Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1915 — William B. Austin On Mayor Thompson’s Preparedness Committee. [ARTICLE]

William B. Austin On Mayor Thompson’s Preparedness Committee.

William B. Austin was named last week on a committee by Mayer Thompson, of Chicago, to co-operate with the National Security League in securing more adequate preparedness. The committee is to conduct a campaign to crystallize public sentiment for national military and naval preparedness. The committee is composed of 100 of the city’s leading citizens. When the committee met Mr. Austin offered a resolution that a committee of seven be appointed to formulate plans for co-operation with the National Security League and the Navy League. William J. Calhoun, former U. S. minister to China, was chairman. In calling the meeting to_order he said: “We Americans are in a peculiar situation. Heretofore we have been absorbed only in our own country. We have given but little thought to foreign policies and foreign entanglements. But in the great vacuum which has been caused by the war in Europe we are sure to be called upon as the chief supply source of the world, and to takfe a legitimate part in foreign commerce. And the moment that we do that we will come in contact with conflicting international elements. It resolves itself into a great conflict of economics, one that we shall have to meet.”

W. J. Wright had a remarkable sale of carpet sweepers Saturday. He advertised $3 carpet sweepers for 98 cents, the sale to begin at 2 o’clock. His clerks had sold 144 by 18 minutes afeer two. The balance of the 200 went in short order.

Andrew Carnegie has given away about $350,000,000. In planning to die poor he continues to build libraries and indulge in other forms of philanthropy that have endeared him to the Americap people, while the libraries he has erected have placed books into the hands of countless thousands of children otherwise denied them. Take the library in Rensselaer, as example, and our children from 7 or 8 years of age, have access to the best books in the world. To be sure, we already had a library in the court house, but the Carnegie building, erected near the school house and in the very heart of town, has furnished the inspiration for a wider field of selection and makes it more convenient for patrons. Andrew Carnegie now has about $20,000,000, only a fraction of what he has given away, and he has provided in his will to give most all of the residue to charities. Andrew Carnegie has done a work in education that shrpasses that of any other man and his memory will long live in the hearts of millions of appreciative people. We some times wonder if the people realize that the library is public, that is, that any person is entitled to secure books through it. No home in Rensselaer or Jasper county should go in want for good reading. All that is exacted' of patrons is that they return the books within the required time and in as good condition as when taken out, natural wear considered. Our library has h great variety of books and if you want something they do not have, make the want known and it will probably be secured for you. Remington is now erecting a Carnegie library and Wheatfield may get one if it is asked. Jasper county has reason to be very grateful to Andrew Carnegie.