The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-05

WHAT SAILORS READ
60 0uD 9 - 40

Washington, D. c.. Aug. 4.-0ps
legacy which the American navy
bluejackets have inherited from the
war ID the well-stocked ships IL
brary. Before the war the various
battleships carried collections Of
greasy, do6-eAred and ancient
tones which went BY the name OF
ships libraries. But the work Of
the American Library association
In the navy during the war. aided
by the American public's donations
Of cash and books. gave . new In
dicati0n Of what these floating IL
braries might b. Today. NO mat
ter how dfastically congress may
economixe in appropriations of
money to buy guns lld armor
plate, It Is giving with fair LIBERAL
ity for the maintenance OF the IL
braries, as the Appropriation OF
$3.50, 900 for books TIM year bears
witness.
Excepting the patients In the
military and naval hospitals, who
manage to read about one library
book . week apiece, there was
never more appreciative group OF
readers than these enlisted men in
the United States navy. Whether
the ships are in port or out cutting
the blue waters, the chances are
that when Jack is on duty he is
curled up in some quiet corner of
the ship reading . book. The ex-
perienee Of the last four years
shows that the average sailor
draws from the ships library and
reads Is books . year, book and
a half month. According to the
records, the average city dweller in
the United States patronises his
public library to the extent Of less
than four books q year.
Like everything else in the navy,
/ the supply OF books to the ships
and the shore stations is complete
~ and thoroughly organised. Dhe
bureau Of navigation has charge of
maintaining the libraries. There is
a chief librarian in Washington,
and he is assisted by a more or
less informed board Of officers who
serve voluntarily as readers Of new
books. Guided by their judgment,
the chief librarian keeps adding
titles to the stock lists, once . year
issuing a new catalogue from which
the ships Librarians order their
books. Stocks of all books 30 cat
alogued are kept on hand in q de-
pot in New York from which the
ships are supplied. A battleship is
allowed 1,100 volumes in its IL
brary, cruiser Of the second class
may have 725, smaller ships SIS, q
destroyer $50, and unclassified YES
sells according to the number OF
men on board.
Equally important with the pur-
chase Of new books Is the wedding
out Of the old and the unread: for
after all, the test Of a book in the
present-day ships library is wheth-
er the men read it. The chief Ii
brarian and his assistants are men
of excellent literary taste, but they
do not attempt to foist upon the
sailors their own judgment Of what
is good. Privately, they may re-
coil from Harold Bell Wright. and
Ethel NJ. Deli, but they do not
write their novels down upon any
index expurgitori0us. In the list OF
nearly 1900 novels listed in the
current navy catalogue, there are
five titles credited to Harold Bell
Wright and four to Ethel NJ. Dell
Gene Stratton Porter also has I'VE
Sex Stories Taboo.
Once a year each ships librarian
is permitted to Survey" one-third
of the books in his charge and re-
place them with new, il necessary
BY this means dead, books, as the
unread ones are called, are weeded
out. Therefore the general book
catalogue accurately reflects the
reading taste of the men aboard
our ships of war.
Bearing in mind that the nearly
$500 titles in the fiction list of the
1922 catalogue represent what the
men like to read and not what theil
superior officers think they ought
to read, some interesting sidelights
on the characters of the enlisted
men may be noted. In the first
place, there is almost an entire alb
sence OF the so-called sex stories in
the libraries. 1t is not that such
stories have been censored out. The
chief librarian has tried them and
the men do not read them, that is
all. Love stories are easily the
most numerous class of fiction