As concrete instances of other possible contributions by foreigners to library progress, I want to tell of the discussion of one City History Club chapter and the action of a settlement organization. The membership in both is composed of foreign-born young men from sixteen to twenty years of age, and both groups interest themselves in present day civic welfare. The Settlement Club wrote to the mayor, comptroller, library trustees and several daily papers a dignified plea for increase in library appropriation and in salaries. The year's closing meeting of a certain City History Club was a discussion of the city budget, the club members representing New York's mayor, aldermen and comptroller. The main contention of the majority was that cutting the appropriation of the public library meant seriously handicapping one of the city's most efficient servants and they ended with a warm appreciation of service rendered by library assistants and a vigorous plea for better salaries. This was later reproduced for an audience of representative citizens by the City History Club as a token typical of their work. Both these happenings came as complete surprises to librarians. It seems as if in their eagerness to "get on" young foreigners, especially, seek and use every possible public means for advancement. They soon appreciate what good service means and how to get it. They make us feel toward what ends they are tending and suggest definitely our part in the building for civic betterment.
To sum up, immigrants do bring very rich contributions in arts and literature. They bring many capabilities, that of acquiring intellectual cultivation being not the least among them. I am not blind to the seriousness of the problems they create, having worked among them about ten years; but the conviction strengthens that knowing and understanding their racial and social inheritance and first hand contact with groups of individuals stimulate to broader thought and living. It is not an argument! It is a suggestive statement! Immigrants can contribute to library progress.
The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: We will now have a paper from Mr. CHARLES E. RUSH, the librarian of the St. Joseph public library, on
This great country of ours has become within the last century a huge "melting pot" for all the nations of the world. Foreign and English speaking tongues from the four corners of the earth have sought our shores as a haven of relief and opportunity. No other nation has experienced a like growth and none other has ever gained the changing cosmopolitan characteristics which have come to us from such widely differing component parts. Those of us who call ourselves Americans owe our life, liberty and happiness to the conditions which brought about this great growth and upon us devolves the greatburden of relieving many of the unfortunate conditions which naturally result from the continued and increasing wave of humanity still seeking better things in our so-called land of freedom and equality.
During the past ninety years nearly thirty millions of people have entered our immigration gates, adding to our numbers more inhabitants than the total population of the United States three score years ago, and almost one-third of our present total figure. At the close of the year of 1912 the total and combined population of five states of the Union did not equal the number of immigrants admitted during the preceding twelve months. Eighty per cent of these thirty millions arrived during the last fifty years. Eighty-seven per cent of them were more than fourteen years of age, while only thirteen per cent were under fourteen. These figures easily demonstrate that the problem is a growing one and that the large proportion of new arrivals are destined to become citizens and parents of future citizens in a short time. Our past policy of devoting our greatest efforts to the thirteen per cent while largely neglecting the eighty-seven per cent seems very similar to the losing method of mending a leaking boat by removing the water with a sponge rather than by repairing the hole.
Economists tell us that the "rise and fall of the immigration waves are very closely connected with the phenomenon of prosperity in this country," and that the general causes of westward expansion lie in the presence of foreign political and religious persecutions, low wages, bad economic conditions, ease of transportation, inflated rumors of great opportunities in America, and the appeal of separated friends and relatives.
The early immigrants, being largely of Teutonic and Keltic origin, were thrifty and self-reliant by nature and entered our American life as skilled workmen in agriculture and in the trades. In the last quarter of a century the source of the tide has changed from the northern to the southern countries, resulting in a far different type of foreigner who is generally unskilled, lacking independence and initiative, and blindly submissive to authority. Many come from nations with a per cent. of illiteracy rising as high as seventy, and notwithstanding the fifty per cent decrease in the total percentage of illiteracy in this country during the past thirty years we must face the fact that some twenty-eight out of every one hundred of the new arrivals over fourteen years of age are annually classed as illiterates. In the future we may expect to receive an increasing flood of immigration from China, Japan and India, with problems and conditions even more perplexing.
Some say that the incoming foreigner directly affects the entire laboring class native to America in that he adds materially to the supply of wage earners, lowers the scale of wages due to lower standards of living, changes working conditions through the subdivision of labor, modifies labor organizations, influences local and national politics and increases social difficulties. It has been said that "low standards of living on the part of unskilled workers menace the higher standards of the skilled workers. The man of skill is recognizing this fact and he is frequently found joining hands with the unskilled to right the grievances of the latter. In the cotton mills, in the meat packing industry, in the coal mines, in the clothing industry and elsewhere, one nationality has been displaced by another satisfied with a lower standard of living. In turn the second has been displaced by a third, and so on. Wave after wave of immigrants may be traced in the history of one of these industries. As rapidly as a race rises in the scale of living, and through organization begins to demand higher wages and to resist the pressure of long hours and over-exertion, the employers substitute another race and the process is repeated. Each race comes from a country lower in the scale than that of the preceding until finally the ends of the earth have been ransacked in the search for low standards of living combined with patient industriousness." (Carlton).
Our civilization cannot remain unaffected by these changing characteristics and the threatening, industrial conditions confronting us. With the army of the unemployed rapidly growing larger and larger, it behooves the American nation to encourage immediate consideration of ways and means to prevent unfortunate results in our industrial, political and social life.
The national government, being concerned chiefly with the admission or rejection of the immigrant, quickly places him under the care of state and local governments, who are duty-bound to assume the entire responsibility of developing him into an efficient worker and a good citizen. The regulation of private employment agencies, protection of the foreigner in transit, adoption of standard employment laws, creation of municipal unemployment commissions, etc., indicate that state and city governments are beginning to respond to this duty of offering more sympathetic understanding, more adequate care and better protection to the newly arrived, confused, unemployed and homeless immigrant. These governments are slowly realizing that their obligations have been sorely neglected in the past when such problems were wholly consigned to the well meaning but quite inadequate field of private philanthropy. Public libraries, as departments of city governments, concerned with the dissemination of knowledge of the masses, must soon realize their large responsibility in the naturalization, education and socialization of our foreign born population. It is very gratifying to announce that the state of Massachusetts has very recently taken the lead in this particular field of service by the passage of an act authorizing the appointment by the Board of library commissioners of a field worker to direct the educational work of libraries among the aliens of the state.
Libraries, like human beings, can reach a high point of efficiency and service in a particular line only when that line is encouraged and promoted. The development of libraries favoring certain classes of citizens has been quite general and extremely successful. Much has been said but comparatively little has been done for the foreigner among our laboring men. The "man in the yards," the unskilled foreign wage-earner, being taxed, while needing more and receiving less from society than others, "has done much of the rough and hard work of recent decades. He has built the roadbeds of our railways, mined our coal and iron, unloaded our vessels, and cleaned our streets. The recent immigrant has performed the crude manual labor necessary for the upbuilding of big industrial plants and huge transportation systems. His services in developing the resources of the nation have been extremely important. Many industries would be almost depleted if divested of all wage-earners of foreign birth and those born on American soil but of foreign born parents. If the foreign born and the native born of foreign parents were removed from our large cities, the latter would shrink to approximately one-third of their recent size." (Carlton.)
This "man in the yards" with whom "intimate contact removes prejudice, inspires appreciation and kindles self-respect," displays an astounding amount of seriousness and earnestness in his desire to learn and to improve himself when once informed of the possibilities in our libraries. Very often he finds his chief delight in the best of books, like a child calling for good instead of new books, and many times he is not as dull and as ignorant as generally supposed, being more appreciative of better things than our average native laboring man. The opportunity is a great one to be of practical and inspirational help to an eager reader seeking to increase his earning power and joy in life, and to learn of the higher ideals of citizenship and the coming brotherhood of all.
In order to devise worth-while methods of approaching him and securing his interest, place yourself in imagination in similar surroundings and conditions on a foreign shore. Only through direct appealstouching your personal needs, pleasure and occupation would you be attracted in like circumstances by strangers. The same is true with our new Americans.
Foreigners who speak the same language largely settle in the same locality and move from place to place in groups. A thorough educational survey of these groups in the community tributary to the library or branch is of first importance to determine the characteristics, conditions and needs of each group. Whenever it is possible an experienced library and social worker should be employed. The advice and assistance of factory managers, labor leaders and social workers cannot be valued too highly. Following these steps branch and deposit stations administered by local assistants may well be located in favorable shops, yards, factories, settlements, centers, and labor headquarters, without arousing undue suspicion among the men, even more extensively than in many of our progressive library systems today.
The formation of the recently named "Creative" or "Extension" departments and the appointment of one or more trained assistants to create interest and regularly visit and supervise the library work in each district, group and institution will soon become a customary feature in the large cities. I firmly believe that it will not be many years until our large manufacturing institutions employing much labor will construct recreational centers in their plants equipped with social, reading and gymnastic departments sufficient to meet the needs of their employees. Furthermore, I see little to discourage the establishment of traveling library collections on wheels, visiting certain districts on scheduled time, after the manner of the now famous Maryland wagon and automobile. In libraries near foreign centers special departments are needed to supply practical and simple information in different languages on requirements for naturalization, instruction, employment, investments, American customs, travel and history, demands of law and order, American money and banks, and friendly advice on many things of fifty-seven or more varieties.
The development of our present line of tactics, including the presentation of lectures emphasizing the possibility of increased wages through practical reading, the formation of classes in the study of English, the promotion of special foreign entertainment programs and exhibitions, the extension of the library habit to adults through publicity directed to their children, the publication of daily news for workers by means of special library papers and the general press, the creation of more effectively printed library advertising done in many languages, the co-operation with individuals and societies promoting educational, social and recreation centers, etc., will open a new era in library service for foreign laboring men.
A great number of specialized and technical industrial books may not often be found necessary in library collections, since the great need among this class of readers is a large supply of trade journals and more elementary mechanical books for the unskilled workman, the student mechanic and the future tradesman.
On the other hand life as well as livelihood must be considered and met. All men must live while they are earning a living and in these days they must be trained for vacation as well as vocation. The tendency today is to place too much emphasis on the daily struggle for livelihood and to neglect the hours of life during leisure time. In defense of the "man in the yards" the crying answer returns, "but what of the man whose soul-deadening toil leaves little or no time for leisure or whose daily labor kills all mental and physical desire for leisure, rest and improvement." This cry will return again and again until all labor shall be so equalized that all men will have more of what life offers and less of what it demands. Those who work on specialized labor done under intense strain and through long hours are destined to become weakened, brutalized and almost incapable of showing intelligent interest in social-betterment. Even "family life," the first school of morals, is a closed book against the man who comes home dead-tired late at night.
Consider some of the perils through which the working boy must pass from year to year, such as economic waste in un-educational trades, stinted physical development, early maturity, suppression of the spirit of boyhood, indifference towards knowledge and efficiency, personal weakness, and delinquency. The dire results due to these perils are well illustrated by the following replies made by a number of Chicago factory children when asked why they quit school:
"Because it's easier to work in a factory than it is to learn at school."
"You never understand what they tell you in school and you can learn right off to do things in a factory."
"They don't call you a Dago."
"You can buy shoes for the baby."
"Our boss he never went to school."
"School ain't no good. The Holy Father he can send ye to hell, and the boss he can take yer job away er raise yer pay. But the teacher, she can't do nothing."
Is it not true that greed, selfishness, privilege, injustice and neglect are five of the great sins of civilization? These obstructions to progress are largely due to ignorance and indifference, two causes which are in themselves as great evils as their results. In order to attain the best of social conditions, positive cures must be found for these devastating evils—cures that will replace greed by liberality, selfishness by the brotherhood of man, privilege by equality, injustice by justice and neglect by service—cures that will transform ignorance and indifference into clear-eyed knowledge and active responsibility. Laws and revolutions have failed more miserably than we enjoy admitting and only through the far reaching, beneficent influences of education and religion may we expect to touch the roots of these great evils.
Is it possible that many of our public libraries, who reach the individual and his family long before and for many years following the efforts of our public schools, can consider themselves excused from a large part of their responsibility in the educational movements now striving to improve the physical, mental and moral conditions of these men who suffer for want of better things? How can it be that some librarians stand by indifferently and heed not the cry of need from these weaker members of society, who, with their distinctive and curable social difficulties, have been left alone to carve their own destinies, unappreciated and unaided? The time is near at hand when everyone shall recognize that it is the "common right of all men to share in the culture, prosperity and progress" of society, and that the conservation of life by raising it to its highest value is to be the cry of our new era of heightened individuality.
In his inaugural address President Wilson uttered these accusing heart searching words: "We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen without mercy the years through. The groans and agony of it all, the solemn moving undertone of our life, coming up out of the mines and factories and out of every home where the struggle has had its intimate and familiar seat, have not yet reached our ears."
The "vision of the open gates of opportunity for all" must first be seen by those who lead before they who follow can dream dreams and go forth to realize them.
The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: The next speaker, who is now the librarian of the Rochester public library, was for many years librarian of one of the most important libraries south of what Mr. O. Henry was accustomed to call "Mason & Hamlin's Line." I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. WILLIAM F. YUST, who will speak to us on
The form in which this subject is expressed is first a question asking for information which has never before been collected. Possibly there is in it also a mild challenge to library authorities calling for a declaration of purpose and policy.
So far there is no indication of a yellow race problem in public libraries. When foreigners enter a field which is already occupied they do not produce a real race problem so long as they are so few in number that they are chiefly objects of curiosity.
It is difficult to understand how the Japanese can be a serious race problem in California where they constitute only two and one-half per cent of the population and own and lease only twelve one-hundredths of one per cent of the land. And yet it sounds as if there is trouble there. Whatever may be its nature and its causes, the difficulty has not extended to public libraries. The Chinese on the Pacific coast, as elsewhere, are seldom seen in a library. They live in their own quarter and hardly ever penetrate other sections of the city except for purposes of trade.
The Japanese who frequent the libraries are not numerous. They belong almost entirely to the student class and the books they take are used in connection with their school work. In some places they "appear to be more resourceful, more polite and more intelligent than the average high school student" with whom the libraries come in contact. As a class of patrons they are not only inoffensive but desirable.
While the yellow man is clearly not a problem in libraries, it is equally certain that the black man is a problem. This is especially true in the South. In northern libraries it is the rule to admit him without distinction. Throughout the South, with very few exceptions, the segregation maintained in all social, educational and religious institutions is enforced in libraries.
This paper will deal primarily with the public library question. But account should also be taken of the institutional libraries to which negroes have access.
The report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1910 contains a list of 189 secondary and higher schools for the colored race in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Of these 160 report libraries aggregating 368,684 volumes with an estimated value of $295,788. Following is a summary of the institutions and their libraries arranged by states. Of these libraries 84 have less than 1,000 volumes; 56 have 1,000 to 5,000 volumes; 11 have between 5,000 and 10,000 volumes; 6 have between 10,000 and 20,000. Two have 26,607 and 27,000 respectively.
Many of these collections except in the larger institutions, have been characterized as "so unsuitable as to be almost worthless ... the discarded refuse of garrets and overcrowded store rooms, which should have gone to the paper mill, but was sent to these poor children through mistaken kindness."
These libraries are primarily for the use of the students, but they are usually open to the townspeople for reading and reference. While the people thus have access to a collection of books for consultation, it can not be said that they have the equivalent of a public library, even where the selection is good. It is a common occurrence, however, throughout the country for institutional libraries to operate against the establishment of a public library without acting as a satisfactory substitute.
The prevailing attitude toward libraries for negroes is one of indifference among the masses of both races. But the same conditions existed for many years and still exist in other parts of the country. The library must follow the school, it can not precede it. When it is remembered that the educational awakening of the South is of comparatively recent date and that anything like general education of the negro is still more recent, the small number of public libraries for negroes will not appear so strange. In a few places a vigorous demand has arisen. In a few places the authorities have not only supplied the demand but have endeavored to stimulate and enlarge it.
It may be said, however, that there are still people who think that the negro is incapable of education and that it actually unfits him for usefulness. Uncle Remus has a saying, "When you put a book into a negro's hand you spoil a good plow hand." This notion still lurks in the minds of a surprisingly large number of people, who cite the wretched condition and dense ignorance of millions of negroes after fifty years of freedom. In 1910 thirty per cent of them were still illiterate. Libraries can not flourish in illiteracy as trees can not grow in a desert.
There are, however, oases in the desert, bright and shining examples of individuals, schools and whole communities, which have demonstrated the negro's capacity for the highest education and development. There is a growing disposition to afford him full opportunity for making the most of himself.
While some librarians are urging action, others shrink from it as from a disagreeable task. One is endeavoring to look at the subject of a negro library from the missionary standpoint and is trying to convince the trustees that such an innovation would be desirable, but finds it very hard to arouse any interest and enthusiasm. Another proposes to let the question alone till forced to take action. Another reports that the city is on the verge of the question. Another is having difficulty to find a central location for a colored library where white people do not object. One city with a branch library in a negro high school considers it an easy way out of a difficult situation. The authorities realize that the time is coming when these facilities will no longer be adequate. At present their funds are needed so much in other directions that they hope to be able to postpone this added expense for some time to come. One library having a special room for negroes never pushes this part of its work, but does only what it is compelled to do by city ordinance. Another where there is no race distinction tells how the library is overrun at times with negroes and what a drawback this is to the work.
Some lend books to negroes but do not allow them to sit in the reading room. This practice is not established by rule and regulation but rests on the disposition of the librarians to be helpful to all. Public sentiment will tolerate it in this form while it would rebel at an attempt to guarantee the same service in formal rules.
Following is a table of some of the chief southern cities showing their status with respect to negro libraries. The letter x denotes a negro educational institution having a library of 1,000 volumes or more.
Charlotte, N. C., is the first and only city to build a library for negroes with its own funds. After erecting a $25,000 Carnegie building it spent $5,000 on a site and a separate building for negroes which was opened in 1906. But its only income for maintenance is $400 a year from the city. Most of the books have been donated. In 1911 the librarian of the white library enlisted the interest of a Pittsburgh woman who collected about 600 volumes for it in the North. The librarian at Wilkes-Barré, Pa., sends it the best of her discarded books. From these facts one may infer what kind of standard is maintained.
The white library was incorporated by the legislature in a special act, which at the same time created a separate negro board. Several ineffectual efforts have been made to have the act changed to place the colored library under control of the white board and the supervision of the white librarian. This would undoubtedly result in greater efficiency, as now everybody including the colored board seems to be inactive and indifferent toward it. Its failure however can hardly be ascribed to the negro board alone because it is manifestly impossible with such resources under such conditions to conduct a library which would command the respect and the interest of either race.
Savannah, Ga., also has a small library for negroes. It was organized in 1907 and is housed in rented quarters, but very few persons seem to know of its existence. The city appropriates $360 a year for it. In 1911 it had 2,611 volumes and 1,244 were drawn for home use. Its total receipts were $375.77. At the end of the year $35 was due the librarian for salary and there was a deficit of $33.93. In 1910 Mr. Carnegie offered $12,000 for a colored branch building and the city has promised an increased appropriation on the completion of the building. For a time the negroes tried to raise the money for a site by subscription, but so far they have not succeeded.
Jacksonville, Fla., has in its Carnegie building a separate room and books in charge of a colored attendant. Of its 81,000 population half are colored, but the negro registration is only five per cent and the circulation six per cent of the whole. No effort is being made to extend it. The opinion prevails that the arrangement is a mistake and that a branch library in the negro quarter would bring out a much larger use.
Galveston, Texas, has had a branch of the Rosenberg library in the colored high school since 1904. It contains 2,745 volumes. With a colored population less than one-fifth as large as Jacksonville it has twice as many borrowers but circulates only one-fourth as many books, 2,433 last year. This seems a very small number and does not bear out the theory that a separate branch enlarges its use.
In Memphis, Tenn., the Cossitt library in 1903 entered into an agreement with the LeMoyne Institute, a colored normal school, which furnishes the room, and the Cossitt library furnishes the librarian and the books, which number about four thousand added to a like number belonging tothe school. While these are used mainly by pupils and teachers of the school, it serves as the book supply for all interested negroes in the city and surrounding district.
The facilities thus furnished seem to meet the present demands pretty fully. Much depends on the librarian's attitude, which is helpful and encouraging. The circulation last year was 13,947 vols. The institute is erecting a new school building, which will provide better library accommodations.
Louisville, Ky., was the first to establish a full-fledged branch on a broad basis and to erect a separate branch library building for negroes. The original plan for ten Carnegie branch libraries, of which seven have been built, included two for negroes. The first of these was opened in rented quarters the same year as the main library in 1905. Three years later it was moved into the new $30,000 building.
In its administration the colored branch is a part of the general library system and is under the supervision of the main library. The branch librarian, who is a graduate of Hampton Institute, and the two assistants are colored.
The branch serves as the reference library for the colored high schools and other educational institutions. It is in close co-operation with the grade schools through the collections of books which it sends to the classrooms to be drawn by the pupils for home use.
It has an assembly room which is used for lectures, entertainments and numerous other public meetings, and two classrooms for smaller gatherings. There is a story hour for children and several reading and debating clubs for boys and girls and adults. Through its various activities the library not only circulates books and furnishes facts but it is an educational and social center from which radiate many influences for general betterment.
Fine work is being done with children, who draw 68 per cent of the books circulated. An interesting account of it is given in the Library Journal for April, 1910, 25:160-61, by Mrs. Rachel D. Harris, a former teacher in the colored schools, who is in charge of this department.
When the branch was started eight years ago it was somewhat of an experiment and there was doubt and apprehensiveness all around with regard to the outcome of the undertaking. But it has been a pronounced success from the beginning. It has grown steadily until last year 73,462 vols. were drawn from it for home use. It has become so popular that the second branch is now under construction in the eastern colored section of the city.
The colored people are proud of this library and its achievements. Its opening marked an epoch in the development of the race which is second in importance only to the opening of the first colored free schools there in 1870.
Houston, Texas, also has a separate branch building opened last April. For the past four years it was maintained in a small way in the colored high school. The new building is distinctively a product of negro enterprise. Booker T. Washington's secretary called on Andrew Carnegie personally and secured the promise of $15,000 on condition that the city of Houston would agree to provide not less than $1,500 annually for its maintenance. The $1,500 for the site was raised by colored citizens entirely among their own people. The plans for the building were drawn by a colored architect and its erection supervised by a committee of a separate board of trustees, which consisted of nine colored men. The librarian is a colored girl who is responsible only to the colored trustees. Although she and the trustees consult freely with the librarian and trustees of the public library, the latter act only in an advisory capacity to them. They are therefore justly proud of the library as their own achievement. It contains 5,000 volumes. From a colored population of 30,000 the registered borrowers were only 1,261 last year and the books drawn 5,117. These numbers seem very small, but no doubt there will be a large increase in the new building.
While the Houston method of management may contribute to the negro's self-respect and minister somewhat to the pride and independence of a few of their number, the wisdom of the plan may well be questioned. The results are bound to be inferior unless experience counts for nothing. It is unfortunate that so many cities in their first venture proceed with such disregard of the experience of other places. But the limit is reached when the same city repeats the process with a second board after one board has learned its lesson. This applies not only to the details of planning, erecting and furnishing a building but equally if not more to its operation, the selection, purchase and cataloging of books, the appointment of assistants and the transacting of its daily business.
The white public library boards of Nashville and New Orleans both have plans under way for the erection of Carnegie colored branch buildings, each to cost $25,000. In Nashville the negroes are raising $1,000 and the city is paying $5,000 toward the site. In New Orleans the city will purchase the site. In neither of these places is there any public provision at present for supplying books to negroes.
In Atlanta, Ga., the leading educational center of the South for negroes, they are still without public library facilities, although agitation on the subject began over ten years ago. On the day of the opening of the beautiful $125,000 Carnegie building a committee of colored men called on the library board. Prof. W. E. B. DuBois of Atlanta University acting as spokesman said:
"Gentlemen, we are a committee come to ask you to do justice to the black people of Atlanta by giving them the same free library privileges that you propose giving to whites. Every argument which can be adduced to show the need of libraries for whites applies with redoubled force to the negroes. More than any other part of our population they need instruction, inspiration and proper diversion; they need to be lured from temptation of the streets and saved from evil influences, and they need a growing acquaintance with what the best of the world's souls have thought and done and said. It seems hardly necessary in the twentieth century to argue before men like you the necessity and propriety of placing the best means of human uplifting into the hands of the poorest and lowest and blackest.
"The spirit of this great gift to the city has not the spirit of caste or exclusion but rather the catholic spirit which recognizes no artificial differences of rank or birth or race, but seeks to give all men equal opportunity to make the most of themselves. It is our sincere hope that this city will prove itself broad enough and just enough to administer this trust in the true spirit in which it was given."
The chairman asked, "Do you not think that allowing whites and negroes to use this library would be fatal to its usefulness?" Another member of the committee replied that they did not ask to use this library nor even ask equal privileges but only some privileges somewhere.
The chairman then made these points clear: (1) That negroes would not be permitted to use the Carnegie Library in Atlanta; (2) That some library facilities would be provided for them in the future; (3) That the city council would be asked to appropriate a sum proportionate to the amount of taxes paid by negroes of the city; (4) That efforts would be made to induce northern philanthropists to aid such a library.
Later Mr. Carnegie offered to give the money necessary for the erection of a branch library for negroes. When the details of its administration came up for consideration the negroes demanded representation on the library board. This was positively refused and the proceedings were so completely blocked that the negroes of Atlanta are still without any public library advantages.
From the cases cited it appears that there are four distinct methods of dealingwith this question in the South: (1) To admit the negro to the same building on equal terms with others as is done in Baltimore, Wilmington, Washington and some of the Missouri libraries. This method is not satisfactory to the whites. As one report says, "There are white people who are deterred from using the library because in so doing they must touch elbows with colored folks.... We could do better service to both races if there could be a separation, for we must take the people with their prejudices, especially in the use of the library, which is a purely voluntary matter." (2) To admit him to the same building but to a separate room, which is not satisfactory to the negro. One library which has this plan reports, "Many of the educated and cultured negroes (for there are some even in the South) will not come unless they can do so on the same social equality and use the same apartments as the white patrons." (3) To have a separate library under control of members of their own race. This is almost certain to produce inferior results on account of their inexperience and lack of knowledge regarding every phase of the work. (4) To have a separate branch in charge of colored assistants who are under the direction and supervision of one board and one librarian, who have control over the entire library including all branches and other agencies. This plan assures the greatest economy and efficiency and will probably be adopted by all the libraries whose funds will permit it. A separate colored board is as unnecessary and unbusinesslike as would be a separate board for each white branch.
On the advantages of a separate branch library one colored man writes: "In the South the separation is not only necessary for the peace and cordial relations desirable to be maintained but the colored branches are desirable because the colored people would use them so a hundred times more than they would otherwise. The feeling of perfect welcome, ownership and unqualified privilege are all necessary to patrons who are to get the best possible from libraries among them. These things in the South can only be had in separate branches as much as it is regrettable that there should be a mind and spirit demanding separate libraries."
Delaware and Kentucky are the only state library commissions reporting special traveling libraries for negroes. Last year "seven traveling libraries of 30 to 50 volumes each were arranged for the use of the colored schools in Delaware, and the entire charge and care of these libraries was given over to the State College for Colored Students near Dover." The Kentucky commission has two libraries of 50 volumes each in circulation and is planning to send more. Hampton Institute also sends out traveling collections of books.
Another system of traveling libraries is that established in 1910 by James H. Gregory of Marblehead, Mass., for distribution through Atlanta University among the negroes of the South. There are about 60 libraries of 48 volumes each. They are sent to any community, school, church or other organization for one year and then exchanged for a different set. Two interesting articles on these libraries and their founder were published by G. S. Dickerman in the Southern Workman, August and September, 1910.
What the negro reads is in itself a large and interesting subject. A brief article on it dealing equally with what the negro does not read, appeared in the Critic, July 1906, from Mr. George B. Utley, then librarian of the Jacksonville public library. The first book drawn from the Louisville library was Washington's "Up from slavery." The most striking feature of the circulation in general is the comparatively small percentage of fiction read. Of the 258,438 volumes drawn from the Louisville library during its first six years only 46 per cent was fiction.
This may be due to the fact that the so-called leisure class, who are supposed toread most of the fiction, is smaller among the colored people; or that the novel does not appeal so strongly to the negro mind; or that the library is used more largely by pupils, teachers, ministers and other professional people, who come to it for more serious purposes.
A book entitled "Tuskegee and its people," edited by Booker T. Washington, contains biographical sketches of many negroes who have gone out from that school to work for the elevation of their race. These sketches give a remarkable picture of the "conditions that environ the masses of the negro people," as well as their struggles for improvement.
One of them describing the country school which he attended writes, "When I reached the point where the teacher ordered me to get a United States history, the book store did not have one, but sold me a biography of Martin Luther instead, which I studied for some time thinking that I was learning something about the U. S."
Years later "I betook me to the woods, where I read everything I could get. It was during this time that accidentally, I may say providentially, I got hold of a book containing the life of Ignacius Sancho; and I have never read anything that has given me more inspiration. I wish every negro boy in the land might read it."
Another Tuskegee graduate, a woman whose mother as a slave had been taught to read by her master's daughter, writes: "Sundays, with my sisters gathered about her knees, we would sit for hours listening as mother would read church hymns for us."
The articles by Mr. Dickerman above referred to give the results of some investigations on their choice of books. He received answers from 35 leading negro schools in response to a request for a list of such "books as had been found in the experience of their schools to be the most popular and the best and which they would recommend." The "Life of Lincoln" appeared on 15 of these lists; "Little women" 15; "Robinson Crusoe" 14; "Paul Dunbar" 11; "Uncle Tom's cabin" 10; "Ivanhoe" 9; "Souls of black folk" 9; "Ramona" 8; "Life of Douglass" 8; "Uncle Remus" 7. Six lists included "Alice in wonderland," Grimm's "Fairy tales," "John Halifax," "Last days of Pompeii," and "Swiss family Robinson."
These lists all came from schools and therefore bear the earmarks of the schoolmaster. But the largest part of the reading by negroes is done by the pupils and teachers in connection with their school work. This would account for the preponderance of the literature and history classes. Miss Sarah B. Askew observes that among the general readers in a public library "the colored people's tastes are for quick action, strong emotion, vivid coloring, and simplicity of narration." Books by and about their own people are in constant demand. The colored magazines, those devoted especially to their interests and those published by colored men are always popular.
There is also a growing demand for books useful to the mechanic in his daily work. Chauffeurs "avail themselves of technical books on automobiles." An early experience in the Louisville library was with a woman who made a business of raising chickens. She called at the library for medical help because many of them were dying. Strangely enough this subject had been overlooked in selecting the books and the librarian was unable to prescribe for sick chickens. But a book on poultry was ordered for her immediately.
Following are some conclusions regarding libraries for negroes:
(1) That books and reading are of the utmost value in the education, development and progress of the race.
(2) That in northern public libraries they are admitted to all privileges without distinction.
(3) That in southern libraries the segregation of the races prevails, as itdoes, in all educational, religious and other social institutions.
(4) That in many places institutional libraries are supplying the book wants of the few negroes who really have need of libraries.
(5) That among the masses of the colored race there is as yet very little demand for libraries.
(6) That where a genuine demand has manifested itself and up-to-date facilities have been provided negroes have been quick to use them and have made commendable progress.
(7) That in some of the large cities containing a great many negroes who are intelligent and who pay taxes the provision made for them is sadly inadequate or is entirely lacking.
(8) That southern librarians generally are kindly and helpfully disposed toward them and that the majority of the white people favor a fair deal for them, including the best training and the fullest enlightenment.
(9) That in the South any arrangement which aims to serve the two races in the same room or in the same building is detrimental to the greatest good of both. Complete segregation is essential to the best work for all.
(10) That many libraries are not financially able to conduct separate departments and so the negro loses out.
(11) That a few cities have splendid facilities for them, a few others are now establishing branches, a considerable number are discussing the question seriously and another considerable number which should be at work are doing nothing.
(12) That the best solution of the problem is the separate branch in charge of colored assistants under the supervision and control of the white authorities.
(13) That even in northern cities which have large segregated colored districts such separate branches would result in reaching a larger number of negroes and doing better work for both races.
(14) That the South is entitled to the sympathy and help of the North on this question, which is only a part of the larger question of negro education. That sympathy will come with fuller information and will increase as the size and seriousness of the problem is more fully understood.
Adjourned.
The PRESIDENT: There is a matter of business to come up this morning. At the last conference the Association adopted an amendment to the Constitution which, to become effective, must be ratified at this meeting. It may be added that the requisite notice required by the Constitution, of thirty days, has been given by the Secretary, through publication in the Bulletin, where you have doubtless seen the proposed amendment together with the by-law which is dependent, of course, upon the adoption of the amendment itself. The Secretary will please read the proposed amendment as adopted at the Ottawa conference.
The SECRETARY: I will also read that portion of Section 14 of the Constitution to which the amendment would apply: