Then organized society can truthfully say to the individual, in the language of Professor Hoffman in his "Sphere of the State": "We have done what we could to develop and strengthen all your powers. We have taught you to the best of our ability to know yourself and to understand your relations to your fellows. Now, so long as you conduct yourself as a child of the day and not of the night, all the rights and privileges of the brotherhood are yours. But if you choose to walk in the darkness rather than in the light, if you trample under foot our laws, if you raise your hand against every man, let the curse of your wrong doing fall upon your own head, not on ours." ALTERNATIVES TO TAX-SUPPORT In the case of a public library, that is, of one intended to be used by all the members of the community, as distinguished from a subscription library, alternatives to public support have usually been in the nature of expedients to tide matters over until the library could be turned over to the municipality. The next two papers are early discussions of some of these alternatives. IF NOT A TAX-SUPPORTED LIBRARY, WHAT? The following paper contributed anonymously to _The Iowa Library Quarterly_ (Des Moines, April, 1903) tells how local library associations have been formed in that state, in small towns where public support, for the moment, has been deemed impossible or inadvisable. The fact that a majority of the states of the Union have by legal enactment provided for free public libraries supported by tax indicates the general acceptance of the belief that such an institution is for the public good and its support as an educational institution is as desirable as the support of the public schools. More and more has it come to be recognized that if the ideals and aspirations of youth are to be aroused and directed early in life by the reading of inspiring books, the state may well foster this institution which provides such literature. The Code of Iowa provides that towns and cities shall have power to provide for the foundation and maintenance of a free public library by voting upon the question, "Shall a free public library be established" at a general or special election, and further providing that a tax not exceeding two mills on the dollar of the taxable valuation of such city or town may be levied for its support. This places the library on a firm footing as a public educational institution, even though its income from the tax may be small.