Chapter 1: 528 copies (3)

"I have given considerable thought to the matter of the better grade of paper and have come to the conclusion that the only feasible way is to have rolls of good paper and use that after the regular edition of the paper is run off. As Mr. Carruthers of the World said, this would be almost impossible for some of the larger papers to carry out. The Eagle could do it very nicely because we have a different system of handling the paper and we shall try to put this into operation beginning with the first of the year."

As is well known the Eagle is one of the best newspapers in the United States, so that if anyone is particularly interested in securing for filing purposes a paper which will last for 100 years or more he should subscribe to the Eagle.

Miss Jane Roberts, of Newark, N. J., states that she uses a preparation put up by a Newark chemist and has met with success in its application.

Mr. Conde Hamlin of the New York Tribune sent in the following:

"I did think of one method which seemed to me would be less expensive than the use of a special grade of paper for the printing of a few copies. That would be to take a fine grade of French tissue paper and after separating the sheets which composed the paper to be preserved, covering both sides of the printed matter with this tissue and a fine grade of paste. This, of course, would make the bound volume much thicker but would preserve the paper itself.

"I doubt whether this suggestion is of any value but take the liberty of making it."

It was decided that the subject was of sufficient interest and importance to warrant further investigation and the conference adjourned to meet in September. We therefore recommend that the Committee be continued.

FRANK P. HILL, Chairman,
HORACE G. WADLIN,
CEDRIC CHIVERS.

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The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: Inasmuch as the report of the committee contains a recommendation, that recommendation is now before you for action. Unless there are objections, the report will be referred to the executive board for consideration of the recommendations contained therein.

Dr. HILL: Mr. President, I hope we may hear from Mr. Chivers for a moment if he is here.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: With characteristic thoroughness Mr. Chivers has proceeded with his experiments as outlined by Dr. Hill, and we shall be very glad to hear from him at this time as to what he has found out.

Mr. CHIVERS: The report you have heard deals pretty fully with the subject, and I think the association may be congratulated upon the fact that the publishers of the more or less national newspapers, who would be required to print quite a number of copies, are willing to do it, but that is not the whole of the problem. The difficulty of bad paper and newspaper files will be felt in the future rather with local newspapers, because only a few copies would be required for filing purposes, and the printer would find special printing too troublesome and expensive.

As you have heard, there is a substance called cellit, a solution of cellulose and spirit, into which the paper may be dipped, and thoroughly saturated. The spirit quickly evaporating leaves the paper quite tough. The result is a very satisfactory paper. It is, however, practically impossible to dip so large a surface as a newspaper into this solution. The fibre when wet is too weak to handle; also the spirit in the solution quickly evaporates, leaving a glutinous mass, impracticable to deal with. We understand that oxidation of the paper resulted from the action of light, air and deleterious atmosphere. If the newspaper for filing were not allowed to be used in the reading room but were set aside on the morning of publication, kept from the light and air, and a board or weight placed upon it, and if the volume were bound directly it was complete, very little mischief would happen. Again, if the edges of the volume were frayed out and this solution of cellit, which is comparatively cheap and quite practical to use in this way, should be painted upon the edges, you would have a newspaper file which would last for a great number of years. How many, I do not know, but the chemist who accompanied me to the British Museum, in conducting the examination of newspapers under the instructions of your committee, could see no reason why the paper should not last indefinitely. We discovered there--because in the British Museum there are more newspapers brought together than in any other place in the world--that newspapers which were left lying about before binding were in a very bad condition in the course of four or five years, while newspapers which had been bound some fifteen or twenty years, of the same kind of paper, were in thoroughly good condition, proving that if you could take care of the paper and not allow it to be exposed to the air there is no reason why even bad paper should not last a very long time. The rule should be made as I have suggested it. In the British Museum there had been no rule, but the exigencies of the binding shop had been consulted, and here and there a newspaper had been bound quickly, and it was all right; and if it had been left about, as some of them were, it was all wrong. That is my practical contribution to the discussion.

Dr. BOSTWICK: I would like to ask Dr. Hill if his committee investigated the newspaper report that it is now possible, or will be shortly possible, to obtain a thin, tough metallic sheet which can be printed upon. It was reported that that had been done.

Dr. HILL: Nothing of that nature came before the committee, Mr. Chairman, but I am sure that at the next conference some publisher or some commercial house will give us that desired information. I would say for the benefit of those who are interested in this subject, and a great many of us ought to be, that there are extra copies of the first report of the committee on the table for distribution.

Dr. BOSTWICK: I would like to ask Mr. Chivers if he proposes, in applying the cellit to the edges of the sheets, to apply it to the bound volume as a whole, and whether in that case the edges of the sheets would not stick together?

Mr. CHIVERS: No. The spirit very quickly evaporates and leaves a coating upon the edge of the paper. Last year at Pasadena I was able to show the edge of a piece of paper before and after treatment, and dealt with quickly it is not glutinous in any way, and the application is perfectly successful.

Mr. BOWKER: I would like to ask Mr. Chivers if it would not be practical to dip the newspapers by some such process as is used in the development of moving picture films or kodak films. They have rollers which carry the paper quickly through the solution.

Mr. CHIVERS: That occurred to me, but, if you will remember, I said the substance is a solution in spirit, which very quickly evaporates. The rollers might get clogged up in the course of a minute or two.

Dr. ANDREWS: Has the committee ever investigated the process used by the New York State library for the restoration of its manuscripts which came so near total destruction. The result there seemed to be admirable, but the process might be too expensive.

Mr. HILL: I would say, Mr. Chairman, that the committee had two or three letters from Mr. Wyer, the director of the library, but I do not think he mentioned that. He may be able to answer the question himself.

Mr. RANCK: I would like to ask if the committee gave any consideration to the temperature and humidity of the rooms in which the newspapers were kept, as having some bearing on the life of the paper.

Mr. CHIVERS: Some attention was given to that in the British Museum. The papers are carefully kept. The temperature there does not vary as it does in America. Sometimes it is humid more or less, but it does not vary so much. It is the action, not of the humidity, but of light and air itself upon the paper which produces early decomposition.

May I say in reply to Dr. Andrews that we certainly took into consideration the covering of the newspaper with other paper or some other material, and it is altogether too expensive. The report that I was able to give of the action of cellit meets the difficulty in a better way, and for a fraction of the cost and trouble.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: On behalf of the executive board the chair is requested to announce the appointment of the following committee on resolutions: Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites, chairman; Miss Mary W. Plummer, Mr. Judson T. Jennings.

The dainty bit of literature which appeared in connection with the first issue of the program and bulletin, bearing the signature of the president of this association, strong and persuasive as it was dainty, renders unnecessary any introduction by the present chairman to the program of this morning. The topics, as you will note, are attractive, they are in the hands of those competent to speak upon them, they grow out of the forceful keynote address at the initial meeting of this association; like the branches from a tree, they are consistent parts of the whole. We will begin by listening to MR. CARL H. MILAM, secretary of the Indiana public library commission, who will speak on

PUBLICITY FOR THE SAKE OF SUPPORT

In every community there are scores of intelligent men--men who are well-informed on most subjects--who do not know what the modern public library does, whose conception of it is what might have been expected a generation or two ago. The word "library" to them means such a collection of books as they have in their homes, or the library they used while in college. There is no thought in their minds of the aggressive, civic and educational force that we believe the American public library to be.

These men are not found in any one particular class. Business men and public officials may seem to head the list, but there are college professors and presidents, and well educated professional men who are quite as uninformed and indifferent as any others. I could point to dozens of men and women in my own state, high up in educational affairs, and some of whom are officially in close touch with libraries, who do not realize at all what place a public library can hold in community life.

Perhaps the best evidence on this proposition, if evidence is needed, is found in the recent books dealing with civic and educational affairs. In many of them the authors speak forcibly and unmistakably in favor of the public library, and exhibit a knowledge of current library practice that is gratifying to the library profession, but there are other books--not few in number--in which the writers show an entire lack of appreciation of the public library movement.

It is very easy for us to say, when such a condition is brought to mind, that it is the other fellow's fault, that there is no excuse in these days for anybody's being ignorant of the public library movement. Perhaps that is true; but, for my part, I am inclined to wonder if the fault is not with the librarians themselves. They have been so busy working out their own administrative problems that they have not taken the trouble to keep the public informed on the progress made. They have pushed the establishment of libraries--that has been comparatively easy--but they have not yet, to any very great extent, created a public sentiment that insists enthusiastically on generous appropriations.

There is need for some advertising that will take care of this situation. It might emanate from different sources: from the state and national library associations and departments working on the public generally; and from the libraries themselves, individually working on their own communities. Most of the library association publications are professional literature; most of the speeches made under the auspices of the associations are made to librarians and others already interested.

What is needed now, if my reasoning is correct, is a publicity campaign that will cover a wider range. Let its purpose be to give concrete, up-to-date information about the public library to every man and woman who reads, to every individual who is interested in any way in civic improvement or educational affairs. Surely no better way can be found of laying a foundation for liberal library appropriations.

One great need is for popular books and pamphlets on public library work. Dr. Bostwick's "The American public library," is the one available volume of this character; there is room yet for several other publications, shorter, for the most part, and dealing with special phases of library work rather than with all phases. Many people will have to read a short article or pamphlet before they will acquire sufficient interest to undertake a whole book.

The different lines of library work that offer subjects for popular treatment are many. Most of them have been written about for librarians; why can't we have them written about now for the general public? Properly printed and attractively illustrated, a series of books and pamphlets of the sort I have in mind could be used to a good advantage all over the country. Of course, a good deal of the material distributed would never be read, but the fact that little advertising booklets are widely used by business men would indicate that in the long run they do have a good effect.

Perhaps the most promising field is that of the magazines, for practically all intelligent Americans read some monthly or weekly periodical. Some would be reached by the good literary magazines, some by the so-called family magazines; others read only the trade journals, and a few only religious. All together they offer a medium of publicity that would reach nearly everybody. If we could successfully emulate the people who have pushed some of the great movements like conservation or industrial education we should soon have everybody believing that the public library is a live issue. No other movement offers better opportunities for such publicity, for there is no other institution quite so broad in its interests as the public library.

Why cannot the library associations have a publicity man whose business it would be to get such articles into the magazines, to prepare little booklets such as I have described for the information of the general public, and to do whatever else he can to interest influential men and the world at large in public libraries? This man might also be made responsible for getting library news articles and feature stories into the newspapers. Such articles would undoubtedly do a great deal to educate newspaper readers to a knowledge of library work as it now is, but if they did nothing more than to keep the subject before the people they would be worth while.

There is also a large field open for public speakers. A publicity man, representing a national or state organization, could make himself very useful as a speaker at public gatherings. He could easily secure a place on the programs of many civic, scientific and educational organizations, and by a popular presentation of the public library's service along the line that particularly interested the members, could undoubtedly make scores of new friends for public libraries.

Such a person would be welcome also as a lecturer on librarianship at college, academy and high school gatherings, at chapel and convocation exercises, etc. These talks would have a double value in that they would help to bring good people into the library profession and at the same time give information about library affairs to students and instructors.

So far as I know, the library profession has never indulged in paid newspaper or magazine advertising. This may be due to the fact that we can usually get all the space we want in the regular news columns free of charge; but I suspect it is due partly to our conservatism, to our fear that paid advertising would be considered undignified. Certainly if the newspapers and magazines are willing to print without pay all that we wish, we need not consider the paid "ad." But if it is impossible to secure the desired space in any periodical free of charge, it might be worth while to buy it.

The paid library advertisement need not be similar to the ordinary commercial advertisement. It could be modeled after the "talks" sometimes used by large corporations and promoters which are meant to create a sentiment favorable toward the company. They should be done in newspaper English and should, of course, be short and to the point. Charles Stelzle, in his "Principles of successful church advertising," says that "One denomination in the U. S. has made a selection of a group of newspapers throughout the country which print regularly an editorial on some doctrinal or ethical theme and which is paid for by the national body." If it is not undignified for a church to do these things, surely it would not be out of place for the public library.

So much for the advertising methods that might be followed by the A.L.A., the League of Library Commissions, or the various state associations and commissions. By such means the attitude of friendliness toward libraries in general would undoubtedly be fostered and an interest in their establishment and maintenance greatly increased. But the librarian of a public library could not rest on this. The proper "taste" for library expenditures--if we may so express it--in his particular town will depend largely on his particular library and his own methods of advertising.

Of course we shall all agree that the best advertisement is satisfied patrons and lots of them, and that without the backing of such patrons, the advertising will do little good; also that special work for the special classes who have most to do with tax levies and appropriations will bring good results.

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Almost as important as satisfactory service is a business-like administration. The library management ought to be such that it will command the respect of business men. No amount of mere talk about the need for more money or of the wonderful advantages that will accrue to the city in case an extra thousand dollars be appropriated, will count for anything unless the librarian knows how to talk business. In fact it does not seem surprising that some libraries are poorly supported when one realizes that there are hundreds of librarians who know nothing about their library finances, who leave the money matters entirely to the library board.

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Unfortunately, the librarians who are ignorant of the financial condition of their libraries, except their own salaries and the fines, are not all found in the country towns and are not all without library school training.

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I know of one librarian in a city of nearly one hundred thousand population who never knows the amount of the library income, for either the current or the past year.

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I know of another library, this one in a small town, that has been running for several years on a very limited income although the board has absolute power to more than double the library levy. Recently the librarian, a library school graduate, resigned, because, she said, there was no future. A few weeks later a candidate for the position met with the board to talk things over. She went armed with a p-slip full of figures. She knew the assessed valuation of the town, and the present and possible library income. She knew something about the city finances and whether the town could afford an increase for the library. She had similar figures for the adjoining townships and was prepared to tell how township support might be secured. In fact, she went to the board meeting prepared to discuss the financial possibilities of the library in a business-like way, to tell what ought to be done, how much it would cost to do it and finally, what she would take to shoulder the proposition.

Of course, she was employed. She was employed at her own salary and on her own conditions, and the board agreed to follow out her recommendations.

Such a librarian is a perpetual advertisement for the library of the very best sort. His reputation for a good business administration will win the business men, and his knowledge of city finances will win the respect of public officials and others interested in city government.

The library and the librarian also need a reputation for being interested in all civic improvement societies and other organizations that have for their business the public welfare. Agreeable professional relations with the men and women who are members of these societies will make friends for the library of the best and most active people of the city. The librarian can without difficulty, secure an invitation to address such organizations on matters pertaining to the library and if he is the right sort, he will be allowed to present his cause when he is asking for more money.

The librarian who does all these things ought not to have any great difficulty in securing the money necessary to run his library properly. It will be an added advantage, however, to keep the name of the library before the people. We ought not to be satisfied until everybody knows that there is such a thing as the public library and that it is situated at a certain place. The mere fact that a man knows a thing exists will make him approachable when the time comes to ask his support.

In order that people who do not use the library may nevertheless know something about it and be prepared to play the part of intelligent citizens when appropriations are discussed, there is need for a continuous series of newspaper articles that will tell, frankly and fully, what the library is doing. These articles should appear as news items whenever possible and should be readable. The librarian who does the largest part of the reporter's and editor's work is likely to get the best results. If the papers are accustomed to getting something from the library regularly, they will be willing to print financial reports and budgets with explanations when the time comes. If for any reason the library cannot get its items printed as news, then the same material can be used in paid "talks" to the public.

Just before time for making the appropriation, comparative statistics can be used to a good advantage, especially if graphically shown with cuts. They can show the smallness of the library income as compared with incomes of other city departments, the lack of growth in library income as compared with the growth of the city, and the appropriation for the library in question as compared with other libraries in cities of equal size.

The newspaper is the recognized medium for all sorts of local advertising. It reaches more people than any other medium and many people who could not be reached in any other way. In advertising the needs of the library, however, where only a comparatively small number of people must be reached, it seems reasonable to assume that the circular letter might accomplish good results. It should be carefully written to catch the attention, beginning with some statement in which the reader is interested, proceeding rapidly to the business in hand, and, above all things, stating clearly at the end, the exact action desired.

It is possible now to get up perfect imitations of individual typewritten letters. Such letters with the name and salutation inserted on a machine, and with personal signature, ought to bring results. Those or actual personal letters are the last word.

Any man who has in the background of his mind a knowledge of what the library stands for, a good opinion of the library based on good service and continued publicity, ought to be influenced to definite action by a good personal letter.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: It is not given to many of us to approach a subject from so many directions as Mr. WALTER L. BROWN, librarian of the Buffalo public library, in grappling with the subject of "The breadth and limitations of bookbuying." His all-around experience will make this next paper one of exceptional value to us.

Dr. Thwaites has kindly consented to read the paper for Mr. Brown.

BREADTH AND LIMITATIONS OF BOOK BUYING

One of the first principles of public library management is that of adjusting it to the needs of its public, by whom and for whose benefit and pleasure it is supported by the municipality. Upon this proposition there has been no disagreement, as it is self-evident.

Questions of general policy arise when we attempt to decide what is beneficial and what is detrimental, just how far we may go to supply books for special and limited use, and just how far we may respond to the popular taste in the demand for the expenditure of public funds for pleasure.

The breadth and limitation of book buying should be determined by the needs of the public rather than from the ratings of the books which are being published. We should find the books that are best fitted for the people who are to use them, rather than to try to fit the people to the books which we may consider as the most desirable. The questions so often raised as to the admittance to the library shelves of some books of fiction of doubtful morals or the latest piece of erotic literature seem very trivial when we consider the problems that face us in the broad field of library work. The library is a public enterprise for public good, and not merely a coöperative scheme for the purpose of obtaining cheap reading, nor a bibliographical storehouse. The important question is whether the books we are asked to buy will serve any legitimate end of library service.

Most of our American cities resemble each other in the exceedingly complex character of their population, each of whose varied elements has more or less claim on the services of the public library. While it is not possible to classify definitely the residents of a city for library purposes, there are certain large groups which we may recognize.

In the first place, the public library has to serve, as libraries of all times have served, those who have had all the advantages of systematic education--those in the learned professions and in other walks of life who have had given to them, through college and university training, a wider vision than that of the average citizen; those who have had given to them at least the knowledge of the existence of the store of accumulated thought and of the records of the past. Upon these more fortunate ones rests the responsibility, in a large measure, of carrying the torch of knowledge and civilization a little farther with each generation. The public library does not pretend to act as a guide to this part of the community, but it must serve as its laboratory and as its source of supply.

A second group which includes a large part of our population is made up of those who have had the advantage of the full course of the grammar school, with the smaller number who have had that of the high school. From this group come not only the clerks in our stores and offices, but men in the more skilled occupations, and also many business men and employers of labor. Some of these are existing through gray, narrow, uneventful, toilsome lives, while others take a large and leading part in all that concerns the life of the community and in the moulding of public opinion. It includes men of many creeds and civilizations, prejudices, desires and ambitions; of many degrees of culture and taste, high and low; influenced by very different inheritance, associations and opportunities.

Some gain through application most of the advantages of the best training, while others not only fail to make use of, but often practically lose the education the city has given them. For the larger number of this group there are great possibilities for good in the means of education and cultivation which are now being provided by the municipality.

How may the public library best meet the needs of these people, so many and so diverse? How may it give to those who lack it that which will enliven, improve, stimulate and cultivate, creating not only the desire for what is best in life, but supplying the essence so far as it may be gained from the stimulus and inspiration of books? How may we give others the practical knowledge that is needed by them in their varied occupations and activities?

Probably the most potential group in our cities is that large one made up of the children of the immigrants. If they can be lifted by education, if their taste can be guided and directed toward better desires, the help which the library is able to give will act as a tremendous force for good. If these children are left alone to indulge in what is vicious and demoralizing in the life of the crowded sections of the cities, they will become a menace to the municipal life. Their parents have little to give them. The schools have on an average a brief five years in which to influence these children, but they do send them out with the power to read English. The public library may exert its influence not only during their school life, but if it acquires a hold upon them at that time, it will continue to be an influence for good upon these future rulers of the city.

Is it not possible, in a small way at least, to cultivate their taste and give them some desire to read what is worth while?

The broad base upon which city life rests is still another group made up usually of the newcomers from many lands. A very large number have little or no education excepting such as their toil has brought them. Many are able to read their native tongue, but all their traditions and all their lore is that of other lands and literatures. We find that many of the more intelligent among them have brought, in addition to their muscular strength, much that might enrich their adopted country if it could find means of expression. They constitute a danger in our life only when lacking the knowledge of our tongue, our ways and our ideals, and when in ignorance of the adjustment of our government by the popular will, they become the prey of the demagogue. He easily gains a blind following among the ignorant by preaching class hatred and a kind of discontent which is unrighteous.

Library work among these people should not only act as a safeguard, but may prove an opportunity for some at least to attain a broader life by awakening the desire for knowledge and the ability to grow which comes with the reading habit and the knowing how to use books.

The public library has not only to carry out its mission to the individuals of these groups as its part in social advancement, but it has to coöperate in the work of betterment with the schools, and with clubs and "movements" and with all manner of philanthropic and social endeavor.

There is no lack of appreciation of this function of the public library and we need not emphasize it any more than the service which it renders promptly and liberally to the scholars and other leaders of the mental life of the community. If we should fail to recognize our duty in either respect, objection would be promptly expressed.

The real value of a public library as a municipal institution can be best measured by its service toward building up a more intelligent, hopeful and happier citizenship.

It is possible to help the immigrant through the writers of his native tongue which bring him pleasure and pastime. We may even now help him in his material progress in his new home by giving him elementary books in English, from which he may acquire some knowledge of American institutions and American life, and the time may come when we will be able to do far more with great effect by having American books translated into other tongues for this purpose.

We need to help by far the greater proportion of foreigners to acquire English, because it is a tool which all must have in this country for intelligent bread-winning purposes. We need to study the race history of those represented in the population, and we should know something of their conditions before coming to America; something of their education and their mental development. Many sections of our large cities have different problems in the amalgamation of the population and the library should do what it can to help solve them.

A library agency in the neighborhood of these newcomers is a center of real service and helpfulness. No work shows more definite results, or is appreciated more than that which we do among the immigrants and their children, who are often used as go-betweens by the parents and the library.

While there are many agencies at work upon the children of the immigrant, the library has a very important place and much responsibility. No matter what the other demands may be, we cannot afford to neglect these children, and we must make generous provision to get them interested in good books through the schools and the library.

Between the immigrants and their children at one extreme, and the educational institutions and the scholar at the other, there is that very large group of the community made up of the more or less educated people, concerning whose needs and desires most of the questions on bookbuying are raised. This is a reading group. A certain part of it consumes tons and tons of newspapers and cheap magazines, the very names of which are strange in libraries. This is the reading--perhaps the only reading--of many of them, and we find that they go to the newspapers for the stirring and morbid records of crime, for scandal, for gambling news and other sensational matter, and they are reading the magazines for stories of much the same character.

Such readers crave excitement; they seldom read a book for pleasure, and they have never used the printed page for the purpose of obtaining information since their school days. It seems vital that the public library should find some meeting place with this section of the community. The plane of the cultivated reader has no temptation whatever. One must get down to earth to start growth, and the danger of bending down is far less than that of keeping aloof by reason of too high a standard. It is possible to do this without wholly giving up our demand for good quality, and we may find popular books free from vulgarity and from any pernicious influence, which, if properly used, may create a zest for better books when they are offered.

In selecting books of different grades for the purpose of leading readers from the poorer books to the better, we do, of course, put before the readers of the better books a selection of descending quality. Fortunately, however, there is little danger in this, for there is a safeguard in the fact that a taste for the better books carries with it a dislike to those of inferior quality.

It is well to remember also that even the lightest fiction selected by the library is free from most of the objectionable qualities of the reading indulged in by many readers whom we hope to reach.

As we advance in the scale of our readers, the demands upon the library increase. More and more the library is becoming of commercial use. Not only men of the various industries are finding use for the recorded experiences and the advice of experts in their own lines, but business men are beginning to find great possibilities in the use of books as time-savers and as a help to efficiency. The use of the book as a tool is becoming constantly greater, and the public library, as a matter of course, is to supply all books which may be so used. It is the plain duty of the public library to make known its ability to help its community in these practical ways.

It would seem that wise book buying would result more often through a study of the city rather than from the searching of book catalogs. The public library perhaps more than any other educational institution may receive help from social surveys, social engineering, and the records of commercial organizations.

If a social survey has not been made of our city, we should at least ascertain the elements which go to make up its population. Let us know the types of people to be reached and their numbers. How many Americans of native stock? How many residents of foreign birth? How many children of foreign born parents? What are the races represented--English speaking, Germanic, Slavic, Latin, etc.? What are the social and economic conditions? What are their occupations? What of their education and æsthetic development? These are pertinent questions for the library.

Then let a search be made for the most attractive books for each group, always remembering that there is a place for sound, clear, elementary books on all subjects, and that these should be duplicated freely. Let the business of the community be analyzed. Are there textile, steel or wood industries? What manufacturing is done, and what raw materials are used? What of its markets? What of its transportation? What authoritative material may we find on all these subjects, and how may we make it of valuable use? What is being done in our city for the fine arts; for natural science; for the study of literature; for religious and ethical teaching? How may we coöperate in all this work by supplying the necessary books? Let there be a thorough understanding of how and where good books may be used, and then let us consider the breadth and limitation of our book buying.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: One is tempted to linger over the flavor which has been given to the wording of the next topic, "The open door, through the book and the library; opportunity for comparison and choice; unhampered freedom of choice," and if we do not linger longer on this it is because we know that that flavor will be made permanent after listening to the address itself of the speaker, Mr. CHARLES E. McLENEGAN, librarian of the Milwaukee public library.

THE OPEN DOOR, THROUGH THE BOOK AND THE LIBRARY; OPPORTUNITY FOR COMPARISON AND CHOICE; UNHAMPERED FREEDOM OF CHOICE

A professor in one of our large universities recently complained that college students of the present day are so woefully ignorant of many things that they could reasonably be expected to know. The exciting cause of the professor's outburst was an attempt to get from his class some information about Chanticleer. He was met by conservative and judicious silence until one youth, who was not quite sure, ventured the opinion that it was a popular song sung by Jane Addams. Of course such an answer would irritate a Chicago man, and justly too, when we consider that Miss Addams is what made Chicago famous.

But the wail of the professor provokes the question: Where do all the scholars and thinkers of the world come from? What keeps up the breed? What is it that fills in the ramshackle, ill-jointed, unpromising frame of much of our school product, and returns us so much of fine manhood and womanhood, and so much of the sound learning and ability of the working world? We must, I think, admit that the world is fairly furnished with men and women, intelligent and useful, whom no college can claim. And every college has its quota of dunces who may never be anything else. My professor made no discovery of an alarming decadence, for what he complains of has always been true. We should not be pessimistic about youth, and we must be fair to our schools. They make better what we send them, but they have no science of alchemy. Many men and women find their inspiration in schools. But after the largest measure of allowance, it will be conceded that the amount of scholarship and efficiency in the world far exceeds the output of our scholastic plants. There are more of such people than schools produce, and the surplus must be accounted for in some other way. This surplus comes, somehow, from that vast throng who are, in a sense, the forgotten children of modern education--those hundreds of thousands who fall out of the ranks in school days, and yet who persist and find themselves without the help of the schools. It is very fortunate that this is so, for otherwise we might have to abandon some of our weightiest political maxims. The world is governed by proverbs, but as a rule of action, a proverb is as dangerous as dynamite. It is as useful as a club in a political campaign. But Dr. Holmes was right: proverbs should be sold in pairs so that one may correct the other as a counter irritant.

One of the most venerable and mossy of these narcotic saws is that our school systems are the bulwark of democracy. Undoubtedly presidents could be elected on this platform alone, if you could find an opposing party foolish enough to deny it. Yet schools can be the bulwark of democracy only by a confusion of terms, by which we mean that education and intelligence are the bulwarks of democracy. This we may grant; but we are now speaking of something besides the three R's and things that children learn in school. By education and intelligence, we mean the resultant of many forces acting on one point. We may readily admit that democracies like ours have only intelligence with which to oppose the powers that tend to gather at the center or to fly off the circumference.

It seems to me that what we call the education of our schools is a very imperfect instrument for the work it is supposed to do. What do we say first to that fifty per cent of the population who drop out of grammar schools with only the most elementary and inadequate knowledge of the three R's? What has the school given them with which to fight the battles of democracy? It is not only the spur of necessity which drives youth to labor so early. That is undoubtedly one cause. There are also the profound weariness and distaste which come of forever seeking from the text-book page, from the teacher's voice, and from the gradgrind drill for something to awaken the mind where the mind has no interest. Germany has been the first to see this failure of the common school to equip the majority; the killing effect of one sort of training for every type of mind. Witness the system of continuation schools for those who find themselves after beginning the bread and butter work of life. Witness the compulsion of the employer to devote part of the apprentice time to special instruction in the chosen craft. Even the unused moments of garrison life in the army are not wasted. Everywhere the progress of Germany is prolonging the school day in the discovery of aptitude, and in the cultivation of it after it has been discovered. In our English-speaking world we are trying to find the same thing in our trade schools, in our manual training, in our vocational education, in the many things which we perhaps hastily call fads in education. They all indicate a reaching after something which is not now attained; a search for an awakening influence on minds that are now dormant; for something to light the inward eye. In all there is the implication of a need which has not been met. These things are the evidence that the diet of public education is not varied enough to nourish all the children of the commonwealth, to awaken the dormant power for SOME THING that lies somewhere in most of humanity.

"The hungry sheep look up and are not fed."

Public education has given long and careful thought to those who remain in school. It is just becoming conscious of the great majority who do not remain--the great majority whom necessity, choice, or lack of adaptation of the school to the child drive yearly into the rough school of life. At present the best that schools do for these is to provide each child with the means of self education--the ability to read. But we are to remember that this is only one of the instruments of education; it is not education itself. It is no discovery, and it needs little observation to point out, that with this instrument of reading, the newspaper, the magazine and the book are the potent educators of our day. They are, or should be, the bulwark of democracy. I am not concerned to discuss this further than to show that what we have vaguely depended solely upon our schools to do, is not done by them, and never has been done by them. For the great mass, our schools give each child the one open sesame--reading. There they leave him to open what doors he can and will.

Before I suffer as a heretic, let me quote a really thoughtful man, Thomas Carlyle, called by a breezy miss in our last civil service examination "the great English apostle of hope." You remember that, in speaking of the origin of universities, Carlyle in his Heroes said, "If we think of it, all that a university or final highest school can do for us is still but what the first school began doing--teach us to read. The place where we are to get knowledge is the books themselves. It depends on what we read after all manner of professors have done their best for us. The true university of these days is a collection of books." Possibly there is a little something "proverbial" about this, and perhaps it should be mixed with a trifle of Mark Hopkins on the end of a log. But a collection of books, be it large or small, is a library. That definition still holds, though we may have to include "skittles and beer" after awhile. It is quite clear that this aspect of a library as a distinct and active factor in education has only of late impressed itself upon the public mind. It marks the library as a vitalized public utility, from which we are to expect more than has yet been received. Even the best of schools has its limitations because of the inflexibility of its courses of study, and it may fail, often does fail, to touch with any spark of living fire. But the library may provide something for every type of mind. The library cannot create mind or the will and disposition to use it, any more than the school can. But where the desire to feed any mental craving exists, it would be a very poor library indeed that cannot satisfy it in some degree. This power of the right book to supplement the school, or even to take the place of it, is not yet comprehended in any fullness in our public education. But it is just in this power of the book that a library has one of its best reasons for being, and it is for this reason that, when the library comes into its own, it will be a most important factor in education. Let us see to it that one door is kept open for those who discover themselves after school days are gone. There are thousands who fail to grasp their opportunities in the way and at the time that schools prescribe that they should. Some of these find themselves by living, by working, by accident it may be, or by any of the infinite ways in which humanity adjusts itself to its surroundings. For them the library is a path into fields of learning, into avenues of power that make all things possible. Here is the college of our self-educated man. There is no mystery about it. It is the natural result of following the inward light. We know that the better part of education is what we give ourselves.

One should not use a single instance to prove a principle. It is not merely bad logic; it is not logic. Yet the fact that everyone who deals either with people or with books knows many such cases shows that the experience is universal. One day not long ago, as I sat alone in the office, a lad came in. "Mister, do you buy the books here?" I admitted complicity. "Will you buy one that I want?" I asked what it was. "Chickens." To cut the story short, I asked him to sit down and we talked about chickens, for I am something of a farmer. I found that he had read everything in the library on poultry and was hungry for more. He knew the hen intimately. He had mastered the genealogy, the sociology, the psychology, and the "Why" of hens. Furthermore, while he was doing time in school, he was also carrying on a successful chicken business on a city lot, from which business he had wrung two thousand hard dollars, which he had safely in the bank. He had already marked down a little farm near the city which would be his as soon as he had "completed his education" in the grammar school, and then he would make the feathers fly. I am glad to say he got his book, and I added another lesson to the many my boys have taught me.

What is our concern with this lad? He is a type of what I have in mind. I do not value him for his ability to make money. Men make money who aren't worth a cent. I measure him by his value as a producer, by his value to humanity as an example, and by his value to a library as a walking delegate for free and unrestricted choice in books. He is an educated man, joyfully occupied in something which engages every faculty of his mind, which he loves, understands, and has mastered for himself. Your country and mine will be the better the more they can grow of that sort of man. He has made good; he has arrived. And to arrive somewhere, under your own steam, is a great thing in life. You might not get the answer you were looking for, but you could not get a foolish answer, if you asked him of Chanticleer.

Lest I be misunderstood, I repeat for a moment. Schools must be systematized. They must follow a course of study. Unhappily, what is called economy dictates that the young must be herded together in droves, graded by their ability to do one or two things into groups of presumptively equal power, equal ability to comprehend and to labor, and of similar tastes. It is the best that modern education has been able to do in the schools. Yet every one of these presumptions of equality is false. In spite of the Declaration of Independence, no two people on earth are equal except in their right to live, move and have their being. But on this educational bed of Procrustes each soul of our Anglo-Saxon race lays him down to pleasant dreams. Alas for him whose mental legs are too long, or too short, to fit the couch! Dreams? For some they are nightmares! Just because of this narrowness of public education, because of its inability to touch all types of mind, we have that endless procession, out and ever out, from our schools.

It is not my wish to take a hopeless view of education. There is no reason for taking such a view. I wish merely to emphasize a fact which has always been true, but a fact of which we are just becoming conscious. The problem of education in the days that are coming is to adjust our machinery so that these lost products shall be lessened. In this readjustment the library will have its place as a recognized and systematic factor in "the greatest business of the state."