October 1941 — "I'm in favor of building the library, but..."

The architects answered the question the council had asked them, and the low bidder answered it too. Both wrote to the grounds and buildings committees to say the same thing: there were enough materials on hand in the city to undertake the job and finish it.

On the evening of Tuesday, October 21, 1941, the committees met to consider those letters, and Alderman Joseph Zeimentz moved that the council bind itself to build the library immediately.

The meeting flared up at once.

Alderman after alderman rose to his feet and said, "I'm in favor of building the library, but..."

— The La Crosse Tribune, October 22, 1941

Alderman E. O. Nelson said what everyone in the room already understood. The question before them was not one of materials, and it was not one of priorities. It was whether the council was in favor of building the library or not.

Henry Meyer opposed it on the cost. Fred Kraft, in the chair, pointed out that the low bids were only five percent above the 1938 estimates. Kempter wanted an assurance that the job would be finished before it was begun; City Attorney Steele suggested the contractor could be made to post a cash bond with the city treasurer. George W. Fuller of 1717 Winnebago Street rose from the public seats to say that the taxpayers were opposed to letting the contract unless the contractor guaranteed to furnish all the material and finish within a set time.

And then Warren Smith spoke against it.

On Warren Smith

Smith had been in this story longer than almost anyone. In 1934 he had moved that Otto Merman be asked to draw plans for a north side branch, and watched the council place them on file. In 1938 he had told the chamber that the library board's recommendation on sites was good enough for him. He had chaired the committees, led the fight for Avon and Sill, and moved the resolution that secured the options in July.

Now he said the question of priorities and materials was secondary, and that what confronted the council was economics. This was not the time to put up public buildings. La Crosse had always built them when building relieved unemployment — and here he was saying out loud what Lilly Borresen had said about circulation four months earlier, that the city's public life ran counter to its payrolls. Wages were high. Materials were rising. Everything would cost more now than it needed to.

He expected another federal program after the war. He thought the war might be over in a year or two.

His words were twice greeted with bursts of applause from a handful of the thirteen people in the audience.

Thirteen people. Four years and seven months after the board's fourth request; six months after the city voted for it; six weeks before Pearl Harbor.

Several motions, amendments and substitute motions were put. In the end the committees decided to ask the priorities division for more definite information.