If there is one moment at the start of our country that probably ensured our ongoing freedom more than any other, it was when Ben Franklin talked everyone else into building and opening libraries to the masses. Books were too expensive for most people in those days and, therefore, a lot of information was being held by a small number of people.

However, Franklin knew that discussion, debate and even heated arguments based on as much information and facts as possible were the best prevention of anarchy and the best step toward invention and creation of new ideas. If voting rights were going to be opened wide beyond landowners, and, therefore, beyond book buyers, then the flow of information needed to, somehow, get to more people, too.

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