on of many volumes of trash and of profligacy.

2. Lack of care as to the distribution and return of the books,
resulting in their rapid dispersion and disappearance.

3. Lack of care in the preservation of the books that were not strayed
and stolen, resulting in their rapid deterioration.

You have got to apply business principles to the handling of books, as
well as of any other material possessions. Libraries as well as sawmills
need to be dealt with according to common-sense and with efficiency. Now
upon the general failure of these libraries, let me quote for you a
little testimony. The superintendent of schools in New York State, in
1875, says: "The system has not worked well in this state.... The
libraries have fallen into disuse, and have become practically
valueless." [1 Pub. lib. of U.S., i. 41.]

The superintendent for 1861 says that in "nearly every quarter of the
state," the libraries are "almost totally unused and rapidly
deteriorating." [2 Pub. Lib. of U.S. i. 40.] For 1862, the
superintendent gives a more detailed picture of the condition of the
school libraries. He finds them "mainly represented by a motley
collection of books, ranging from 'Headley's sacred mountains' to the
'Pirate's own book,' numbering in the aggregate a million and a half of
volumes, scattered among the various families, constituting a part of
the family library, or serving as toys for children in the nursery; ...
crowded into cupboards, thrown into cellars, stowed away in lofts,
exposed to the action of water, the sun, and of fire, or more frequently
locked away into darkness unrelieved and silence unbroken." [2 Pub. Lib.
of U.S. i. 40.]

This graphic picture of the failure of the system in New York is perhaps
matched by a similar picture of its failure in Michigan, as drawn by our
superintendent of education in 1869:

"The books were distributed to the districts by the town clerk to be
returned by the directors every third month for exchange. This would now
require more than 60,000 miles' travel per annum, at a positive expense
to the directors, certainly, of $100,000, to say nothing of more than
10,000 days' time. This was like putting two locomotives ahead of each
other to draw a hand-car. The result was the books were generally hidden
away in the clerks' offices, like monks in their cloister, and valueless
to the world. And what kind of books were they? Some good ones,
doubtless; but generally it was better to sow oats i