Library Association at its election less than a month ago, you might have been spared this infliction and I some natural embarrassment at the situation in which I find myself. Three weeks ago, in general conference assembled, Dr. James K. Hosmer, librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library, was elected president, and Dr. James H. Canfield, librarian of Columbia University Library, and president of that department of the National Educational Association which I now address, was elected first vice-president. Surely my services as official representative cannot be sorely needed under such circumstances; but I had in good faith engaged to act, and here I am in good faith acting.

I bring you greeting, joyous, earnest, and real. It is no empty word I bring. Spontaneity is the keynote, and its harmony with that same tonic of all that is best in our educational world is perfect and complete.

Three weeks ago, in Boston, and at that beautiful spot beside the sea named for its choicest plant, Magnolia, were gathered a thousand earnest men and women. They are the patrons, I fear it might almost be said the devotees, of the printed book. Their cry was, educate, educate, educate! And their query was, how, how, how? Today are gathered here, shall I say, eight thousand earnest men and women, and as their united voices reach my ear I hear them intone the same cry: Educate, educate, educate! followed by the same earnest query: How, how, how? To the voice of this throng I would fain join mine. But when the cry has sounded and resounded, followed by its persistent query, I would add another question: Why, why, why are we not working together? Is not our quest the same? Are we not seeking the same light? Why do we stagger on alone? Why do we not join hands to support each the other?

Would that I might answer this last query in a straightforward manner, without offense; but that may not be. The utmost that I can hope to do is to suggest one or two possible causes for the slowness in growth of this co-operation between teacher and librarian, a joining of forces and of interests which, on the face of things, is so much to be desired. We know that each is busy with the details and small perplexities of his own particular office. Let me submit that a prime fault is that he is overbusy with these and fails to look about him, thus breeding an insularity that reminds one of Lowell's characterization of a certain condescension in foreigners.

It must not be forgotten that truth is many-sided. It is well sometimes to establish one's seat so close to truth itself that the human eye can see but one of its infinitude of faces; but it must be remembered that, before the whole of truth can be seen, the human soul must recede as facet after facet comes into view until the magic of infinity is reached, the sign is changed, and new glories greet the eye on the other side.

We are too prone, you and I, too prone to be so bound up in our

callings that we overlook the others, that we forget there are many other callings as important as our own, and that some of them are of quite as great force educationally and for the betterment of the world as ours. But, as I conceive it, there are not many that might be united to better advantage than ours. And now why does not this union come about more rapidly? Let me say-not in the way of fault finding or recrimination or reproach, but merely as pointing out-that it is more your fault than ours that our union is not closer. The organization of your institution is much older, more complete, and powerful than is that of ours. Indeed, while it is correct to say that the public school is an organized educational force, it is not correct to make the same statement concerning the public library. It is not organized at all as an educational force, except by that voluntary association which is so great a thing indeed; but it is not sufficient. We now have before us the curious sight of two great educational movements in action. Yours, the stronger, serves directly the individual thru a small number of years. Ours, the weaker, serves directly the individual thru almost the whole of his life period. The weaker stands facing the stronger at this moment with outstretched hands and ready will. The stronger looks impassively on. If this seems abstract to you, let me cite a concrete instance: There are many departments in the National Educational Association, and among them is one called the "Library Department." There are librarians not engaged in the profession of teaching who attend its sessions and transact much of its business. There are many sections in the American Library Association. These sections are to the American Library Association what the departments are to the National Educational Association, but among them no teachers' section is to be found. And in my experience as a member of the American Library Association I do not remember to have met at its meetings any teachers who were not engaged in library work professionally. By what initiative was the Library Department of the National Educational Association inaugurated; by that of teachers or of librarians? If a teachers' section of the American Library Association comes into existence, by whose activities will it be created; that of teachers or of librarians? And if it does not come into existence, why not?

In a state which shall not be named, but which has a large and elaborately organized teachers' association, and also a smaller and perhaps less elaborately organized library association, an attempt was made some years ago to organize a library section in the teachers' association. I cannot and do not wish to recount the circumstances. It will be sufficient to say that the attempt all but failed because of the insistence by the larger association that the smaller should sink and lose its identity in the formation of a section of the larger. The section was formed, but it has never yet drawn the breath of life.

These are melancholy things. I do not like to say them, and do not

say them because of any liking or disliking, but because I believe they ought to be said—and said to you.

In a brief talk with Dr. G. Stanley Hall, at the meeting of the Department of Superintendence in Chicago last winter, in reply to my question about the possibility of a closer organic relation between schools and libraries, he stated it as his opinion that such a relation ought to exist, but that no one yet seemed to have suggested an effective plan. But a plan seems lying already at hand waiting to be used. The school has a well-developed organization thru its central bureaus, beginning with the bureau of education at the seat of federal government and extending down to the community thru these successive steps: the state superintendent of public instruction, the county superintendent, the township trustee, the district school-teacher. These are linked together, forming a fairly compact organization. Now the public library is following the same historic road in its development, and the signs are already clear in the sky heralding the approach of the first two of these central bureaus. Are we-you and I. -to sleep the time away and let these two educational forces parallel each other with separate organizations for the same purpose, or shall we join hands and stand together?

The people are ready and waiting for these economic combinations in the educational world as well as in the realm of commerce.

Consider for a moment the clumsy processes thru which we must go to produce a printed page from the spoken words. Think for a moment of the strength which has been expended in this Association in the hope that a simplified English spelling may be secured; and then remember that only a single short step remains to be taken by some patient mechanical genius, and with a little time all this difficulty melts away like the mist of early dawn. Let me make more clear what I mean. We have now certain symbols by which is translated to the eye the thought that is translated to the ear by the spoken word. We have now machines in plenty by which the spoken word is received, translated into, and recorded in symbols natural to it, but to which our eyes are unaccustomed. There remains but a single step, namely, to discover the selective principle whereby the one symbol is mechanically translated into the other symbol and the problem is solved. When this mechanical step has been taken, as it will be, the writer may sit at his desk and dictate his thought to the machine-not a human machine—at his side, and behold it faithfully reproduce in type his blunders as well as his accuracies. Then, and not till then, will our spelling become simplified and our speech no longer slovenly.

If this great change may be wrought by one so short step in the mechanical world, what may be wrought in the educational world by the longer steps that lie squarely before us in our pathway? The world is waiting, waiting. Shall we doze the time away? Or shall we join hands and take the forward steps together?

DISCUSSION

REUBEN POST HALLECK. It has seemed to me that most teachers, in their anxiety to master the details of definite subjects, have overlooked the life which might be imparted to their instruction by the literature of these subjects, and it is almost an indisputable fact that many otherwise good teachers are woefully lacking in their knowledge of books in general, and particularly those which may be called the great books, and even the great characters of history and literature are unknown to teachers who would be helped by a closer acquaintance with them. There is a great need for more information on the part of the teachers about great people and great books.

J. I. WYER, Jr.—Librarians have early recognized the trend away from restrictions in libraries. Age limits, guarantors, strict rules, and many other restrictions tending to keep children at a distance from libraries, are in many cases abolished. The greatest stress is now laid on making easier of access to pupils the books in the library relating to their work.

O. H. BAKELESS. - In my experience with libraries it seems to me that of all the people who come to the public library the most to be dreaded are the teachers. They have a secret contempt for the librarian, and this contempt is expressed in such ways as to make the teacher a dread to the librarian.

A. H. HOPKINS. It is easy to find some schools and some libraries to which sharp criticisms may be applied, but we must beware of drawing too hasty conclusions from single instances. To be sure, such criticism may perhaps be profitably indulged in here, but it is after all not the kind of thing we are striving after. The thing that gives you your effective working force is your effective organization, and it is that same thing we are seeking. You are so much stronger than we that you should be helpful to us.

WHAT THE SCHOOL MAY PROPERLY DEMAND
OF THE LIBRARY

J. M. GREENWOOD, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, KANSAS CITY, MO. This is a thorny subject, that needs to be handled with circumspection. "Demand" is an arrogant word, and implies a threat, supported by a display of violence or force in such an amount as to compel acquiescence, provoke a combat, or to bring about a state of haughty, but dignified, silence. For the sake of perspicuity, as well as fair dealing to both parties involved in this connection, the proposition will also be so stated that it faces both ways, namely, what the school may properly demand of the library, and what the library may properly demand of the school.

It is a law of the more advanced mathamatical sciences that when one variable depends upon another variable, so that any change in the one produces a corresponding change in the other, they are said to be functionally related, or that one of these variables is a function of the other. Under a contrary supposition of absolute independence, each variable, whether human or mathematical, must be treated as unrelated to another so far as this special investigation is concerned. Granting this assump

tion, it is the province of this paper to point out, in a rough sort of way, what kind of functional relations ought to subsist between these two inde

pendent variables-the librarian and the school-teacher-to emphasize this relationship and to suggest a tentative working basis. The writer fully appreciates the magnitude and the difficulty of the task, and he recognizes that a layman should speak cautiously upon a subject that has been so generally evaded in discussions hitherto. Under such strained relations, it may be assumed that neither interested party will be anxious to reveal critically and in a cold-blooded fashion the poverty of his own mind in the presence of the other, whom he may regard with a degree of suspicion. This assertion is based solely upon the belief that when each is working behind cover, and not in the open, and endeavoring to conceal rather than to reveal defects, it is diffcult to get at the facts. Such being the case, there are two alternatives: that of abstention or a frank conversation covering the situation. The latter method of procedure with reasonable people will usually result in a satisfactory agreement. Progress cannot be assured to the pupils unless the teacher and the librarian work harmoniously at every point along the line. Slipping cogs in the mental machinery of either is hazardous, jerky, unsatisfactory. If the ideas of the librarian and of the teacher be concurrent as to what boys and girls should read, or if their ideas should run in the same general direction, without considering by whom they were first set in motion, it greatly simplifies the situation, facilitates the work, and would. probably require only a few preliminary observations to dispose of the subject. Unfortunately such is not the case, and it does not appear, judging from present indications, that these functionaries as distinct classes. will come to a hearty agreement at an early date. Too often each appears to be officially supersensitive of his own worth, importance, and dignity for the benefit of the children. The writer believes that each ought to take his readings from the same mental level and read forward and backward.

To get a better idea how these states of mind have been produced, let us get back into the intellectual workshops of these purveyors of public intelligence, and examine the motives of each, and determine. whether it be possible to find a common ground upon which they may stand so that their thoughts will flow in the same channel and that they may work for the accomplishment of the same object. It is conscientiously believed by a large number of librarians that only a few teachers are well read, and consequently that a very large majority read little that is useful or stimulating. On the other hand many teachers feel that librarians are a pedantic, captious, fault-finding clique, who take special delight in pointing out how little teachers really know, and in exaggerating their eccentricities, and judging them as a class by a few erratic teaching freaks.

There is some truth and much error in both positions. It is a lamentable fact, however, that a vast majority of teachers do not continue to improve in knowledge after leaving school, and few keep fully