The above title was constructed by the editor from a
sentence in the presidential address of Henry M. Utley
before the American Library Association at its Denver
conference of 1895. President Utley himself gave it no
title, but it is an examination of the claims of the library
to public support, with a conclusion that those claims are
justified only by regarding the library as an educational
institution, using this term in its broadest sense.
Henry Munson Utley was born at Plymouth, Mich., Aug. 5,
1836. He served on the staff of the Detroit _Free Press_ in
1861-66, was city editor of the _Post_ and _Post-Tribune_
until 1881, and then, after holding the secretaryship of the
Detroit Board of Education, became in 1885 librarian of the
Public Library, in which post he served until his death on
Feb. 16, 1917, becoming librarian emeritus in 1913.
We are met for the seventeenth Conference of the American Library
Association in the Capital city of the Centennial State. It is a
pleasing co-incidence that the Association and the State celebrate the
same natal year. Within the memory of some of us the whole region of
which this city is now the metropolis was a wilderness. The century was
fairly begun when Lieut. Pike led his little band to the sources of the
Arkansas and made his futile attempt to scale the lofty peak which now
bears his name. Forty years later came the explorations of Fremont, and
then fifteen years elapsed before the tide of immigration set in. The
desert of that day has been converted into prosperous farms. Thriving
towns have sprung up in the mountain fastnesses, at the gateway to which
sits this Queen City of the plains, displaying all the evidences of
wealth, culture, and refinement to be found in the proud cities to the
eastward.
This rapid and wonderful transformation has been the work of human hands
guided by intelligent brains and an indomitable spirit of pluck and
perseverance. We are accustomed to think of this combination as purely
American. In many of its characteristics it certainly is so. And in no
respect more distinctively so than in the cause in which we are most
interested. Not all the older commonwealths, even on this side of the
Atlantic, have yet accepted the theory that the education of the citizen
is the concern of the state. But in all this newer portion of our
country this doctrine has been incorporated into the fundamental law.
The ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory northwest of
the Ohio river declared that for obvious reasons schools and the means
of education shall be forever encouraged. The twenty states now
organized within this and the subsequently acquired territory to the
westward have all accepted to the fullest extent the doctrine of the
ordinance. They have not only carried it into practical effect by
general laws providing for free public schools for children, for
universities and institutions of higher learning for the education of
youth, but have also provided for the establishment and maintenance of
free public libraries at the general expense and for the common use of
all the people.
Let us consider very briefly the theory upon which the state assumes to
levy tribute upon the property of individuals to provide means for
maintaining libraries. By what right does the state tax the man of
wealth to put miscellaneous books into the hands of the man who pays no
tax?
So far as primary education is concerned, the basis seems clear. The
free state which depends for its very existence upon the intelligence of
the masses of its citizens must, as a measure of self-defense, provide
the facilities by which all may become intelligent. Self-preservation is
the supremest natural law. Whatever has a right to exist has a right to
do that which is necessary to preserve its existence. The free state
which rests on the suffrage of its citizens is bound in duty to itself
to see to it that popular education, which is essential to its
perpetuity, is universal. Ignorant men are not competent to take care of
themselves and their households, still less to direct the destinies of
an empire. The state has, therefore, the right, not only to provide the
means of education, but to compel education. Laws are in force which
require certain attendance upon the schools. These rest on the theory
that the interest of the state in the education of the individual
surpasses that of the individual, and therefore, the state cannot, in
justice to itself, treat education purely as a matter of individual
concern.
It is a notorious fact that the average person does not perceive the
importance of self-cultivation. As the vineyard left to itself is soon
choked out with weeds and chapparall, so man if left to himself lapses
naturally into his primitive condition. The state cannot leave him to
himself, but must interpose to make it certain that he acquires the best
degree of information which his natural abilities and the time not
necessary to his self-support shall permit. Neither can the state leave
the matter of providing facilities and inducements to education to
private enterprise, nor to the church, which has been the foremost of
all organizations to appreciate its importance. While the state
recognizes these agencies and accepts them as satisfactory, so far as
they go, it nevertheless fully equips schools of its own, in pursuance
of its inherent right and duty, which cannot be relinquished to any
other agency.
The extent to which the state shall go in the matter of educating its
citizens has been the subject of much discussion. There are those who
maintain that as the education of the individual proceeds his concern in
his own development increases, until finally, if his education proceeds
far enough, his concern in his own development surpasses that of the
state, and he must thenceforth be left to equip himself entirely at his
own expense. If that point is marked by the line between primary and
secondary, or between secondary and higher education, there is where the
state is in duty bound to stop. The extent of the interest of the
community as compared with that of the individual is held to grow less
and less and finally to disappear as he advances.
But the better judgment of our time repudiates this theory, and holds
apparently that there is no limit to the concern of the state in the
mental progress of the individual. Ian Maclaren in his touching story of
"Domsie" quotes John Knox as saying: "Ilka scholar is something added to
the riches of the commonwealth." It can probably be demonstrated by the
rules of accounts that as a business investment the state is wisely
spending money in the education of the people. The cost is more than
returned to it in the material development which an enlightened
citizenship ensures. If we contrast our own country, where education is
free, with some older countries where it is yet held to be a matter of
minor concern, or if we contrast some of the states of this republic
with others of corresponding age, we shall see at a glance a wide
difference in material resources and prosperity. In one the industrial
arts are far advanced, there is intellectual activity, the average
citizen is well clothed, well housed, and enjoys many luxuries; in the
other, the methods and life of a past century prevail and poverty and
ill-living are the rule. This, if not the highest motive, is an
incidental one of considerable importance for doing at the common
expense that which is for the common good.
But the maintenance of the public library is not based on the
communistic idea. A former president of this association, speaking at
the Lake George Conference, said: "The socialists and communists are all
friends of the library, for we give them the books they want, and they
hold that it is not only the duty of the government to educate the
people, but to furnish them with reading. If the library ever shall have
enemies they will be the rich, who do not enjoy being taxed for the
benefit of the public, and have libraries of their own. Its defenders
will be men of broad views, scholarly people, and behind them, with
votes, the middle and poorer classes."
While it may be true, in a certain sense, that socialists and
communists approve the public library because it appears to give them
something which they desire at the public cost, that scheme, on its true
ground, is as far removed as possible from any such theory of
maintenance by the state. The essential principle of communism is that
the members of the community shall hold their property in common for the
common use and benefit. This principle flourished in the village
community in which each individual was allotted his certain proportion
of the lands owned in common. There are at this day a sporadic few who
advocate government ownership of railroads, and some would even include
all the great instrumentalities of commerce and production. But the
rational majority hold that the state of society is best which makes the
individual a free and independent member of the community. His ambitions
and energies are best stimulated by his opportunities to prosper for
himself. Civilization and enlightenment are advanced by the efforts of
the master spirits of the race. The only demand which the individual can
justly make on the community, with its government as the common agent of
all, is that it shall not merely protect him in his rights as a free and
independent citizen, but that it shall assure him the opportunities for
the fullest exercise of his talents, and shall also, as a measure of
common interest, provide the facilities for his very highest mental
equipment. In this latter service of the state there is nothing whatever
of the communistic idea.
The public library is not a public charity. There may be some who regard
it as in the nature of a free soup-house which caters to the appetite
for mental pabulum more or less wholesome. Most communities make some
provision for those who are mentally or physically unfitted to care for
themselves and who have no estate nor natural relations upon whom they
can rely for support. So the state builds and maintains hospitals and
almshouses. This it does simply as a duty of humanity. The instincts of
the race and the teachings of an enlightened civilization assure us that
a universal brotherhood makes all human creatures kin. As individuals we
owe a certain duty to all other individuals, and as organized society we
must see to it that the welfare of all is conserved. But there is no
duty of kindness or good-will which requires the furnishing of reading
matter for the use of the whole community.
The public library is not provided for the mere intellectual enjoyment
of the citizens. The municipal corporation uses public funds to buy and
beautify parks and boulevards. The purpose of these is to promote the
public health and comfort, and incidentally to cultivate the aesthetic
sense. The state has a direct interest in the health of its citizens. It
must rely on their physical strength for defense in time of peril or
invasion. Therefore it must have a care that their physical welfare is
promoted. Wholesome food, gentle exercise, a cheerful and contented
mind, have much to do with soundness of body, and so food-inspection and
open-air recreation are justified at the common expense.
Art-museums and public concerts are sometimes maintained out of the
general treasury. The only basis on which this expense can be justified
is that their purpose is educational. The welfare of the state depends
not alone on the ability of its citizens to merely read and write and
solve problems in simple arithmetic. Our nature is many-sided and its
full and perfect development must be sought in many directions. The
aesthetic is not less real than the practical. The finer qualities of
the mind have weightly influence upon national progress and destiny. The
state has a right to do for its citizens the things which will best
serve its ultimate interests.
Universities and higher institutions of learning maintained at public
cost now train those who have the means and opportunities to take
advantage of their curricula for the most advanced degrees, and through
their post-graduate courses offer facilities for spending the good part
of a lifetime in the immediate pursuit of knowledge. But in the nature
of things the number of those who can give time to these higher courses
is limited. The argument has sometimes been employed against high
schools and universities that they are maintained at great cost for the
use of a comparatively trifling portion of the community. Statistics are
quoted to show that of the whole number of children in the primary
grades less than 25 per cent. go through the grammar grades, and that of
the small number who enter the high school grades hardly one in ten
finishes them, while of these but an infinitesimal number go on to and
through the university.
It is not due to lack of capacity wholly, or lack of interest, that so
many students fall by the wayside, but mainly to the fact that their
services are necessary in the productive channels of business. Yet, in
spite of the comparatively few who are able to take advantage of them,
the state considers it a duty to foster, and the community cheerfully
bears the burden of maintaining, the higher institutions of learning,
because the benefits which they confer are easily recognized. To
compensate in some degree those who are not able to pursue in organized
institutions studies untimely stopped by the necessities of active life,
the community provides the free library. This is the people's
university, close to the door of every citizen, in which all who have
the inclination and energy to do so may pursue through their whole lives
the studies which most interest them.
The function of the public library is purely and wholly educational. In
this case the term is to be construed in its most comprehensive sense.
It does not merely include development of the intellect; it involves all
the varied human relations. We owe duties to our Maker, to ourselves, to
those who are dependent upon us, to our neighbors, to society, and to
the state. In all these delicate and intricate relations we must be
taught, and as the world advances, our civilization becomes more complex
and our relations more involved, the character and quality of our
education becomes the more important. The school and the college have
merely laid the foundation. If they have done their full duty they have
done little more than set the student on the high road. The sequel rests
with himself. The public library puts into his hands books, which
contain the combined wisdom and experience of all who have gone before,
and wherein are preserved the best thoughts of the best men and women of
all time. They who pass judgment upon what shall and what shall not be
admitted to the shelves of a public library must bear in mind that,
strictly construing the function of the library to be educational, there
is yet very wide latitude in respect to the things which people may
safely and wisely learn.
In this aspect of the case, those who are charged with the management
and control of libraries have imposed upon them a very grave
responsibility. They are not merely the custodians of the books which
the public purse has bought; they are commissioned to guide in the path
of highest progress. In this light, the function of the librarian
assumes the halo of a holy office. He who discharges it earnestly and
faithfully may do much to help forward the enlightenment of his
generation.
The sum of the whole statement, briefly, is this: There is no limit to
the concern of the free state in the education of its citizens. It is as
much bound to provide libraries in which the adult may continue his
studies as it is to maintain schools in which as a child he may begin
them. The day is not distant when this duly will be universally
recognized in this country. In most of the states compulsory education
laws prevail. In at least one, every town is required by law to
establish and maintain a free public library. In this respect, New
Hampshire is only leading the way in which others will shortly follow.
Then organized society can truthfully say to the individual, in the
language of Professor Hoffman in his "Sphere of the State": "We have
done what we could to develop and strengthen all your powers. We have
taught you to the best of our ability to know yourself and to understand
your relations to your fellows. Now, so long as you conduct yourself as
a child of the day and not of the night, all the rights and privileges
of the brotherhood are yours. But if you choose to walk in the darkness
rather than in the light, if you trample under foot our laws, if you
raise your hand against every man, let the curse of your wrong doing
fall upon your own head, not on ours."