The result of them will be to bring to us a mass of source material in transcript or facsimile that will save many an historian a trip abroad, or induce him to take it.

The other project is described as "the enlargement of [our] bibliographic apparatus." It means particularly the Union Catalogue, which for many years we have been accumulating, of books in other American libraries that might be useful to research. Since the 1st of September over 30 people, under competent direction, have been at work revising the 3,000,000 cards in this down to a compact basis of 2,000,000 and then augmenting it by new titles as acquired, until it now comprises in all some 4,000,000. Its components thus far have been chiefly the printed or otherwise manifolded cards received by us on exchange from a small group of libraries-Harvard, the New York Public, the John Crerar, and several others--but we have had copyists at work in Cambridge reproducing for it titles in the Harvard library not represented in its printed cards or in any other card in our possession. And there will from time to time be some such copying elsewhere at the expense of the fund.

But it is obvious that our chief reliance must be upon the cards voluntarily furnished us. And if the undertaking appears to you one of general concern-as it is, since it is to provide resources for our informational service, in whose benefit you and your clients participate we shall certainly count upon your contribution of them. Not a card for every book in your collections, but, so far as may be, cards representing " the unusual book for the unusual need."

The form and method of your contribution will in due course be suggested to you in circulars from Doctor Richardson, who, I need scarcely remark, is in general supervision of the enterprise. I emphasize here only that any appeal for your cooperation is an appeal in the interest of a project of general concern, of large moment, of great elaboration, and which can not be concluded within the resources of the fund alone, a project properly cooperative.

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Especially dependent upon cooperation is the section of it for the immediate conduct of which we have withdrawn Dr. Dawson Johnston from our service abroad, the list and description of special collections "-that is to say, of collections highly spe cialized-in American libraries and in private hands. Your reports of such in your custody or vicinity will be indispensable, and the adequate inclusion of them in such a record, at the National Capital, will be as much in your interest as in the interest of the record itself.

Mr. Rockefeller's decision for these two gifts implies acceptance of the prospect that Washington and the Library of Congress will be a main center of research and the inevitable recourse of

investigators. This is implied in another decision also, which, though its relation to the Library has not yet been defined, is in necessary association with its development and service. I refer, of course, to the choice, by Mr. Henry C. Folger, of a site immediately adjacent to us, for the building which he is to erect for his collection of Shakespeariana. The result will be an establishment, auxiliary to ours, which will house and render serviceable the finest Shakespeare collection in existence, amply endowed for its maintenance and further development. In its promotion of cultural studies the project has had no parallel in Washington since the establishment of the Freer Gallery. But especially significant is his declaration that he had chosen Washington as "the ideal place" and this (juxtaposition to the Library) as "the ideal site." It is a recognition and justification of what the Government has done in developing the Library into an effective organization. And it has been so taken by Congress.

That is, indeed, true of all of the contributions which I have been describing. They have carried assurance to Congress that in the Library it has something "worth while," something of large import. And so far from abating the disposition of Congress to provide adequately for it what it is the duty of the Government still to provide, they have served to induce a provision still more conscientious. It has included the expenditure last year of $750,000 for the construction (in our northeast courtyard) of a bookstack to accommodate a million and a half volumes, with special facilities also (in alcoves and study rooms) for the accommodation of research workers; it includes a recent appropriation of nearly $400,000 for the extension of the three upper levels of that stack (two of which have natural light) over the two stacks adjoining to the southward-doubling the alcove and study rooms and providing working space for our bibliographic staff, including that engaged upon the Union Catalogue; and it appears in an act for the acquisition of the two squares to the rear (less the tract owned by Mr. Folger) for the erection in the near future of a building auxiliary to our main one, and which may relieve space in the latter for more immediate or more distinguished uses.

It appears also in an item of the appropriation bill which adds $30,000 a year of expert service to our catalogue division (urged by me as necessary in order to clear up the arrears and enable us more nearly to keep abreast of the accessions); also an increase of $31,000 in the appropriation for printing and binding, with a view of avoiding the delays in the printing and reprints of the catalogue cards which have so marred the efficiency of their service. It has accepted as quite appropriate the compilation by us of an index to State legislation, involving an outlay of $30,000 a year, outside of the cost of printing. It has recognized the validity of such a department as that of Chinese literature, for

the service of which it has now distinctly provided. In sum, it has resulted in grants for the coming fiscal year completely responding to our estimates; the first time that such a felicity has been experienced. Incidentally, there was not in either House the single demur that would have blocked consideration of the bill for increasing the salary of the Librarian; a measure of necessary assurance for the future of the position, quite irrespective of the convenience of the present incumbent.

The appropriation for purchase has become regularly $110,000 per annum; that for printing and binding-which, however, has to stand the cost of the cards sold-is for next year $336,000. Including the $387,000 for the extension of the stack levels, the total appropriation for the next year-beginning July 1-is about $2,200,000, of which about $400,000 will be offset by receipts from copyright and from sales of cards. The amount which may thus be reckoned as the present annual outlay of the Government for the establishment outside of those services is about $1,400,000, as against $300,000 at the beginning of the century. The annual outlay of the Government is thus equivalent to the total amount of our present endowment. Together with the existing investment it may fairly justify the invitation to the public-to cooperate as warranted not because the Government was doing little for the Library, but because it had done, was doing, and was prepared to do, so much; and the result was an establishment that through contributed funds might be utilized for projects in the general interest to which Government funds could not reach. The responses to the invitation, as I have related them, are significant in amount, but also (1) in the sources from which they have come-two of them at least implying deliberate preliminary investigation by experts, (2) in the variety of their objects, and (3) in the reaction to them by the public and by Congress itself.

The three years may therefore fairly be deemed the initiation of a new era; the experience of them an assurance toward a future more elaborate than would ordinarily be conceded to a library merely as such.

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It is still distant. We have far to go and many levels still to reach. In even the fundamentals our house is not yet in order" and won't be till we have caught up with the classification, the cataloguing and the production of the cards. There is, in fact, no single particular, save one, in which we are not defective. But that one is an asset. It is optimism.

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APPENDIX VI

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FESTIVAL OF CHAMBER

MUSIC

(Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation)

PROGRAM

[April 27, 28, 29, 1928, Washington]

The ballet of Mr. Strawinsky, commissioned by the Library of Congress, and the string quartet of Mr. Carpenter were played for the first time in public; the works by Messrs. Alfano, Casella, Hindemith, and Respighi received their first public performance in America.

Under the provisions of the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation the division of music in the Library of Congress announced two prize competitions:

The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge prize of $1,000 for a work of chamber music written for a quintet of wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn) or for piano and four wind instruments. This competition is open to composers of all nationalities.

The Library of Congress prize of $500 for a suite, or a composition in similarly extended form, for two pianos (two players). This competition is open only to composers who are citizens of the United States.

Both competitions will close April 15, 1929. Manuscripts (score and parts) should be sent anonymously (with the full name and address of the composer in a sealed envelope accompanying the music) to the chief of the music division, Library of Congress, Washington. No award will be made if a majority of the judges so recommends. The prize compositions will have their first performance at the next festival of chamber music in the Library of Congress in the autumn of 1929.

FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 27, AT 8.45 O'CLOCK

Apollo Musagetes, a ballet with music by Igor Strawinsky. Calliope, Elise Reiman; Polymnia, Berenice Holmes; Terpsichore, Ruth Page; Apollo, Adolph Bolm.

Pavane, pour une infante défunte; the music by Maurice Ravel. La Vision, Ruth Page; Don Gonzalez, Adolph Bolm.