Your committee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following
minute, to be spread upon the records of the conference, and that
copies thereof be forwarded by the secretary to the several bodies and
persons mentioned therein.
In its membership and its sympathies, the American Library Association
is broadly American. It aims to secure among the librarians of the
continent that practical reciprocity in ideals and interests that
should everywhere prevail among those engaged in undertakings for the
moral and intellectual betterment of humanity.
The association is deeply gratified in being able to hold its 34th
annual conference within the Dominion of Canada, whose representatives
have for many years prominently participated in the management and
deliberations of the association. Since its meeting in Montreal,
twelve years ago, the membership of the association has increased from
nine hundred to twenty-three hundred. Toward this expansion (itself
a visible sign of that quickening of popular concern in educational
affairs which has been so marked a feature of the past decade),
Canada has contributed a goodly share. It is hoped and believed by
the association that this conference will still further inspire and
strengthen those public-spirited men and women, who, in various
capacities, are conducting the public and institutional libraries of
the Dominion.
Of the fine temper and professional zeal of its Canadian membership,
the association has had frequent evidence; but the experiences of the
past eight days have brought to the members from the United States a
new, although by no means unexpected, sense of the abundant hospitality
of their Canadian colleagues. Any vote of thanks that may be adopted by
this association, can seem to the visitors south of the international
boundary, but cold recognition of the warm sincerity of their greeting
in the capital of the great Dominion. It is hoped, however, that
between the lines of this fraternal salutation from the men and women
of the south, their confreres of the north may read such sympathy and
love as words cannot convey.
The association begs to place on record its heartfelt thanks to all of
those many Canadians who, in whatever measure, have contributed towards
the success of this delightful meeting and to the entertainment of its
participants. But to the following men and women who, either officially
or personally, have been intimately concerned in preparations for and
in the management of the many charming hospitalities that have made
this conference so notable in the history of American librarianship,
the association unanimously expresses its especial appreciation.
At Toronto, entertaining the western delegation: The Government of
the province of Ontario, represented by Sir James Whitney, premier,
the Hon. R. A. Pyne, minister of education, and Mr. Walter R. Nursey,
inspector of public libraries; Professor Needler, librarian of the
University of Toronto, and Professor Lang, librarian of Victoria
college; the Ontario Library Association and its officers: the members
of the Toronto public library board, and their chief librarian, Dr.
George H. Locke.
At Ottawa, the Government of the Dominion, represented by the Hon.
George H. Perley, acting premier, and the Hon. Martin Burrell, minister
of agriculture; His Worship the Mayor of the Corporation of the City
of Ottawa; the local Committee of Ottawa, the chairman of which, Dr.
Otto Klotz, was represented by Dr. James W. Robertson, C. M. G.;
particularly Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee and Mr. D. P. Cruikshank, together
with the lady members of the committee; the Ottawa public library board
represented by Alderman Ainslie W. Greene, chairman; the Canadian Club
of Ottawa; the Women's Canadian Club of Ottawa; the Ottawa Electric
Railway represented by its president, Mr. Thomas Ahearn; Mr. John
F. Watson of the Dominion Central Experimental Farm; United States
Consul-General and Mrs. J. G. Foster; Manager F. W. Bergman of the
Chateau Laurier; and Manager Mulligan of the New Russell.
In addition to its acknowledgment of the foregoing the association
wishes to express most sincere appreciation of the cordial message
which it received from the Governor-General, H. R. H. the Duke of
Connaught, who unfortunately was detained at Montreal because of the
illness of H. R. H. the Duchess, whose subsequent recovery is a source
of international gratification; of the great kindness of Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, in consenting to address the conference upon Dominion day;
of the excellent addresses by Dr. George E. Vincent, president of the
University of Minnesota and by Professor John Macnaughton, of McGill
university; and of the admirable arrangements for the post-conference
tour made by one of the ex-presidents of the association, Professor
Charles H. Gould, librarian of McGill university, Montreal.
R. G. THWAITES,
MARY W. PLUMMER,
J. T. JENNINGS,
Committee on Resolutions.
The PRESIDENT: You have heard the report of the Resolutions committee.
Let us pass it by a rising vote.
The resolutions were adopted unanimously, by a rising vote.
Dr. THWAITES: I have another resolution, Madam President, to offer from
the committee,--a resolution, not a minute:
RESOLVED, that the American Library Association, as an
international organization, has viewed with profound satisfaction
the project for the establishment of a National Library in and
for the Dominion of Canada, and takes pleasure in joining the
Royal society, the Ontario library association, and other learned
societies in Canada, in respectfully urging upon the government
of the Dominion the vital importance of such an institution in
the fostering and conservation of the intellectual resources
and national spirit of Canada; and further, in urging upon the
government the desirability of effecting such establishment at the
earliest possible moment.
The resolution was adopted unanimously.
* * * * *
The PRESIDENT: We have one more resolution, which is a tribute of
love and respect that we shall pay with all our hearts. Dr. Andrews
will report for the special committee appointed to draft a suitable
memorial concerning our late friend Frederick M. Crunden.
Dr. ANDREWS: First let me express my regret that Mr. Henry M. Utley,
chairman of the committee appointed by the board to draw up this
memorial, is not present in person; secondly, to state for the
committee that we have departed from the usual custom of offering
a resolution, and have placed before you a brief statement of Mr.
Crunden's life and character, which we hope will convey to those who
have come into the association since the time when he had to give up
active connection with it, a record of his services.