Glens Falls in 1920 — Crandall Library referendum fails

Crandall Free Library co-founder Sherman Williams campaigned fervently in 1920 for Glens Falls, NY, residents to match the investment of the late Henry Crandall in literacy and public benefit.

“The possibilities of a public library are almost infinite. It is the great continuation school that will last as long as life lasts,” he said at a March 11, 1920 city Common Council meeting.

In a few days, residents would vote on a referendum to increase city library funding to $5,000 annually, a dramatic increase from the $500 annual level that had been the norm for years.

The funding was needed to maintain services without using interest from the library’s building fund.

“Our librarians have been very poorly paid. They have been missionaries,” Williams said.

Unless interest was left to grow in the building fund over time, library trustees had little hope of constructing a new building.

Williams urged residents to think of it as an investment in quality of life.

“The opposition to all appropriations is based upon a feeling that our taxes are too high. … Whether a so-called tax is really a tax or an investment depends on what the money is worth to the community when invested as proposed.”

The Post-Star weighed in to support the funding.

“Now the time has arrived when we must bear part of the burden if our library is to accomplish the purpose for which it was founded,” The Post-Star editorialized.

Income from the Crandall Trust was reduced now that the trust did not receive rents from buildings on Glen Street that were demolished to make way for a new library and parkland.

The editorial touted the importance of life long learning.

“Comparatively few people are able to attend an institute of higher learning, but, if he has the will, any man may, through a well equipped library, educate himself.”

Library supporters wrote letters to the editor.

“If the child while in school forms the habit of reading for information it is likely to continue that habit as it goes out into life provided there is a public library within its reach that is equipped to help it,” wrote “a friend of our library.”

“With an eight-hour day now general, everyone can find time for self improvement if only some person or organization will prepare the way. This seems to be the province of the public library,” wrote “a worker who wants also a chance to be a reader.”

“But as a pile of bricks is not a building, so a collection of books is not a library,” Williams wrote in a letter to the editor. “It is the use made of books that really determines their value, so it is the use made of books that determines whether or not the collection is in any sense a library.”

The referendum failed by a vote of 1,209 against to 709 in favor.

Perhaps it was a case of too many requests on the ballot at one time.

Voters approved referendums to provide $3,000 for programs and maintenance at the new Crandall Park Recreation Field and to provide funding for summer band concerts.

Referendums for the library and for street improvements failed.

“The trustees of our library tried to show our people that the library was a worthy institution, and that it was in need of assistance,” Sherman said, responding to the defeat. “They apparently failed in this as the appropriation asked for was refused. This is most unfortunate for as things are now the work of the library will have to be greatly crippled.”

Periodical subscriptions would be canceled, fewer books would be purchased, and library hours likely would be cut.

“The trustees cannot spend the money they do not possess.”

Sources: The Post-Star, Feb. 5, 21, March 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 17, 18, 1920.