y should do something to enlarge the
atmosphere of liberty. This is to be accomplished not by reckless and
revolutionary methods, but rather by a resolute resistance to new
encroachment and by patient and statesmanlike endeavor to remove
wherever practicable the restraints of regulation, and to give full play
over a larger area to the creative forces of liberty, for liberty is the
condition precedent to all solution of human difficulty." Surely this is
a statement of the case which must powerfully appeal to all thinking
men, and lead them to reexamine, at least, the principles on which State
support of the various institutions referred to is based.

In such a spirit, a reexamination of the argument for public support of
public libraries must be regarded as entirely germane to the objects
which the American Library Association has at heart. In such a spirit
the present paper proposes to weigh once more the principles which
underlie our American library system, and the considerations brought
forward by Mr. O'Brien in the chapter devoted to "Free libraries" in the
volume referred to.

The half-century of discussion of "socialism and socialistic
legislation" already referred to has made few things so clear as the
fact that the arguments employed on any subject--social subjects in
particular--are weakened in almost the exact ratio in which they are
allowed to be tinged by passion and excited feeling. It must therefore
be regarded as unfortunate that Mr. O'Brien's chapter suffers most
emphatically from comparison with the generally high level of calm and
unimpassioned argument, characterizing the larger portion of the book.
Whether this is to be explained on the basis of the apocryphal legal
maxim, "When you have no case, abuse your opponent," or whether Mr.
O'Brien entered the lists fresh from some too recent participation in a
personal contest over the question, we do not undertake to inquire. The
fact remains that not only do the writers of the other chapters of the
book appear from a careful reading to state their arguments more
effectively, but that the reader is also impressed with the fact that
they have a case which admits of more effective argument.

Let us glance in succession at the points which Mr. O'Brien has aimed
to make. They may be grouped in general under two heads; first, those
which relate to the injury (in Mr. O'Brien's view) inflicted on the
individual user of a free library from having it aided by pub