must see to it that, though there may be counterfeit and
worthless money in the vaults, the cashier or librarian must pay over
the counter for general circulation such only as will maintain the
institution's standard of credit and confidence in the community. The
gold basis must be maintained, and no "wild-cat" bills pass out through
the window.

It grows increasingly evident that very few libraries in the world can
indulge in the luxury or licence of buying all books written. The
ambition to supply any man with any work he calls for must therefore be
held in check. Thus it becomes increasingly important that much care and
deliberation be exercised in the choice of books to be bought, whether
to complete deficient departments or for the daily circulation. The
purchase of poor books makes a market for poor authorship. Hereafter,
less than ever should libraries be the dumping place for indiscreet
publishers, for questionable or incompetent authors. The public library
exists for civilization, that is, for moral ends. It is the record and
history of civilization, as well as the ally of progress. It is the
"friend and helper of all those who seek to live in the spirit." For
this reason, therefore, the character of the books in a library is of
more importance than mere numbers; and the value of a library to the
community may be imperfectly shown by the statistics of circulation. No
aim can be higher, however, than having a good library, to make its
resources known, and to multiply readers in the remotest and obscurest
parts of our towns and cities.

Trustees of Free Public Libraries

In introducing this topic, Mr. C.C. Soule, who spoke as a
trustee of the Brookline Public Library, said that he had
found little or nothing about it in existing library
literature, and that his paper had been shown to a
considerable number of both trustees and librarians and
modified in accordance with their views. His analysis of the
subject is somewhat closer than President Learned's.

Charles Carroll Soule was born in Boston June 25, 1842 and
graduated at Harvard in 1862. After serving in the Civil
War, which he left as a captain of Massachusetts volunteers
he became a publisher and after 1889 was president of the
Boston Book Co. He was an active member of the American
Library Association. He died at his home in Brookline, Jan.
7, 1913

This paper considers the constitution