The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1898-10-27
OUR PUBLIC LIBRARY
CITY COUNCIL WILL BE ASKED TO
LEVY A TAX FOR ITS BENEFIT.
GREAT BENEFIT TO THE CITY.
1t Should be Encouraged and Given Proper
Support by both Council and City
One Mill Tax asked for
From the Council,

The Public Library of Kenosha is
about to ask aid from the city and
unless the aldermen of the city can
make some arrangements for it's support
in the near future one of the best insti
buttons in the city will be forced to be
closed up for want of funds. The funds
which have been used for it's mainten
ance thus far have been wholly from
private sources and as the library is as
much public institution as the public
graded schools it should surely receive
some aid from the city. No institution
ever opened in Xenosha has been of
greater benefit to the moral and intel
lectual training of both Young and old
than the public library 1t has ever
been popular institution and as such
the people have made almost constant
use of it but few have contributed
anything towards it's support. Since
the opening of the library over ]4OC
cards have been issued but of all this
number. less than 400 have contributed
a single cent to it's support. George A.
Yule and Edward Balm have each been
very liberal in their support and have
each contributed $500 for the library's
support. With the benevOlence of
these men as an example the directors
of the library hoped to easily support
the institution by popular subscription
but their labors proved failure as only
$50 could be secured in this manner.
And indeed Mr.. Yule offered to dupli-
cate his gift to the library if the direc-
tors could raise similar sum from the
patrons of the institution. This again
proved failure and the directors have
concluded that it is impossible to
support library in this manner. The
magnificent gifts of Mr.. Balm and Mr..
Yule have nearly all been consumed in
the support of the library during the
past few years and now some help must
come from other sources. This the
board of directors'seeks to obtain from
the city council and they propose to
ask that the council provide for the
assessment of a one mill tax for the
library's support. The city council
have a perfect right to add such tax
as the laws passed by the last session
provide especially for such cases.
Unless some such help can be secured
the library will have to be closed up
and the people would certainly be
unwilling for such thing to take place.
The library has stimulated in the minds
of Kenosha young people love for
good literature and during the few.
years it has been of inestimable value.
= In her annual report made the latter
part ofJanuary Mrs. Barnes, the present
librarian, says: !
A public library should be largely
an educational institution and it is
upon that basis that we have tried to
cooperate with the work of the public
schools, the literary societies and clubs
and individual patrons of the library.
During the past year the results of this
effort have been very satisfactory, in
the greatly increased usefulness of the
library and will act as an added slim
illus to efforts in the future. No
statistics have been kept of the number
of reference books in use as access to
to the shelves prevents an exact record
but growth in this line of usefulness is
unmistakable.
This is the aim of the library, and
with over 400 members using an
aggregate of over 10000 books year
it is but right and just that the city
should take this we'll deserving insti-
tuition under it's parental care, and see
that some arrangement is made for it's
proper maintenance.
MISS HTNSDALE SAFE