Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-04-06
The Public Library.

| / have watched the columns of the Journal
for continuation of the discussion, which
since the statement of "Member" seems to
have.ceased. The subject seems to me wor-
| thy Of special attention, for the effort to es-
tabHsh Public Library in Augusta directly
interests all parties and classes of society, and
| the aggregate learning and experience of the
| community should be devoted earnestly to its
aid. 1t needs the sharp criticism Of business
| experience, the judgment of ripe scholarship
| and the open hand of charity to lay firmly its
| foundation and insure its success. Scarcely
| leading New England city, and many sparce.
| ly settled towns find a public library is me-
cessity, and promptly establish and support
| them. They justly appeal to all classes, for
| they benefit all. The real estate owner is
| directly interested, for the business man and
intelligent banker about to purchase home,
| or locate in business, asks naturally what are
| your schools, churches, libraries, &C., and
pays additional prices if these are first class,
showing general thrift in the community.
| Still more, men of wealth and leisure, when
seeking for permanent residences, however
pleasant the surroundings, justly mark the
absence of these modern evidences of culture
and public spirit at large discount against
the value of property for their purposes.
| When as at present the press teens with the
| best thought of the age in all forms, from
| the tiny pamphlet to the ponderous volume,
professional men can ill afford to buy for a
single reading by themselves alone, the issues
relating even to their several specialties,
while being placed in a public library hun
dreds could have the same benefit with them
and each work still be safely kept for refer
ence. Such persons keep "read up" by con-
tinual purchase at additional cost TO them
selves, or indolently halt with the knowledge
obtained at school, adding only the gain of
| experience and meet it by increased charges
If active men, they count this cost reasonably !;
if not they fail in their duties by unftn ess,
marching behind the progress of the age, and
in either case the community loses. pub
lie library profits the tax payer, being the un
firing foe of ignorance, idleness and vice. 1t
opens free communion for all with the best
minds of the world, provokes sharp thought,
awakens vigorous action, and gives sufficient
mental stimulus to neutralize temptation, so
that it costs less to suppress crime and pro-
tect society. 1t profits the employer whose
workmen are more intelligent and thoughtful,
prompt and capable, doing better work for the
same wages. Admitting that library is
profitable, and that city which would offer
equal inducements with others to labor and
capital, must foster literary taste and means
of culture, the practical questions for US are:
First, do such now exist? Second, if not, how
shall they be secured? The fact that the Ii
braries of the Cony Academy (now closed or
scattered), those of the Sabbath schools, and
the Kennebec bar, are all we have, save a use,
by mere courtesy, as a reading room, of the
State Library, and that a mile from the BUSH
ness centre of the town, for a city of eight
thousand persons, fully answers the first
question in the negative. The second, how
most economically, completely and perma-
nently to secure them, remains. This has
been successfully answered in other States
and our own. We have been told that there
has been zone failure" The Williams Fra
ternity did fail, but 1t was an exchange and
not a library; was wofully mismanaged, and
it is no wonder it was short-lived. It's lesson
may indicate by contrast the conditions of
present success.
1t is well to remember that though conser-
vatism is excellent, it sometimes 10 carried
much too far, and the hardihood that often
fails but sometimes wins gloriously is fire.
quently worttier than the extra caution that
magni6es all danger, and waits in despair
while glorious opportunities pass, or with
voice roughened by long practice in the same
strain, croaks its warnings persistently At
every new enterprise, ready to claim in case