Evening journal., 1912-01-19
TRAINING FOR
STATES YOUNG
Women'S Club Federation
Hears Of Progress in Work
Done at Dover MestinG
FREE LIBRARIES
AID IN THE PLAN

AT the Welfare Conference held
under the auspices OF the State Social
Service Committee of the Delaware
state Federation of Women's Clubs
IN the New Century Club. Dover. yes
terday. the members of the State Lii
brary Commission joined with the
Federation delegates in the after
noon session. Miss Emily p. Bissell,
chairman of the committee. and Mrs.
Thomas N. Rawlins, chairman Of the
State Library Commission. presided.'
The conference was upon the social
conditions surrounding the children
and young people in the smaller
towns q, the state. The opinion was
general that the towns were amply
provided with amusements, chulch
entertainments, moving pictures. etc.
for the young people, and the discus
sion turned upon the need OF puplic
free libraries. Dover has hne IL
brary and reading room, with 2,OOO
circulation and two Librarians IN
charge. Laurel. through the EFFORTS
of the women's club. last autumn es-
tablished a library which is proving
a success. The womens club at Sea-
lord has a free library that Is very
popular. -. tor.
sew State Library Commission was
the principal speaker OF the aiter,
noon talking Of the life of the rural
voung people and how, though many
of them seemed happy in their $50
lated lives. they had read practlcally
nothing. but Pilgrims Progress ana
Inc Bible and probably, the most ad-
venturous had read Robinson CRU
soc
'rhe efforts now were to encourage
reading clear and interesting biogra-
phies poety, elevating stories ana
Horticultural and agricultural litera-
ture. ;..
Miss Askew related an incident with
one boy in an isolated district Wn1li
she induced TO take a SIX mohVhs
course in a training school. Aiter-
ward on meeting him. he said he was
going back to be farmer as he hau
learned that it took quite as much
sdpcation to be a successful farmer
ne II aid to get along in the city. Ous
desire is to make the rural people
more happy and influential IN this
land and to encourage them to give
their evenings TO reaulhs oiuO0 ~
least to good books
Boys of today said the speahe-' t'- ,
"oueht to know how to vote ana nlees
public questions for themselves anu
not vote simply as their tathers ull a
[ asked boy once what ne "ds anu
he said. "A Republican.
"And why?" said l, thinking ne hau
decided for himself and would give me me
some original thought because my
father was" he retorted.
"But suppose you father had oeen
thief. what would you have Deeh'
"A Democrat he sald.
The Delaware State library CONF
mission is making an effort to ascer-
tain. bv statistics, the quantity ana
cbaracier of the reading matter not
only now i'm circulation through Del
aware bv means of the State circulat-
ing libraries. but as to what Wouiu
more generally interest and improve
the rural people, particularly the chll-
dren. Mrs Caleb Burchenal gave NUM-
crous statistics and information on
this point.
She had found Delaware children
who had never read anything Dut len
Nights in Bar Room
The general feeling seemed to 0e
that lock of desire to read and i'm
prove had to be met and changed. II
possible, to sincere yearning Tor
self-improvement; that farm life
overvwhore called for broad minds and
educated young peope; that the farm
manager had a business second to nc
city business man and had to solve
the problem of feeding the world; that
the boys. if properly developed, saw
that there was no truth in the fables
that they could rush to the cities and
become millionaires or successful
stock brokers and bankers, but that an
independent, happy life i'm the free air
with plenty surrounding them, await.
ed the industrious boy or girl who
cared for education.
The meeting adopted the following
points as the goal for Delaware e
reach I'm 1920:
Every child shall go to school unit
il is fourteen years of age"
Every school should have adequate
medical inspection"
Every Tubercular child should g
to Open-air school"
Every defective child should b'
cared for and treated"
Every child in Delaware shoult
have free Libraries with childrenf
rooms.
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