Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1920 — LIBRARIANS JOIN FIGHT ON UNREST [ARTICLE]

LIBRARIANS JOIN FIGHT ON UNREST

American Library Association Inaugurates Nation-wide ‘‘Books for Everybody!” Movement. WILL AID FOREIGN BORN. Social Problems Can Be Solved by Teaching American Ideals and Traditions. _ - The spirit of unrest that has been sweeping the country indicates that the foreign born, who have flocked to the United States from every corner of the globe have not been given the proper help and encouragement, in the opinion of the 4,000 librarians who make up the American Library Association and who are now enlisted in a “Books for Everybody” movement. The effort is a concerted movement to carry out the Enlarged Program which the association has adopted. There are approximately fifteen millions of foreign born in the United States and of this number six millions do not read or speak the English language. One phase of the Enlarged Program will be to bring the publisher and translator together with th.e view of furnishing the proper books in sufficient numbers to carry the message of American ideals and traditions to this vast army of uninformed people. They have been largely dependent upon the foreign press for their written messages. Many men who live with their fingers on the pulse of current events are firmly convinced that a sound foundation in Americanism can be easily built among the foreign born if the proper literature is placed within their reach in a language they can understand. No Drive to Be Held. In order to carry out the Enlarged Program two million dollars will be required. This money will not be sought through the medium of a campaign or an intensive drive, but will be obtained through the individual efforts of the librarians, library trustees and friends of libraries. The American Library Association will bend every effort to bring about the na-tion-wide adoption of each of the cardinal points in the Program, which Includes the extension of the county library sytem and the establishment of more industrial and business libraries. It now has in operation book service to the United States Merchant Marine, Coast Guard, Lighthouse Service and hospitals of the United States Public Health Service. The needs of the 75,000 blind persons in the United States will be cared for. At present the number of books available is woefully Inadequate. This will be remedied and the Joys of good literature will be brought Into lives that are darkened by a veil which will never be raised by any other method. Not all the work of Americanization Iles in the great centers of population. Great sections of the country where industry is carried on by foreign workers do not know public library service. There are Important mining states where less than a score of libraries exist. One mining state has but two public libraries.