The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-01-29
CONCERNING LIBRARIES.

blDhhnl1E,
And especially concerning law IL
braries, in which it seems to me
great revolution and reform might and
should be made. The small, compact
and neat law library is a thing of the
past. OF the making of law books
there is no end. Subjects are sub-di-
vided and large and expensive volumes
written upon branches which, few
years ago, were sufficiently treated in
a chapter or division of volume. On
one single subject, that of Corpora
TONS legislation and litigation have
evolved hundreds of volumes, and rail-
road reports a'e coming to be nuis.
ance, and cumberer of the shelves.
And what is still more frightful they
are being produced by the Courts and
the reporters by the dozen year.
Every large county in the State must
have its legal journal, and the weekly
issues are forced upon the attention of
the Bar of the State, aud support ve-
hemently urged. do not mean to say
these publications are of no value--far
from it. 1t is the fact Of their value
to the busy practitioner, that causes
the trouble, for it must be admitted
that much of the matter IN them is
mere padding. Still they exist and in
most cases give good reason for con-
tinuing to exist. And it is to be feared
that instead of diminishing they may
increase; though the new enterprise Of
the County Court Reports is step in
the right direction, and may prevent
some and absorb others.
The date of our first reported Su-
preme Court case in Dallas is 1854, and
up to 1854, one hundred years, there
were only elghty-six volumes issued
From 1854 to 1884, only thirty years,
there are eigbty-six more, and these do
not include Grant and Pennypacker
And if to these we add the side re-
ports, making several hundred volumes
more, it can be easily seen that we
need not go outside of Pennsylvania
to overwhelm the poor country lawyer
with books, and distract the Judges
with conflicting decisions which are
called authorities, and altogether max
ing confusion worse confounded. But
in addition to all this, the reports from
sister States and of the Supreme Court
of the United States are thrust upon
us; aud as if there were not yet
enough, the american Decisions" be-
gin out in California, and propose to
come from the beginning of the gov
ernment to the year 1869; and there
the american Reports begin and
propose to continue for all time to
come" and we may we'll repeat the
agoniziug cry of Solomon, ''Of the
making of books there is no end"
But after all, this is only the begin
ming of sorrows. There are cart loads
of books upon evidence, civil and
criminal, upon Bankruptcy, upon
Liens, upon Affidayits of Defense, Me.
chauics Liens, Saving Funds, Married
Women. Divorce, the Domestic Rela-
tions, and about every other subject
with which the courts are called upon
to deal.
1t is manifest that the money in
vested in books and book cases is enor
nous, far beyond that it should be or
need be, and it is in this matter espec-
tally, where revolution and reform
must be made. A few considerations
and figures will show what could be
done and what soon must be done.
There are forty members of the Bar
in Columbia County, and it is safe to
say that there are twenty five complete
sets of the Reports of our Supreme
Court in the county, and also numerous
incomplete ones; together with several
thousand volumes of outside Reports
and text booGs of the law. Including
the collection in the Bar Office 10 the
Court House, it is safe to say that the
law books in Columbia county cost not
less than thirty thousand dollars; and
many of them are duplicated, as it
Were, more than twenty times over
The cases and shelves for the care OF
these books cost more than a thousand
dollars. This is dreadful waste of
money. Ten thousand dollars would
probably pay for all the separate works
and reports in all the libraries in the
county; and ten dollars a piece an.
nually would keep the library stocked
with all the necessary current law liter,
ature.
If all the law libraries in Blooms
burg were put into joint stock con
Germ, with duplicates of the Reports
and proper and convenient building
erected for the purpose, the tax for law
books, which now runs to hundreds oI
dollars year, would be a mere baga-
telle. The capitalist who would erect
such n building would make a profit
able investment, and all parties would
be benefited. Take a building il
which three or four lawyers are tenants
if there was one good, warm, wei
lighted room for a common library, one
fourth as many ooks as are nov pro
vided by them would be enough, and
they would have the use and advantage
of large library at small cost
Fifty volumes of working books
would be all that any lawyer would
need in his office; and he could exam.
ine his authorities at his good leisure,
at his table in the common library
room, and with the use Of five times as
many books as he could own himself.
His stock in this Library company
would be valuable, and could be sold as
new members were desirous TO come
in aud use, for few hundred dollars,
library worth thousands j. q. +.