"It cannot, in short, be better summed up than in these few words: It
civilizes the conduct of men, and suffers them not to remain
barbarians."

Recognizing this love of reading as the keynote to broader culture and a
higher standard of morals, one by one, during the last half-century,
libraries have been thrown open to the public that were before only
accessible to the scholar (and often grudgingly even to him) and new
libraries established, till, in every community, a free public library
is as much a necessity to-day as its churches or its schools.

Even in the troublous days of the Revolution our forefathers were
awaking to this demand, for in 1776 there were 29 "partially public
libraries in the colonies"; in 1800 there were 49; in 1876 the number
had increased to over 3,000; while to-day we number between 5,000 and
6,000 public libraries, comprising a total of over 20,000,000 volumes.

The influence of a public library is contingent upon many
circumstances--its community, its finances, and largely upon its
management. Possibilities which may be developed in one library, in
another remain unnoticed; while something of equal importance is made of
incalculable benefit to its own community. Thus, though working on a
general principle, each library independently works out the problem of
the greatest good to the greatest number of its own patrons. Happily,
therefore, there is no cause for the rivalry and jealousies that disturb
the harmony of so many fraternities.

It is my pleasure and privilege to live in a manufacturing community; to
watch the development of practical ideas; to follow the progress of
mechanical improvement, and witness with pride their results, for the
distinctive feature of Pawtucket is the variety of its industries.

We remember with pride our parentage and the honor due to it; but surely
when Samuel Slater, after a weary time of toil and discouragement,
perfected the first power machinery for cotton spinning in this country,
and with a pardonable pride saw it in successful operation in the first
bona fide cotton mill in the United States, which still stands in the
centre of our city--(I speak with authority though I am fully aware that
this is a case parallel to the "Seven Grecian cities striving for Homer
dead.")--When, as I said, this was accomplished in 1791, there was no
power of the imagination that could have foreseen the change from the
little mill village on the Blackstone River, with