Superintendent, with the approval of the Governor, at a cost not exceeding thirty cents per volume, to be paid out of the School Library Fund.

"The precise manner in which the books shall be purchased and distributed, except that they shall be purchased" by public authority," and "distributed in some just proportion among the towns and cities of the State," is not specified in the act. As the means for the first purchase, can not, from the terms of the law, be collected and ready for use until next Spring, it was thought best not to encumber the act with details, which might have embarrassed and endangered its passage. These details, providing for the selection and purchase of the books, their distribution, and regulations for the management of the Libraries, will be carefully considered by Hon. HENRY Barnard, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Prof. J. L. PICKARD of the Platteville Academy, who have been appointed by the Legislature to make such revision of the School Laws of the State as they may think necessary, and report the same to the Governor in season to be by him submitted to the next Legislature for its consideration. It need only be said in this connection, that every precaution will be taken to guard the interests of the State, and prevent, by every restriction of law, the possibility of swindling or cheating in the contract for the books-for upon the faithful investment of this sacred fund will much of the popularity and usefulness of this law depend.

"There never was a measure involving new and additional taxation, that ever passed the Legislature with such unanimity. The State Superintendent's Report, which strongly urged the Town Library system, was not laid before the Legislature until three weeks before its adjournment; Mr. BARNARD, who had been confidently expected here, and whose personal efforts and experience were greatly counted on in aid of the measure, was detained in Connecticut by severe illness; and the Library law was not introduced until within eight working days of the close of the session, and notwithstanding all these untoward circumstances, this measure-a tax measure, too, in these stringent times-passed both Houses most triumphantly, by a vote of 19 to 3 in the Senate, and 51 to 10 in the Assembly; or in the aggregate, by a vote of 70 to 13. I have no doubt that the men who supported this noble and beneficent measure, will long be remembered with honor and gratitude by an intelligent and appreciating people.

This School Library Fund will amount to at least $35,000 annually, and will gradually increase in proportion to the increase of the School Fund Income, and the increase of the taxable property of the State. There will be something like $18,000

a year from the School Fund Income; and one tenth of a mill tax on the dollar valuation, on $175,000,000 of taxable property in the State, as equalized last year, would realize $17,500,-if the taxable property should be equalized, as it may be, at two hundred millions, then the income from this special Library tax would amount to $20,000 annually. I should conclude, that the Library Fund will reach not less than $40,000 a year within the next three years. But estimating it at $35,000, it would give on an average, to each of the 650 towns and cities of the State $53 per year in books at wholesale rates; and deducting the probable pro rata for the cities and villages, there would be about $40, upon an average, to each of the rural towns. Estimating the present population of the State at 850,000, and dividing it by the number of towns and cities, we should have an average of 1,333 persons for each town and city; and $40 or $50 per year in books for this number would appear but a very moderate investment. This amount, though small, will nevertheless afford a respectable beginning for a Town School Library, when we take into consideration that a similar amount will be added annually thereafter.

"A single volume may serve as many as twenty-six persons a year, each having its use two weeks. Many School Libraries have reported twelve times the number of books loaned annually that were in the Library-each volume, upon an average, having been taken out once a month during the entire year. In the reports of the Town Libraries of Indiana, occur such expressions as the following, which will not be lost on the public mind: "Nearly all the books have been drawn out as many as twenty-five times, many of them oftener, and quite a number of the books are not permitted to remain in the Library an hour before they are withdrawn." Says another: "Our Library is doing more good than anything that has ever been done by the Legislature of this State. Great interest is manifested in it here.”

"I may state as the result of ten years' experience of the District Library system in Wisconsin, that only about one third of the districts have any libraries at all, and those generally so small as scarcely to deserve the name,-averaging less than 28 volumes each,-and hence have utterly failed to fulfill the great mission of School Libraries. That what few books. have thus been collected have been procured, at high prices, of book pedlars, and have but too generally related to Banditti and Robbers, the Pirate's Own Book, and other trashy and injurious works, which could only incite in the minds of children a desire themselves to become desperadoes.

"Had we continued the District Library plan in our State, and continued to leave the districts to procure a Library or not, as they might elect, so long would the Library system of Wisconsin, it seems to me, have proved a signal failure; but with the Town Library plan, as is in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, the State providing the Libraries for each town according to some just system of distribution, carefully selecting books suitable to meet the tastes and wants of all classes of community, replenishing them annually, so as to keep each collection fresh and attractive, we shall have, in each Library, several times the number and variety of books that any District plan could ever possess. For instance, suppose each of a dozen districts in a town was to have ten volumes for a new Library, or for replenishing an old one-the same ten volumes that would be best and cheapest for one, would be best and cheapest for all; so that in all the twelve districts there would be, in truth, but ten different works; while upon the Township plan there would be a hundred and twenty different works for the same money. Any one can readily see how much more attractive the larger number would be to both youth and adults; how many more tastes would be gratified, and how much more knowledge would necessarily be diffused among the people. The same amount of money expended on the District plan would, by a judicious State system, purchase fully one-third more volumes, besides securing a vastly better selection, and having the advantage of a uniform and far more permanent style of binding. According to the old District plan, we should always have had small and almost worthless Libraries; by the Township system, we shall soon have large, attractive, and invaluable collections; and instead of only about one-third of the State, as is now the case, having a few ill-chosen volumes, every town in Wisconsin will, by the new system, soon have its solid Library of the choicest works to gladden the young minds of our two hundred and sixty-four thousand children, and furnish mental food for our other six hundred thousand people.

"I presume that provision will be made, that should the citizens of any town deem proper, they may sub-divide their Town Library into two or three sections, and have them placed in as many convenient localities for six months or a year, and then interchange these sections with the other localities, and so in due time, the several sections or sub-divisions of the Library would be placed within the convenient reach of every part of the town, thus subserving nearly every facility of the District Library, with the most decided superadded advantages.

"As an instance illustrative of the strong feeling of attachment with which the Township Libraries are regarded where they have been established and tested, and how cheeerfully the expense is borne by the people, I cite the following from an excellent address by Prof. READ of our State University: "I will give the substance of a conversation which I had during my recent visit to Indiana, while in the Auditor's Office, examining the most beautiful series of books-the Indiana School Library. A farmer from the remotest township of the county came in. After a little, I said to him, 'GENTRY, you are heavily taxed here in Indiana; I have been running away to Wisconsin, where they have no old dead horses in the form of canals to pay for, and no interest to pay on bonds which our sharp-sighted Indiana Commissioners were cheated out of.'— 'Well,' said he, we are heavily taxed, and this year, with cur short crops and hard prices, it is as much as we can do in our neighborhood to pay our taxes.' 'But,' I said to him, 'it will be the policy of this Legislature to diminish taxation.' He said in all mercy he hoped so.' They will begin upon your extravagant school system. Now look at these books-what is the use of them? Do they do a particle of good?' 'Let them,' said he, 'cut off what else they please let them even cut off the whole school tax beside, but the books we must have.' He then told me that the books had done his neighborhood more good, and had produced a greater change in the habits of families, than any other means of improvement which had ever been brought to bear upon the people."

"And so it will be in Wisconsin. The people will never grumble at the School Library tax, if the money is only wisely expended. The tax will be light-one cent on every one hundred dollars, or twenty-five cents on every two thousand five hundred dollars of taxable property. Taxes,' remarked that far-seeing statesman, EDMUND BURKE, taxes for education are like vapors, which rise only to descend again to beautify and fertilize the earth.'

"Such was the interest of HORACE MANN in the subject, when requested to give an expression as to the value of Town School Libraries for Wisconsin, that though ill, he said he must write a word of good cheer, as he held the plan to be worth many more times than his life. GEORGE B. EMERSON, a veteran and distinguished educator of New England, with the zeal of a true philanthropist, urged upon our Legislature the speedy adoption of such a system. 'I congratulate you and the State,' writes HENRY BARNARD, 'that your Legislature has enabled you to inaugurate a true Library policy-altogether in advance, in its practical bearings and completeness, in

time, of anything yet attempted.' It is, indeed, an advance upon the efforts of our sister States, all things considered; for, taking the three States which have adopted the Township system, Wisconsin will raise more money, by nearly one-quarter, than Michigan, besides having the advantage of the State purchasing the books instead of the Township Boards, as is done in Michigan; it is in advance of Ohio, whose Library Fund is provided by imposing the tenth of a mill tax, while ours is raised by the tenth of a mill tax, and one-tenth of the School Fund Income; and it is in advance of Indiana, not in the amount of tax raised, but in the permanency of the system, for in Indiana the Library Law is enacted to be in force only two years, and then has to pass the ordeal of securing a two years' renewal, and thus is subjected to the danger of overthrow by the caprice of the people, or through the mismanagement of those having it in charge. Our Wisconsin Library Law is in advance of all others in providing a copy of all State Laws, Journals and Documents, substantially bound, for each School Library.

"It is a noble and beneficent law; and will yet be regarded, when fully known, and its benefits begin to be realized, as the most important educational measure ever inaugurated in Wisconsin. I confess to cherishing no ordinary feelings of hope and pleasure in view of the unspeakable good that must inevitably result from a judicious expenditure, every twenty-five years, of fully one million of dollars for books to scatter among our people-procuring not less than a million and a quarter of volumes of the choicest literature of the age; and I envy not the man who cannot partake of this feeling of hope and joy, in view of the prospective progress and happiness of

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his race.

As nothing has been done by the Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to revise the School Laws, of course the additional provisions necessary to the proper carrying out of the new Library Law have not been jointly considered by them. I have, however, had considerable interchange of views with Chancellor BARNARD upon the subject, in a general way; and in these, I believe, we coincide. As this Library Law is justly regarded by all friends of education, in and out of the State, as a decided step in advance of all our sister States, and as unquestionably the most important educational measure ever adopted in Wisconsin, I feel an unusual anxiety that so beneficent a measure should be carried into effect under the most favorable auspices.

1. Who should select and contract for the books? I said to many members of the last Legislature, to Chancellor BAR