REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS
Your committee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following minute, to be spread upon the records of the conference, and that copies thereof be forwarded by the secretary to the several bodies and persons mentioned therein.
In its membership and its sympathies, the American Library Association is broadly American. It aims to secure among the librarians of the continent that practical reciprocity in ideals and interests that should everywhere prevail among those engaged in undertakings for the moral and intellectual betterment of humanity.
The association is deeply gratified in being able to hold its 34th annual conference within the Dominion of Canada, whose representatives have for many years prominently participated in the management and deliberations of the association. Since its meeting in Montreal, twelve years ago, the membership of the association has increased from nine hundred to twenty-three hundred. Toward this expansion (itself a visible sign of that quickening of popular concern in educational affairs which has been so marked a feature of the past decade), Canada has contributed a goodly share. It is hoped and believed by the association that this conference will still further inspire and strengthen those public-spirited men and women, who, in various capacities, are conducting the public and institutional libraries of the Dominion.
Of the fine temper and professional zeal of its Canadian membership, the association has had frequent evidence; but the experiences of the past eight days have brought to the members from the United States a new, although by no means unexpected, sense of the abundant hospitality of their Canadian colleagues. Any vote of thanks that may be adopted by this association, can seem to the visitors south of the international boundary, but cold recognition of the warm sincerity of their greeting in the capital of the great Dominion. It is hoped, however, that between the lines of this fraternal salutation from the men and women of the south, their confreres of the north may read such sympathy and love as words cannot convey.
The association begs to place on record its heartfelt thanks to all of those many Canadians who, in whatever measure, have contributed towards the success of this delightful meeting and to the entertainment of its participants. But to the following men and women who, either officially or personally, have been intimately concerned in preparations for and in the management of the many charming hospitalities that have made this conference so notable in the history of American librarianship, the association unanimously expresses its especial appreciation.
At Toronto, entertaining the western delegation: The Government of the province of Ontario, represented by Sir James Whitney, premier, the Hon. R. A. Pyne, minister of education, and Mr. Walter R. Nursey, inspector of public libraries; Professor Needler, librarian of the University of Toronto, and Professor Lang, librarian of Victoria college; the Ontario Library Association and its officers: the members of the Toronto public library board, and their chief librarian, Dr. George H. Locke.
At Ottawa, the Government of the Dominion, represented by the Hon. George H. Perley, acting premier, and the Hon. Martin Burrell, minister of agriculture; His Worship the Mayor of the Corporation of the City of Ottawa; the local Committee of Ottawa, the chairman of which, Dr. Otto Klotz, was represented by Dr. James W. Robertson, C. M. G.; particularly Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee and Mr. D. P. Cruikshank, together with the lady members of the committee; the Ottawa public library board represented by Alderman Ainslie W. Greene, chairman; the Canadian Club of Ottawa; the Women's Canadian Club of Ottawa; the Ottawa Electric Railway represented by its president, Mr. Thomas Ahearn; Mr. John F. Watson of the Dominion Central Experimental Farm; United States Consul-General and Mrs. J. G. Foster; Manager F. W. Bergman of the Chateau Laurier; and Manager Mulligan of the New Russell.
In addition to its acknowledgment of the foregoing the association wishes to express most sincere appreciation of the cordial message which it received from the Governor-General, H. R. H. the Duke of Connaught, who unfortunately was detained at Montreal because of the illness of H. R. H. the Duchess, whose subsequent recovery is a source of international gratification; of the great kindness of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in consenting to address the conference upon Dominion day; of the excellent addresses by Dr. George E. Vincent, president of the University of Minnesota and by Professor John Macnaughton, of McGill university; and of the admirable arrangements for the post-conference tour made by one of the ex-presidents of the association, Professor Charles H. Gould, librarian of McGill university, Montreal.
R. G. THWAITES,
MARY W. PLUMMER,
J. T. JENNINGS,
Committee on Resolutions.
The PRESIDENT: You have heard the report of the Resolutions committee. Let us pass it by a rising vote.
The resolutions were adopted unanimously, by a rising vote.
Dr. THWAITES: I have another resolution, Madam President, to offer from the committee,—a resolution, not a minute:
RESOLVED, that the American Library Association, as an international organization, has viewed with profound satisfaction the project for the establishment of a National Library in and for the Dominion of Canada, and takes pleasure in joining the Royal society, the Ontario library association, and other learned societies in Canada, in respectfully urging upon the government of the Dominion the vital importance of such an institution in the fostering and conservation of the intellectual resources and national spirit of Canada; and further, in urging upon the government the desirability of effecting such establishment at the earliest possible moment.
The resolution was adopted unanimously.
The PRESIDENT: We have one more resolution, which is a tribute of love and respect that we shall pay with all our hearts. Dr. Andrews will report for the special committee appointed to draft a suitable memorial concerning our late friend Frederick M. Crunden.
Dr. ANDREWS: First let me express my regret that Mr. Henry M. Utley, chairman of the committee appointed by the board to draw up this memorial, is not present in person; secondly, to state for the committee that we have departed from the usual custom of offering a resolution, and have placed before you a brief statement of Mr. Crunden's life and character, which we hope will convey to those who have come into the association since the time when he had to give up active connection with it, a record of his services.