Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-06

raid gives the widest latitude to correspond
r views. Letters must not exceed 800 wordA
enjoy a public trial in the police court
| because Mrs. Jones' cook stuck out her
! tongue at the garbage man, and there
| by committed a breach of the peace
| But imagine any business house going
| through the farce of quasi-legal trial
| as to whether a porter or foorwalker,
who had miserably failed with employ
ers and employees, should be dismissed
| from the establishment!
| Miss Blandy complains that the pub
| lie library is "sapped and killed by Its
/ branches and deposit stations-and is
/ split in twenty-six parts In her next
| to the last diatribe she advised the
walters in the line at the main library
/ to go out to Garvanza or down to Yer
/ non for their books. She now advises
| that the ten branches and fifteen de-
| posit stations be discontinued; and
! that the residents of Vernon, Boyle
/ Heights, Pico Heights, University, Gar
vanza, Highland Park, etc, shall nave
| to come to Eighth and Broadway every
| time they wish to read book or draw
one. I have frequently stated my be-
! lief that we had all the branches we
could afford: and have cited the fact
! that we are already better supplied
than any other city Perhaps the
branch patrons in the suburbs of this
city of fifty square miles will rise up
and call Miss Blandy blessed, and sign
her petition to abolish all the branches
and concentrate the books at the main
| library. We cannot AFFORD either the
service or the expense of more branches
but we can mitigate the situation;
and there is a constant demand for new
branches from almost every quarter OF
this progressive city. The deposit sta
tion meets this demand measurably,
without added expense or added attend
ants The deposit station is in the
hands of responsible parties who re-
ceive loans Of from so to 800 books at a
time renewable every two or three
months. They take them from and re-
turn them to the library, and are re-
sponsible to the library and manage the
circulation.
If anything could be more preposter-
Gus than the contention of this dis
tressed young woman that the play
grounds which this city is rightly proud
of and is rightfully developing, and the
Young Mems Christian association, and
the Young Women's Christian assocla-
ton, and all such institutions which
can get the books of the public library
to people who would not otherwise have
that benefit, should be stopped; that
the telephone girls and the girls that
work in factories, and the blessed old
women in the HollenbeCk home, and
the pupils of the Los Angeles high
school, and the Polytechnic high school,
and the public schools, should not be-
allowed to get a library book unless
they can come to Eighth and Broadway
I would like some one to define fofl
future generations the limits OF the
preposterous. What are the books or a
public library for? To circulate? The
public responded nobly to the noble
causes of the Y. NJ. c. A and the Y. w.
c. A, whose buildings are ornaments
to the city. Does any sane person
know any reason why the public libra
ry should not help in this magnificent
work of building character? Or must 1t
simply sit here on its launches, await
ing the coming of those who need itl
most and would be most grateful for 1t Il
Our little deposit station of fifty vol
unes with the Home Telephone COM
pany, for instance, is a grace and in
spiration to this large body of hard
working young women. Few depart
ments of any library in the world snow
as active use of the volumes. And wei
have never had one "roar'' from that
section.
So far from apologizlng for giving IL
brary conveniences to readers and stu
dents five miles away from Eighth ana
Broadway; so far from thinking that
the public library is sedentary in its
own shell like a snail; I am proud
that we are able to reach out, and
proud that we are reaching out as fast
and as far as we can; and II there Isl
any other institution in Los Angeles
whose employees cannot 60 to the main
building, but who would take care Of q
loan of books and circulate them and
get them to the people for whom they
are deslgned-namely, every lndiVidual
that will read them-I shall urge the
board to make another deposit station
there.
The whole problem of any library
&4~,,,I I,,.T.. SxFsa
one of proportion. Among the manyl
things Miss Blandy has never been able
to understand is anv proportion of any
sort We have the main library with
its large visitation and use and circu-
lation We have ten branches, with a
total annual circulation of over 2OO,OOO-I
or nearly one-third of our entire clrcu-
lation use We have the fifteen deposit
stations, with a use which is enormous
in proportion to the number of vol
umes.
If the public and the mayor and theI
city council will rally nobly in defense
of Miss Blandy-not, I think, to rein
state her in the library; for nothing
short of the intervention of God could
bring that about, but to Vindicate her
name-and abolish all branches and de-
posit stations, and have all our DOCKS
huddled here in the main buildlng-tne
problem would be halfway solved. We
have been able to purchase. We could
focus all our attendants on the one In
stitution. The people at Garvanza and
University and way stations could pay
their car fares or walk in.
A little indication of Miss Blandy'sl
insincerity-not to use harsher term
lis in her quoting the Barlow Medical
library as one of the deposit stations
which are "sapping the life of the Ii
brary." Miss Blandy is perfectly aware
that the NARROW Medical library is a
deposit station only for such medical
works as this library used to own;
that we do not maintain a medical Ii
brary here that the donor of the vast
majority of this deposit urged, and that
the city council urged, such deposit of
our medical works with the medical
library generously founded by DR.. Bar
low.
Quoting the Young Women's Chris
tian association and the Young Men
Christian association, and the Bishop
factories with their hundreds of young
women, and the telephone girls, and all
the other people that really need and
can use the books of the public library,
and do use them when we give them a
chance-quoting these with fine con-
tempt, Miss Blandy says: rs it any
wonder you can't get books from the
uublic nbrary?" Who is YOU? Any
privileged class? Is it only precise
ladies from Washington that may have
the benefits of the library, while for
their betterment the Fairgrounds and
the recreation centers and the other
institutions to spread education and
good citizenship are to be choked off
ton that the people from Bethlehem
80 xTioIat etraet and Echo mark and