ing 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 legitim