of bird-houses, collections from the Educational Museum, the Civil League’s Municipal Exhibit, selected screens from the Child Welfare Exhibit, and the prize-winners from the St. Louis Art Exhibit held in the art room of our central library.  Then we have the Queen Hedwig Branch, the Clay School Picnic Association, the Aero Club, the Lithuanian Club, the Philotechne Club, the Fathers’ Club, and the United Spanish War Veterans.

I trust you will not call upon me to explain the objects of some of these, as such a demand might cause me embarrassment—­not because their aims are unworthy, but because these are skilfully obscured by their names.  If anyone believes that there is a limit to the capacity of the human race for forming groups and subgroups on a moment’s notice, for any reason or for no reason at all, I would refer him to our assembly room and clubroom records; and he would find, I think, that these are typical of every large library offering the use of such rooms somewhat freely.

It will be noted that the library takes no part in organizing or operating any of these activities; it does not have to do so.

The successful leader is he who repairs to a hill and raises his standard, knowing that at sight of it followers will flock around him.  When you drop a tiny crystal into a solution, the atoms all rush to it naturally:  there is no effort or compulsion except that of the aptitudes that their Creator has implanted in them.  So it is with all centers, business or religious or social.  No one instituted a campaign to locate the business center of a city at precisely such a square or corner.  Things aggregate, and the point to which they tend is their center; they make it, it does not make them.  The leader on a hill is a leader because he has followers; without them he would be but a lone warrior.  The school or the library that says proudly to itself, “Go to; I will be a social center,” may find itself in the same lonely position.  It can offer an opportunity:  that is all.  It can offer houseroom to clubs, organizations, and groups of all kinds, whether permanent or temporary, large or small, but its usefulness as a social center depends largely on the existence of these and on their desire for a meeting place.  We have in St. Louis six branch libraries with assembly rooms and clubrooms—­in all a dozen or so.  I have before me the calendar for a single week and I find 55 engagements, running from 24 at one branch down thru 13, 8, 6, and 3 to one.  If I had before me only the largest number I should conclude that branch libraries as social centers were a howling success; if only the smallest, I should say that they were dismal failures.  Why the difference?  For the same reason that the leader who displays his standard may or may not be surrounded with eager “flocking” followers.  There may be no one within earshot, or they may have no stomach for the war, or they may not be interested in the cause that he represents.  Or again, he may not shout loud or persuasively enough, or his standard may not be attractive enough in form or color, or mounted on a sufficiently high staff.