All These Were Of Same Mind

ALL THESE WERE OF THE SAME MIND

No Dissenting Voice at Meeting of Library Club

HIGH SCHOOL SITE

Has No Friends in the Club--Gave Reasons for the Faith That Was in Them

The millennium has come apparently, for the voice of the people at Monday night's meeting of the Library club was one unanimous agreement that the Carnegie Library should not occupy the High school site. The dissenters were not present to roar, and therefore lost a grand opportunity of breaking up the placid harmony with which speech followed speech. Not that the meeting was stupid, for there were some straight-out-from-the-shoulder talks as though the opponent was there to meet the challenge. Not the first subject discussed, but the subject raised high for discussion was the pertinent one brought up by Mr. Finney as to who were the prime instigators in this library movement and it was clearly put that the Ladies' Library association considered the matter first--that they took the initiative and worked up the school board and the city until they got the sentiment sufficiently far advanced to take some action. Then the amalgamation scheme of the two libraries was submitted to and accepted by Mr. Carnegie, who made the donation on the strength of the proposition. Just how the ladies lost a voice in the matter and what authority put it into the hands of the school board, no one could definitely say, except that some of these members wrote to Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Mills received the answer.

Mrs. Finney opened what was supposed to be one side of the discussion and what proved to be the only side presented, that the library site should be chosen where it would be satisfactory for the majority and where it would do the most good, which was not on the High school grounds. As there were no nays in the audience to Mrs. Finney's sentiments, the Rev. Mr. Tatlock arose to emphasize them and give the reasons for the hope that was in him that the library should stand farther west. "First," said Mr. Tatlock, "having it placed on High school grounds associates it in the minds of the people as an integral part of the High school; they would think of it as a library for the children and stay away. The public library should be public in the largest and freest sense--it should stand separate and apart from everything else and be for the town. The second reason why it should not be on High school grounds is because it should not be filled with High school scholars. High school students would keep away the citizens," and later Mr. Finney corroborates this statement by statistics concerning the reading done in the University library, which is public and shows that 95 per cent of it is done by University students, less than 2 per cent done by the city or outsiders and between 2 and 3 per cent by the High school pupils. Westward, westward, was the cry of the rector; on the corner of Huron and Fifth or on the Morgan property. "The city is growing west, toward the second and third wards. There are the people who work, who cannot buy books for themselves--the library should reach these." The third objection was that a man who comes to the library where the High school stands has to dress up. "Mr. Carnegie's desire is to place his libraries for the benefit of the people and not to endow educational institutions and the library should be accepted and managed by looking out for the community and not for the schools. There is no rhyme nor reason in having thousands of books open for the children of the school whose reading should be selected for them. There is an attempt to hypnotize this community into the idea that if the library is not close to the school it does not serve a purpose, when, in my estimation, it will be an injury to have it there."

J. E. Beal was the next speaker on the same side of the question. Mr. Beal spoke about the small space for the building and then very tersely stated that he did not consider that the school board had any right to boom the High school or to grab money from the working man to put a building on their lot; that the board went beyond their rights and their powers in seizing upon this money.

Mr. Finney supplemented what had been said by stating that out of 400 towns and cities in the United States where Carnegie libraries were established, only four or five could be called educational towns--they were manufacturing towns. Put the books to the people who do not go to the books, was Mr. Finney's idea.

Professor Slauson stated that there were many teachers who thoroughly and honestly believed that to remove the library from the High school would be to it a serious blow. "And the situation is, will its removal overbalance the losses of the school by the benefits given to the community? If so, I believe in its removal."

A little more was added in an informal way as to the wide circulation the Ladies' Library has had, exceeding that of the free public library of Ypsilanti, while competing with the largest library in the state--the University library. Nothing definite was settled as to a site, but all men and women seemed agreed that there should be but one, and no other faction was present to dispute it.