The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1918-03-20

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loose stream of books
which is destined to become one Of the
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 it had nothing but concrete
plan and 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 million
and a half dollars; has procured,
through donation and by purchase,
more than half 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 "a camps
and has others in the course of con-
struction; has opened dispatch sta
ton at one 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 n 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
ntrnnfnr IN a
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. Will
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 on the headquarters staff.
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 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-
pations. The standard salary of the
camp librarians is 500 a month, and
by obtaining board at the Y. M. G. A.
or at the camp mess the cost of sub.
sistence Is held to low figure.
To the war service the most crafty
ing result Of it's work so far is the
tremendous demand for books, de-
mand so great and so wide in it's range
as to prove conclusively to the asso.
citation that it has definite field OF
endeavor and one which is bringing un.
told happiness to thousands of men
At all the camp libraries system OF
book requests has been installed and
1t is giving accurate information or
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 sc
wide margin as one who gave bu
casual thought to the matter might sur
mise. For example. days record a
the camp library at Camp Meade, Md.
the following subjects were represent
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French history. mechanics ant
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, genera
history, masonry, concrete.