The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-03-09

loose q stream of books
which is destined to become n Of h
most powerful factors In winning the
fight for liberty. Already the efforts
Of the association have been crowned
by signal success and this, in spite of
the fact that as late as the end of last
summer 1T had nothing but a concrete
plan and a determination to put that
Idea into operation.
Since the association set for itself
the task of putting into the hands Of
the soldiers and sailors the books 1t
felt they needed and would appreciate
1t has, by an intensive campaign car
ried on last autumn, raised a million
and a half dollars; has procured,
through donation and by purchase,
more than half n million books which
it has assorted and sent out with the
100000 donated by the Carnegie cor
poration for the purpose, has erected
camp library buildings in 81 camps
and has others In the course of con-
%struction has opened a dispatch sta
ton at n of the points of embarka-
ton from which books are being
shipped to France and has got to-
gether a force of trained workers to
carry out its plans on a gigantic scale.
The headquarters of the American
Library Association Wan Service are
at the library of congress. DR.. Herbert
Putnam, librarian of congress, is the
director. Assistants to the director
are Carl H. Milan, librarian of the pub
lie library of Birmingham, Ala, and Jo-
seph L. Wheeler, librarian of the pub
lie library of Youngstown, o. George
B. Utley of Chicago, secretary of the
American Library association, Is exec
utive secretary of the war service. VIII
liam A. Slade, head of the periodical
division of the library of congress, and
p. L. Windsor, director of the library
school of the University of Illinois, are
also OF the headquarters staff.
Keep Down Expense.
1t has been the determination of Doc
tor Putnam and his associates in the
war work to keep overhead expenses
down to a minimum. Much of the most
important work of the service is being
done by volunteers and experts drawn
from libraries all over the country
who are working only for the salaries
they receive from their regular occu-
p%ations. The standard salary of the
camp librarians is 500 a month, and
by obtaining board at the Y. NJ. c. A.
or at the camp mess the cost of sub
sistence is held to u low figure.
To the war service the most crafty
Ing result of its work so far is the
tremendous demand for books, a de-
mand so. great and so WIDEN It's range
as to prove conclusively to the asso-
citation that 1t has n definite field of
endeavor and one which is bringing I'M
told happiness to thousands of men.
At all the camp libraries a system of
book requests has been installed and
1t Is giving accurate information ON
what the men want to read.
To the great surprise of the older
army officers the draft men are call
ing continuously for serious books.
Fiction naturally leads, but not by so
wide a margin as one who gave but
casual thought to the matter might sur
mise. For example, a days record at
the camp library at Camp Meade, Nd,
the following subjects were represent
ed:
French history, mechanics and
strategy in war, self-propelled vehicles,
hand grenades, field entertainments,
bridges, chemistry, physics, astronomy,
geology, hydraulics, electricity. medi-
eval history, calculus, civil engineering,
geography, American history, survey
ing, materials of construction, general
history, masonry, concrete.