring about
+contentment and happiness. That, after all, for the welfare of the
+people, wants need be but few and easily supplied. He who has food,
+raiment and shelter in reasonable degree, access to the intellectual
+wealth of the world in public libraries, to the riches created by the
+master painters and sculptors, found in public galleries and museums, to
+the untrammeled use of public parks and drives, and the many other
+universal advantages which are now so increasingly many, need not envy
+the richest men on earth. Many a millionaire is poorer than the most
+humble of his employees, for excessive wealth brings its own train of
+evils to torment its possessor. Commercial success is a legitimate
+endeavor among men, and thrift is to be commended, but when these
+degenerate into greed, pity and not envy should be the meed of the man
+seized with the money disease.</p>
+
+<p class="right">HENRY E. LEGLER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LIBRARY AND THE WORKERS</h2>
+
+<p>My opinion of the public library from a workingman's standpoint is, that
+it is the greatest boon that could possibly be conferred upon him. It
+places him at once upon the level with the millionaire, the student and
+the philosopher. It opens for him (whose poverty would otherwise debar
+him) the vast fields of literature. Here he may wander at will with the
+master minds of humanity, hand in hand with the great thinkers of the
+ages, open his mind and heart to the lessons taught by those great
+leaders of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> men who have conquered nations and shaped the destinies of
+the human race. Here he may associate with the greatest, the wisest and
+the best. There is no limit to the possibilities of possessing knowledge
+which is power, without money and without price. The public library
+should be managed in the best interests of the workingman, and the books
+should be purchased mainly with his welfare in view. The capitalist can
+buy and own his own books. The workingman cannot do this. The children
+of the workingman must get from the public library the general books of
+reference which the business man has in his home. The children of the
+workingman must have these books in order properly to do their school
+work and thoroughly understand it. Their teachers require this. The
+children of the workingman have their schools as well as the library.
+Their work in the schools and the work in the library go hand in hand,
+but the workingman himself has only the library for his school and must,
+of necessity, go there. His schoolroom is the reference room, for the
+knowledge he gains in that department he can at once put into practical
+use in any capacity in which he may be employed.</p>
+
+<p>The question arises, having presented those opportunities to the
+workingman, will he take advantage of them? I answer, he surely will. It
+is now more than twenty years since I joined a labor organization, the
+"Stone-cutters' Union" of Minneapolis. Since that time I have always
+been affiliated with organized workingmen. During all these years the
+workingman has taken advantage of every opportunity to better the
+condition of himself, his fellow workman and his employer. He has
+learned to be more patient, more conservative and more trustworthy. His
+hours of labor have been shortened, his wages are higher, and
+labor-saving machinery has made his work lighter. He lives in a better
+home, his family is better provided for and, best of all, his children
+are better educated. What has wrought those great changes in the
+conditions of the workingman? What has enabled him to keep up with the
+swift march of progress during these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> many years? I will answer in one
+word, Education. Just such institutions as the public library have made
+this possible, and the public library has given the largest share.</p>
+
+<p class="right">JOHN P. BUCKLEY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>A WORLD WITHOUT BOOKS</h2>
+
+<p>What if there were no letters and no books? Think what your state would
+be in a situation like that! Think what it would be to know nothing, for
+example, of the way in which American independence had been won, and the
+federal republic of the United States constructed; nothing of Bunker
+Hill; nothing of George Washington; except the little, half true and
+half mistaken, that your fathers could remember, of what their fathers
+had repeated, of what their fathers had told to them. Think what it
+would be to have nothing but shadowy traditions of the voyage of
+Columbus, of the coming of the Mayflower pilgrims, and of all the
+planting of life in the New World from Old World stocks, like Greek
+legends of the Argonauts and of the Heraclidae! Think what it would be
+to know no more of the origins of the English people, their rise and
+their growth in greatness, than the Romans knew of their Latin
+beginnings; and to know no more of Rome herself than we might guess from
+the ruins she has left! Think what it would be to have the whole story
+of Athens and Greece dropped out of our knowledge, and to be unaware
+that Marathon was ever fought, or that one like Socrates had ever lived!
+Think what it would be to have no line from Homer, no thought from
+Plato, no message from Isaiah, no Sermon on the Mount, nor any parable
+from the lips of Jesus!</p>
+
+<p>Can you imagine a world intellectually famine-smitten like that&mdash;a
+bookless world&mdash;and not shrink with horror from the thought of being
+condemned to it?</p>
+
+<p>Yet the men and women who take nothing from letters and books are
+choosing to live as though mankind did actually wallow in the awful
+darkness of that state from which writing and books have rescued us. For
+them, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> is as if no ship had ever come from the far shores of old Time
+where their ancestry dwelt; and the interest of existence to them is
+huddled in the petty space of their own few years, between walls of mist
+which thicken as impenetrably behind them as before. How can life be
+worth living on such terms as that? How can man or woman be content with
+so little, when so much is offered?</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. N. LARNED.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>BOOKLESS HOMES</h2>
+
+<p>The bookless homes of the well-to-do people are familiar to all. Inside
+those walls no books are to be found but a few gift books, chosen for
+their bindings rather than their contents, and perhaps others which some
+agent has pressed upon them. What can be done to stimulate reading in
+these homes? Ten-cent magazines and cheap stories are devoured by mother
+and daughters to the destruction of sane thoughts and connected ideas.
+The man of the house each day reads his newspaper, containing accounts
+of crimes, accidents and the funny paper. Happily, it also contains
+articles of travel, invention and discovery, otherwise his brain would be weakened.</p>
+
+<p>Young people come from these bookless homes to college each year,
+showing great confusion of ideas, vacuity of mind and utter lack of
+information. They need us, need libraries, need the force of the state
+to help them. Ninety-four per cent of our young people never get into
+college. Ninety per cent, it is said, never go to school after they have
+passed the age of fourteen years.</p>
+
+<p>The contribution of the library is to elevate the standard of the town.
+Books depicting noble, earnest, well-meaning lives will cause the social
+standard to progress, and other standards with it.</p>
+
+<p class="right">OREGON LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>NEED OF FREE LIBRARIES</h2>
+
+<p>A library is an essential part of a broad system of education, and a
+community should think it as discreditable to be without a
+well-conducted free public library as to be without a good school. If it
+is the duty of the state to give each future citizen an opportunity to
+learn to read, it is equally its duty to give each citizen an
+opportunity to use that power wisely for himself and the state.
+Wholesome literature can be furnished to all the readers in a community
+at a fraction of the cost necessary to teach them to read, and the power
+to read may then become a means to a life-long education.</p>
+
+<p>The books that a boy reads for pleasure do more to determine his ideals
+and shape his character than the text-books he studies in the schools.
+Bad and indifferent literature is now so common that the boys will have
+some sort of reading. If they have a good public library they will read
+wholesome books and learn to admire Washington, Lincoln and other great
+men. Without a library many of them will gloat over the exploits of
+depraved men and women, and their earliest ambitions will be tainted.</p>
+
+<p>Each town needs a library to furnish more practice in reading for the
+little folks in school; it needs it to give the boys and girls who have
+learned to read a taste for wholesome literature that informs and
+inspires; it needs it as a center for an intellectual and spiritual
+activity that shall leaven the whole community and make healthful and
+inspiring themes the burden of the common thought&mdash;substituting, by
+natural methods, clean conversation and literature for petty gossip,
+scandal and oral and printed teachings in vice.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. A. HUTCHINS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LIBRARY AND BOYS</h2>
+
+<p>"In Madison, N. J., a bird club of boys met twice a week, once for study
+and once for an expedition, and found the library's resources on this
+topic to be of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>interest and value. How to utilize profitably the
+activities of a 'gang' of boys is worth much planning. One librarian is
+reported to have started a chair-caning class to interest restless boys;
+another had a museum of flowers and insects, another conducted a branch
+of the flower mission. Not less interesting, and perhaps more
+instructive, is a series of talks on Indian legends accompanied by
+hunting expeditions for the half-buried implements and relics found in
+almost every meadow in some parts of the country. Boys are eager to
+learn about natural history and natural science, and they will be
+encouraged at the public library."</p>
+
+<p class="right">IRENE VAN KLEECK.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<p>Get good books; give them a home attractive to readers of good books;
+name a friend of good books as mistress of this home&mdash;and you have a
+library; all share in its support and all get pleasure and profit from
+it if they will; without divisions religious, politic or social, it
+unites all in the pursuit of high pleasure and sound learning, and gives
+that common interest in a common concern which is the basis of all local pride.</p>
+
+<p>If you have rightly read a book, that book is yours.</p>
+
+<p>You cannot always choose your companions; you can always choose your
+books. You can, if you will, spend a few minutes every day with the best
+and wisest men and women the world has ever known.</p>
+
+<p>The people you have known, the things you have said and done, and the
+books you have read, all these are now a part of you.</p>
+
+<p>You like yourself better when you are with people who are well-bred and
+clever; you respect yourself more when you are reading a bright and
+wholesome book, for you are then in the company of the wise.</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. C. DANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>After the church and the school, the free public library is the most
+effective influence for good in America. The moral, mental and material
+benefits to be derived from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> carefully selected collection of good
+books, free for the use of all the people, cannot be overestimated. No
+community can afford to be without a library.</p>
+
+<p class="right">THEODORE ROOSEVELT.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>SHALL WE BE LOYAL TO THE CITY OF OUR HOME?</h2>
+
+<p>The opportunity is at hand to answer this question. A generous gift is
+offered, shall we accept it? We can have &mdash;&mdash; dollars for a public use,
+if we will promise to support the use to which this money is dedicated.
+Shall &mdash;&mdash; have a free public library? It is up to us, her citizens.</p>
+
+<p>We have passed the stage of a country town and are ranked and cataloged
+as a modern, progressive city, enjoying many of the advantages of the
+larger cities. Why is this true? Because the progressive spirit and
+sentiment have always triumphed in her onward march. Because, inspired
+by a public spirit, her people have joined hands, and shoulder to
+shoulder labored for all that pertains to religious, moral, social,
+industrial, educational and material development. Let us keep marching on.</p>
+
+<p>Many towns in the state, nearly all those in the counties surrounding
+us, are accepting Carnegie gifts for libraries. Will it not humiliate
+and degrade us in the eyes of the people of the state if we decree
+against a public library? Let us not detract from our well deserved and
+established reputation for progressiveness by such a mistake. We appeal
+to public spirit; to pride of city; to pride of home, and urge you to
+register your vote in favor of this enterprise.</p>
+
+<p class="right">IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The system of free public libraries now being established in this
+country is the most important development of modern times. The library
+is a center from which radiates an ever widening influence for the
+enlightenment, the uplift, the advancement of the community.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE SCHOOL'S GREATEST BOON</h2>
+
+<p>The greatest boon that the system of public schools, or the college, or
+the university, can confer upon any boy or girl is to teach him or her
+to use a great collection of literature, to teach them how to read; and
+to plant within their hearts an irresistible impulse and an
+indestructible delight in so doing. What profits it a man to learn how
+to read if he does not read? For what purpose is the mind trained and
+developed by the process of systematic study in the schools if it is not
+inspired to go farther into the realms of knowledge? Is it a rational
+procedure for one, upon the completion of his course of training, to
+discontinue all further investigation and to lay aside what little love
+for learning and literature and philosophy and science that may have
+been aroused in his bosom by school or college inspirations? And how is
+this advancing and widening of one's horizon by means of the accumulated
+stores of knowledge gathered by the previous generations of the world's
+strong thinkers and beautiful writers to be secured, other than by a
+collection of good books, by a library?</p>
+
+<p class="right">C. C. THACH.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>BOOKS AND STUDY WORK</h2>
+
+<p>Have our missionary societies access to Bliss's "Encyclopedia of
+Missions," or to Dennis's great "Missions and Christian Progress"? Do
+our Bible students know Moulton's "Literary Study of the Bible"?&mdash;a book
+so illuminating as to seem almost itself inspired. How many of the
+members of the young people's societies of our churches have access to a
+standard concordance, Bible dictionary, or a dictionary of sects and
+doctrines? Has the W. C. T. U. the reports of the Committee of Fifty,
+that great committee of master minds, who made exhaustive investigation
+and authoritative reports on the various aspects of the liquor question?
+Have the Masons a history of free-masonry? Has the Shakespeare Club
+books on Shakespeare, and is the Political Equality Club acquainted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+with standard works on political science and the franchise? Who has a
+good "Cyclopedia of Quotations," or a "Reader's Handbook," where we can
+satisfy our curiosity regarding allusions to "Fair Rosamond," "Apples of
+Hesperia," "Atlantis" and "Captain Cuttle"?</p>
+
+<p>If we were to see a farmer laboriously cutting his wheat with a scythe,
+tying it into bundles by hand, and then carrying the bundles on his back
+to the barn, we would think he was crazy. Is it not as foolish, however,
+for us in our study work to do without the suitable tools and helps
+which we might have in a public library?</p>
+
+<p class="right">HOLLEY (N. Y.) STANDARD.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>WHY CITIES SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES</h2>
+
+<p>The proposition that only an enlightened and an intelligent people can
+make self-government a success is so self-evident as to make argument
+but a vain repetition of empty words. And yet we know that the public
+school side of our system of free public education is as yet only able
+to secure five years' schooling for the average child in this
+country&mdash;an all too narrow portal through which to enter upon successful
+citizenship. There is an imperative demand, then, for the establishment
+and the development and for the wise administration of that other branch
+of our system of free public education which we know as the public library.</p>
+
+<p>We must understand clearly that the beneficent result of this system of
+education is just as possible to the son of the peasant as to the son of
+the president, is just as helpful to the blacksmith as to the barrister,
+to the farmer as to the philosopher; and in its possibilities and in its
+helpfulness is a constant blessing to all and through all, and is needed by all alike.</p>
+
+<p>The most worthy mind, that which is of most value to the world, is the
+well-informed mind which is public and large. Only through the
+development of such, both as leaders and as followers, can all classes
+be brought into an understanding of each other, can we preserve true
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>republican equality, can we avoid that insulation and seclusion which
+are unwholesome and unworthy of true American manhood. The state has no
+resources at all comparable with its citizens. A man is worth to himself
+just what he is capable of enjoying, and he is worth to the state just
+what he is capable of imparting. These form an exact and true measure of
+every man. The greatest positive strength and value, therefore, must
+always be associated with the greatest positive and practical
+development of every faculty and power.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, is the true basis of taxation for public libraries. Such a
+tax is subject to all the canons of usual taxation, and may be defended
+and must be defended upon precisely the same grounds as we defend the
+tax for the public schools.</p>
+
+<p class="right">JAMES HULME CANFIELD.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>WHY MR. CARNEGIE ESTABLISHES LIBRARIES</h2>
+
+<p>I choose free libraries as the best agencies for improving the masses of
+the people, because they give nothing for nothing. They only help those
+who help themselves. They never pauperize. They reach the aspiring, and
+open to these the chief treasures of the world&mdash;those stored up in
+books. A taste for reading drives out lower tastes.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this, I believe good fiction one of the most beneficial reliefs
+to the monotonous lives of the poor. For these and other reasons I
+prefer the free public library to most if not any other agencies for the
+happiness and improvement of a community.</p>
+
+<p class="right">ANDREW CARNEGIE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>TO TEACHERS</h2>
+
+<p>Libraries are established that they may gather together the best of the
+fruits of the tree of human speech, spread them before men in all
+liberality and invite all to enjoy them. The schools are in part
+established that they may tell the young how to enjoy this feast. They
+do this. They teach the young to read. They put them in touch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> with
+words and phrases; they point out to them the delectable mountains of
+human thought and action, and then let them go. It is to be lamented
+that they go so soon. At twelve, at thirteen, at fourteen at the most,
+these young men and women, whose lives could be so broadened, sweetened,
+mellowed, humanized by a few years' daily contact with the wisest,
+noblest, wittiest of our kind as their own words portray them&mdash;at this
+early age, when reading has hardly begun, they leave school, and they
+leave almost all of the best reading at the same time. If, now, you can
+bring these young citizens into sympathy with the books the libraries
+would persuade them to read; if you can impress upon them the reading
+habit; then the libraries can supplement your good work; will rejoice in
+empty shelves; will feel that they are not in vain; and the coming
+generations will delight, one and all, in that which good books can
+give; will speak more plainly; will think more clearly; will be less
+often led astray by false prophets of every kind; will see that all men
+are of the one country of humanity; and will&mdash;to sum it all&mdash;be better
+citizens of a good state.</p>
+
+<p>I believe you will find there is something yet to do in reading in which
+the library can be of help. Reading comes by practice. The practice
+which a pupil gets during school hours does not make him a quick and
+skilful reader. There is not enough of it. If you encourage the reading
+habit, and lead that habit, as you easily can, along good lines, your
+pupils will gain much, simply in knowledge of words, in ability to get
+the meaning out of print, even though we say nothing of the help their
+reading will give them in other ways.</p>
+
+<p class="right">J. C. DANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>RIGHT USE OF BOOKS</h2>
+
+<p>When we consider how much the education that is continued after
+schooltime depends upon the right use of books, we can hardly be too
+emphatic in asserting that something of that use should be learned in
+the school. Yet almost nothing of the sort really is learned. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+average student in high school does not know the difference between a
+table of contents and an index, does not know what a concordance is,
+does not know how to find what he wants in an encyclopedia, does not
+even know that a dictionary has many other uses besides that of
+supplying definitions. Still more pitiful is his na&iuml;ve assumption that a
+book is a book, and that what book it is does not particularly matter.
+It is the commonest of all experiences to hear a student say that he has
+got a given statement from a book, and to find him quite incapable of
+naming the book. That the source of information, as long as that
+information is printed somewhere, should be of any consequence, is quite
+surprising to him, and still more the suggestion that it is also his
+duty to have some sort of an opinion concerning the value and
+credibility of the authority he thus blindly quotes. If the school
+library, and the instruction given in connection with it, should do no
+more than impress these two elementary principles upon the minds of the
+whole student body, it would go far towards accounting for itself as an
+educational means. That it may, and should, do much more than this is
+the proposition that we have sought to maintain, and we do not see how
+its essential reasonableness may be gainsaid.</p>
+
+<p class="right">DIAL, Feb. 1, 1906.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE TRUE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY</h2>
+
+<p>The library supplies information for mechanics and workingmen of every
+class. Just as the system of apprenticeship declines and employers
+require trained helpers, must the usefulness of the library increase.</p>
+
+<p>Library work offers great opportunity for philanthropy, and philanthropy
+of the higher form, because its work is preventive, rather than
+positive. It anticipates evil by substituting the antidote beforehand.
+It fosters the love of what is good and uplifting before low tastes have
+become a chronic propensity. Pleasure in such books as the library would
+furnish to young readers will interest the mind and occupy the thoughts
+exclusive of those evil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> practices invited by the open door of idleness.
+The children generally come of their own free will; they are influenced
+silently, unconsciously to themselves; they feel themselves welcome,
+loved, respected. Self-respect, the mighty power to lift and keep erect,
+is fostered and developed.</p>
+
+<p>The work of the library is for civic education and the making of good
+citizens, a form of patriotism made imperative for the millions of
+foreigners coming yearly to our shores.</p>
+
+<p>The public library offers common ground to all. There are no social
+lines to bar the entrance; the doors open at every touch, if only the
+simple etiquette of quiet, earnest bearing is observed. No creeds are to
+be subscribed to, the rich and poor meet together in absolute
+independence. Even the aristocracy of intellect does not count in the
+people's university. The ideal public library realizes the true spirit of democracy.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WALLER IRENE BULLOCK.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY</h2>
+
+<p>In more than one locality the local public library has come to be
+recognized as the natural local center of the community, around which
+revolve the local studies, the local industries, and all the various
+local interests of the town or village. Here, for instance, is the home
+of the local historical society; here also is the home of the local
+camera club; of the natural history society; of the study club and
+debating societies. Why is this? It is because those in charge of the
+library have so thoroughly realized the fact that in a community the
+interests of all are the interests of each, and that while this is true
+of other institutions as related to each other, yet there is no one of
+them on which the lines of interest so invariably converge from all the
+others&mdash;as "all roads lead to Rome."</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. E. FOSTER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PUBLIC LIBRARIES</h2>
+
+<p>The very presence of a public library has a meaning and exerts a power
+for good. Especially is this the case when this presence is made evident
+by a separate and worthy building. The building which stands for books,
+for knowledge, for the records of human experience; a house not just
+like other houses but with marks of permanence, dignity and grace, and
+evidently so contrived as to call the people in and to distribute freely
+to them these wise and entertaining books, must be a positive influence in itself.</p>
+
+<p>The children know it for what it is. Old and young, rich and poor,
+recognize its meaning. It embodies the great idea of a man learning and
+growing by his association with the wisdom and experience of other men.
+It is the great clearing house of human intelligence where knowledge is
+mutually exchanged and every one can learn what the rest know. It tells
+the lowest and meanest and most ignorant that here is the opportunity
+open to everybody to know, and therefore that books are a common concern
+of the village, by which it sets great store.</p>
+
+<p>If, on the other hand, the public library is neglected, or starved with
+excessive thrift, or if it is crowded into a corner, opened at rare
+intervals and approached with difficulty, all this influence is lost.</p>
+
+<p>The increase of reading tends to a general broadening of life. Human
+nature is selfish so long as the man is isolated, for he is controlled
+by his impulses and passions, and guided by his own narrow ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Our views of life are moulded by reading. The records are here,
+describing lands and people we have never seen, centuries in which we
+have not lived, men who passed off the stage in past ages. The
+discoveries of science, the developments of workmanship, the growth of
+civilization; thought, wit, fancy, feeling, which has appealed to the
+world, and that study, the study of man, is illustrated in infinitely
+diverse forms of story and song: all these are in books and they give us
+the advantage of wide <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>horizons and enlarged acquaintance with life. A
+community leavened with such influences, where people generally
+understand, where all grow up from their youth to know, to think, to
+communicate and to have common acquaintance with the past and the
+distance and with the secrets of nature, and all the many ways of doing
+things, is a stronger, happier and more prosperous community because of
+that very fact, and the books are plainly a means to so desirable an end.</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. R. EASTMAN.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>HOW A LIBRARY HELPED THE BOYS</h2>
+
+<p>As the children have grown up since our library was established, it is
+wonderful how their demands for books have widened. A boy in his casual
+reading finds some particular branch of study, in science, mechanics,
+art or politics, which arouses a sleeping instinct. Straightway he
+forsakes his stories and his plays and goes to the library to satisfy
+his new desires. Year by year the demand upon the library has broadened
+and books have been added treating of electricity, the X-ray, wireless
+telegraphy, mending bicycles, telephones, bee-keeping, care of pet
+animals, political, social and economic questions, and still the books
+do not meet all demands. New subjects are called for and new books must
+be bought.</p>
+
+<p class="right">BEAVER DAM ARGUS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Side by side in the wilderness, our forefathers planted the church and
+the school; and on these two supports the nation has stood firm and
+grown great. But a tripod is necessary for stable equilibrium. As the
+country has grown, its industrial, economic and political problems have
+grown more numerous and more complex, and the nation required a broader
+base of intelligence and morality for its security and perpetuity. The
+third support for a wider and higher national life has been found in the
+public library, which co-operating with the school, doubles the value of
+the education the child receives in school and further incites and
+furnishes him with facilities for doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> so. It also enables the adult
+to make up for the opportunities he neglected or, more often, did not
+have in early life. It does this, too, at an expense to the community of
+not more than one tenth of the cost per capita of school education.</p>
+
+<p class="right">F. M. CRUNDEN.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LIBRARY SUPPORT</h2>
+
+<p>This is the fundamental matter after all&mdash;money. Whence shall the funds
+come? The church plan, the club plan&mdash;all are dependent on the spasmodic
+and irregular support that results from the labors of a soliciting
+committee using persuasive arguments with business men and others. There
+are certain expenses that are absolutely essential&mdash;books first and
+most, a room for which, probably, rent must be paid (though some
+generous citizen may give the use of it), periodicals to be subscribed
+for, heat, light, table, chairs, etc., besides the most important
+feature of the whole scheme&mdash;the librarian.</p>
+
+<p>The wisest form of organization is the tax-supported free public
+library. Is it desirable that the small town shall in its beginning in
+library matters attempt at once to secure a municipal tax to found and
+maintain a free public library under the state law? There are those who
+believe this is the only way to make a beginning. Eventually, if not in
+the beginning, the free public library on a rate or tax-supported basis
+is the most desirable form of library organization.</p>
+
+<p class="right">ALICE S. TYLER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>WHY THE FREE LIBRARY SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY TAXATION</h2>
+
+<p>1 Such a tax puts the library on the right basis as a public
+institution. The purpose of the library is the same as that of the
+school&mdash;public education, the enlargement and enrichment of the
+intellectual life of the community&mdash;and it should, therefore, be
+supported on the same grounds and by the same methods as the school.</p>
+
+<p>2 The library supported by local taxation ceases to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> be a charity,
+contributed by the few to the many, and becomes the right and property
+of all. When I use a library supported by private gifts, I am accepting
+a favor; when I use a library supported by public tax, I am using what
+is mine by right. The tax thus promotes a feeling of independence and
+self-respect in the library's patrons.</p>
+
+<p>3 Taxation is the easiest and fairest way to raise the needed money.
+Five hundred dollars raised by entertainments, subscriptions, sales,
+etc., means a great burden of labor, care and expense to a few, and
+usually to net that sum a very much larger sum must be expended, while
+$500 spread on the tax rolls would hardly be felt even by the largest taxpayer.</p>
+
+<p>4 It adds dignity to the library and increases the respect in which it
+is held. To be made each year an object of charity for which private
+subscriptions are solicited and rummage sales held tends to bring it
+into contempt and greatly lowers its influence in the community.</p>
+
+<p>5 A stated tax, yielding a known and fixed income, enables the trustees
+to pursue a consistent and stable plan for library development, such as
+is impossible where the income is dependent on fluctuating impulse or effort.</p>
+
+<p>6 There is no village tax levied from which the people can get so large
+a return for so little money. A $500 tax in a village of 3,000 people is
+equivalent to about 16 cents for each resident. For this insignificant
+sum each person in the village is offered a pleasant reading room, as
+good as that supplied by many a club, a dozen or more of the best
+periodicals, a collection of books such as only a very few of the more
+wealthy can possess as individuals, and about $200 worth of new books to
+read every year.</p>
+
+<p class="right">NEW YORK LIBRARIES.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>SOME ADVANTAGES OF MUNICIPAL CONTROL</h2>
+
+<p>First&mdash;A free public library under municipal control has a regular,
+known income, which increases with the growth of the municipality.</p>
+
+<p>Second&mdash;It is not dependent solely upon subscriptions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> contributions
+and the proceeds of entertainments arranged for its benefit.</p>
+
+<p>Third&mdash;With an income that is certain, the trustees are able to make
+plans for the future, and more economically administer the affairs of the library.</p>
+
+<p>Fourth&mdash;A municipally-controlled library is owned by the people, and
+experience has demonstrated that they take a much greater interest in an
+institution belonging to them.</p>
+
+<p>Fifth&mdash;Public libraries supplement the work of the public schools.
+"Reading maketh a full man," wrote Lord Bacon; and Thomas Carlyle thus
+expressed the same idea: "The true university of these days is a
+collection of books." Libraries, like the schools, should be supported
+by the people.</p>
+
+<p>Sixth&mdash;The library is not a charity; neither should it be regarded as a
+luxury, but rather as a necessity, and be maintained in the same manner
+that the schools, parks, fire departments and public roads are
+maintained&mdash;through the tax levy.</p>
+
+<p>Seventh&mdash;Where all contribute the burden is not felt; each aiding
+according to his ability.</p>
+
+<p>Eighth&mdash;Permanency is acquired for the library, and many valuable
+governmental, state and other publications may be obtained without cost,
+a privilege that is often denied to subscription libraries.</p>
+
+<p>Ninth&mdash;The trustees and librarian are not hampered in their work by
+inability to collect subscriptions or the failure of an entertainment to
+return a profit.</p>
+
+<p>Tenth&mdash;There is a more efficient and closer co-operation with the public
+schools and other municipal institutions and interests.</p>
+
+<p>Eleventh&mdash;Public ownership secures more democratic service and broadness
+in administration.</p>
+
+<p>Finally&mdash;All are interested in a Free Public Library, and in an
+emergency there will be a more generous response to an appeal for
+financial assistance.</p>
+
+<p class="right">NEW JERSEY PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><a name="back" id="back"></a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>Foreign Book Lists</b></p>
+
+<p>List of selected German books. 50c.<br />
+List of Hungarian books. 15c.<br />
+List of French books. 25c.<br />
+List of French fiction. 5c.<br />
+List of Norwegian and Danish books. 25c.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>Library Tracts</b> (5c. each)</p>
+
+<p>2 How to start a public library, by Dr. G. E. Wire.<br />
+3 Traveling libraries, by F. A. Hutchins.<br />
+4 Library rooms and buildings, by C. C. Soule.<br />
+5 Notes from the art section of a library, by C. A. Cutter.<br />
+8 A village library, by Mary Anna Tarbell.<br />
+9 Training for librarianship.<br />
+10 Why do we need a public library? Material for a library campaign, by Chalmers Hadley.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>Library Handbooks</b> (15c each)</p>
+
+<p>1 Essentials in library administration, by L. E. Stearns.<br />
+2 Cataloging for small libraries, by Theresa Hitchler.<br />
+3 Management of traveling libraries, by Edna D. Bullock.<br />
+4 Aids in book selection, by Alice B. Kroeger.<br />
+5 Binding for small libraries.<br />
+6 Mending and repair of books, by Margaret W. Browne.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>Card Publications</b></p>
+
+<p>1 Catalog cards for current periodical publications.<br />
+2 &mdash;for various sets of periodicals and for books of composite authorship.<br />
+3 &mdash;for current books in English and American history, with annotations.<br />
+4 &mdash;for current bibliographical publications.<br />
+5 &mdash;for photo-reproductions of modern language texts before 1600 in American college libraries.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Why do we need a public library?, by Various
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/31760.txt b/31760.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6d0cd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31760.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2418 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Why do we need a public library?, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Why do we need a public library?
+       Material for a library campaign
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Chalmers Hadley
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2010 [EBook #31760]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY? ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIBRARY TRACT, No. 10
+
+Revised Edition of Tract No. 1
+
+WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY?
+
+MATERIAL FOR A LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
+
+Compiled by CHALMERS HADLEY
+Sec'y American Library Association
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD
+1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO
+1910
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF THE
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
+
+PUBLISHING BOARD
+
+_Postage on book publications extra_
+
+
+Guide to reference books, by Alice B. Kroeger.
+  New and enlarged edition. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+Literature of American history; edited by J. N.
+  Larned. Cloth, $6.00. Supplements for 1902,
+  1903, paper, each $1; for 1904, 25c.
+
+A. L. A. Index to general literature. Cloth, $10.
+
+A. L. A. Index to portraits. $3.
+
+A. L. A. Catalog. Paper, $1.
+
+A. L. A. Catalog rules. Cloth, 60c.
+
+A. L. A. Booklist (monthly, 10 numbers) $1 a year
+
+List of subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs.
+  Cloth, $2.
+
+Books for girls and women and their clubs.
+  Paper, 25c. Also issued in five parts, small
+  size, 5c. each.
+
+Reading for the young, with supplement. Sheets,
+  $1.
+
+Books for boys and girls, by Caroline M. Hewins.
+  Paper, 15c. $5 per 100.
+
+Children's reading. Paper, 25c.
+
+Small library buildings. Paper, $1.25.
+
+Library buildings, by W. R. Eastman. Paper, 10c.
+
+(_Continued on 3rd cover page_)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIBRARY TRACT, No. 10
+
+Revised Edition of Tract No. 1
+
+WHY DO WE NEED A PUBLIC LIBRARY?
+
+MATERIAL FOR A LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
+
+Compiled by CHALMERS HADLEY
+Sec'y American Library Association
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD
+1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO
+1910
+
+
+
+
+Compiled from articles and addresses by
+
+
+Sir Walter Besant                                            7
+
+E. A. Birge, dean University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.    18
+
+William J. Bryan                                            38
+
+John P. Buckley                                             32
+
+Waller Irene Bullock, chief loan librarian Carnegie
+  Library, Pittsburg, Pa.                                   43
+
+James H. Canfield, late librarian Columbia University
+  Library, New York                                         40
+
+Andrew Carnegie                                         25, 41
+
+Winston Churchill                                           16
+
+Frederick M. Crunden, ex-librarian Public Library,
+  St. Louis, Mo.                                     4, 28, 47
+
+J. C. Dana, librarian Free Public Library,
+  Newark, N. J.                                 10, 12, 37, 42
+
+Melvil Dewey, ex-director N. Y. State Library, Albany       21
+
+William R. Eastman, chief Division of Educational
+  Extension, State Library, Albany, N. Y.               22, 45
+
+Mrs. S. C. Fairchild, ex-vice director New York State
+  Library School, Albany, N. Y.                             10
+
+W. I. Fletcher, librarian Amherst College Library,
+  Amherst, Mass.                                             6
+
+W. E. Foster, librarian Public Library, Providence, R. I.   44
+
+Chalmers Hadley, secretary American Library Association,
+  Chicago, Ill.                                          3, 29
+
+Joseph Le Roy Harrison, librarian Providence Athenaeum,
+  Providence, R. I.                                         27
+
+Caroline M. Hewins, librarian Public Library, Hartford,
+  Conn.                                                      5
+
+F. A. Hutchins, University Extension Department,
+  University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.        13, 19, 26, 36
+
+J. N. Larned, ex-librarian Public Library, Buffalo,
+  N. Y.                                             20, 22, 34
+
+Henry E. Legler, librarian Public Library, Chicago,
+  Ill.                                                  17, 30
+
+James Russell Lowell                                        18
+
+William McKinley                                            30
+
+Theodore Roosevelt                                          37
+
+C. C. Thach, president Alabama Polytechnic Institute     9, 39
+
+Alice S. Tyler, secretary Iowa Library Commission,
+  Des Moines, Iowa                                          47
+
+Irene Van Kleeck                                            36
+
+
+
+
+MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
+
+
+One of the most effective means of conducting a library campaign,
+especially in its early stage, is through the press. Not only will the
+reading and thinking part of the people thereby be reached, but any
+library editorial appearing in a newspaper, will, because of the public
+notice given it, receive greater consideration than if printed
+elsewhere. Library Commission workers and library supporters in general,
+have felt the need of printed material which could be made immediately
+available in a library campaign. Most library addresses and articles are
+too long, too scholarly in treatment or have lacked that crisp style
+necessary for use in the press.
+
+Editors of newspapers are slow to accept for printing, signed editorials
+which have seen service elsewhere. It is suggested that the material
+here compiled be made as local as possible in its application to
+individual communities, and that the editorials be sent to newspapers
+unsigned by the original writers. The same editorials should not be sent
+to neighboring communities, at least in their original form. Every
+attempt should be made to have them appear as fresh and spontaneous as
+possible. Different editorials should always be sent the several papers
+in the same city.
+
+The material here compiled is suggestive and sufficiently comprehensive
+to meet ordinary conditions. Much valuable material has been taken from
+circulars sent out by the Library Commissions of Oregon, Wisconsin and
+Iowa.
+
+No better advice could be given in opening a public library campaign
+through the public press than the following, in the Wisconsin Free
+Library Commission Circular of Information, No. 5:
+
+1 Citizens of ---- believe in free public libraries. They need
+organization and courage to attack local problems rather than long
+homilies on the value of good literature.
+
+2 Public sentiment needs time to ripen. Frequent short articles running
+through the issues of a few weeks are better than a few long ones.
+
+3 Make the articles breezy, optimistic, with local application. You can
+get a library if you are in earnest.
+
+4 Appeal to local pride. Civic patriotism is the basis of civic
+improvement. Give the names of familiar towns of similar size which have
+good libraries.
+
+5 Do not rely solely on editorials. Get brief communications from
+citizens, but have each letter make only one point, and that crisply.
+
+6 Do not waste space rebutting trivial arguments. Refute them by
+affirmative statements.
+
+7 Get brief interviews with visitors from towns where they have good
+libraries, and with your own townsmen who have visited neighboring
+libraries.
+
+8 Keep this fact in mind--Your people want a library and only need pluck
+and a leader.
+
+9 Remember that the worst enemy of the movement is the talker who wants
+a library very much, in the "sweet bye and bye," when all other public
+improvements are completed.
+
+10 When it is time to strike--strike hard. Apologies and faint hearts
+never won any kind of a contest.
+
+CHALMERS HADLEY,
+Secretary American Library Association.
+
+
+WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY DOES FOR A COMMUNITY
+
+1 It doubles the value of the education the child receives in school,
+and, best of all, imparts a desire for knowledge which serves as an
+incentive to continue his education after leaving school; and, having
+furnished the incentive, it further supplies the means for a life-long
+continuance of education.
+
+2 It provides for the education of adults who have lacked, or failed to
+make use of, early opportunities.
+
+3 It furnishes information to teachers, ministers, journalists,
+physicians, legislators, all persons upon whose work depend the
+intellectual, moral, sanitary and political welfare and advancement of
+the people.
+
+4 It furnishes books and periodicals for the technical instruction and
+information of mechanics, artisans, manufacturers, engineers and all
+others whose work requires technical knowledge--of all persons upon whom
+depends the industrial progress of the city.
+
+5 It is of incalculable benefit to the city by affording to thousands
+the highest and purest entertainment, and thus lessening crime and
+disorder.
+
+6 It makes the city a more desirable place of residence, and thus
+retains the best citizens and attracts others of the same character.
+
+7 More than any other agency, it elevates the general standard of
+intelligence throughout the great body of the community, upon which its
+material prosperity, as well as its moral and political well-being, must
+depend.
+
+Finally, the public library includes potentially all other means of
+social betterment. A library is a living organism, having within itself
+the capacity of infinite growth and reproduction. It may found a dozen
+museums and hospitals, kindle the train of thought that produces
+beneficent inventions, and inspire to noble deeds of every kind, all the
+while imparting intelligence and inculcating industry, thrift, morality,
+public spirit and all those qualities that constitute the wealth and
+well-being of a community.
+
+F. M. CRUNDEN.
+
+
+WHAT A FREE LIBRARY DOES FOR A COUNTRY TOWN
+
+1 It keeps boys at home in the evening by giving them well-written
+stories of adventure.
+
+2 It gives teachers and pupils interesting books to aid their school
+work in history and geography, and makes better citizens of them by
+enlarging their knowledge of their country and its growth.
+
+3 It provides books on the care of children and animals, cookery and
+housekeeping, building and gardening, and teaches young readers how to
+make simple dynamos, telephones and other machines.
+
+4 It helps clubs that are studying history, literature or life in other
+countries, and throws light upon Sunday-school lessons.
+
+5 It furnishes books of selections for reading aloud, suggestions for
+entertainments and home amusements, and hints on correct speech and good
+manners.
+
+6 It teaches the names and habits of the plants, birds and insects of
+the neighborhood, and the differences in soil and rock.
+
+7 It tells the story of the town from its settlement, and keeps a record
+of all important events in its history.
+
+8 It offers pleasant and wholesome stories to readers of all ages.
+
+CAROLINE M. HEWINS.
+
+
+Let the boys find in the free library wholesome books of adventure, and
+tales such as a boy likes; let the girls find the stories which delight
+them and give their fancy and imagination exercise; let the tired
+housewife find the novels which will transport her to an ideal realm of
+love and happiness; let the hardworked man, instead of being expected
+always to read "improving" books of history or politics, choose that
+which will give him relaxation of mind and nerve--perhaps the "Innocents
+Abroad," or Josh Billings's "Allminax," or "Samanthy at Saratoga."
+
+W. I. FLETCHER.
+
+
+WHY WE NEED A LIBRARY
+
+A public library in our community would be an influence for good every
+day in the week.
+
+It would make the town more attractive to the class of people we want as
+residents and neighbors.
+
+It would mould the characters of the children in our homes.
+
+A good library would get gifts from wealthy citizens. No other public
+institution offers so fitting an opportunity for a public-spirited
+citizen to help his neighbors and win their approval and affection.
+
+A library in ---- would be the center of our intellectual life and would
+stimulate the growth of all kinds of clubs for study and debating.
+
+It is a great part of our education to know how to find facts. No man
+knows everything, but the man who knows how to find an indispensable
+fact quickly has the best substitute for such knowledge. We need a
+library to carry forward in a better manner the education of the
+children who leave school; to give them a better chance for
+self-education. We need it to give thoughts and inspiration to the
+teachers of the people, those who in the schoolroom or pulpit, on the
+rostrum, or with the pen attempt to instruct or lead their fellow
+citizens. We need it to help our mechanics in their employments, to give
+them the best thoughts of the best workers in their lines, whether these
+thoughts come in books or papers or magazines.
+
+WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+The public library is an adult school; it is a perpetual and life-long
+continuation class; it is the greatest educational factor that we have;
+and the librarian is becoming our most important teacher and guide.
+
+SIR WALTER BESANT.
+
+
+WHAT A LIBRARY DOES FOR A TOWN
+
+1 Completes its educational equipment, carrying on and giving permanent
+value to the work of the schools.
+
+2 Gives the children of all classes a chance to know and love the best
+in literature. Without the public library such a chance is limited to
+the very few.
+
+3 Minimizes the sale and reading of vicious literature in the community,
+thus promoting mental and moral health.
+
+4 Effects a great saving in money to every reader in the community. The
+library is the application of common sense to the problem of supply and
+demand. Through it every reader in the town can secure at a given cost
+from 100 to 1000 times the material for reading or study that he could
+secure by acting individually.
+
+5 Appealing to all classes, sects and degrees of intelligence, it is a
+strong unifying factor in the life of a town.
+
+6 The library is the one thing in which every town, however poor or
+isolated, can have something as good and inspiring as the greatest city
+can offer. Neither Boston nor New York can provide better books to its
+readers than the humblest town library can easily own and supply.
+
+7 Slowly but inevitably raises the intellectual tone of a place.
+
+8 Adds to the material value of property. Real estate agents in the
+suburbs of large cities never fail to advertise the presence of a
+library, if there be one, as giving added value to the lots or houses
+they have for sale.
+
+A. W. in NEW YORK LIBRARIES.
+
+
+HELPFUL THINGS DONE BY LIBRARIES FOR TEACHERS AND CHILDREN
+
+1 Graded lists (sometimes annotated) of books suitable for children are
+printed as part of the library's finding lists.
+
+2 Bulletins of books for special days are printed.
+
+3 Lists of books on special subjects are printed.
+
+4 Topics being studied in the schools are illustrated by special
+exhibits at the libraries.
+
+5 Study rooms in the libraries are maintained for the pupils of the high
+schools and the higher grammar grades.
+
+6 Children's or young people's rooms are maintained at the libraries,
+where the children may come into personal contact with a trained
+children's librarian and with hundreds of books on open shelves.
+
+7 Story hours or readings for children are conducted at the libraries.
+
+8 Training in reference work, in the use of books and libraries, in the
+use of finding lists, card catalogs, indexes, etc., is given by library
+assistants: (a) to teachers at the library; (b) at the library to
+individual pupils and classes that come there; (c) at the schools to the
+pupils in their rooms.
+
+9 Lectures on classification, bibliographies, and catalogs are given by
+members of the library staff for teachers and normal school students.
+
+10 Special study rooms for teachers are provided.
+
+11 Special educational collections are shelved for use by the teachers.
+
+12 Cases of about 50 books (traveling libraries as it were) are prepared
+by libraries and sent to schoolrooms to remain for a year or less,
+teachers to issue books for home use.
+
+13 Branch reading--and delivery--rooms are opened in schools, in charge
+of library assistants, with supply of books on hand for circulation and
+facilities for drawing others from the main library.
+
+14 Assistant librarians are placed in charge of work with schools.
+
+15 In large cities complete branch libraries are established in schools
+on the outskirts of the cities.
+
+16 Special collections of books are furnished to vacation schools.
+
+17 Special cards are issued to teachers on which they may draw more than
+the usual number of volumes at a time.
+
+18 Teachers and principals are allowed to draw a number of volumes for
+(a) reading by children at school; (b) reading by children at home.
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
+
+
+LIBRARIES, A PUBLIC BENEFACTION
+
+A library is not a luxury; it is not for the cultured few; it is not
+merely for the scientific; it is not for any intellectual cult or
+exclusive literary set. It is a great, broad, universal public
+benefaction. It lifts the entire community; it is the right arm of the
+intellectual development of the people, ministering to the wants of
+those who are already educated and spreading a universal desire for
+education. It is the upper story of the public school system, while it
+is a broad field wherein ripe scholars may find a fuller training for
+their already highly developed faculties. It is above all a splendid
+instrument for the education and culture of those vast masses of boys
+and girls that are denied the high privileges of the systematic training
+of the schools.
+
+C. C. THACH.
+
+
+The function of the library as an institution of society, is the
+development and enrichment of human life in the entire community by
+bringing to all the people the books that belong to them.
+
+SALOME CUTLER FAIRCHILD.
+
+
+MEANING OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+Cities and towns are now for the first time, and chiefly in this
+country, erecting altars to the gods of good fellowship, joy and
+learning. These altars are our public libraries. We had long ago our
+buildings of city and state, our halls of legislation, our courts of
+justice. But these all speak more or less of wrongdoing, of justice and
+injustice, of repression. Most of them touch on partisanship and
+bitterness of feeling. We have had, since many centuries, in all our
+cities, the many meeting places of religious sects--our chapels,
+churches and cathedrals. They stand for so much that is good, but they
+have not brought together the communities in which they are placed. A
+church is not always the center of the best life of all who live within
+the shadow of its spire.
+
+For several generations we have been building temples to the gods of
+learning and good citizenship--our schools. And they have come nearer to
+bringing together for the highest purpose the best impulses of all of us
+than have any other institutions. But they are all not yet, as some day
+they will be, for both old and young. Then they speak of discipline, of
+master and pupil, instead only of pure and simple fellowship in studies.
+
+And so we are for the first time in all history, building, in our
+public libraries, temples of happiness and wisdom common to us all. No
+other institution which society has brought forth is so wide in its
+scope; so universal in its appeal; so near to every one of us; so
+inviting to both young and old; so fit to teach, without arrogance, the
+ignorant and, without faltering, the wisest.
+
+The public library is to be the center of all the activities that make
+for social efficiency. It is to do more to bind into one civic whole and
+to develop the feeling that you are citizens of no mean city, than any
+other institution you have yet established or than we can as yet
+conceive.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARIES, A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT
+
+The world-wide library movement of the past few years is an important
+factor in the educational world. The public library is now recognized as
+one of the most effective of the preventive measures advocated by modern
+social students. It is considered an essential part of any system of
+public education, affording opportunity for self-education, and
+supplementing the average five years of school life. Educators now
+realize that the school offers but the beginning of education, and that
+the library is its necessary complement and supplement. This increase of
+library facilities has greatly influenced school work, in bringing home
+to teachers the fact that it is as important to teach what to read as to
+give children the ability to read. The library of to-day is not wholly
+for recreation, but it is the people's university. It is entitled to the
+same consideration which is given to the public schools, and to the same
+sort of support. The whole conception of the library has changed as
+practical men of affairs have come to the realization of the fact that
+they must have accessible the records of past experience and
+experiments.
+
+OREGON LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+We all believe in public libraries. We frequently discuss the library we
+are to get "bye and bye." We do not find that it is helping the boys and
+girls who are growing up in our town now. Will the next generation need
+it more than this? Will the children of the next generation be dearer to
+us than the boys and girls that now cheer our firesides? Will they use a
+library better because their parents have not had such privileges?
+
+We all want a library, for ourselves, for our neighbors, for the good
+name of our village. Why not get it now and be getting the good out of
+it?
+
+It is only a question of method.
+
+The library when built should benefit all the people, and therefore it
+should be built by all the people. Give us all a chance to help, and
+then the library will belong to all of us.
+
+WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+LIBRARIES AND HAPPINESS
+
+The great purpose of a public library is to promote and unite
+intelligence. It brings together the products of the wise minds of the
+world. It holds within its walls a collection of all the wise and witty
+things ever said: these it marks and indexes and offers to its friends.
+
+It is in its community a sort of intellectual minuteman, always ready to
+supply to every comer something of interest and pleasure. It puts good
+books, and no others, into the hands of children. It tells about
+Cinderella and informs you on riots in Moscow. It offers you a novel of
+modern Japan and a history of Venice of the past. It knows about the
+milk in the cocoanut, the floods of the river Nile, the advantages of
+education, the evils of legislation, how to plan a home, why bread won't
+rise, and can tell more about the mental failings that give Jamaica and
+Venezuela trouble than most of our congressmen ever dreamed of.
+
+Reading is the short cut into the heart of life. If you are talking
+with a group of friends about, for example, different parts of the
+United States, and some one happens to mention a city or town in which
+you have lived, note how your interest quickens, and how eager you are
+to hear news of the place or to tell of your experience in it. This is a
+simple every-day fact. The same thing you have observed a thousand times
+about any subject or talk with which you may be familiar. We learn about
+many things just by keeping alive and moving round! Those things we have
+learned about we can't help being interested in. That is the way we are
+made. If we knew about more things our interests would be greater in
+number, keener, more satisfying; we would talk more, ask more questions,
+be more alert, get more pleasure.
+
+The lesson from this is plain enough: if you wish to have a good time,
+learn something. You like to meet old friends. Your brain, also, likes
+to come across things it knows already, to renew acquaintance with the
+knowledge it has stored away and half forgotten. The pleasures of
+recognition and association; the delights of renewing your friendships
+with your own ideas are many, easy to get, never failing. But if you
+wish to have interests and delights in good plenty you must know of many
+things. If you wish to be happy, learn something.
+
+This sounds like advice to a student. It is not, it is a suggestion to
+the wayfarer. For this learning process may be as delightful as it is to
+gather flowers by the roadside in a summer walk.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+LIBRARY WORTH SELF-DENIAL
+
+An inexhaustible mine of pleasure is open for the boy or girl who loves
+good books and has access to them. Without effort on the part of the
+parent they are kept off the street and from the company of the idle and
+vicious and are storing their minds with useful knowledge, or are being
+taught high ideals and noble purposes. Thus they develop into men and
+women who are an honor to their parents and worthy citizens of our great
+republic.
+
+Such is the product of a Free Public Library. Is it not worth the small
+pittance it will cost? Many a laboring man spends more money in a week
+for tobacco than the maintenance of a library would cost him in a year.
+Is not the education and the development of our bright boys and girls
+worth a little self-denial?
+
+We all desire that our children shall have better opportunities than we
+have had, and not have to work as we have worked. Here is an opportunity
+to help them help themselves, which is the very best help that can be
+given any one. Let's be "boosters" and help ourselves, help our town,
+and help our boys and girls by unitedly supporting the library
+proposition.
+
+IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+REASONS FOR HAVING A FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+Public libraries have without delay become an essential part of a public
+education system and are as clearly useful as the public schools. They
+are not only classed with schools, but have generally become influential
+adjuncts of the public schools. The number of readers is rapidly
+increasing and the character of the books is constantly improving.
+
+Not infrequently the objection is heard that the public libraries are
+opening the doors to light and useless books; that reading can be, and
+often is, carried to a vicious and enervating excess, and therefore that
+the libraries' influence is doubtful and on the whole not good. This
+argument does not need elaborate exposure.
+
+The main purpose of the library is to counteract and check the
+circulation and influence of the empty and not infrequently vicious
+books that are so rife. A visit to any news-stand will disclose a world
+of low and demoralizing "penny dreadfuls" and other trash. These are
+bought by boys and girls because they want to read and can nowhere else
+obtain reading material. This deluge of worthless periodicals and books
+can be counteracted only by gratuitous supplies from the public library.
+
+Whether these counteracting books be fiction or not, they may be pure
+and harmless, and often of intellectual merit and moral excellence. The
+question is not whether people shall read fiction--for read it they
+will--but whether they are to have good fiction instead of worthless and
+harmful trash.
+
+The tendency to read inferior books can soon be checked by a good
+library. If the attention of the children in school is directed to good
+books, and the free library contains such books, there will be no
+thought of the news-stand as the place for finding reading matter.
+
+The economical reason for establishing free public libraries is the fact
+that public officers and public taxation manage and support them
+efficiently and make them available to the largest number of readers. By
+means of a free library there is the best utilization of effort and of
+resources at a small cost to individuals.
+
+While a private library may greatly delight and improve the owner and
+his immediate circle of friends, it is a luxury to which he and they
+only can resort.
+
+A library charging a fee may bring comfort to a respectable board of
+directors by ministering to a small and financially independent circle
+of book-takers, by its freedom from the rush of numerous and eager
+readers, and by strict conformity to the notions and vagaries of the
+managers. But such a library never realizes the highest utility. The
+greater part of the books lie untouched upon the shelves, and compared
+with the free library it is a lame and impotent affair.
+
+The books of a public library actively pervade the community; they reach
+and are influential with very large numbers and the utility of the
+common possession--books--is multiplied without limit. Before several of
+our towns lies the question of opening to all what is now limited to
+those who pay a fee. This is not merely a limitation--it is practically
+a prohibition.
+
+Whether right or wrong, human beings as at present constituted will not
+frequent in large numbers libraries that charge a fee. The spirit of the
+age and the tendency of liberal communities are entirely in favor of
+furnishing this means of education and amusement without charge.
+Certainly towns which can maintain by taxation, paupers, parks, highways
+and schools have no reasonable ground for denying free reading to their
+inhabitants.
+
+These towns spend vast sums of money in providing education, and yet
+omit the small extra expenditure which would enable young men and women
+to continue their education.
+
+The experience of Library Commissions of various states has amply
+demonstrated that libraries and literature are sought for and
+appreciated quite as much by rural communities as by the larger towns,
+and not infrequently the appreciation is apparently keener, because of
+the absence of interests and amusements other than those provided by the
+library. There is now no real reason why every part of this state may
+not enjoy the advantages and pleasures of book distribution, for
+concentration of effort in the small towns elsewhere has provided
+efficient, attractive and economical libraries, and could as well do so
+here.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+MISSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+It is our business in this country to get at the best methods to govern
+ourselves. How many of our best people have paused to reflect on what
+that means, and on all it means? It means that now we have about
+80,000,000 of sovereigns. It was all very well when we were a little
+confederation of homogeneous stock stretching along the Atlantic
+sea-board. We had our dissensions then, but our population was permeated
+with the principles of our government. In one hundred years we have
+swelled from a handful to 80,000,000, and a large part of them made up
+of additions from the nations of the earth, and not the self-governing
+nations. And the problem is to educate the children of these, as well as
+our own children, in the principles of that government of which they are
+an essential and vital part.
+
+This is the first problem, and if it is not attended to, our government
+will crumble away and decay from neglect. We do not want denizens in
+this state and this nation, we want citizens. We do not want ward
+politics, but we do want government as our forefathers understood it.
+And it is the duty of every right-minded citizen to work unfalteringly
+for this end. The question is one of expediency.
+
+We want citizens. And the public school and the public library are the
+places where citizens are made. Therefore we must labor for and support
+these institutions first and foremost. To a very great extent, the
+librarian is the custodian of public morals and the moulder of public
+men.
+
+The librarian must, and he usually does, feel his responsibility. The
+word "responsibility" should be given equal weight with the word
+"liberty" and emblazoned beside it, and it is these two things that the
+public librarian through his knowledge of good literature must impress
+upon our coming generations--"liberty and responsibility."
+
+WINSTON CHURCHILL.
+
+
+LIBRARY EXTENSION
+
+Our public schools are doing a great work, but, after all, "the older
+generation remains untouched, and the assimilation of the younger can
+hardly be complete or certain as long as the homes of the parents remain
+comparatively unaffected." For those whose early education has been
+neglected either by reason of family circumstances or because of wayward
+disposition, and who realize their need before it is too late, there are
+night schools, business courses and correspondence school courses, with
+the minor advantages and stimulus offered by public lecture courses.
+Volunteer study clubs and societies for research are being organized in
+great numbers. And, more potent and more forceful, more universal in its
+application than all these because better organized, better equipped and
+readier to avail itself of all existing affiliating agencies, is that
+national movement which has become known for want of a better term as
+library extension.
+
+Library extension aims to supply to every man, woman and child, either
+through its own resources or by co-operation with other affiliated
+agencies, what each community, or any group in any community, or any
+individual in the community may require for mental stimulus,
+intellectual recreation or practical knowledge and information useful in
+one's daily occupation.
+
+HENRY E. LEGLER.
+
+
+The opening of a free public library is a most important event in the
+history of any town. A college training is an excellent thing; but,
+after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he
+gives himself, and it is for this that a good library should furnish the
+opportunity and the means. All that is primarily needful in order to use
+a library is the ability to read; primarily, for there must also be the
+inclination, and after that, some guidance in reading well.
+
+JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY--PLEASURE AND PROFIT
+
+We cannot remind ourselves too frequently that a fundamental purpose of
+good books, and so of the library which possesses them, is to give
+pleasure, and that the library ought to be more closely and peculiarly
+associated with pleasure than any other institution supported by the
+public.
+
+Life for most of us is sufficiently dull and colorless. The workday
+aspect of the world is always with us and oppresses us. For the average
+man and woman, whose education has been limited, whose imagination has
+lacked all wider opportunity for cultivation, the easiest escape from
+the cares of daily life, from the depressing monotony of daily routine,
+will be through the avenue opened by the story, the people's road out of
+a care-filled life, ever since the days of "Arabian Nights." Such
+readers as these desire fiction and ought to have it. If their
+imagination can be cultivated to the point of reaching similar freedom
+from care through poetry, through the drama, or through any of the
+higher forms of literature, so much the better. The library's message is
+to men and women cramped by toil and narrowed by routine, ever seeking
+some way out of this troublesome world into that larger realm which is
+more truly ours because it is our creation and that of our fellows. This
+wider world, in its friendliness and homelikeness, the library must
+represent.
+
+The library is where the readers are introduced to the friendship of
+authors and their books. There they are at home and there we too may be
+at home. Old and young, rich and poor, wise and simple, men and women
+and children, there we may meet new friends on kindly and familiar terms
+and widen our thoughts as we learn of their wisdom and their wit. Still
+better, there we may renew our acquaintance with old friends and feel
+the contracted horizon of our lives again enlarge as we meet them once
+more. New friends and old, they all greet us with an assured welcome and
+yield to us the best which they can give, or we receive. We come to them
+not to learn lessons but to be with them for a little while and to live
+with them that larger and truer life which their presence creates for
+us.
+
+Thus the library performs its high and noble duty of helping men to
+live, "not by bread alone, but by every word of God," who, through good
+books, has been speaking to the generations of men not only for their
+instruction but even more for their delight.
+
+E. A. BIRGE.
+
+
+VALUE OF FREE LIBRARIES
+
+The best proof of the value of public libraries lies in the cordial
+support given them by all the people, when they are managed on broad,
+sensible lines. Such institutions contribute to the fund of wholesome
+recreation that sweetens life and to the wider knowledge that broadens
+it. They give ambition, knowledge and inspiration to boys and girls
+from sordid homes, and win them from various forms of dissipation. They
+form a central home where citizens of all creeds and conditions find a
+common ground of useful endeavor.
+
+Libraries are needed to furnish the pupils of our schools the incentive
+and the opportunity for wider study; to teach them "the art and science
+of reading for a purpose," to give to boys and girls with a hidden
+talent the chance to discover and develop it; to give to mechanics and
+artisans a chance to know what their ambitious fellows are doing; to
+give men and women, weary and worn from treading a narrow round,
+excursions in fresh and delightful fields; to give to clubs for study
+and recreation, material for better work, and, last but not least, to
+give wholesome employment to all classes for those idle hours that wreck
+more lives than any other cause.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+"Even now many wise men are agreed that the love of books, as mere
+things of sentiment, and the reading of good books, as mere habit, are
+incomparably better results of schooling than any of the definite
+knowledge which the best of teachers can store into pupils' minds.
+Teaching how to read is of less importance in the intelligence of a
+generation than the teaching what to read."
+
+THE BOOKLESS MAN
+
+The bookless man does not understand his own loss. He does not know the
+leanness in which his mind is kept by want of the food which he rejects.
+He does not know what starving of imagination and of thought he has
+inflicted upon himself. He has suffered his interest in the things which
+make up God's knowable universe to shrink until it reaches no farther
+than his eyes can see and his ears can hear. The books which he scorns
+are the telescopes and reflectors and reverberators of our intellectual
+life, holding in themselves a hundred magical powers for the overcoming
+of space and time, and for giving the range of knowledge which belongs
+to a really cultivated mind. There is no equal substitute for them.
+There is nothing else which will so break for us the poor hobble of
+everyday sights and sounds and habits and tasks, by which our thinking
+and feeling are naturally tethered to a little worn round.
+
+J. N. LARNED.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY'S EDUCATIONAL MISSION
+
+To the great mass of boys and girls the school can barely give the tools
+with which to get an education before they are forced to begin their
+life work as breadwinners. Few are optimistic enough to hope that we can
+change this condition very rapidly. The great problem of the day is,
+therefore, to carry on the education after the elementary steps have
+been taken in the free public schools. There are numerous agencies at
+work in this direction--reading rooms, reference and lending libraries,
+museums, summer, vacation and night schools, correspondence and other
+forms of extension teaching; but by far the greatest agent is good
+reading. An educational system which contents itself with teaching to
+read and then fails to see that the best reading is provided, when
+undesirable reading is so cheap and plentiful as to be a constant menace
+to the public good, is as inconsistent and absurd as to teach our
+children the expert use of the knife, fork and spoon, and then provide
+them with no food. The most important movement before the professional
+educators to-day, is the broadening going on so rapidly in their duties
+to their profession and to the public. Too many have thought of their
+work as limited to schools for the young during a short period of
+tuition. The true conception is that we should be responsible for higher
+as well as elementary education, for adults as well as for children, for
+educational work in the homes as well as in the schoolhouses, and during
+life as well as for a limited course. In a nutshell, the motto of the
+extended work should be "higher education for adults, at home, during
+life."
+
+MELVIL DEWEY.
+
+
+THE FREEDOM OF BOOKS
+
+The free town library is wholly a product of the last half century. It
+is the crowning creature of democracy for its own higher culture. There
+is nothing conceivable to surpass it as an agency in popular education.
+Schools, colleges, lectures, classes, clubs and societies, scientific
+and literary, are tributaries to it--primaries, feeders. It takes up the
+work of all of them to utilize it, to carry it on, and make more of it.
+Future time will perfect it, and will perfect the institutions out of
+which and over which it has grown; but it is not possible for the future
+to bring any new gift of enlightenment to men that will be greater, in
+kind, than the free diffusion of thought and knowledge as stored in the
+better literature of the world.
+
+The true literature that we garner in our libraries is the deathless
+thought, the immortal truth, the imperishable quickenings and
+revelations which genius--the rare gift to now and then one of the human
+race--has been frugally, steadily planting in the fertile soil of
+written speech, from the generations of the hymn writers of the
+Euphrates and the Indus to the generations now alive. There is nothing
+save the air we breathe that we have common rights in so sacred and so
+clear, and there is no other public treasure which so reasonably demands
+to be kept and cared for and distributed for common enjoyment at common
+cost.
+
+Free corn in old Rome bribed a mob and kept it passive. By free books
+and what goes with them in modern America we mean to erase the mob from
+existence. There lies the cardinal difference between a civilization
+which perished and a civilization that will endure.
+
+J. N. LARNED.
+
+
+GOOD BOOKS
+
+The library offers the advantages of good society to many who could not
+otherwise enjoy them. This is one of the most important influences that
+tells on individual character. A man is not only known by the company
+he keeps, but to a great extent he is made or unmade by his associates.
+A great part of what we learn and much of what we are is absorbed
+unconsciously from our environment.
+
+Now books are written--at least the good books--by men and women of the
+better sort. They are people of marked intelligence and refinement. They
+have just views of truth and duty and are able to reveal to us many
+secrets respecting the life that is being lived around us. They are
+interpreters and guides in all lines of human activity and service. To
+be intimate with them is good society. If then we can bring all these
+choice spirits by their books into our village and introduce them to our
+children and our neighbors, even to the poorest, and let them talk to
+all who will listen, we have done something, we have done much to raise
+the tone of general intelligence and refinement.
+
+Here is the great opportunity to reach the homes of the poor and the
+careless and even of the baser sort with new light. The books will
+interest and meet the craving for knowledge which everybody has, and
+then will come into confidential relations with many a reader, starting
+new trains of thought, suggesting new ideas, offering sympathy and
+kindling faith. The friendless will gain friends and these friends will
+do them good.
+
+In such ways, this institution, the public library, is calculated to
+enlarge and enrich the community's life.
+
+WILLIAM R. EASTMAN.
+
+
+PLACE AND PURPOSE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
+
+The place now assigned the public library, by very general consent, is
+that of an integral part of our system of public and free education. On
+no other theory has it sure and lasting foundation; on no other theory
+may it be supported by general taxation; on no other theory can it be
+wisely and consistently administered. A public tax can be levied for the
+maintenance of a public library only upon the principle which underlies
+all righteous public taxation, not that the taxpayer wants something
+and will receive it in proportion to the amount of his contribution, but
+that the public wants something of such general interest and value that
+all property-owners may be asked and required to contribute towards its
+cost.
+
+The demand for intelligent and effective citizenship is increasing
+daily, for two reasons: First--The problems of public life and of public
+service, of communal existence, are daily becoming more complex, more
+difficult of satisfactory solution. Second--We are recognizing more
+clearly than ever before that our present success and prestige are due
+to the fact that more than any other people in the world's history have
+we succeeded in securing that active participation and practical
+co-operation of the whole people in all public affairs. In the whole
+people are we finding and are we to find wholesomeness and strength.
+
+But coincident with this discovery, this keen realization of the place
+and value of all in advancing the common interests of all, has come the
+feeling: First--That the common public schools must be made good enough
+for all; and, Second--That even at their best they are insufficient. The
+five school years (average) of the American child constitute a very
+narrow portal through which to enter upon the privileges and duties of
+life, as we desire life to be to every child born under the flag. There
+is need of far more information, instruction, inspiration and uplift
+than can possibly be secured in that limited time.
+
+Casting about for a satisfactory supplement and complement for the
+public schools, we find the public library ready to render exactly this
+service; to make it possible for the adult to continue through life the
+growth begun in childhood in the public school. Only in this way and by
+this means can we hope to continue the common American people as the
+most uncommon people which the world has yet known.
+
+Henceforth, then, these two must go hand in hand, neither trenching upon
+the field of the other, neither burdening or hampering the other, each
+helping the other. The public school must take the initiative,
+determining lines of thought and work, developing in each child the
+power to act and the tendency to act, making full use of the public
+library as an effective ally in all its current work, and making such
+use of it as to create in each pupil the library habit, to last through
+life. The public library must respond by every possible supplementary
+effort, by most intelligent co-operation, by most sympathetic and
+effective assistance, and by giving pupils a welcome which they will
+feel holds good till waning physical powers make further use of the
+library impossible.
+
+NATIONAL EDUCATION ASS'N REPORT, 1906.
+
+
+The most imperative duty of the state is the universal education of the
+masses. No money which can be usefully spent for this indispensable end
+should be denied. Public sentiment should, on the contrary, approve the
+doctrine that the more that can be judiciously spent, the better for the
+country. There is no insurance of nations so cheap as the enlightenment
+of the people.
+
+ANDREW CARNEGIE.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARY IS PUBLIC CO-OPERATION
+
+A public library is the flower of the modern forms of co-operation,
+which secures for the individual, luxuries which he could not afford
+otherwise.
+
+Instead of buying so many books and magazines which wear out on the
+shelves after one reading, let us "pool our issues" and put the
+multitude of small sums in one fund, buy the best at the lowest prices,
+and then use the volumes so bought for the good of all. We need spend no
+more money each year for literature, but we need to save the wastage due
+to unused books, foolish purchases, book agents, commissions, and
+needless profits--and we can have a public library without other cost.
+
+A good public library in this town may help our neighboring farmers as
+well as our townspeople. They cannot support public libraries in their
+small communities. Their small school libraries give the children a
+taste for reading, but give them nothing to gratify that taste when
+they leave school. Let us join our forces for mutual advantage and get a
+better library and a wider community of interests.
+
+WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+USE OF LIBRARIES FOR REFERENCE
+
+An ability to glean information quickly and accurately from books and
+periodicals, to catch a fact when it is needed and useful, is an
+indispensable factor in that self-education which all citizens should
+add to the education obtained in the schools. The schools cannot give a
+wide range of knowledge, but they can give the desire for knowledge, and
+the library can give the opportunity to gain it.
+
+Nearly every branch taught in the schools may be lightened and made more
+interesting by supplementary information gained from a good library. The
+pupil who is studying the life of Washington should find many
+interesting facts concerning him and his time and associates, not given
+in any of the formal biographies. He will find an article on Washington
+in the "Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Persons and Places," but if he knows
+how to use the index he can find fourteen other articles in the same
+volume in which Washington is mentioned. A large encyclopedia will give
+scores of facts wanted, under various articles treating of important
+events in the latter colonial and earlier national history of our
+country, in articles on places, customs, epochs, battles, and soldiers
+and statesmen who were Washington's contemporaries.
+
+A teacher cannot train a large number of young people to habits of
+thorough investigation in a brief time, but she can easily train a few,
+one or two at a time, and they will help to train others.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+THE MODERN LIBRARY MOVEMENT
+
+The modern library movement is a movement to increase by every possible
+means the accessibility of books, to stimulate their reading and to
+create a demand for the best. Its motive is helpfulness; its scope,
+instruction and recreation; its purpose, the enlightenment of all; its
+aspirations, still greater usefulness. It is a distinctive movement,
+because it recognizes, as never before, the infinite possibilities of
+the public library, and because it has done everything within its power
+to develop those possibilities.
+
+Among the peculiar relations that a library sustains to a community,
+which the movement has made clear and greatly advanced, are its
+relations to the school and university extension. The education of an
+individual is coincident with the life of that individual. It is carried
+on by the influences and appliances of the family, vocation, government,
+the church, the press, the school and the library. The library is
+unsectarian, and hence occupies a field independent of the church. It
+furnishes a foundation for an intelligent reading of paper and magazine.
+It is the complement and supplement of the school, co-operating with the
+teacher in the work of educating the child, and furnishing the means for
+continuing that education after the child has gone out from the school.
+These are important relations. From the beginning the child is taught
+the value of books. In the kindergarten period he learns that they
+contain beautiful pictures; in the grammar grades they do much to make
+history and geography attractive; in the high school they are
+indispensable as works of reference.
+
+Were it not for the library, the education of the masses would, in most
+cases, cease when the doors of the school swung in after them for the
+last time; but it keeps those doors wide open, and is, in the truest
+sense of the word, the university of the people. The library is as much
+a part of the educational system of a community as the public school,
+and is coming more and more to be regarded with the same respect and
+supported in the same generous manner.
+
+The public library of to-day is an active, potential force, serving the
+present, and silently helping to develop the civilization of the future.
+The spirit of the modern library movement which surrounds it is
+thoroughly progressive, and thoroughly in sympathy with the people. It
+believes that the true function of the library is to serve the people,
+and that the only test of success is usefulness.
+
+JOSEPH LEROY HARRISON.
+
+
+THE PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY
+
+There is no institution so intimately, so universally, so constantly
+connected with the life of the whole people as the free public
+library--no instrumentality that can do so much to civilize society. The
+public schools alone cannot accomplish the task of elevating mankind to
+even the most modest ideal of a well ordered society.
+
+Our public schools have been the chief source of the greater general
+intelligence and hence the industrial superiority of our citizens over
+those of other countries. But the public schools cannot accomplish
+impossibilities. They are not to blame for the fact that they can reach
+the great majority during only six or eight years, or that only one and
+one half per cent of the children in the United States go through the
+high school. But wherever there is a public library, the teachers are to
+blame if they do not graduate all their pupils, at whatever age they may
+leave school, into the People's University.
+
+General intelligence is the necessary foundation of prosperity and
+social order.
+
+The public library is one of the chief agencies, if not the most potent
+and far-reaching agency, for promoting general intelligence.
+
+Therefore, money devoted to the maintenance of a public library is money
+well invested by a community.
+
+F. M. CRUNDEN.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC NECESSITY
+
+Any consideration of a public library project is complimentary to a
+community, showing, as it does, a sense of civic responsibility and a
+desire for future progress which are commendable. No town can hope to
+live up to its greatest possibilities without a public library, and none
+with a sincere desire need be denied the blessings which result from
+such an institution.
+
+There are few communities which would not provide for a public library,
+if its advantages were appreciated, for it is a remedy for many ills and
+is all-embracing in its scope. It vitalizes school work, and receiving
+the pupil from the school, the library continues his education
+throughout life. It is a home missionary, sending its messengers, the
+books, into every shop and home. With true missionary zeal, it not only
+sends help, but opens its doors to every man, woman and child. In most
+towns, there are scores of young men and boys whose evenings are spent
+in loafing about the streets, and to these the library offers an
+attractive meeting place, where the time may be spent with jolly, wise
+friends in the books. The library substitutes better for poorer reading,
+and provides story hours for the children who are eager to hear before
+they are able to read. It also increases the earning capacity of people,
+by supplying information and advice on the work they are doing.
+
+Increased taxation is one of the greatest hindrances to the opening of a
+public library, but any institution which enriches and uplifts the lives
+of the people, is the greatest economy. Any attempt to conduct civic
+affairs without a reasonable expenditure of money for such influences is
+the grossest extravagance. No economy results from ignorance and vice,
+and the public library has long since established its claim as one of
+the most potent remedies for such conditions.
+
+It is no exaggeration to state that every dollar expended for library
+purposes is returned to the community tenfold, not necessarily in
+dollars and cents, but in the more permanent, more valuable assets of
+greater happiness, comfort and progress of the people. A city is the
+expression of every life within its borders, and every increase in
+progress and efficiency in the individual citizen, is progress for the
+whole.
+
+The most valuable things usually are obtained at some sacrifice, and the
+many advantages from a public library are certainly worth paying for.
+Hundreds of small cities and towns tax themselves for electric plants
+and count themselves fortunate. No one seems to regret this taxation for
+electric lights which illuminate the citizen's way at night. Should
+there not be an equal or greater readiness on the part of a community to
+establish a library and so illuminate the mental horizon of every
+citizen?
+
+A public library is a necessity, not a luxury. Every community which
+realizes this and establishes a library, proclaims itself an
+intelligent, progressive town and one worth living in.
+
+CHALMERS HADLEY.
+
+
+The opening of a free public library is a most important event in any
+town. There is no way in which a community can more benefit itself than
+in the establishment of a library which shall be free to all citizens.
+
+WILLIAM McKINLEY.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC OPPORTUNITY
+
+Modern industrialism exacts from the artisan and the worker in every
+branch, skill and knowledge not dreamed of years ago. He who would not
+be trampled under foot needs to keep pace with the onward sweep in his
+particular craft. The public library furnishes to the ambitious artisan
+the opportunity to rise. Upon its shelves he may find the latest and the
+best in invention and in method and in knowledge. Never in the history
+of the country has there been such a desire manifested among the adult
+population for continued education as may be noted to-day. Does it not
+speak eloquently of ambition to rise above circumstances--that same
+spirit that we have admired in our Franklins and our Lincolns and the
+long roll of self-made men whose lives we are proud to recall? And so
+library extension takes note of adult education, and combining its
+forces with university extension, realizes that broader movement
+variously termed home education, popular education and the people's
+college.
+
+The library gives heed to the future, and thus does not neglect the
+child. The intelligent work of the children's librarian, supplementing
+the related work of the teacher, aims to develop the individual talent
+or dormant resource which finds no chance for expression where children
+are necessarily treated as masses. And we may never know what society
+has lost by failure to quicken into life this dormant talent for
+invention, for art, for literature, for philosophy. "The loss to society
+of the unearned increment is trivial compared to the loss of the
+undiscovered resource." Had retarding influences affected half a dozen
+men whom we could readily name--Morse, Fulton, Stephenson, Edison, Bell,
+Marconi--we might to-day be without the locomotive, the steamship, the
+telegraph, the telephone--the myriad marvels of electricity that to-day
+seem commonplaces. What we have actually lost during this great century
+of scientific development we can never know. Nor must we forget that
+invention is the result of cumulated knowledge which the fertile brain
+of man utilizes in new directions, and that the preservation of the
+knowledge and experience of the centuries is the province of the public
+library, where all alike may have access to its riches. The ideal
+democracy is the democracy of knowledge and of learning.
+
+The library endeavors, by applying the traveling library principle to
+collections of pictures, by means of the illustrated lecture and
+otherwise, to cultivate among the people an appreciation of the
+beautiful and artistic that shall ultimately find expression in the home
+and its surroundings.
+
+The library believes, too, that recreative reading is a legitimate
+function. We hold, with William Morton Payne, that a sparkling and
+sprightly story, which may be read in an hour and which will leave the
+reader with a good conscience and a sense of cheerfulness, has its
+merits. In this work-a-day world of ours we need a bit of cheer for the
+hours which ought to be restful as well as resting hours. Library
+extension is imbued with optimism; its broadening field is educational,
+sociological, recreative. Unblinded to the evils of the day, its
+promoters realize inability to amend them except by educational
+processes affecting all the people. They do not preach the gospel of
+discontent, but seek realization of conditions which shall bring about
+contentment and happiness. That, after all, for the welfare of the
+people, wants need be but few and easily supplied. He who has food,
+raiment and shelter in reasonable degree, access to the intellectual
+wealth of the world in public libraries, to the riches created by the
+master painters and sculptors, found in public galleries and museums, to
+the untrammeled use of public parks and drives, and the many other
+universal advantages which are now so increasingly many, need not envy
+the richest men on earth. Many a millionaire is poorer than the most
+humble of his employees, for excessive wealth brings its own train of
+evils to torment its possessor. Commercial success is a legitimate
+endeavor among men, and thrift is to be commended, but when these
+degenerate into greed, pity and not envy should be the meed of the man
+seized with the money disease.
+
+HENRY E. LEGLER.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY AND THE WORKERS
+
+My opinion of the public library from a workingman's standpoint is, that
+it is the greatest boon that could possibly be conferred upon him. It
+places him at once upon the level with the millionaire, the student and
+the philosopher. It opens for him (whose poverty would otherwise debar
+him) the vast fields of literature. Here he may wander at will with the
+master minds of humanity, hand in hand with the great thinkers of the
+ages, open his mind and heart to the lessons taught by those great
+leaders of men who have conquered nations and shaped the destinies of
+the human race. Here he may associate with the greatest, the wisest and
+the best. There is no limit to the possibilities of possessing knowledge
+which is power, without money and without price. The public library
+should be managed in the best interests of the workingman, and the books
+should be purchased mainly with his welfare in view. The capitalist can
+buy and own his own books. The workingman cannot do this. The children
+of the workingman must get from the public library the general books of
+reference which the business man has in his home. The children of the
+workingman must have these books in order properly to do their school
+work and thoroughly understand it. Their teachers require this. The
+children of the workingman have their schools as well as the library.
+Their work in the schools and the work in the library go hand in hand,
+but the workingman himself has only the library for his school and must,
+of necessity, go there. His schoolroom is the reference room, for the
+knowledge he gains in that department he can at once put into practical
+use in any capacity in which he may be employed.
+
+The question arises, having presented those opportunities to the
+workingman, will he take advantage of them? I answer, he surely will. It
+is now more than twenty years since I joined a labor organization, the
+"Stone-cutters' Union" of Minneapolis. Since that time I have always
+been affiliated with organized workingmen. During all these years the
+workingman has taken advantage of every opportunity to better the
+condition of himself, his fellow workman and his employer. He has
+learned to be more patient, more conservative and more trustworthy. His
+hours of labor have been shortened, his wages are higher, and
+labor-saving machinery has made his work lighter. He lives in a better
+home, his family is better provided for and, best of all, his children
+are better educated. What has wrought those great changes in the
+conditions of the workingman? What has enabled him to keep up with the
+swift march of progress during these many years? I will answer in one
+word, Education. Just such institutions as the public library have made
+this possible, and the public library has given the largest share.
+
+JOHN P. BUCKLEY.
+
+
+A WORLD WITHOUT BOOKS
+
+What if there were no letters and no books? Think what your state would
+be in a situation like that! Think what it would be to know nothing, for
+example, of the way in which American independence had been won, and the
+federal republic of the United States constructed; nothing of Bunker
+Hill; nothing of George Washington; except the little, half true and
+half mistaken, that your fathers could remember, of what their fathers
+had repeated, of what their fathers had told to them. Think what it
+would be to have nothing but shadowy traditions of the voyage of
+Columbus, of the coming of the Mayflower pilgrims, and of all the
+planting of life in the New World from Old World stocks, like Greek
+legends of the Argonauts and of the Heraclidae! Think what it would be
+to know no more of the origins of the English people, their rise and
+their growth in greatness, than the Romans knew of their Latin
+beginnings; and to know no more of Rome herself than we might guess from
+the ruins she has left! Think what it would be to have the whole story
+of Athens and Greece dropped out of our knowledge, and to be unaware
+that Marathon was ever fought, or that one like Socrates had ever lived!
+Think what it would be to have no line from Homer, no thought from
+Plato, no message from Isaiah, no Sermon on the Mount, nor any parable
+from the lips of Jesus!
+
+Can you imagine a world intellectually famine-smitten like that--a
+bookless world--and not shrink with horror from the thought of being
+condemned to it?
+
+Yet the men and women who take nothing from letters and books are
+choosing to live as though mankind did actually wallow in the awful
+darkness of that state from which writing and books have rescued us. For
+them, it is as if no ship had ever come from the far shores of old Time
+where their ancestry dwelt; and the interest of existence to them is
+huddled in the petty space of their own few years, between walls of mist
+which thicken as impenetrably behind them as before. How can life be
+worth living on such terms as that? How can man or woman be content with
+so little, when so much is offered?
+
+J. N. LARNED.
+
+
+BOOKLESS HOMES
+
+The bookless homes of the well-to-do people are familiar to all. Inside
+those walls no books are to be found but a few gift books, chosen for
+their bindings rather than their contents, and perhaps others which some
+agent has pressed upon them. What can be done to stimulate reading in
+these homes? Ten-cent magazines and cheap stories are devoured by mother
+and daughters to the destruction of sane thoughts and connected ideas.
+The man of the house each day reads his newspaper, containing accounts
+of crimes, accidents and the funny paper. Happily, it also contains
+articles of travel, invention and discovery, otherwise his brain would
+be weakened.
+
+Young people come from these bookless homes to college each year,
+showing great confusion of ideas, vacuity of mind and utter lack of
+information. They need us, need libraries, need the force of the state
+to help them. Ninety-four per cent of our young people never get into
+college. Ninety per cent, it is said, never go to school after they have
+passed the age of fourteen years.
+
+The contribution of the library is to elevate the standard of the town.
+Books depicting noble, earnest, well-meaning lives will cause the social
+standard to progress, and other standards with it.
+
+OREGON LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+NEED OF FREE LIBRARIES
+
+A library is an essential part of a broad system of education, and a
+community should think it as discreditable to be without a
+well-conducted free public library as to be without a good school. If it
+is the duty of the state to give each future citizen an opportunity to
+learn to read, it is equally its duty to give each citizen an
+opportunity to use that power wisely for himself and the state.
+Wholesome literature can be furnished to all the readers in a community
+at a fraction of the cost necessary to teach them to read, and the power
+to read may then become a means to a life-long education.
+
+The books that a boy reads for pleasure do more to determine his ideals
+and shape his character than the text-books he studies in the schools.
+Bad and indifferent literature is now so common that the boys will have
+some sort of reading. If they have a good public library they will read
+wholesome books and learn to admire Washington, Lincoln and other great
+men. Without a library many of them will gloat over the exploits of
+depraved men and women, and their earliest ambitions will be tainted.
+
+Each town needs a library to furnish more practice in reading for the
+little folks in school; it needs it to give the boys and girls who have
+learned to read a taste for wholesome literature that informs and
+inspires; it needs it as a center for an intellectual and spiritual
+activity that shall leaven the whole community and make healthful and
+inspiring themes the burden of the common thought--substituting, by
+natural methods, clean conversation and literature for petty gossip,
+scandal and oral and printed teachings in vice.
+
+F. A. HUTCHINS.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY AND BOYS
+
+"In Madison, N. J., a bird club of boys met twice a week, once for study
+and once for an expedition, and found the library's resources on this
+topic to be of interest and value. How to utilize profitably the
+activities of a 'gang' of boys is worth much planning. One librarian is
+reported to have started a chair-caning class to interest restless boys;
+another had a museum of flowers and insects, another conducted a branch
+of the flower mission. Not less interesting, and perhaps more
+instructive, is a series of talks on Indian legends accompanied by
+hunting expeditions for the half-buried implements and relics found in
+almost every meadow in some parts of the country. Boys are eager to
+learn about natural history and natural science, and they will be
+encouraged at the public library."
+
+IRENE VAN KLEECK.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY
+
+Get good books; give them a home attractive to readers of good books;
+name a friend of good books as mistress of this home--and you have a
+library; all share in its support and all get pleasure and profit from
+it if they will; without divisions religious, politic or social, it
+unites all in the pursuit of high pleasure and sound learning, and gives
+that common interest in a common concern which is the basis of all local
+pride.
+
+If you have rightly read a book, that book is yours.
+
+You cannot always choose your companions; you can always choose your
+books. You can, if you will, spend a few minutes every day with the best
+and wisest men and women the world has ever known.
+
+The people you have known, the things you have said and done, and the
+books you have read, all these are now a part of you.
+
+You like yourself better when you are with people who are well-bred and
+clever; you respect yourself more when you are reading a bright and
+wholesome book, for you are then in the company of the wise.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+After the church and the school, the free public library is the most
+effective influence for good in America. The moral, mental and material
+benefits to be derived from a carefully selected collection of good
+books, free for the use of all the people, cannot be overestimated. No
+community can afford to be without a library.
+
+THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+
+SHALL WE BE LOYAL TO THE CITY OF OUR HOME?
+
+The opportunity is at hand to answer this question. A generous gift is
+offered, shall we accept it? We can have ---- dollars for a public use,
+if we will promise to support the use to which this money is dedicated.
+Shall ---- have a free public library? It is up to us, her citizens.
+
+We have passed the stage of a country town and are ranked and cataloged
+as a modern, progressive city, enjoying many of the advantages of the
+larger cities. Why is this true? Because the progressive spirit and
+sentiment have always triumphed in her onward march. Because, inspired
+by a public spirit, her people have joined hands, and shoulder to
+shoulder labored for all that pertains to religious, moral, social,
+industrial, educational and material development. Let us keep marching
+on.
+
+Many towns in the state, nearly all those in the counties surrounding
+us, are accepting Carnegie gifts for libraries. Will it not humiliate
+and degrade us in the eyes of the people of the state if we decree
+against a public library? Let us not detract from our well deserved and
+established reputation for progressiveness by such a mistake. We appeal
+to public spirit; to pride of city; to pride of home, and urge you to
+register your vote in favor of this enterprise.
+
+IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+
+The system of free public libraries now being established in this
+country is the most important development of modern times. The library
+is a center from which radiates an ever widening influence for the
+enlightenment, the uplift, the advancement of the community.
+
+WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
+
+
+THE SCHOOL'S GREATEST BOON
+
+The greatest boon that the system of public schools, or the college, or
+the university, can confer upon any boy or girl is to teach him or her
+to use a great collection of literature, to teach them how to read; and
+to plant within their hearts an irresistible impulse and an
+indestructible delight in so doing. What profits it a man to learn how
+to read if he does not read? For what purpose is the mind trained and
+developed by the process of systematic study in the schools if it is not
+inspired to go farther into the realms of knowledge? Is it a rational
+procedure for one, upon the completion of his course of training, to
+discontinue all further investigation and to lay aside what little love
+for learning and literature and philosophy and science that may have
+been aroused in his bosom by school or college inspirations? And how is
+this advancing and widening of one's horizon by means of the accumulated
+stores of knowledge gathered by the previous generations of the world's
+strong thinkers and beautiful writers to be secured, other than by a
+collection of good books, by a library?
+
+C. C. THACH.
+
+
+BOOKS AND STUDY WORK
+
+Have our missionary societies access to Bliss's "Encyclopedia of
+Missions," or to Dennis's great "Missions and Christian Progress"? Do
+our Bible students know Moulton's "Literary Study of the Bible"?--a book
+so illuminating as to seem almost itself inspired. How many of the
+members of the young people's societies of our churches have access to a
+standard concordance, Bible dictionary, or a dictionary of sects and
+doctrines? Has the W. C. T. U. the reports of the Committee of Fifty,
+that great committee of master minds, who made exhaustive investigation
+and authoritative reports on the various aspects of the liquor question?
+Have the Masons a history of free-masonry? Has the Shakespeare Club
+books on Shakespeare, and is the Political Equality Club acquainted
+with standard works on political science and the franchise? Who has a
+good "Cyclopedia of Quotations," or a "Reader's Handbook," where we can
+satisfy our curiosity regarding allusions to "Fair Rosamond," "Apples of
+Hesperia," "Atlantis" and "Captain Cuttle"?
+
+If we were to see a farmer laboriously cutting his wheat with a scythe,
+tying it into bundles by hand, and then carrying the bundles on his back
+to the barn, we would think he was crazy. Is it not as foolish, however,
+for us in our study work to do without the suitable tools and helps
+which we might have in a public library?
+
+HOLLEY (N. Y.) STANDARD.
+
+
+WHY CITIES SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES
+
+The proposition that only an enlightened and an intelligent people can
+make self-government a success is so self-evident as to make argument
+but a vain repetition of empty words. And yet we know that the public
+school side of our system of free public education is as yet only able
+to secure five years' schooling for the average child in this
+country--an all too narrow portal through which to enter upon successful
+citizenship. There is an imperative demand, then, for the establishment
+and the development and for the wise administration of that other branch
+of our system of free public education which we know as the public
+library.
+
+We must understand clearly that the beneficent result of this system of
+education is just as possible to the son of the peasant as to the son of
+the president, is just as helpful to the blacksmith as to the barrister,
+to the farmer as to the philosopher; and in its possibilities and in its
+helpfulness is a constant blessing to all and through all, and is needed
+by all alike.
+
+The most worthy mind, that which is of most value to the world, is the
+well-informed mind which is public and large. Only through the
+development of such, both as leaders and as followers, can all classes
+be brought into an understanding of each other, can we preserve true
+republican equality, can we avoid that insulation and seclusion which
+are unwholesome and unworthy of true American manhood. The state has no
+resources at all comparable with its citizens. A man is worth to himself
+just what he is capable of enjoying, and he is worth to the state just
+what he is capable of imparting. These form an exact and true measure of
+every man. The greatest positive strength and value, therefore, must
+always be associated with the greatest positive and practical
+development of every faculty and power.
+
+This, then, is the true basis of taxation for public libraries. Such a
+tax is subject to all the canons of usual taxation, and may be defended
+and must be defended upon precisely the same grounds as we defend the
+tax for the public schools.
+
+JAMES HULME CANFIELD.
+
+
+WHY MR. CARNEGIE ESTABLISHES LIBRARIES
+
+I choose free libraries as the best agencies for improving the masses of
+the people, because they give nothing for nothing. They only help those
+who help themselves. They never pauperize. They reach the aspiring, and
+open to these the chief treasures of the world--those stored up in
+books. A taste for reading drives out lower tastes.
+
+Besides this, I believe good fiction one of the most beneficial reliefs
+to the monotonous lives of the poor. For these and other reasons I
+prefer the free public library to most if not any other agencies for the
+happiness and improvement of a community.
+
+ANDREW CARNEGIE.
+
+
+TO TEACHERS
+
+Libraries are established that they may gather together the best of the
+fruits of the tree of human speech, spread them before men in all
+liberality and invite all to enjoy them. The schools are in part
+established that they may tell the young how to enjoy this feast. They
+do this. They teach the young to read. They put them in touch with
+words and phrases; they point out to them the delectable mountains of
+human thought and action, and then let them go. It is to be lamented
+that they go so soon. At twelve, at thirteen, at fourteen at the most,
+these young men and women, whose lives could be so broadened, sweetened,
+mellowed, humanized by a few years' daily contact with the wisest,
+noblest, wittiest of our kind as their own words portray them--at this
+early age, when reading has hardly begun, they leave school, and they
+leave almost all of the best reading at the same time. If, now, you can
+bring these young citizens into sympathy with the books the libraries
+would persuade them to read; if you can impress upon them the reading
+habit; then the libraries can supplement your good work; will rejoice in
+empty shelves; will feel that they are not in vain; and the coming
+generations will delight, one and all, in that which good books can
+give; will speak more plainly; will think more clearly; will be less
+often led astray by false prophets of every kind; will see that all men
+are of the one country of humanity; and will--to sum it all--be better
+citizens of a good state.
+
+I believe you will find there is something yet to do in reading in which
+the library can be of help. Reading comes by practice. The practice
+which a pupil gets during school hours does not make him a quick and
+skilful reader. There is not enough of it. If you encourage the reading
+habit, and lead that habit, as you easily can, along good lines, your
+pupils will gain much, simply in knowledge of words, in ability to get
+the meaning out of print, even though we say nothing of the help their
+reading will give them in other ways.
+
+J. C. DANA.
+
+
+RIGHT USE OF BOOKS
+
+When we consider how much the education that is continued after
+schooltime depends upon the right use of books, we can hardly be too
+emphatic in asserting that something of that use should be learned in
+the school. Yet almost nothing of the sort really is learned. The
+average student in high school does not know the difference between a
+table of contents and an index, does not know what a concordance is,
+does not know how to find what he wants in an encyclopedia, does not
+even know that a dictionary has many other uses besides that of
+supplying definitions. Still more pitiful is his naive assumption that a
+book is a book, and that what book it is does not particularly matter.
+It is the commonest of all experiences to hear a student say that he has
+got a given statement from a book, and to find him quite incapable of
+naming the book. That the source of information, as long as that
+information is printed somewhere, should be of any consequence, is quite
+surprising to him, and still more the suggestion that it is also his
+duty to have some sort of an opinion concerning the value and
+credibility of the authority he thus blindly quotes. If the school
+library, and the instruction given in connection with it, should do no
+more than impress these two elementary principles upon the minds of the
+whole student body, it would go far towards accounting for itself as an
+educational means. That it may, and should, do much more than this is
+the proposition that we have sought to maintain, and we do not see how
+its essential reasonableness may be gainsaid.
+
+DIAL, Feb. 1, 1906.
+
+
+THE TRUE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
+
+The library supplies information for mechanics and workingmen of every
+class. Just as the system of apprenticeship declines and employers
+require trained helpers, must the usefulness of the library increase.
+
+Library work offers great opportunity for philanthropy, and philanthropy
+of the higher form, because its work is preventive, rather than
+positive. It anticipates evil by substituting the antidote beforehand.
+It fosters the love of what is good and uplifting before low tastes have
+become a chronic propensity. Pleasure in such books as the library would
+furnish to young readers will interest the mind and occupy the thoughts
+exclusive of those evil practices invited by the open door of idleness.
+The children generally come of their own free will; they are influenced
+silently, unconsciously to themselves; they feel themselves welcome,
+loved, respected. Self-respect, the mighty power to lift and keep erect,
+is fostered and developed.
+
+The work of the library is for civic education and the making of good
+citizens, a form of patriotism made imperative for the millions of
+foreigners coming yearly to our shores.
+
+The public library offers common ground to all. There are no social
+lines to bar the entrance; the doors open at every touch, if only the
+simple etiquette of quiet, earnest bearing is observed. No creeds are to
+be subscribed to, the rich and poor meet together in absolute
+independence. Even the aristocracy of intellect does not count in the
+people's university. The ideal public library realizes the true spirit
+of democracy.
+
+WALLER IRENE BULLOCK.
+
+
+THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY
+
+In more than one locality the local public library has come to be
+recognized as the natural local center of the community, around which
+revolve the local studies, the local industries, and all the various
+local interests of the town or village. Here, for instance, is the home
+of the local historical society; here also is the home of the local
+camera club; of the natural history society; of the study club and
+debating societies. Why is this? It is because those in charge of the
+library have so thoroughly realized the fact that in a community the
+interests of all are the interests of each, and that while this is true
+of other institutions as related to each other, yet there is no one of
+them on which the lines of interest so invariably converge from all the
+others--as "all roads lead to Rome."
+
+W. E. FOSTER.
+
+
+PUBLIC LIBRARIES
+
+The very presence of a public library has a meaning and exerts a power
+for good. Especially is this the case when this presence is made evident
+by a separate and worthy building. The building which stands for books,
+for knowledge, for the records of human experience; a house not just
+like other houses but with marks of permanence, dignity and grace, and
+evidently so contrived as to call the people in and to distribute freely
+to them these wise and entertaining books, must be a positive influence
+in itself.
+
+The children know it for what it is. Old and young, rich and poor,
+recognize its meaning. It embodies the great idea of a man learning and
+growing by his association with the wisdom and experience of other men.
+It is the great clearing house of human intelligence where knowledge is
+mutually exchanged and every one can learn what the rest know. It tells
+the lowest and meanest and most ignorant that here is the opportunity
+open to everybody to know, and therefore that books are a common concern
+of the village, by which it sets great store.
+
+If, on the other hand, the public library is neglected, or starved with
+excessive thrift, or if it is crowded into a corner, opened at rare
+intervals and approached with difficulty, all this influence is lost.
+
+The increase of reading tends to a general broadening of life. Human
+nature is selfish so long as the man is isolated, for he is controlled
+by his impulses and passions, and guided by his own narrow ideas.
+
+Our views of life are moulded by reading. The records are here,
+describing lands and people we have never seen, centuries in which we
+have not lived, men who passed off the stage in past ages. The
+discoveries of science, the developments of workmanship, the growth of
+civilization; thought, wit, fancy, feeling, which has appealed to the
+world, and that study, the study of man, is illustrated in infinitely
+diverse forms of story and song: all these are in books and they give us
+the advantage of wide horizons and enlarged acquaintance with life. A
+community leavened with such influences, where people generally
+understand, where all grow up from their youth to know, to think, to
+communicate and to have common acquaintance with the past and the
+distance and with the secrets of nature, and all the many ways of doing
+things, is a stronger, happier and more prosperous community because of
+that very fact, and the books are plainly a means to so desirable an
+end.
+
+W. R. EASTMAN.
+
+
+HOW A LIBRARY HELPED THE BOYS
+
+As the children have grown up since our library was established, it is
+wonderful how their demands for books have widened. A boy in his casual
+reading finds some particular branch of study, in science, mechanics,
+art or politics, which arouses a sleeping instinct. Straightway he
+forsakes his stories and his plays and goes to the library to satisfy
+his new desires. Year by year the demand upon the library has broadened
+and books have been added treating of electricity, the X-ray, wireless
+telegraphy, mending bicycles, telephones, bee-keeping, care of pet
+animals, political, social and economic questions, and still the books
+do not meet all demands. New subjects are called for and new books must
+be bought.
+
+BEAVER DAM ARGUS.
+
+
+Side by side in the wilderness, our forefathers planted the church and
+the school; and on these two supports the nation has stood firm and
+grown great. But a tripod is necessary for stable equilibrium. As the
+country has grown, its industrial, economic and political problems have
+grown more numerous and more complex, and the nation required a broader
+base of intelligence and morality for its security and perpetuity. The
+third support for a wider and higher national life has been found in the
+public library, which co-operating with the school, doubles the value of
+the education the child receives in school and further incites and
+furnishes him with facilities for doing so. It also enables the adult
+to make up for the opportunities he neglected or, more often, did not
+have in early life. It does this, too, at an expense to the community of
+not more than one tenth of the cost per capita of school education.
+
+F. M. CRUNDEN.
+
+
+THE LIBRARY SUPPORT
+
+This is the fundamental matter after all--money. Whence shall the funds
+come? The church plan, the club plan--all are dependent on the spasmodic
+and irregular support that results from the labors of a soliciting
+committee using persuasive arguments with business men and others. There
+are certain expenses that are absolutely essential--books first and
+most, a room for which, probably, rent must be paid (though some
+generous citizen may give the use of it), periodicals to be subscribed
+for, heat, light, table, chairs, etc., besides the most important
+feature of the whole scheme--the librarian.
+
+The wisest form of organization is the tax-supported free public
+library. Is it desirable that the small town shall in its beginning in
+library matters attempt at once to secure a municipal tax to found and
+maintain a free public library under the state law? There are those who
+believe this is the only way to make a beginning. Eventually, if not in
+the beginning, the free public library on a rate or tax-supported basis
+is the most desirable form of library organization.
+
+ALICE S. TYLER.
+
+
+WHY THE FREE LIBRARY SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY TAXATION
+
+1 Such a tax puts the library on the right basis as a public
+institution. The purpose of the library is the same as that of the
+school--public education, the enlargement and enrichment of the
+intellectual life of the community--and it should, therefore, be
+supported on the same grounds and by the same methods as the school.
+
+2 The library supported by local taxation ceases to be a charity,
+contributed by the few to the many, and becomes the right and property
+of all. When I use a library supported by private gifts, I am accepting
+a favor; when I use a library supported by public tax, I am using what
+is mine by right. The tax thus promotes a feeling of independence and
+self-respect in the library's patrons.
+
+3 Taxation is the easiest and fairest way to raise the needed money.
+Five hundred dollars raised by entertainments, subscriptions, sales,
+etc., means a great burden of labor, care and expense to a few, and
+usually to net that sum a very much larger sum must be expended, while
+$500 spread on the tax rolls would hardly be felt even by the largest
+taxpayer.
+
+4 It adds dignity to the library and increases the respect in which it
+is held. To be made each year an object of charity for which private
+subscriptions are solicited and rummage sales held tends to bring it
+into contempt and greatly lowers its influence in the community.
+
+5 A stated tax, yielding a known and fixed income, enables the trustees
+to pursue a consistent and stable plan for library development, such as
+is impossible where the income is dependent on fluctuating impulse or
+effort.
+
+6 There is no village tax levied from which the people can get so large
+a return for so little money. A $500 tax in a village of 3,000 people is
+equivalent to about 16 cents for each resident. For this insignificant
+sum each person in the village is offered a pleasant reading room, as
+good as that supplied by many a club, a dozen or more of the best
+periodicals, a collection of books such as only a very few of the more
+wealthy can possess as individuals, and about $200 worth of new books to
+read every year.
+
+NEW YORK LIBRARIES.
+
+
+SOME ADVANTAGES OF MUNICIPAL CONTROL
+
+First--A free public library under municipal control has a regular,
+known income, which increases with the growth of the municipality.
+
+Second--It is not dependent solely upon subscriptions, contributions
+and the proceeds of entertainments arranged for its benefit.
+
+Third--With an income that is certain, the trustees are able to make
+plans for the future, and more economically administer the affairs of
+the library.
+
+Fourth--A municipally-controlled library is owned by the people, and
+experience has demonstrated that they take a much greater interest in an
+institution belonging to them.
+
+Fifth--Public libraries supplement the work of the public schools.
+"Reading maketh a full man," wrote Lord Bacon; and Thomas Carlyle thus
+expressed the same idea: "The true university of these days is a
+collection of books." Libraries, like the schools, should be supported
+by the people.
+
+Sixth--The library is not a charity; neither should it be regarded as a
+luxury, but rather as a necessity, and be maintained in the same manner
+that the schools, parks, fire departments and public roads are
+maintained--through the tax levy.
+
+Seventh--Where all contribute the burden is not felt; each aiding
+according to his ability.
+
+Eighth--Permanency is acquired for the library, and many valuable
+governmental, state and other publications may be obtained without cost,
+a privilege that is often denied to subscription libraries.
+
+Ninth--The trustees and librarian are not hampered in their work by
+inability to collect subscriptions or the failure of an entertainment to
+return a profit.
+
+Tenth--There is a more efficient and closer co-operation with the public
+schools and other municipal institutions and interests.
+
+Eleventh--Public ownership secures more democratic service and broadness
+in administration.
+
+Finally--All are interested in a Free Public Library, and in an
+emergency there will be a more generous response to an appeal for
+financial assistance.
+
+NEW JERSEY PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
++Foreign Book Lists+
+
+List of selected German books. 50c.
+List of Hungarian books. 15c.
+List of French books. 25c.
+List of French fiction. 5c.
+List of Norwegian and Danish books. 25c.
+
+
++Library Tracts+ (5c. each)
+
+2  How to start a public library, by Dr. G. E. Wire.
+3  Traveling libraries, by F. A. Hutchins.
+4  Library rooms and buildings, by C. C. Soule.
+5  Notes from the art section of a library, by C. A. Cutter.
+8  A village library, by Mary Anna Tarbell.
+9  Training for librarianship.
+10 Why do we need a public library? Material for a library campaign,
+     by Chalmers Hadley.
+
+
++Library Handbooks+ (15c each)
+
+ 1 Essentials in library administration, by L. E. Stearns.
+ 2 Cataloging for small libraries, by Theresa Hitchler.
+ 3 Management of traveling libraries, by Edna D. Bullock.
+ 4 Aids in book selection, by Alice B. Kroeger.
+ 5 Binding for small libraries.
+ 6 Mending and repair of books, by Margaret W. Browne.
+
+
++Card Publications+
+
+ 1 Catalog cards for current periodical publications.
+ 2 --for various sets of periodicals and for books of composite
+       authorship.
+ 3 --for current books in English and American history, with
+       annotations.
+ 4 --for current bibliographical publications.
+ 5 --for photo-reproductions of modern language texts before 1600
+       in American college libraries.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Why do we need a public library?, by Various
+
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