Evening star., 1953-07-12
The Big Book Controversy
State Departments Silence Notwithstanding,
Here Is Story Of Those Overseas Librories
By jones z. Roper

Book-burning usually causes
smoke and flame. In Washington
1t has caused mostly fog.
When Senator Mccarthy, Re-
publican, Of Wisconsin charged that
Americas overseas libraries contain
10000 volumes by Communist au-
thors, he precipitated a political
miasma that has all but obscured
the aims and practices of the
libraries.
A series of statements by Presi-
dent Eisenhower. Secretary of State
Dulles and other administration
spokesmen have churned up the
mist. but have done little to dispel it..
Because "propaganda" is q dirty
word in the United States. officials
don't like to discuss one of the
principal aims of the libraries: To
propagandize foreign peoples into
sympathy with the United States.
To carry on this propaganda, the
United States operates nearly 200
libraries in 65 foreign countries. A
total of million volumes are on the
shelves.
McCorthy's implication
Senator McCarthy's cry. against
10000 suspect volumes implies that
prot Communists in the State De-
partment deliberately put books in
the libraries to encourage foreigners
to side with Russia.
To examine this possibility, re-
porter asked the State Department
for detailed accounting of the way
books were selected. The State De-
partment replied that this was IAN
inappropriate time" to discuss the
issue. No information was available.
But officials recently booted out Of
the State Department were free to
falkland they told how they ran
the library service, and how some
Of the controversial books got on
the shelves. This was a story that
Senator Mccarthy never has heard
in the public sessions of his hearings
on books.
owl Role
According to former State Depart
ment officials, most of the admit
tedly Objectionable books were in
herited from the wartime Office of
War Information, which ran Gov
ernment libraries overseas until 1916,
when the State Department took
over. Under owl during wartime,
the libraries were trying to whip up
sympathy for allied solidarity at a
time when Russia was Cat most) an
ally or (at leasD a co-belligerent
against the "axis."
Consequently, good word for the
Soviets was not considered out of
line at the time. This can explain
the origin of three volumes found in
Middle East libraries: Copies of
1.-THE Tempering of Russia" by the
Soviet propagandiSt, nya Ehrenburg.
The surprising thing is not that
Communicating works should
have been transferred to the shelves
of State Department libraries in
1916, but that by the cold war year
of 1853, local American librarians
had not removed these books.
The Army, Too
State Department libraries also
may be embarrassed now by some of
the books they inherited from the
Army. These aren't anti-American.
but they do include some frivolous
stuff. Still, the Army did not estab-
lish libraries to propagandize for
eigners. Its purpose was to amuse
soldiers. The emphasis, therefore,
was on entertainment. When the
United States armed forces started
coming home, huge collections were
left overseas for the State Depart
me,st libraries.
Another source Of books through
cut the years has been American
personnel who were being trans
ferred and didn't want to lug the
volumes away. None of these gifts
was cleared through Washington.
Washington welded its influence
through the selection of book packets
of about Is volumes each. Starting
in 1916, the State Department sent
each overseas library a packet a
month. These volumes were selected
by the Washington staff of the In
ternational Information Center Serv-
ice in Washington.
Each overseas library also had per-
mission to order a specific dollar
amount of books through the WASH
ington Office, subject to approval
here. Libraries often ordered extra
copies of packet" books. or volumes
from standard approved list. Even