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.