, and the nation required a broader
base of intelligence and morality for its security and perpetuity. The
third support for a wider and higher national life has been found in the
public library, which co-operating with the school, doubles the value of
the education the child receives in school and further incites and
furnishes him with facilities for doing so. It also enables the adult
to make up for the opportunities he neglected or, more often, did not
have in early life. It does this, too, at an expense to the community of
not more than one tenth of the cost per capita of school education.

F. M. CRUNDEN.

THE LIBRARY SUPPORT

This is the fundamental matter after all--money. Whence shall the funds
come? The church plan, the club plan--all are dependent on the spasmodic
and irregular support that results from the labors of a soliciting
committee using persuasive arguments with business men and others. There
are certain expenses that are absolutely essential--books first and
most, a room for which, probably, rent must be paid (though some
generous citizen may give the use of it), periodicals to be subscribed
for, heat, light, table, chairs, etc., besides the most important
feature of the whole scheme--the librarian.

The wisest form of organization is the tax-supported free public
library. Is it desirable that the small town shall in its beginning in
library matters attempt at once to secure a municipal tax to found and
maintain a free public library under the state law? There are those who
believe this is the only way to make a beginning. Eventually, if not in
the beginning, the free public library on a rate or tax-supported basis
is the most desirable form of library organization.

ALICE S. TYLER.

WHY THE FREE LIBRARY SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY TAXATION

1 Such a tax puts the library on the right basis as a public
institution. The purpose of the library is the same as that of the
school--public education, the enlargement and enrichment of the
intellectual life of the community--and it should, therefore, be
supported on the same grounds and by the same methods as the school.

2 The library supported by local taxation ceases to be a charity,
contributed by the few to the many, and becomes the right and property
of all. When I use a library supported by private gifts, I am accepting
a favor; when I use a library supported by public tax, I am using what
is mine by right. The tax thus promotes a feeling of inde