WHOLESOME SPEECH by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 6, 1881

WHOLESOME SPEECH.

By Editor

THE following short article we clip from the Oakland Daily Times. It is short as to the number of words, but it is "big with meaning." We hope, not only for the sake of the tax-payers who are misused in the matter, but for the honor of Oakland, and for the sake of morality, that this state of things may not long continue. There is nothing more demoralizing to the youth of this age than the average novel. The best are bad enough, for real life is seldom shown by a novel writer. The novel reader lives in an ideal world, and is, or is becoming, an idealist—a day dreamer, useless, if not absolutely pernicious, to society. But the generality of novels,—the second or third-rate book of fiction, is as dangerous as the saloon with its gilded fixtures. Wise parents will not permit them a place in their households; surely a city should not supply them by taxing its citizens:—

"Last month, the Alameda town library circulated 950 books, over 900 of which were novels. The Argus thinks that the time will soon come when tax-payers will not be considered old fogies and unprogressive, if they seriously inquire whether the furnishing of free novels to those who have nothing to do but read them, is a legitimate object, for the circulation of cheap novels was never contemplated by those who, years ago, were the prominent advocates of a system of public libraries. It is our own idea that public money should not be applied to such a purpose. The true object of a city library is to give people an opportunity to consult books which are of permanent value, not to circulate novels which can be bought for fifteen or twenty cents each, and which are used up after they have been through the hands of a dozen readers. It would be almost as reasonable to levy a tax to purchase chewing gum and peanuts for the class of patrons who devour the works of fiction."