Evening star., 1922-12-09

Carnegie were still alive and here to
know how much We appreciate his
| generosity to us. II he could only be
| here. or II the trustees Of the Car
think they would agree that whereas
! Carnegie gifts Of buildings do make
| 1t possible for some cities to have
libraries sooner than they would
| otherwise have them, yet that the Of
! fers of such gifts have their perils in
! the minds of citizens and legislators
that the entire library matter Is a
gift proposition.
Mnay Seek TO Avoid Costs.
Many people. l fancy. think that
Mr.. Carnegie or the Carnegie Cor
poration not only builds and eQuips
the library buildings-the extent OF
pay for the sites and maintain the
libraries. When such people learn
the limitations Of the Carnegie bene-
factions they are then inclined to
insist that at least the sites must
be given by citizens and they often
maintenance should also come from
gifts and endpwments.
I'm order - think clearly on this
subject 1t is necessary to go back
to the organic law enacted by Con-
.,s;s sress creating our Public Library.
OF the public educational system Of
the District" If this language means
anything. ii means that there is the
same obligation to buy proper sites
Tor branch buildings. to build the
support the libraries. all from the
public treasury. that there Is to build
and maintain the public schools.
Who ever heard the suggestion made
that we should not maintain public
schools in Washington until local
communities presented the building
sites and some rich man gave the
buildings and other rich people gave
endowments for maintenance? No
such suggestion is made with refer
ence to the schools. and it ought
never to be made In connection with
the library
First site Given.
I'm the case of our first branch
library. the site was contri ibuted by
the public-spirited citizens Of Takoma
Park. to whom all honor is due, but
that involved the building Of a branch
library in a suburb where the popu-
iation Is even yet rather small Since
that time the library trustees have
adopted a program for library devel-
opment which limits the erection Of
separate branch library buildings to
the thickly built-up portions Of the
District. OF course. library sites in
such congested areas can become
available only by purchase, and Con-
gress was induced to adopt our theory
Of the appropriateness OF purchasing
the site for this branch library from
an appropriation. thus setting
precedent for granting appropriations
for sites for all subsequent branch
library buildings.
Begins New Era.
I'VE congratulate ourselves on the
opening OF this branch library, not
only because Of the service that II
will render here. but because it be-
gins. we hope, a new era in library
purchasing sites from congressional
appropriations established, we now
expect to move forward with accel-
Grated pace. The Carnegie Corpora
ton has recently. with great generos-
ity. allotted 100000 to carry out the
next step in our program of branch
, library building-ramely. for the
erection Of a branch library in the
Mount Pleasant section. The branch
approximately 10000 people: the
branch that we hope soon to erect at
18th and Lamont streets will serve
upward Of 100000 people.
To serve this larger population we
must have a larger building than
this. requiring a larger site in a part
of the city where sites are much
public-spirited citizen has offered
a fine site at about half it's market
value. 80 that thero ought to be no
question about our getting from
Congress the appropriation Of $25. 900
required to purchase the site. This