Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23
INO UNWILLING EAR
Now Being Turned by the Allegheny
City Property Committee
TO PROTESTS OF THE PEOPLE
Against the Library Being Placed in the
Hands of Politicians.
MR.. PRATTS VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT

Mr.. Thomas A. Parke, one of the mem.
bers of the Allegheny City Property Com.
mittee, stated yesterday that the sub-com.
mittee appointed to draft an ordinance fol
the permanent commission which will con.
troll Carnegie Free Library, will meet to-
morrow evening to take action. This sub
committee consists of the following Council
men: Ammon, Chairman, Lare, Kennedy,
Parke and Beilstein. The various views
advanced in regard to the control of the
library will be unreservedly discussed, and
the best judgment of the committee will be
brought into play.
formal opening was so emphatically
in favor of a commission of repre-
sentative citizens as the trustees of Mr..
Carnegie's magnificent gift that it is be-
lieVed that the issue of politics will not be
again thrust into the matter. 1t is thought
that the City Property Committee as a whole
is now disposed to listen to the very general
protest against constituting the future con-
troll of the building with an eye to political
representation.
MR.. CARNEGIE's VIEWS.
Mr.. Carnegie, who went to New York
Yesterday to rejoin his wife and obtain rest
after the events of last week, was several
times requested to give his views in regard
to the control of the building. In each in
stance he reiterated his belief in popular
management OF such an affair, and said that
he had the most implicit confidence in the
Allegheny Councils, and was convinced
that the future of the building would be
intrusted to proper hands. He expressed,
however, great satisfaction at the very
general form which public discussion had
taken, and stated to several friends that he
hoped that the various matters in connec-
tion with the Pittsburg library would come
in for the fullest and freest discussion, as
the people who have ideas on such subjects
were certainly entitled to an opportunity Of
being heard.
A gentleman who conversed with Enoch
Pratt. the venerable Baltimorean who has
the distinction of being the pioneer in the
building of free Libraries, found that Mr..
Pratt had very strong ideas upon the SUBJ
ject of control of such institutions.
HIS FIRST AIM
Mr.. Pratt stated that his first aim had
been to insure his gift a controlling COM
mittee of men active in literary pur-
suits, or with sufficient leisure and
love of such matters to be willing
to devote some daily time to the matter.
He had found that even with his library
well established and running smoothly, there
was a great responsibility existing which
could only be properly handled by men of
cultured minds. In the task of stocking
the library, Mr.. Pratt had asked for the lists
of books from the most eminent men in the
nation, and had discovered that pedantic
ideas were not always applicable to range
of literature for the masses, and of an i'm
proving character.
1t had been Mr.. Pratt's idea that books
could be indiscriminately selected from the
best catalogues, but he found that judgment
had to be very carefully exercised in separat-
ing the wheat from the chaff in literature.
PLAIN AND PRACTICAL WORKS.
From the results OF his experience, Mr..
Pratt had arrived at the conclusion that
the plain and practical, both in covers and
contents. were the first essentials in stock
ing the library. In other words, the stand
ard works which must be in every library
should be first secured, leaving art treasures,
curiosities of literature, and books of refer
ence to the last. He said that the people
needed the plainest literary food at first,
with dessert to come later in the shape of
rarer and costlier volumes; that great Judg-
ment was very often necessary in deciding
upon the most desirable editions of even the
ordinary run of books, and that duplication
of books, while necessary in branch libra
ries, was not advisable in library which is
to be, like the Allegheny institution, COM
plete under one roof.
ABOUT THE BEST BUILDING.
In conclusion, Mr.. Pratt said that no
building in the United States offered such
great possibilities as the Carnegie Free Lii
brary, and he hoped to hear of it as filling
the measure of usefulness it gave promise of
at present. The venerable gentleman pro-
fessed himself delighted with the quiet but
hearty and genial welcome accorded the
party. The above views were communicated
at length by Mr.. Pratt to Pitttsburg gen.
tleman who accompanied the Carnegie
party, and the gentleman quoted desires that
the public be apprised of the opinions en-
by the Baltimorean.
Not the same Firm.