The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-04-13

loose q stream of books
which is destined to become one of the
most powerful factors in winning the
night for liberty. Already the efforts
'of the association have been crowned
Dy signal success and this in spite Of
the fact that as late as the end of last
summer it had nothing but a concrete
plan and a determination to put that
Hdea 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
Tied on last autumn, raised Il million
and a half dollars; has procured,
through donation and by purchase,
more than half a million books which
1t has assorted and sent out; with the
100000 donated by the Carnegie cor
poration for the purpose, has erected
camp library buildings in "a camps
and has others In the course Of con-
struction; has opened a dispatch sta
ton at one Of the points of embarka-
ton from which books are being
shipped to France and has got to-
.gether q force of trained workers to
carry out its plans on gigantic scale.
The headquarters Of the American
Library Association War Service are
at the library of congress. DR.. Herbert
Putnam, librarian Of congress. Is the
director. Assistants to the director
are Carl Fl, Milan, librarian of the pub
lie library Of Birmingham, Ala. and Jo-
seph L. Wheeler, librarian Of the pub
Nc library Of Youngstown. o. George
B. Utley Of Chicago, secretary OF the
American Library association, Is exec
utive secretary Of the war service. VIII
hiam A. Slade, head Of the periodical
division Of the library of congress, ana
p. L. Windsor, director Of the library
school Of the University Of Illinois. are
also on the headquarters stan.
Keep Down Expense.
It has been the determination Of Doc
tor Putnam and his associates In the
war work to keep overhead expenses
down to n 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
fthey receive from their regular occu-
pations. The standard salary Oh the
camp Librarians Is 800 month. and
10y obtaining board at the Y. III. c. A.
cor at the camp mess the cost OF sub
:sistence Is held to low figure.
To the war service the most crafty
ing result of its work so far Is the
tremendous demand for books de-
mand so great and so wide In Its range
las to prove conclusively to the assO-
citation that II has a definite field OF
4endeavor and one which is bringing IN
told happiness to thousands OF men.
AT all the camp libraries system OF
book requests has been Installed ana
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 tfor serious books.
Fiction naturally leads, but not by 80
wide a margin as ore who gave bat
casual thought to the matter might sur
mise. For example. a days record at
the camp library at Camp Meade, Md.
the following subjects were represent
ed:
French history. mechanics and
strategy in war, self-propeiled vehicles,
hand grenades, field entertainments,
tbridces, chemistry. physics astronomy,
geology, hydraulics, electricity. medi-
.eyaI history. calculus. civil engineering.
geography, American history. survey
Ing, materials of construction. general
history, masonry, concrete.