committed to the Smithsonian Institution. In furtherance of its declared
purpose--for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men"--the
Congress has from time to time given it other important functions. Such
trusts have been executed by the Institution with notable fidelity.
There should be no halt in the work of the Institution, in accordance
with the plans which its Secretary has presented, for the preservation
of the vanishing races of great North American animals in the National
Zoological Park. The urgent needs of the National Museum are recommended
to the favorable consideration of the Congress.

Perhaps the most characteristic educational movement of the past fifty
years is that which has created the modern public library and developed
it into broad and active service. There are now over five thousand
public libraries in the United States, the product of this period.
In addition to accumulating material, they are also striving by
organization, by improvement in method, and by co-operation, to give
greater efficiency to the material they hold, to make it more widely
useful, and by avoidance of unnecessary duplication in process to reduce
the cost of its administration.

In these efforts they naturally look for assistance to the Federal
library, which, though still the Library of Congress, and so entitled,
is the one national library of the United States. Already the largest
single collection of books on the Western Hemisphere, and certain
to increase more rapidly than any other through purchase, exchange,
and the operation of the copyright law, this library has a unique
opportunity to render to the libraries of this country--to American
scholarship--service of the highest importance. It is housed in a
building which is the largest and most magnificent yet erected for
library uses. Resources are now being provided which will develop the