Are our libraries helping to make better citizens of those from over-seas? Is the modern city library engaging in activities outside its proper sphere, e. g., lectures, storytelling, art exhibits, victrola concerts, loan of pianola rolls, etc.? Is the library doing as much as it might to be a true university to the people? What do you consider the most valuable accomplishment of the public library movement in the past decade? Need librarians apologize for circulating a large percentage of contemporary fiction? * * * * * New York, April 7, 1913. Dear Mr. President: You ask "what do you consider the most valuable accomplishment of the public library movement in the past decade?" * * * * * Answer-- The spread of the truth that the public library, free to all the people, gives nothing for nothing; that the reader must himself climb the ladder and in climbing gain knowledge how to live this life well. ANDREW CARNEGIE. * * * * * My father[1] has asked me to write to you in reply to your letter concerning the conference of the American Library Association to be held in Kaaterskill, N. Y. Neither my father nor I have any chance to see in any detail what our public libraries are doing to make life more abundant. One little incident, however, has come within my experience. The New York Public Library sends its discarded books to various hospitals and camps instead of destroying them. I have been able to get some of these discarded books for use in a Boys' Club here in Cornwall. They were well chosen for what I wanted and the boys have been responsive and interested in taking them out. This is simply one of the things that the public libraries are doing with the books they are through with and can use no more. [1] Lyman Abbott. Yours very truly, BEATRICE VAIL ABBOTT. * * * * * London, England, April 15, 1913. In reply to your letter of April 1st, written on behalf of the American Library Association, I do consider that to a certain extent the fiction circulated in the public libraries of the United States does help to enlighten the people on social and economic problems. But I am bound to say that I think that we novelists might do a very great deal more in this direction if we would avoid sentimentalizing the truth in order to make it seem more palatable, and also if we would adopt the habit of describing more completely the general social background against which our leading figures live and move. Believe me, Yours faithfully,