blic library--the amount which the city can afford for this purpose
should be carefully considered in connection with its needs for a pure
water supply and good sewage disposal, for means of communication, for
the care of the sick poor and for public schools. Each case must be
judged by itself; the only general rule I have to suggest is that in the
department of education the claims of the public library for support are
more important than those of municipal college or high school. The
people who have no taxable property, and who therefore often erroneously
suppose that they contribute nothing toward the payment of the taxes,
are usually quite willing to have a higher tax rate imposed for the
purpose of securing for themselves and their families free library
facilities--although in exceptional cases religious or sociological
opinions may lead them to oppose it.

A considerable number of taxpayers on the other hand, are more or less
reluctant to have their assessments increased for this purpose, and
their arguments should be considered and met. They are:

1. That they should not be taxed for things they do not want and never
use.

2. That furnishing free books tends to pauperize the community and to
discourage the purchase of books for home use.

3. That there is no evidence that free public libraries improve the
community materially or morally.

4. That the greater part of the books used are works of fiction and that
these are injurious to the readers.

5. That most of the arguments used in favor of free public libraries are
merely sentimental and emotional.

The first of these reasons would apply also to taxes for public schools,
street paving, sewerage, and many other items of municipal expenditure
and has no weight.

With regard to the second argument it is not a sufficient reply to say
that every one pays through the taxes, for this would apply equally well
to free lodging houses, free lunchrooms and soup kitchens, free fuel,
etc., all of which it generally believed tend to pauperize a city,
except in great and special emergencies. The proper answer is that the
free public library is an important and, indeed, necessary part of the
system of free education which is required to secure intelligent
citizens in our form of popular government, and that while in a few very
exceptional cases free schools and free libraries may tend to
improvidence or indolence or even to certain forms of crime, these rare
cases ar