Page:Library Legislation - Yust - 1921.djvu/6

2 distinct stages in this evolution. These are illustrated by (1) special society libraries, (2) school-district libraries, (3) town libraries, (4) state-aid, and (5) county libraries.

The first stage appears in the incorporation of joint stock companies, which were known under different names, such as proprietary, social, subscription, and even public libraries. The earliest of these was the Philadelphia Library Company incorporated in 1742. Benjamin Franklin, who had founded it eleven years earlier, called it "the mother of all the North American subscription libraries." Then came the enactment of general laws for incorporating these co-operative associations, which sprang up in great numbers. With the rise and spread of the free public library idea their privileges were extended farther and farther until many of them became free libraries with a legal standing as part of the library system of the state. In this way numerous modern libraries are the direct outgrowth of these subscription libraries.

The second stage of development came nearly a century after the first with the establishment of the school-district libraries. These were founded and conducted under state school laws. They were, however, not for the benefit of school children only, but for all the inhabitants within the boundaries of the school district. They benefited largely from the surplus money distributed from the United States Treasury. This plan began in New York state in 1835 and continued in force there for fifty-five years. For many years the state appropriated $55,000 annually for them and an equal amount was raised locally. They were so successful at first that up to 1877 similar laws had been passed in twenty-one states, including many in the East and in the Middle West, and some as far west as California. The plan, however, had serious weaknesses: (1) the amount of money obtainable for any one district was too small to provide suitable additions of books; (2) there was no adequate state supervision and no proper local management