The insufficiency of the penny rate was early and acutely realized. It weighed heaviest on places with small incomes. The larger the establishment to be kept up, the smaller the ratio of establishment expenses to maintenance. The limitation had been fixed so low that most towns with a population between 50,000 and 100,000 had to pursue a hand-to-mouth policy, and content themselves with spending on books such sums as happened to remain over when all fixed charges had been defrayed. The main reason for the library books, had to be neglected for the sake of the building, the mere case that held the books. The inadequate staff that looked after both cost still more, yet were overworked and underpaid. Larger towns were better off, not merely through being able to apportion expenses more economically, but also because they had more chances of getting legislative concessions. Furthermore, the civic spirit is usually stronger in big cities: it is one of the reasons why they are big cities. There, in the great industrial centres, the old Mechanics’ Institutes were born. They have been strongholds of educational endeavour; they were the pioneers of the library movement. Thus it is not surprising to find Wolverhampton, Swansea, Warrington, Sheffield, Manchester, Salford, Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oldham, St. Helens, Walsall, Preston, Wigan, Sunderland, and several smaller industrial towns obtaining increased rating powers and widening their library provision. Many other towns would gladly have sought the same privileges, but for the cost of promoting a special Act. For many years before the great war it was borne in more and more to the minds of friends of the movement that not all was well with public libraries, and a series of amending Bills to do away with the obsolete restriction of income and introduce various constructive reforms were brought into Parliament and steadily blocked. The various Acts for England and Wales had been consolidated in the Public Libraries Act of 1892. This harmonized several conflicting enactments, laid it down that adoption of the Acts should be by resolution of the local authority, except in London, and allowed neighbouring districts to combine for library purposes. It left the rate limitation where it was. Some infinitesimal relief came from the Museums and Gymnasiums Act of 1891, whereby the upkeep of museums could be charged to a special museum rate. The Local Government Act of 1894, on the other hand, introduced some complications into library law, and made it even more impossible than heretofore for rural districts to come under the Acts. Amending Acts for Scotland and Ireland passed that year.