o the exposition
Directors for a separate library building:

"The library, besides being the most efficient and most
economical agency for popular education, represents all the
fair will have to show. It stands for the sum total of human
knowledge. It is the instrumentality through which knowledge
has been conserved and cumulated. Only through the library
can civilization continue to advance.... Books are the most
potent factors in progress. Without books we should have had
no powerful locomotives to show, no wireless telegraphy, no
wonder-making machinery, no beautiful buildings, no
impressive statuary, no paintings to arouse wonder and yield
delight--no World's Fair to draw distinguished scientists
and educators from all over the world."

By way of introduction to the comprehensive addresses of the two
distinguished delegates who have travelled four or five thousand miles
to lay before this Section, and, through publication, before the world,
the past history and the present problems of the library, it has seemed
to me appropriate that, as chairman, I should present a brief plea for
the consideration of the library as one of the greatest factors in human
progress. It has existed, though not in its present form or with its
present functions, from the dawn of recorded civilization. It is itself
the record of civilization; and without it there can be no records and
no civilization. It is the repository, the custodian, the preserver of
all the arts and sciences and the principal means of disseminating all
knowledge. With the school and the church it forms the tripod necessary
to the stable equilibrium of society. Let me briefly summarize the
functions of the public library.

1. It doubles the value of the public school instruction, on which is
expended more than ten times the cost of the library.

2. It enables the children who leave school at an early age (an
overwhelming majority) to continue their education while earning their
living. It provides for the education of the adults who have lacked or
failed to utilize early opportunities. This is of special importance in
a country like the United States, where one of the greatest political
problems is the assimilation of a vast influx of ignorant foreigners of
all races and languages.

3. It supplies books and periodicals needed for the instruction of
artisans, mechanics, manufacturers, engineers, and all others whose w