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2.

passage in his writings: he is pleading that the State should institute
everywhere public libraries, and among other reasons he gives the
following:- "Besides the good that would thereby redound to all good
spirits, it might provide a special encouragement to the stationer
and the printer; the one being the noblest profession among merchants
and the other among artificers." Surely that is a compliment worth
having!

The object of' our enterprise is to encourage and assist
what reading public already exists in Canada, and, above all, to increase
it. The two main obstacles in our task are first the cost of
books, and second the difficulty of' people, living remote f'rom the
larger centres, knowing what books are published which might interest
them, and in getting hold of' them easily. The first is a permanent
difficulty, especially in bad times. I think myself
that books are relatively cheaper than any other commodity, but
still, they cost money. In bad times they are perhaps the
first luxury that most people drop. There will always be specialist books
which have a practical value, and for which people are willing to
pay. But, in addition to such works, there is an enormous amount
of good general literature in every department , and in recent years
there has been a wonderful movement in cheapening such books. A
quarter of a century ago I myself in Britain had some hand in it
when we first published novels at sevenpence. What we want is to
get information about what is available right down to everybody, so
that a man, however remote his dwelling may be, may know what books
are available on the subject of' his special interest, and what can
be had for general reading. That is the first step in our campaign,