CONFERENCE OF LIBRARIANS. ST. LOUIS, MAY 8-11, 1889. COMMON SENSE IN LIBRARIES. ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, C: A. CUTTER, LIBRARIAN OF THE BOSTON ATHENÆUM. In obedience to an unbroken precedent, I must open this convention with some general remarks. They shall be on Common Sense. Common Sense-what is it? I hope no one will insist on a definition. Logicians order us to define our terms before engaging in discussion, but I find it much more convenient to leave this one a little vague, trusting to your knowledge of its general meaning and to your willingness to allow a certain latitude in its use. But if I must be explicit, I will say common sense is my sense; other people's sense, when it differs from mine, is little better than nonsense. ment, the same content with small begin- One definition I must protest against, however; I cannot agree with the man who declared that common sense is thus named because it is so uncommon. We could not conduct the affairs of life if this were true. In our own field common sense is the very characteristic of American libraries. We must not blow our own trumpet too loudly. We must not overlook the magnificent accumulation of books in German and French libraries, the good fight made by our English brothers against prejudice and ignorance, the zeal and the complete organization of the Italians. Yet I believe that the same qualities that have made our nation (with certain glaring exceptions) the best of pioneers-the same fitting of means to ends, the same suiting of the man and the thing to the environ |