Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-05
WORK FOR CLUB WOMEN.

WORK FOR CLUB WOMEN.
| Books are strange things. Although
untongued and dumb
| Yet with their eoquence they sway the
world:
And. powerless and impressive as they
seem.
Move DER the impressive minds and
hearts of men
Like fire across prairie mind sparks,
They star the else dark armament.
Nearly every club woman of Butte
who visits the east comes back enthu-
siastic over some particular work the
clubs in the locality she visited are en-
gagged in. Nine times out of ten it is
travelling libraries. She will address her
home club on the subject, and there it
ends. So far as active work goes. In
several of the Butte clubs members have
been assigned that subject for their
paper and the more they study it the
more interested they become and the
more they wonder why Montana has not
done something in that line.
Several earnest workers in the clubs
have decided that something must be
done at once. They have decided on
plan of action which will be divulged to
their respective clubs when fully formu-
lated. The great difficulty is that out
side of the women who receive the
Club Woman the official organ of the
! federation, and those who look for the
work being done by women all over
/ the United States. few people have even
an inkling of an idea as to what a trav-
cling library is-that is the way the
VII five no,
carried on. and it's rapid growth.
/ Foremost in the van have been the
club women. Kansas has the club wo-
men to thank for the travelling libra
ries she now boasts of. Members of the
federation begged books which were
sent to Topeka and from there sent out
by a committee. Every member was
asked to use her influence with members
of the legislature to have the state take
the work in charge. And we'll they sue
! ceeded the last Legislature passed bill
/ making the travelling libraries a part of
the state library and then the club wo-
men, the State Federation of clubs
turned over to the state the 5000 volumes
they had accumulated. The bill took eff
feet October list, 1899 The state fur
nished rooms for receiving and pack
ing and delegated an assistant from the
State library. The Legislature allowed
the sum of 81 900 per year for new books,
cases, etc.
It does seem as if anything Kansas
did Montana could do and for that rea-
son Kansas is cited as an example. A
club woman writing junction, kanssa,
to a Butte club woman said: Parties
sending for books are requested to state
whether they want a miscellaneous IL
brary or one in some particular depart
ment of knowledge Clubs generally
ask for the latter. The librarian puts in
the case as many books of the kind as
are on hand and then buys more to
complete the list. This gives the clubs
excellent study libraries. Our club here
received fifty books on Shakespeare and
, his times, most magnificent addition
to our own books on the subject. We
will use them six months and then pass
them on to others. Another club has
now a library on India; another one or
China and there are a dozen or more II
. English history and Literature.
To leave Kansas City for the moment
how id the movement start In New 4orl
of course evervthing seems to star
from that state. And Melvn Dew
CIV, librarian of the New York state Ii
brary evolved the idea from his inne
: consciousness. Mr.. Dewey is the au
e thority of America on libraries, station
e cry and travelling. He recognizes. a
= does every thoughtful man and woma
e all over the country that the providin
" to every community the opportunity fo
reading the hest books is one of til
Il vital problems off the hour, coordinat
g with that of public health and publ
70 school education. And he also recos
hot To iSh q
rs results he must have the active cooperf
l. ton of the clubs, every federated clu
g. ii possible.
II, In 1892 Mr.. Dewey secured from II
re legislature an appropriation to inau:
mt urate his new system of library extel
in sion-traveling libraries. 1t was at on
IS. successful and has since been folloWt
o. by two thirds of the states in the unto
but not Montana. Mr. Dewey used Il
as money appropriated to buy number
ed small libraries of one hundred Voium
II. each. Stations We're made for them
xt villages, III schools and in conEecti'
b. with university extension centers a.
Va in study clubs. A library remained IN
I'd station six months and then return
e. to Albany to be sent out to another 81
n ton. In return Mr.. Dewey demand
ub certain pledges. In communities havl
Us no public library or accredited sci'
The he required a guaranty signed by tive
las ty-hve tax payers. Each library