Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-05-10
DISBURSEMENTS.
Cash paid salary of Ii
$l,953 rs $1,953 2s
B. F. WRIGHT, Treasurer.
st, Paul, Nav 8, 1882.

B. F. WRIGHT, Treasurer.
st. Paul, May 9, 1882.
REPORT oFTHE LECTURE COMMITTEE.
This committee made short work of Its
report, for the very good reason that the
members of the committee had
but little to say. Messrs. George
W. Lamson, B. F. Wright and
F. A. Fogg, who constitute the commit
tee, say they considered the matter of
having course of lectures last season,
but after good deal of correspondence
and careful consideration of the ex-
pense and the probable receipts, it was
determined that it was unadvisable to
have series of lectures, so they aban-
doned the idea.
THE PRESIDENTS REPORT.
After the reading of the report of the
library committee, President Ramsey
read his report, as follows.
PRESIDENTS REPORT.
To the Shareholders OF the st. Paul Library
Association:
GENTLEMEN:-The board of directors, in
rendering you an account of their steward
ship for the past twelve months, are pleased
to be able to congratulate you upon the entire
freedom from debt of your institution, and,
while from their strengthened means they
have not to boast of the accomplishment of
all that they desired, this they can say, that
the library rooms have been heated andlighted
during the days and nights of the winter just
passed away, and made acceptable every day
to such as sought them; that our books upon
our shelves and the choice selection of
periodicals upon cur tables have been free to
all, and that financially we present ourselves
to you at the opening of a new year out of
debt, with modest balance in our favor.
But we feel that WE should have been enabled
to add at least one or two thousand choice
volumes to our catalogue instead of the tw o
hundred and thirty-nine, that were alone
within our capacity.
From the report of the treasurer it will be
seen.what were the various sources of income
and what the disbursements; the former
amounted to 81 $685. and the latter 81, 92513,
resulting in balance OF $2S.12.
The report of the library committee shows,
that while the whole number of contributing
members, shareholders, life members, etc,
all from whom we draw our resources, in
1881 amounted to 40, in this year they num-
Der 455.
The number of books on April 80, 1881,
amounted to 1924; on the 30th of April, 1882.
there were S,16S, showing an increase of 239.
The collection is not as large as we fondly
wish it were, but the selectioil is good and
there are no towns of our population that
equal it, when supported as ours is, upon the
voluntary system.
The same committee ask your attention to
the question of opening the reading room on
Sundays, which we have referred to your de-
cision, and trust you may be able to deter
mine in consonance with the pubic sentiment
of that portion of the community who take
an interest in the library and contribute to its
support. /.
Our reasons for not entering upon course
of lectures during the last winter are fully ex-
planned by the report of the committee ON that
subject.
For the interest we feel in the honor of our
young city we have given the library all the
care and attention that We could we'll bestow
upon it, aud we can only hope that the new
board you may select this evening will be
much more successful in advancing the work
of furnishing a larger amount of reading and
library accommodation than we have been
able to.
But from our own observation and
from the concurrent opinions of
librarians of large experience in the
country, we regret to be compelled to say that
circulating libraries, supported by the volun.
tary system can never be a success, and re-
alizing this, communities largely everywhere
are looking to the adoption by the municipal
government OF towns or cities of system of
very moderate taxation for their support.
In the year 1879, on the 4th of March, the.
legislature of Minnesota enacted law en-
titled, "An act to provide for the establish
ment of free libraries and reading rooms" It
is bill of ten sections; the first, which is suf-
ficiently explanatory for our present purpose,
reads as follows:
Section 1. That the city council of any in
corporated city, or village council of any
incorporated village, shall have power
to establish and maintain public library
and reading room, or either of them, for the
use and benefit of the inhabitants of such
city or village, and may levy tax, not to ex-
coed one mill on the dollar annually, and in
cities of over thirty thousand inhabitants, not
to exceed one-half of one mill on the dollar
annually, on all the taxable property IN the
city, such tax to be levied and collected in
like manner with other general taxes of said
city or village, and to be known as the ''li-
brary fund"
In response to this legislation, your board
of directors, in the month of September of
that year, applied to the then city council,
offering to contribute our valuable collection
of books to free public library, if the council
should authorize such library and
assume its support and management
under the act of the Legislature just
TclcTIed IOs Lie library COumlJttce Ol tuaL
time in urging this policy, among other
things, said:
"The experience of the st. Paul Library as.
ISOLATION, like that OF all other similar organ
izations, SO far as we have any information,
is, that a library, such as every city should
have, in this age and country, cannot be sus-
tanned by reading subscribers alone.
1.-THE great libraries of the American cities,
which are the most popular and successful,
are public libraries, free to all citizens, and
maintained by their respective municipalities.
sin most of the largest cities of the East
and West, such free public libraries, with
reading-rooms attached, have been established,
and are cheerfully supported by tax-paying
citizens.
"From fifth to fourth of mill tax
has been quite ample to maintain free public
libraries in each CT the several states which
have provided by law for their establishment.
1.-THE most valuable free library in the west
is that of Chicago, commenced six or seven
years ago.
ssNo institution of that city gives more
general satisfaction, or is regarded with great
er civic pride than its free library. The fol-
lowing are extracts from annual reports made
during the last two years by its board OF di-
rectors:
"sThe library is to secure free access to