lation of books to foreign speaking population depends upon the number of available volumes in the collection.

The total number of books in the library is 89,940. The number added during the year was 7267, of which 4522 were duplicates. Almost all of the titles for the children's department are duplicates.

The number of volumes purchased in foreign tongues was 1016. The work of reclassifying the library on the decimal system is progressing as rapidly as can be expected, since the library has no additional help for the work. Stereopticon slides are used by any classes which may wish them at the library or they man be loaned outside. The lecture room has been in frequent use. The special gifts which have been received represent art objects for the museum and art books for the reference collection. Contributions have been received from the Medical society and the D. A. R. for the purchase of books.

The librarian recommends the discontinuance of guarantors upon renewals of membership cards after three years. The report showed that 4174 cards were canceled during the year

and only 1455 were renewed. This

seems to prove that those who have borrowed books for three years and observed all the rules resent the idea of being required to have a new guarantor. The librarian also recommends an open shelf room containing about 8000 v. instead of an absolutely free open shelf A fund for the system as at present. purchase of books for the blind is requested. The librarian recommends that the library board assume the responsibility of presenting every year some one good collection of art. The exhibit in February showed the value of this, where there was an average daily attendance of 1000 people.

The total expenditures were as follows: Books, $7,098; periodicals and newspapers, $1,132.45; salaries, including binders (4), $15,999.57; other expenditures, $6,794.59; total, $31,024.61.

Pacific coast

Susan G. Crampton, for some time connected with the Tacoma (Wash.) public library, will leave March 1. Elizabeth Haskell will succeed Miss Crampton.

The report of the San Francisco library for 1909-1910 shows an accession of 26,947 v., making a total of 98,499 v.; borrowers' cards, 37,391; issued for home use, 719,995 v. During the year one branch and three deposit stations were established, making a total of six branches and II deposit stations now in operation. The library has now the same number of branches as before the fire and three more deposit stations. The total income was. $83,678; expenditures, $23,848 for books and periodicals; $39,666 for salaries; $18,520 for all other expenses.

The report of the Library association of Portland, Ore., shows a decided increase in growth and volume of work accomplished in every department in the Public library system in that place.

The total number of volumes is 99,892, total circulation 552,722 v., number of card holders, 30,284.

Particularly satisfactory work has been done in connection with the school department established last year and put in charge of Miss H. A. Wood, under whose management the work has proceeded rapidly and effectively. A room adjoining the adult and children's circulating room is open from 9 a. m. until 6 p. m. to the teachers of all public and private schools.

The crowded condition of the building is noted and a claim made for more branches and well-equipped branch buildings.

The circulating department shows a gain of over 3000 a month at the Central building and a large gain in all the branch libraries is also shown.

Canada

Gertrude Boyle, B. A., and Dorothy Willis, B. A., both honor graduates of McGill university, Montreal, P. Q., have joined the cataloging staff of the Toronto public library, in which there are now five college graduates representing the

various honor groups of subjects and from four universities of Canada-Toronto, McGill, Queens and Dalhousie.

The plans have been drawn up for a very nice library for the town of Simcoe in Norfolk county. It will cost $12,000 and the money has been promised by Mr Carnegie. An indication of progress which is hopeful is that the board consulted some librarians before

they made out the program for the architects. This is so seldom done in Ontario that it provokes favorable comment-from the better architects.

The report of the Public library of Winnipeg for 1910 is a story of progress. The circulation increased 26,000 over the previous year, making a total of 341,298 v. The percentage of fiction decreased from over 70 per cent to 68 per cent last year. In the children's department there are 5000 v. and 60 magazines. Juvenile branch libraries are organized throughout a number of the public schools, the Y. M. C. A. and other places where young people may have access to them. The newspaper room has been in constant use and representative daily papers of Berlin, Paris and Melbourne are kept on file for ref

In the Cause of Peace A "war scare" having just passed over the country, and the question of war appropriations looming large on the political horizon, there is peculiar timeliness in the immediate publication by A. C. McClurg & Co. of a book which in small compass deals with the whole question of militarism. "War or peace: a presentday duty and a future hope," is written by General H. M. Chittenden, U. S. A., a graduate of West Point, 1884, who served as chief engineer of the Fourth army corps during the Spanish-American war, and who is already known to the public for his writings on the history of the West. General Chittenden presents the somewhat unusual spectacle of a soldier who does not let professional bias color his treatment of facts, and after carefully marshaling the arguments for and against war, and sizing up the world situation of the present day, he sums up in favor of the discontinuance of wars as a means of national adjustment. But the pacificism professed by General Chittenden is not at all a sentimental doctrine. While he is aware of the horrors of battle, he knows that no mere picturing of them will do away with warfare. His arguments against it are, therefore, based upon practical and economic considerations and a keen analysis of the cost of militarism. As a man of affairs he steers clear of such Utopian solutions of the war question as immediate disarmament on the part of this or any other country. But he does outline a plan which he thinks is a step ahead of the usual suggestion for spasmodic arbitration as a means of bringing about and keeping a state of peace on earth and international good-will.

Mary Johnston, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Meredith Nicholson, William J. Hopkins, John Muir, Hugo Münsterberg, Havelock, Ellis and Dallas Lore Sharp are among the prominent authors, who, according to reports, will publish new books the coming spring season.