e 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