Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-28
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

generosity" For what was it that was
the great loss to scholarship-the stone
and glass and steel of the building, or
the 100000 books, many of which are
not duplicated in the world. and the
hundreds of unique and invaluable
manuscripts, destroyed by the ruthless
enemy?
The Louvein Library was famous
among the great libraries. and the
Germans wholly destroyed 1t by ip-
cendiary fire. which also burned most
of the city. That is history beyond dis
pute.
La guerre, c'est finii" 1t was not
the German Republic but the regime
Of the Kaiser whom the Germans have
repudiated. dethroned and exiled which
was responsible for the vandalism of at
tack on hospitals and art and litera-
ture and neutralS. In the Treaty of
Versailles, Germany agreed to pay the
appraised value of the library they had
burned, and since then it has CO.
operated in searching antiquary book
stores, and hunting out books Of the
character of those which had made the
Library of Louvain famous. For the
loss of the vandalism all respectable,
educated Germans are sincerely
ashamed.
In the midst Of the fire the Germans,
in possession of the city for more than
a week before, searched all refugees
fleeing from the city toward Brussels.
Nothing suspicious was found except
on one young Jesuit priest. who had
a little notebook, in which he had
written in French: when formerly
read that the Huns, under Attila, had
devastated towns and that the Arabs
had burnt the Library of Alexandria.
/ smiled. Now that l have seen with
my own eyes the hordes of today. burn
ing churches and the celebrated Lii
hrary OF Louyain. l smile no longer"
y
In an interesting brochure written
by Theodore Wesley Koch. formerly
chief of the order division of the Lii
brary of Congress the author describes
the work of restoring the equivalent.
SO far as possible. of the contents of
the Louvain Library, as follows
I'm Germany library was found of
practically the same character as that
of LouVain, and a minute calculation
was made of the value of the books
contained in this German library. 1t
was ascertained that 1t totaled approx
mately 100000 gold marks at the
value of 1914. This amount was al
lowed the Louvain authorities for the
work of restoration.
THE endeavor Is made to replace.
AS far as possible. the works Of the
old library by the same titles and same
editions when practicable. At first the
Germans had a fear that the Beleians
we're going to replace their losses by
choosing books from the German IL
hraries, but the Belgian committee
were OF the opinion that robbing one
collection TO build up another was un-
scientific Therefore, leaving intact the
books and artistic resources Of the Ger
man Libraries, II was decided To search
for the desired titles In the antiquarian
shops.
Moreover the Germans have con-
iesSedly organized the thing very we'll
They have established in LeipSsc a
Louvain purchasing committee which
functions under the control of the gov
eminent, through the intermediary of
state commission. This gives a CEN
trail organization with n large stan.
The Belgiana send To this committee
their lists and photographers, on which
the Louvain professors have noted their
desiderata. Moreover, the Louvain
authorities have also travelling repre-
sentatives exploring for them In the
German antiquarian shops, which are
famous for their rich and varied
stocks"
Thus IL Is seen that, quite aside
from American generosity" the books
OF the burned library are being re-
stored through German separations
specifically agreed 10 and through many
gifts from all nations. including Amer
lea, but not exclusively so, How de-
itghtful 1t would have been II the Klne
could have assisted. on our national
holiday, in defeating the reopened
library and could then have graeiously
acknowledged the good win ane even
generosity" Of the Americans
tcupygight. 1aas. by Paul v. c0ilins,l