singularly obstinate and unresponsive to his purpose. The
truth is--Mr. O'Brien's confident assertion to the contrary--that there
is no more "universal" and non-partisan institution than a public
library. This is undoubtedly the highest among its several claims to
public support. Few among the objects to which the public funds have
been appropriated, in American cities, have met with so hearty and
unquestioning approval as the public parks, and it is right that it
should be so. Yet there are whole classes in every community who not
only never do enjoy the public parks, but never care to enjoy them. Even
the public schools are for a certain fraction of the population
only--the younger portion. In contrast with both of these, the public
library extends its resources to the children and the adults alike.
Perhaps, however, the fundamentally important question of universality,
in the sense of non-partisanship, is one which is seldom appreciated in
its full force, as applied to a public library. An independent position,
one entirely free from bias, a non-partisan attitude, in fact, is an
ideal repeatedly set before the conductors of a school or a newspaper.
In both these cases, however, there is too often an element of practical
difficulty in carrying these praiseworthy intentions into practice,
which is almost completely wanting in the case of a public library. The
policy of the latter, is, in its very essence, catholic. It places on
its shelves the volumes which represent, not one side, but both, or
rather all sides of any subject on which the sentiment of the public
divides; and thus, whether the user be Democrat or Republican,
protectionist or freetrader, Catholic or Protestant, the aspect which
this collection of books presents to him is no less free and
uncircumscribed than the illimitable aid.

Again, it is important that the relation of a public library to the
question of entertainment should be clearly understood. Entertainment is
not an element totally foreign to the purposes of a public library--the
same kind of public benefit accrues in this case as in the case of
public parks--but in the light of the infinitely more important
functions which it renders, this must of necessity occupy a subordinate
place. The primary function of a library is to render a service, to
supply a need, to respond to a demand. In this respect its value to the
community is of the same description as the postal system, the bank at
which one