LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



3405 



LICENSE 



such as have not been brought together else- 

 where. Its printed books number 250,000 vol- 

 umes and its manuscripts over 40,000. C.B.R. 



See the articles READING and LITERATURE for 

 lists of books suitable for reading by boys and 

 girls and their fathers and mothers and by 

 teachers. For books relating to the subject 

 Library, consult Special-Report on Public Libra- 

 ries, issued by the United States Bureau of Edu- 

 cation ; Adams' Public Libraries and Popular 

 Education; Dewey's Decimal Classification and 

 Relative Index. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, now the third in 

 size among the world's libraries, was estab- 

 lished in 1800 in Washington, D. C., and de- 

 signed for the use of members of the United 

 States Congress. While it is maintained to 

 serve its original purpose, the present use of 

 the building and contents is largely by others 

 than Senators and Representatives. The li- 

 brary was at first housed in a room of the 

 Capitol, but so rapid was the accumulation of 

 material that several times it outgrew en- 

 larged quarters that were there provided; in 

 1897 it was removed from the Capitol to a 

 special building which was begun in 1889 and 

 completed in eight years at a cost of $6,500,000. 

 The location of the Congressional Library is 

 east of the Capitol; it covers a ground area of 

 nearly four acres, and has more than eight 

 acres of floor space. For the convenience of 

 members of Congress a subway connects the 

 library and the Capitol, and an endless chain 

 system conveys books to and from the halls of 

 legislation. 



In 1814, when the Capitol was burned, the 

 library was destroyed. Congress established it 

 anew by the purchase of the library of Thomas 

 Jefferson, comprising 6,760 volumes, for which 

 it paid $23,950. In 1851 fire again destroyed 

 nearly the entire collection, 35,000 volumes 

 being lost. Since then Congress has made regu- 

 lar appropriations for its development. Under 

 the copyright laws since about 1860 the library 

 has received two copies of every publication 

 in the world for which copyright protection in 

 the United States has been requested. It has 

 also received gifts of rare and beautiful books. 

 In 1916 the library comprised over 2,390,000 

 books and pamphlets, about 30,000 manuscripts, 

 60,000 charts and maps, almost 400,000 musical 

 compositions and about 100,000 engravings and 

 lithographs. 



The library is in charge of the Librarian of 

 Congress, who is appointed by the President 

 and confirmed by the Senate; he receives a 

 salary of $6,500 per year. Under him is a staff 



of trained officials such as one of the world's 

 greatest libraries requires. The service to the 

 public is in the highest degree efficient, and 

 the routine is much like that employed in any 

 great city library, except it is on a larger scale 

 and that no books or documents may be taken 

 from reference and reading rooms except by 

 members of Congress and government officials. 

 Access by the public to any book published is 

 made easy through intelligent attendants. 



The building is the most magnificent struc- 

 ture of the kind in the world, and is unequalled 

 in the United States in beauty of interior 

 decoration. E.D.F. 



For details of the world's largest libraries, see 



BlBLIOTHfeQUE NATIONALS ; BRITISH MUSEUM. 



See, also, the article LIBRARY. 



LICENSE, li' sens, a formal permission given 

 a person by the proper authority to engage in 

 a business or tp do certain things which, with- 

 out that authority, would be unlawful. In 

 most cases the privilege is granted on the pay- 

 ment of a fee. Licenses are issued principally 

 for the safeguarding of the public rights, for 

 the purpose of obtaining revenue, or for both 

 reasons, and they may be revoked by the 

 proper officials if the terms on which they are 

 granted are not observed. There are many 

 callings which directly affect the health, morals 

 or general welfare of the community, and it is 

 therefore necessary that the state or municipal- 

 ity should regulate the number and qualifica- 

 tions of persons engaged in such callings. For 

 this reason, dentists, physicians, pharmacists, 

 undertakers, school teachers, lawyers, etc., are 

 required to hold licenses in order to carry on 

 their chosen vocations. 



Owners of theaters and other places of public 

 amusement, street peddlers and owners of 

 automobiles are also required to procure li- 

 censes. Automobiles are a direct source of 

 expense to the community in that they increase 

 materially the wear on public highways, and a 

 license fee upon such vehicles is considered 

 justifiable; such licensing also assists in identi- 

 fication in case of reckless driving which may 

 result in accidents. The granting of saloon 

 licenses was until 1920 a matter of great public 

 interest. A considerable number of people 

 favored the regulation of this business by means 

 of a high license, which tended to restrict the 

 number of saloons. The advocates of low 

 license favored a small fee, levied for revenue 

 only. Another group, the prohibitionists, op- 

 posed the existence of saloons. In 1919 the 

 Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution 



