The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-01
CONDUCTED BY
A LIBRARIANS REJoINDER.


New York City Board of Estimate:
'Take the Carnegie Libraries. l believe the city
put up the land and Carnegie the buildings We
spent hundreds of thousands and millions for that
work, and what does the work do in the long runi
Men go into the libraries read themselves to DEATH
and then they come out and try to upset the Gov
eminent"
Other men in office have said similar things in
other cities. Librarians everywhere confront the
opposition of politicians and public officials (who
conceive it their duty to keep everything exactly
as it isl to any illumination of the public mind that
might enable people to see that some things could
be changed without damaging body-exccpt,
possibly some men in office Not all are frank about
it, but wherever there has been set up bureau
cratic system Of administration Of public affairs,
wherever political auocracy has intrenched ITSELF
the more intelligent of its supporters realize that
they must keep the people from reading which i'm
plies thinkng-if they do not want their carefully
erected organization scrapped. So they call their
own particular pet system government, " and de-
nounce 'enemies of the Government every one
who would change it; they perfectly honest, too,
most of them in their belief that their system is the
best system possible and that there is something
reasonable in any attempt to change it. And they
are right, holding that belief, in wanting to keep
people out of the Public Library; for the library,
every library, is full of books that teach precisely
the opposite doctrine!
Bound Explosives.
It makes no difference by what party label any
particular system of government is identified it is
lmmateral whether it be called an autocracy a
limited monarchy, republic an empire; every
public-and private-library is a veritable NUM-
lions dump of hgh-explosive shells with which the
whole system may be blown up whenever enough
people interested in doing so to make their
desire effective. There is more dynamite in books
than du Pont made; all literature is filled
with the stuff that overthrows empires. The Caliph
Omar knew what he about when he ordered the
library at Alexandria burned; he was laying the
foundations of Mohammedan rule and it would
have interfered with his plans if any one had been
able to quote the chapter and verse that sanctioned
revolt against what he doubtless would have termed
constituted authority"
There were plenty of books of that sort in the
Alexandria library, just as there are lots of them
in the libraries to-day Every part of the United
States has recently reported an active circulation
of Woodrow Wilson's New Freedon,-but of
course, Mr.. Bowling not referring to the writ
ings of the leader of the political party to which he
himself belongs. Nor did he have in mind pre-
sumably, the masterpiece of the founder of that
party, to be found in every library and known as
the Declaration of Independence.
Mark Twain's Opinion.
What public men Of one school are afraid of is
not such ancient statements Of fundamental truths
but books that delude readers into the belief that
these truths still hold good and these ancient prin
ciples are susceptible of present-day application.
Imagine the havoc that might follow the general
circulation of Mark Twains works, for example,
which contain such reasonable dcta as his indorse-
ment of the Connecticut Constitution. Why, in
Connecticut Yankee in Hing Arthur's Court the
author declares that "the citizen who thinks that
the commonwealth political clothes are worn out
and yet holds bis peace and does not agtate for a
new suit is dsloyal he is a traitor That he NAV
be the only one who thinks he sees this decay does
not excuse him; it is his duty to agtate anyway,
and it is the duty of the others to vote him down if