I beg you to notice the difference in the reaction of the library to this war and that of the public school as indicative of the difference between formal educative processes, as we carry them on, and the self-education of the community.  I have emphasized the freedom of the library from bias.  The school is necessarily biassed—­perhaps properly so.  You remember the story of the candidate for a district school who, when asked by an examining committee-man whether the earth was round or flat, replied, “Well, some says one and some t’other.  I teach either round or flat, as the parents wish.”

Now, there are books that maintain the flatness of the earth, and they properly find a place on the shelves of large public libraries.  Those who wish to compare the arguments pro and con are at liberty to do so.  Even in such a res adjudicata as this the library takes no sides.  But in spite of the obliging school candidate, the school cannot proceed in this way.  The teaching of the child must be definite.  And there are other subjects, historical ones for instance, in which the school’s attitude may be determined by its location, its environment, its management.  When it is a public school and its controlling authority is really trying to give impartial instruction there are some subjects that must simply be skipped, leaving them to be covered by post-scholastic community education.  This is the school’s limitation.  Only the policy of caution is very apt to be carried too far.  Thus we find that in the school the immense educational drive of the European War has not been utilized as it has in the community at large.  In some places the school authorities have erected a barrier against it.  So far as they are concerned the war has been non-existent.  This difference between the library and the school appears in such reports as the following from a branch librarian: 

“Throughout the autumn and most of the winter we found it absolutely impossible to supply the demand for books about the war.  Everything we had on the subject or akin to it—­books, magazines, pamphlets—­were in constant use.  Books of travel and history about the warring countries became popular—­things that for years had been used but rarely became suddenly vitally interesting.

“I have been greatly interested by the fact that the high school boys and girls never ask for anything about the war.  Not once during the winter have I seen in one of them a spark of interest in the subject.  It seems so strange that it should be necessary to keep them officially ignorant of this great war because the grandfather of one spoke French and of another German.”

Another librarian says: 

“The war again has naturally stimulated an interest in maps.  With every turn in military affairs, new ones are issued and added to our collection.  These maps, as received, have been exhibited for short periods upon screens and they have never lacked an appreciative line of spectators, representing all nationalities.”