of an endowed university may view with equanimity an attack by one of its professors on the methods by which he amassed his wealth.  All these things may be; we know in fact that they have been and that they are.  But unfortunately we all know of cases where the effect of outside control has been quite the contrary.  The government of a benevolent despot, we are told, would be ideal; but alas! rules for making a despot benevolent and for ensuring that he and his successors shall remain so, are not yet formulated.  We have fallen back on the plan of fighting off the despot—­good though he may possibly be; would that we could also abolish the non-civic control of the disseminators of ideas!

Are there, then, no disseminators of ideas free from interference?  Yes, thank heaven, there are at least two—­the public school and the public library.  Of these, the value of academic freedom to the public school is slight, because the training of the very young is of its nature subject little to the influences of which we have spoken.  There is little opportunity, during a grammar school or high school course, to influence the mind in favor of particular government policies and particular theories in science or literature or art.  This opportunity comes later.  And it is later that the public library does its best work.  Supported by the public it has no impulse and no desire to please anyone else.  No suspicion of outside control hangs over it.  It receives gifts; but they are gifts to the public, held by the public, not by outsiders.  It is tax-supported, and the public pays cost price for what it gets—­no more and no less.  The community has the power of abolishing the whole system in the twinkling of an eye.  The library’s power in an American municipality lies in the affections of those who use and profit by it.  It holds its position by love.  No publisher may say to it:  “Buy my books, not those of my rival”; no scientist may forbid it to give his opponent a hearing; no religious body may dictate to it; no commercial influence may throw a blight over it.  It is untrammeled.

How long is it to remain thus?  That is for its owners, the public, to say.  I confess that I feel uneasy when I realize how little the influence of the public library is understood by those who might try to wield that influence, either for good or for evil.  Occasionally an individual tries to use it sporadically—­the poet who tries to secure undying fame by distributing free copies of his verses to the libraries, the manufacturer who gives us an advertisement of his product in the guise of a book, the enthusiast who runs over our shelf list to see whether the library is well stocked with works on his fad—­socialism or Swedenborgianism, or the “new thought.”  But, so far, there has been no concerted, systematic effort on the part of classes or bodies of men to capture the public library, to dictate its policy, to utilize its great opportunities for influencing the public mind.  When this ever comes, as it may, we must look out!